Verse Lens · Concise explanation
2 Kings 17:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse looks back to the northern secession and Jeroboam's formative influence.
Read It With
- 2 Kings 17:19–17:23
Read 2 Kings 17:21 within 2 Kings 17:19–17:23. Judah also rejects commandments, Israel is described as led astray, and prophetic warnings culminate in exile to Assyria.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse looks back to the northern secession and Jeroboam's formative influence. This detail is necessary to the thought unit “Judah is implicated while Israel goes into exile,” but it is not the unit's whole claim.
Read 2 Kings 17:19–23 together
Why these verses belong together: 2 Kings 17:19–17:23 forms one scene or regnal notice: Judah also rejects commandments, Israel is described as led astray, and prophetic warnings culminate in exile to Assyria.
Verse 19. 19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
Verse 20. 20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
Verse 21. 21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
Verse 22. 22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
Verse 23. 23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
What Remains True
This verse looks back to the northern secession and Jeroboam's formative influence. In the complete scene, that detail supports this larger account: Judah also rejects commandments, Israel is described as led astray, and prophetic warnings culminate in exile to Assyria.
How It Can Shape Life
- When teaching 2 Kings 17:21, keep this contribution and 2 Kings 17:19–17:23 together. Comparing Judah and Israel does not make one ethnic group morally pure, erase royal responsibility, or transfer blame to Jewish people today.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read 2 Kings 17:19–17:23 — Judah is implicated while Israel goes into exileSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Kings 17:19–17:23, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Kings
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, royal formulas, clause relationships, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Kgs.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 17:19–17:23
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Kings with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: A unit-bounded translation comparison plus only the lexical, grammatical, textual, historical, or older-English notes actually printed for these verses; silence is not treated as evidence.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Kings PDF, printed pp. 652–655, translation and translator notes for 17:19–17:23
Open source ↗