The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus 48:15 Kommentar

When it says, “There remained only a people very few in number, with a prince of the house of David. Some of them did what was pleasing to God, but others multiplied sins,” it indicates that the descendents of the house of David and the tribes of Judah and of Benjamin did not completely reject the worship of God and his temple, as did the ten tribes that were in Samaria. But some of them were idolaters, such as Joram, Ahaziah, Manasseh, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. Others adhered to their God, as did Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah and Josiah. Similarly, their subjects also acted in different ways: some followed the right way, others stumbled into error. For this reason it later happened that when many had already deviated from the truth, they were punished with imprisonment, so that those who had worshiped idols in their own land would also worship them in a foreign land.