2 Kings 17 Study Notes

17:16-17 The author presents more accusations of idolatry and cruelties. The worship of all the stars in the sky, the gods of the heavenly bodies, had not been frequently mentioned so far, but they were mentioned by contemporaneous prophets (Am 5:26). The most extreme evil—offering infants to Baal—is mentioned, as well as divination and omens. Divination focuses more on gaining knowledge by supernatural means while omens are the magical giving of knowledge and the exercise of magic power. Such dabbling with supernatural knowledge and power was part of King Saul’s sin (1Sm 28:7-9) and was condemned by Moses (Lv 20:6; Dt 18:10-11).

17:18 After all these reports of idolatry and disobedience, the fact that the Lord was very angry seems an understatement. The final penalty for repeated idolatry was the removal of the people from God’s presence by taking them from the land he had given them.

17:19-20 The Lord proceeded to pronounce judgment on Judah as well, because they lived according to the customs Israel had practiced. From this time, Judah’s exile was also decreed.

17:21-23 Jeroboam (Jeroboam I) was the archetypical figure for the sin of Israel and the roots of Israel’s destruction are traced back to him. Finally, Israel was removed from God’s presence.

17:24 The origins of the Assyrian colonists were the following: (1) Babylon in lower Mesopotamia; (2) Cuthah in lower Mesopotamia just a few miles from Babylon; (3) Avva, also known as Ivvah, of unknown location; (4) Hamath, north of Damascus on the Orontes River, near where the Battle of Qarqar was fought; and (5) Sepharvaim, somewhere in Aramean territory.

17:25 The word fear can carry a range of meanings, from terror to reverential worship of God. It is not easy to know what level of terror or worship the word communicated in this context.

17:26-28 These verses give an accurate picture of religious attitudes in the ancient world. In general, ancient people believed that the gods were real and powerful enough that people had to manipulate them to gain benefits. This contrasted with Hebrew theology, which held that God cannot be manipulated. The Assyrians viewed foreign gods as lesser deities to be incorporated into their system of worship. Therefore, it seemed reasonable to them to send a priest of the territorial god back to the occupied region to teach the people there, many of whom were new arrivals, how to make peace with that god (or gods). Possibly this included providing a copy of the deity’s sacred writings. This priest’s work may have been the origin of the Samaritan Pentateuch, a rival to the Hebrew Torah.

17:29-34 The result of all these efforts was a group of people with mixed religious beliefs and practices. They feared the Lord, while at the same time they still worshiped their own gods, and as a result eventually they did not fear the Lord. Succoth-benoth was similar to Sarpanitu, one of Marduk’s goddess consorts. Nergal, the god of pestilence and one of many consorts of Erishkigal—queen of the underworld—had a shrine in Cuth. Ashima may have appeared also in the phrase “guilt (Hb ashmath) of Samaria” (Am 8:14). This deity was probably the same as Ashim Bethel (or Eshem Bethel), who appeared as a fertility consort of Yahweh in the popular, syncretistic religion of the Jewish colony at Elephantine. Two unknown deities of the Avvites were Nibhaz and Tartak. Adrammelech and Anam-melech of Sepharvaim cannot be clearly identified, though the fact that children were sacrificed to them tells something about their character. The general picture is one of typical ancient fertility religion, including major national deities and minor local deities.

17:35-39 These verses give a concluding summary of the historic mandate to the Israelites to obey the covenant.

17:40-41 If the Israelites, whom God had delivered from Egypt (vv. 34-39), would not obey God’s covenant, how could the pagan idolaters that were relocated to Samaria do any better? In fact, we could argue that these pagans, eventually growing into some commitment to their own version of the Pentateuch, did deserve comparison with the Hebrews.