מלכים ב, פרק י״ז, פסוק ח׳

The downfall of the Kingdom of Israel was rooted in a tragic double betrayal. Rather than maintaining their unique identity, the Israelites actively rebelled against God by embracing the customs of the very nations He had driven out to give them the land [מצודת ציון, מלבי״ם]. This embrace of foreign practices operated on two distinct levels. First, the people engaged in blatant idolatry, placing their faith in pagan forces such as the heavenly bodies. Second, they adopted deeply immoral behaviors, including forbidden sexual relationships [מלבי״ם].

By choosing to act exactly like the pagan nations that preceded them, the Israelites invited their own ruin. Strict justice dictated that they suffer the identical consequence. Because they mirrored the corruption of the previous inhabitants, the land would ultimately reject and expel them, just as it had cast out the nations before them [אברבנאל].

However, the spiritual collapse was not solely the result of foreign influence; it was heavily driven from within. The primary approach among commentators is that the people willingly obeyed corrupt decrees established by their own monarchs [רלב״ג, אברבנאל, מצודת דוד, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Kings such as Jeroboam designed these laws specifically to institutionalize idol worship across the kingdom. By blindly following these homegrown, destructive laws alongside foreign customs, the Israelites completely abandoned their covenant with God.