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2 Kings 17:16

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16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even 1two calves, and 2made an Asherah and 3worshiped all the host of heaven and 4served Baal.
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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 ) .

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

2 Kings 17:16 In-Context

14 However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the LORD had commanded them not to do like them.
16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.
17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD , provoking Him.
18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah.

Cross References 4

  • 1. 1 Kings 12:28
  • 2. 1 Kings 14:15, 23
  • 3. Deuteronomy 4:19; 2 Kings 21:3
  • 4. 1 Kings 16:31

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. I.e. a wooden symbol of a female deity
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