2 Kings 17:8-18

8 ¹and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, ²and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced.

9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, ³from watchtower to fortified city.

10 They set up for themselves ⁴pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree,

11 and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger,

12 and they served idols, ⁵of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this. ”

13 Yet the Lord ⁶warned Israel and Judah ⁷by every prophet ⁸and every seer, saying, ⁹“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets. ”

14 But they would not listen, ¹⁰but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.

15 They despised his statutes ¹¹and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after ¹²false idols ¹³and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the ¹⁴Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of ¹⁵two calves; and they ¹⁶made an Asherah and ¹⁷worshiped all the host of heaven and served ¹⁸Baal.

17 ¹⁹And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings^[a] and used ²⁰divination and ²¹omens and ²²sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but ²³the tribe of Judah only.

2 Kings 17:8-18 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 17

This chapter relates the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, and how it came about, 2Ki 17:1-6, the cause of it, their idolatry, which they persisted in, notwithstanding the remonstrances made against it, 2Ki 17:7-23, in whose stead were placed people from different parts, who exercised a mixed religion, partly Heathenish, and partly Israelitish, 2Ki 17:24.

Cross References

• 1. 17:8 Lev. 18:3; Deut. 18:9
• 2. 17:8 ver. 19; ch. 16:3
• 3. 17:9 ch. 18:8
• 4. 17:10 See Ex. 23:24
• 5. 17:12 See Ex. 20:4
• 6. 17:13 Neh. 9:30
• 7. 17:13 ver. 23
• 8. 17:13 See 1 Sam. 9:9
• 9. 17:13 Jer. 18:11; 25:5; 35:15
• 10. 17:14 Deut. 9:6; 2 Chr. 30:8; [Deut. 31:27; Acts 7:51]
• 11. 17:15 Deut. 29:25
• 12. 17:15 Deut. 32:21; [1 Kgs. 16:13]
• 13. 17:15 Jer. 2:5; Rom. 1:21
• 14. 17:15 Deut. 12:30, 31
• 15. 17:16 See 1 Kgs. 12:28
• 16. 17:16 1 Kgs. 14:15, 23; 15:13; 16:33
• 17. 17:16 ch. 21:3; 23:5; [Deut. 4:19]
• 18. 17:16 ch. 11:18; 1 Kgs. 16:31; 22:53
• 19. 17:17 ch. 16:3; [Lev. 18:21; Ezek. 23:37]
• 20. 17:17 [Deut. 18:10]
• 21. 17:17 [Lev. 19:26]
• 22. 17:17 See 1 Kgs. 21:20
• 23. 17:18 [1 Kgs. 11:13, 32; 12:20]

Footnotes

• [a] 17:17 Or 'made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire'