God’s judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel through the Assyrians should have been a warning to the southern kingdom of Judah, but the people continued in their evil ways more than ever (v. 19), forcing God to take action and to judge them through the Babylonians (chs. 24—25).

In His love God sent the prophets to the people of Israel to testify to them against their evils, sins, and wickednesses and to help them return to God, but instead of hearing the prophets, the people stiffened their necks (vv. 13-14).

See 1 Kings 12:27-32 and notes.

Eventually, the heathens brought in by the king of Assyria intermarried with the Jews who remained in Israel. As a result, a confused and mixed worship was produced, such as that referred to by the Samaritan woman in John 4:20. This confusion and mixture may be regarded as a type of the kind of worship, found especially in Catholicism, that is a mixture of the worship of God with heathen practices and the pagan worship of idols.

Lit., them.