Common courtesy would demand that the Israelites show respect for Him who had shown so great kindness to them. They could hardly display baser ingratitude than to forget God’s mercy and goodness. Idolatry involved infinitely more guilt among the Hebrews than among other peoples, for the heathen had only a limited degree of enlightenment and had not experienced the wonderful blessings that God had bestowed on His chosen people. The Israelites knew by their own personal experience that God was kind and beneficent, and yet in spite of all this they turned away from Him to the worship of false gods.

This was the primary reason for Israel’s downfall. Sin was responsible for our first parents’ expulsion from Eden, and it is the reason for all the woe that has since come upon the human race. Man has no greater enemy than sin. It destroys what it touches, be it a man, a nation, or a world.

Literally, “and it was because,” or “and it came to pass because.” The writer proceeds to set forth the various reasons for which God permitted Israel to be smitten by their enemies and to be carried into captivity.