2 Kings 17:31

31 for Avva, Nibhaz and Tartak; for Sepharvaim, Adrammelech and Anammelech (people burned their children in sacrificial offerings to these gods!).

2 Kings 17:31 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 17:31

And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak
The former of which is represented by the Jews in the shape of a dog, deriving the word from "nabach", to bark, as if it was the same with the Anubis Latrator of Virgil F2, an Egyptian deity; though that is said F3 to have its name from NO(e) (b) , which in the Egyptian language signifies "gold", the statutes of it being made of gold; and the latter in the form of an ass, for what reason I cannot say; but the first word, according to Hillerus F4, signifies, "the remote one seeth", that is, the sun, which beholds all things; and Tartak is a chain, and may denote the fixed stars chained as it were in their places; or the satellites of the planets, chained to their orbs:

and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and to
Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim;
which were the same with Moloch; which may be concluded, partly from the worship paid them, and partly from the signification of their names; both end with "melech", king, which Moloch also signifies; the first may be interpreted the mighty king, and the latter the king that answers in an oracular way; from the first, one of the sons of Sennacherib king of Assyria had his name, ( Isaiah 37:36 ) , though the Jews, according to their fancy, represent the one in the likeness of a mule, and the other in the likeness of a horse; and some make the one to be a peacock, and the other a pheasant {e}; the Septuagint version puts the article before them in the feminine gender, excepting the two last, taking them for she deities, or leaving the word (eikona) , "images", to be understood.


FOOTNOTES:

F2 Aeneid. l. 6. So Ovid. Metamorph. l. 9. Fab. 12. ver. 689.
F3 Jablonski apud Michael. Obs. Sacr. Exercit. 4. p. 66, 67.
F4 Ut supra, (Onomast. Sacr.) p. 606.
F5 Vid. Kimchium in loc.

2 Kings 17:31 In-Context

29 But each people that Assyria had settled went ahead anyway making its own gods and setting them up in the neighborhood sex-and-religion shrines that the citizens of Samaria had left behind - a local custom-made god for each people:
30 for Babylon, Succoth Benoth; for Cuthah, Nergal; for Hamath, Ashima;
31 for Avva, Nibhaz and Tartak; for Sepharvaim, Adrammelech and Anammelech (people burned their children in sacrificial offerings to these gods!).
32 They honored and worshiped God, but not exclusively - they also appointed all sorts of priests, regardless of qualification, to conduct a variety of rites at the local fertility shrines.
33 They honored and worshiped God, but they also kept up their devotions to the old gods of the places they had come from.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.