Chapter 23—The Assyrian Captivity
The closing years of the ill-fated kingdom of Israel were marked
with violence and bloodshed such as had never been witnessed even
in the worst periods of strife and unrest under the house of Ahab. For
two centuries and more the rulers of the ten tribes had been sowing
the wind; now they were reaping the whirlwind. King after king was
assassinated to make way for others ambitious to rule. “They have set
up kings,” the Lord declared of these godless usurpers, “but not by Me:
they have made princes, and I knew it not.”
Hosea 8:4
. Every principle
of justice was set aside; those who should have stood before the nations
of earth as the depositaries of divine grace, “dealt treacherously against
the Lord” and with one another.
Hosea 5:7
.
With the severest reproofs, God sought to arouse the impenitent
nation to a realization of its imminent danger of utter destruction.
Through Hosea and Amos He sent the ten tribes message after mes-
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sage, urging full and complete repentance, and threatening disaster as
the result of continued transgression. “Ye have plowed wickedness,”
declared Hosea, “ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of
lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty
men. Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy
fortresses shall be spoiled.... In a morning shall the king of Israel
utterly be cut off.”
Hosea 10:13-15
.
Of Ephraim the prophet testified, “Strangers have devoured his
strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there
upon him, yet he knoweth not.” [The prophet Hosea often referred to
Ephraim, a leader in apostasy among the tribes of Israel, as a symbol
of the apostate nation.] “Israel hath cast off the thing that is good.”
“Broken in judgment,” unable to discern the disastrous outcome of
their evil course, the ten tribes were soon to be “wanderers among the
nations.”
Hosea 7:9
;
8:3
;
Hosea 5:11
;
9:17
.
Some of the leaders in Israel felt keenly their loss of prestige
and wished that this might be regained. But instead of turning away
from those practices which had brought weakness to the kingdom,
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