2 Kings 17:26 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, &c. They wrote, or sent messengers to him, to acquaint him with this grievance, setting forth, it is likely, the loss which their infant colony had sustained by the lions, and the continual fear they were in of them; and that they looked upon it as a judgment sent upon them for not worshipping the God of the land, which they could not, because they knew not how. The God of Israel was the God of the whole earth, but they ignorantly call him the God of the land, imagining him to be like one of their local deities, who were supposed to preside only over particular countries or provinces; and apprehending themselves to be within his reach, as being now in the country in which he governed, and therefore concerned to be upon good terms with him. Herein they shamed the Israelites, who were not so ready to hear the voice of God's judgments as they were, and who had not served the God of that land, though he was the God of their fathers, and their great benefactor, and though they were well instructed in the manner of his worship. In short, these heathen beg to be taught that which Israelites hated to be taught!