Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Kings 17:23

"until Jehovah removed Israel out of his sight, as he spake by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day." — 2 Kings 17:23 (ASV)

By all his servants the prophets. —Compare Hosea 1:6; Hosea 9:16; Amos 3:11–12; Amos 5:27; Isaiah 28:1–4.

So was Israel carried away. —It appears from passages such as 2 Chronicles 30:1 and 2 Chronicles 34:9 that the land was not entirely depopulated.

But from then on, “the distinctive character of the nation was lost; Hebrews who remained in their old land became mixed with their heathen neighbors. When Josiah destroyed the ancient high places of the northern kingdom, he killed their priests, whereas the priests of Judean sanctuaries were provided for at Jerusalem. It is plain from this that he regarded the worship of the northern sanctuaries as purely heathenish (compare 2 Kings 23:20 with 2 Kings 17:5), and it was only much later that the mixed population of Samaria acquired the Pentateuch and set up worship on Mount Gerizim, in imitation of the ritual of the second Temple.”

We have no reason to think that the captive Ephraimites were more able to retain their distinctive character than their brothers who remained in Palestine. The problem of the lost tribes, which holds so much attraction for some speculators, is purely fanciful. The people whom Hosea and Amos describe were not equipped to maintain themselves apart from the heathen among whom they lived. Scattered among strange nations, they accepted the service of strange gods (Deuteronomy 28:64), and, losing their distinctive religion, also lost their distinctive existence.” (Robertson Smith.)