2 Kings 17:8

8 followed the customs of the people whom the Lord had driven out as his people advanced, and adopted customs introduced by the kings of Israel.

2 Kings 17:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 17:8

And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast
out from before the children of Israel
Meaning the Canaanites, in whose idolatrous ways they walked, and whom they imitated; though their ejection out of the land should have been a warning to them, and they were the more inexcusable, as they were particularly cautioned against walking in them, ( Leviticus 18:3 )

and of the kings of Israel, which they had made;
their laws and statutes, to worship the golden calves, and not go up to Jerusalem to worship.

2 Kings 17:8 In-Context

6 which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the Assyrian emperor captured Samaria, took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners, and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the Habor River in the district of Gozan and some in the cities of Media.

7 Samaria fell because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the king of Egypt and had led them out of Egypt. They worshiped other gods,

8 followed the customs of the people whom the Lord had driven out as his people advanced, and adopted customs introduced by the kings of Israel.

9 The Israelites did things that the Lord their God disapproved of. They built pagan places of worship in all their towns, from the smallest village to the largest city.

10 On all the hills and under every shady tree they put up stone pillars and images of the goddess Asherah,

Footnotes

• [a]. [Probable text] and adopted . . . Israel; [Hebrew unclear.]