Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Kings 17:25
And [so] it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, [that] they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew [some] of them.
25. the Lord sent lions among them, which slew [R.V. killed ] some of them ] The word rendered ‘slew’ is not the same here as that in the next verse. This statement must be considered as the thought of the people themselves. How far it might also be shared by the writer of Kings we cannot know. These heathen people having regarded their own divinities as especially attached to certain places, would consider that Israel had also its own local deity. Him and His worship they were ignorant of, and when the wild beasts increased upon them it was a natural idea with them to regard the plague as inflicted by the god of the country. That wild beasts were not uncommon in the Holy Land at this period we can see from other places of the history, and when the land was less thickly populated, such beasts as remained would have more chance of multiplying.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The depopulation of the country, insufficiently remedied by the influx of foreigners, had the natural consequence of multiplying the wild beasts and making them bolder. Probably a certain number had always lurked in the jungle along the course of the Jordan Jer 49:19; Jer 50:44; and these now ventured into the hill country, and perhaps even into the cities. The colonists regarded their sufferings from the lions as a judgment upon them from the god of the land (2Ki 17:26; compare 1Ki 20:23 note).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 25. The Lord sent lions among them] The land being deprived of its inhabitants, wild beasts would necessarily increase, even without any supernatural intervention; and this the superstitious new comers supposed to be a plague sent upon them, because they did not know how to worship him who was the God of the land; for they thought, like other heathens that every district had its own tutelary deity. Yet it is likely that God did send lions as a scourge on this bad people.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
They feared not the Lord; they did not acknowledge nor worship God in any sort.
Therefore; for this gross neglect and contempt of God, which was contrary to the principles and practices of the heathens, who used to worship the gods of the nations where they lived, and gave that honour to their false gods which here they denied to the true. Hereby also God asserted his own right and sovereignty over that land, and made them to understand that neither the Israelites were cast out nor they brought into that land by their valour or strength, but by Gods providence, who as he had cast the Israelites out for their neglect of Gods service, so both could and would in his due time turn them out also, if they were guilty of the same sins.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord,…. Did not serve him in any manner, but their idols only, which they brought with them; whereas it was usual with Heathens to serve the gods of the country, as they reputed them, where they came, along with their own; but even this those men did not do:
therefore the Lord sent lions among them; even into their cities, into which lions sometimes came l, especially when old, out of the thickets of Jordan and other places where they haunted, see Jer 49:19
which slew some of them; this the Lord did to assert his sovereignty, authority, and mighty power, and to let them know that he could as easily clear the land of them, as they, by his permission, had cleared the land of the Israelites, Josephus m calls this a plague that was sent among them.
l Aristot. Hist. Animal. l. 9. c. 44. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 16. m Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 1.)
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(25) The Lord sent (the) lions.In the interval between the Assyrian depopulation and the re-peopling of the land, the lions indigenous to the country had multiplied naturally enough. Their ravages were understood by the colonists as a token of the wrath of the local deity on account of their neglect of his worship. The sacred writer endorses this interpretation of the incident, probably remembering Lev. 26:22. (Comp. Exo. 23:29; Eze. 14:15.)
Which slew.The form of the verb implies a state of things which lasted some time. Literally, and they were killing among them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
25. They feared not the Lord For they were idolaters, (2Ki 17:30-31,) and knew nothing of Jehovah.
The Lord sent lions The theocratic historian views all calamities as Divine dispensations. Compare Lev 26:22. It was very natural that wild beasts should multiply and become dangerous in a region so suddenly and so largely depopulated as was Samaria. And it is probable that the number of the new colonists was much smaller than that of the exiles, and at the beginning of their dwelling there they would be likely to cleave together, and not occupy the wilder districts.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Ki 17:25. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them Josephus, in this part of the history, varies from the sacred text. For, instead of the increase of lions which destroyed the people, he tells us that they were visited with a dreadful plague, so that the place was in a manner depopulated by it. But allowing it to be lions, why should these new inhabitants be afflicted with these creatures for not fearing the Lord, when the Israelites, who feared the Lord as little as they, were never infested with any such thing? The Israelites, indeed, were addicted to idolatry, but then they did not deny the divine power and Providence; only they imagined that their idols were the intermediate causes whereby the blessings of the supreme God might be conveyed to them: whereas these new comers believed the idols they worshipped to be true gods, and had no conceptions higher. They had no notion of one eternal, almighty, and independent being: they took the God of Israel to be such a one as their own; a local god, whose care and power extended no further than to one particular nation or people; and therefore, to rectify their sentiments in this particular, he took this method to let them know that all the beasts of the forest were his, and that whenever he is incensed with a people, he wants no instruments to execute his wrath; the air, the earth, the elements, and creatures of any kind, can avenge him and punish them. See Lev 26:22. Jer 15:3 and Calmet, and Scheuchzer on the place.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2Ki 17:25 And [so] it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, [that] they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew [some] of them.
Ver. 25. That they feared not the Lord. ] As he expected they should some way own him in a land which he was pleased to own. To do wickedly in a land of uprightness is a foul business. Isa 26:10
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
lions. For lions in Palestine see note on 1Ki 13:24.
slew = kept on slaying. Omit “some”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
they feared: 2Ki 17:28, 2Ki 17:32, 2Ki 17:34, 2Ki 17:41, Jos 22:25, Jer 10:7, Dan 6:26, Jon 1:9
the Lord sent: 2Ki 2:24, 1Ki 13:24, 1Ki 20:36, Jer 5:6, Jer 15:3, Eze 14:15, Eze 14:21
Reciprocal: Exo 5:3 – lest he Lev 26:6 – rid Lev 26:22 – wild Isa 15:9 – lions Eze 5:17 – and evil
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2Ki 17:25. And so it was that they feared not the Lord They did not acknowledge nor worship the true God in any sort. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them For their gross neglect and contempt of God, which was contrary to the principles and practices of the heathen, who used to worship the gods of the nations where they lived, and gave that honour to their false gods which here they denied to the true. Hereby also God asserted his own sovereignty over that land, and made them to understand that neither the Israelites were cast out, nor they brought in, by their valour or strength, but by Gods providence, who, as he had cast the Israelites out for their neglect of Gods service, so both could and would, in his due time, turn them out also, if they were guilty of the same sins.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
17:25 And [so] it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, [that] they {o} feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew [some] of them.
(o) That is, they served him not: therefore, lest they should blaspheme him, as though there were no God, because he chastised the Israelites, he shows his mighty power among them by this strange punishment.