Then the king of Assyria commanded: “Send back one of the priests you carried off from Samaria, and have him go back to live there and teach the requirements of the God of the land.”
Never was land lost, we say, for want of an heir. When the children of Israel were dispossessed, and turned out of Canaan, the king of Assyria soon transplanted thither the supernumeraries of his own country, such as it could well spare, who should be servants to him and masters to the Israelites that remained; and here we have an account of these new inhabitants...
Commenting on 2 Kings 17:24-41
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying,.... Gave the following orders and directions: carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; for they carried away all the people of every class, civil and religious: and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land; it is in the plural number, "let them go", &c.
SAMARIA TAKEN, AND ISRAEL FOR THEIR SINS CARRIED CAPTIVE. (2Ki. 17:7-41) For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned--There is here given a very full and impressive vindication of the divine procedure in punishing His highly privileged, but rebellious and apostate, people.
Commenting on 2 Kings 17:7-41