Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary

Adam Clarke Commentary

Besieged it three years - It must have been well fortified, well provisioned, and well defended, to have held out so long.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

All the land - The second invasion of Shalmaneser (723 B.C., his fifth year), is here contrasted with the first, as extending to the whole country, whereas the first had afflicted only a part.

Three years - From the fourth to the sixth of Hezekiah, and from the seventh to the ninth of Heshea; two years, therefore, according to our reckoning, but three, according to that of the Hebrews. This was a long time for so small a place to resist the Assyrians but Samaria was favorably situated on a steep hill; probably Sabaco made some attempts to relieve his vassal; the war with Tyre must have distracted Shalmaneser; and there is reason to believe that before the capture was effected a revolt had broken out at Nineveh which must have claimed Shalmaneser‘s chief attention, though it did not induce him to abandon his enterprise.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land,.... Of Israel, there being none to oppose his march; Hoshea not daring to come out, and meet him and fight him:

and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years; so long the city held out against him, see 2 Kings 18:9.

John Trapp Complete Commentary

2 Kings 17:5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

Ver. 5. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land.] Like an overflowing flood; having first seized upon the country of the Moabites, that he might leave nothing behind him that might be to his prejudice, Ar and Kirharaseth being destroyed, as had been foretold three years before. See Isaiah 16:1-14 cum notis Tremellii.

Whedon's Commentary on the Bible

5.Came up throughout all the land — He overran all the country, subduing all the smaller towns, apparently as a measure preliminary to the final siege of the capital.

Besieged it three years — The length of this siege evidences the strength of Samaria, and the desperate resistance of its people. “It is remarkable,” says Ewald, “how strong a resemblance the fall of Samaria bears to the first and second destructions of Jerusalem, in the heroic resistance of its inhabitants.” The horrors of this siege may be inferred from Isaiah 28:1-4; Hosea 10:14; Hosea 13:16; Amos 6:9-14.

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

the king of Aasyria. Shalmaneser (2 Kings 17:3), who commenced the siege, but died before Sargon, his successor, captured Samaria in 611 B.C.

three years. From 613-611.

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged

Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land. This was the third and final expedition of Shalmaneser against the whole of Syria, and it seems to have been after the lapse of a year or two from his second expedition. What new offence had excited his wrath has not been recorded; but as a determined resistance was made by his refractory vassal, Shalmaneser prepared for a regular siege of Samaria, which, through the stubborn valour of the Israelites themselves, or with the aid of Egyptian troops, lasted for nearly three years. At length the city capitulated; or, if Josephus is correct ('Antiquities,' b. 9:, ch. 14:), was taken by storm. But the glory of this conquest was not enjoyed by Shalmaneser, who had been suddenly recalled by the outbreak of a domestic revolution, occasioned, or at least encouraged, by his protracted absences from his capital. He was dethroned by the insurrection of an ambitious subject, and he seems to have died also before the fall of Samaria.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) Then (and) the king of Assyria came up . . . and besieged it three years.—Sargon states that he took Samaria (Samer ίna) in his first year. Shalmaneser therefore had besieged the city some two years before his death.

The brief narrative before us does not discriminate between the respective shares of the two Assyrian sovereigns in the overthrow of the kingdom of Israel, but it is noticeable that it does not say that Shalmaneser “besieged Samaria three years,” and “took Samaria.” (Comp. 2 Kings 18:11.)

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.

A. M. 3281-3283. B.C. 723-721. the king

18:9

three years

25:1-3; Jeremiah 52:4,5

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 20:1 - besieged;  2 Kings 6:24 - gathered;  2 Kings 19:4 - the remnant;  2 Kings 19:11 - General;  2 Kings 24:1 - his days;  2 Chronicles 28:20 - distressed him;  2 Chronicles 32:13 - I and my;  Ezra 9:7 - into the hand;  Isaiah 7:8 - within;  Isaiah 8:4 - the riches of Damascus;  Isaiah 9:1 - afterward;  Isaiah 10:9 - Samaria;  Isaiah 36:19 - and have