2 Kings 15:23-38
All the warnings of God, including His silence, have been in vain to awaken the conscience of His people. The hour sounds at last when the last act of discipline must be taken against them. It now involves their dispersion among the Gentile nations. It was the ultimate punishment, envisaged since the beginning of the history of Israel (Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 28:64), delayed by centuries of divine patience. We may well think how much this decision cost the heart of God. He had brought this people out of Egypt. He had gathered them together, set them apart and led them into a good land. And now He has to countermand His own work, and put this sorry people back under the yoke from whence He had taken them (Jeremiah 45:4). But, as the last resource of grace, the transportation begins in only a limited way. There is still room for repentance.
Notice this: the inhabitants of Gilead are among the first victims. Numbers 32 related the disastrous choice of the two and a half tribes who had settled beyond Jordan because of their material interests. Their descendants reap the tragic consequences of this.
In Judah there reign successively the faithful Jotham, then his son Ahaz who, by contrast, is one of the most wicked of the kings.