[3] This chapter records the events during the reigns of Hoshea the last king of Israel, the capture of Samaria and the deportation of the northern kingdom population by the Assyrians.

[11] It also gives a glimpse to Judah's eventual fate, linking to other 'dense concentrations of Deuteronomistic judgment language' in 2 Kings 21:3–15; 23:26–27; 24:3–5.

[14] The deportees were displaced decentrally to various location in the north-east Syria, effectively destroying the races, so the exiled northern Israelite people left few traces in history and tradition (becoming "Ten Lost Tribes" of Israel), unlike the Jews (the people of Judah) who were later moved en bloc to Babylon.

[37] This mixing of ethnicity would avoid the development of large-scale resistance and 'paralyse the regions using the tension between people' of different origins.

The Deuteronomistic narrative focuses on the religious impacts of this policy, that 'the religion (gods and ritual traditions) in the province of Samaria 'became mixed'.