2 Kings 17:16

16 They forsook all the mitzvot of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the host of the sky, and served Ba`al.

2 Kings 17:16 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 17:16

And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God
Which their idolatry led them to; and indeed he that offends in one point is guilty of them all, ( James 2:10 )

and made them molten images, [even] two calves;
which they set up at Dan and Bethel, in the times of their first king Jeroboam, ( 1 Kings 13:28 1 Kings 13:29 )

and made a grove;
as Ahab, another of their kings, did, ( 1 Kings 16:33 )

and worshipped all the host of heaven:
not the angels, sometimes so called, but, besides the sun and moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus:

and served Baal;
which was service to the sun, as Abarbinel interprets it; this was the god of the Zidonians Ahab worshipped, having married a princess of that people, ( 1 Kings 16:31 1 Kings 16:32 ) .

2 Kings 17:16 In-Context

14 Notwithstanding, they would not hear, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn't believe in the LORD their God.

15 They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and [went] after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged those who they should not do like them.

16 They forsook all the mitzvot of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah, and worshiped all the host of the sky, and served Ba`al.

17 They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Yisra'el, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Yehudah only.