2 Kings 17:8-20

17:8 they observed the practices¹ of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel.² 17:9 The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right.³ They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress.⁴ 17:10 They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 17:11 They burned incense on all the high places just like the nations whom the Lord had driven away from before them. Their evil practices made the Lord angry.⁵ 17:12 They worshiped⁶ the disgusting idols⁷ in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.⁸

17:13 The Lord solemnly warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and all the seers, “Turn back from your evil ways; obey my commandments and rules that are recorded in the law. I ordered your ancestors to keep this law and sent my servants the prophets to remind you of its demands.”⁹ 17:14 But they did not pay attention and were as stubborn as their ancestors,¹⁰ who had not trusted the Lord their God. 17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey.¹¹ They paid allegiance to¹² worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord.¹³ They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.¹⁴ 17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky,¹⁵ and worshiped¹⁶ Baal. 17:17 They passed their sons and daughters through the fire,¹⁷ and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry.¹⁸

17:18 So the Lord was furious¹⁹ with Israel and rejected them;²⁰ only the tribe of Judah was left. 17:19 Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example.²¹ 17:20 So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated²² them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.

¹tn Heb “walked in the customs.”

²tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”

³tn The meaning of the verb וַיְחַפְּאוּ (vayÿkhappÿ’u), translated here “said,” is uncertain. Some relate it to the verbal root חָפַה (khafah), “to cover,” and translate “they did it in secret” (see BDB 341 s.v. חָפָא). However, the pagan practices specified in the following sentences were hardly done in secret. Others propose a meaning “ascribe, impute,” which makes good contextual sense but has little etymological support (see HALOT 339 s.v. חפא). In this case Israel claimed that the Lord authorized their pagan practices.

⁴sn That is, from the city’s perimeter to the central citadel.

⁵tn Heb “and they did evil things, angering the Lord.”

⁶tn Or “served.”

⁷sn See the note at 1 Kgs 15:12.

⁸tn Heb “about which the Lord had said to them, ‘You must not do this thing.’”

⁹tn Heb “obey my commandments and rules according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”

¹⁰tn Heb and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers.”

¹¹tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

¹²tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

¹³tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

¹⁴tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

¹⁵tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tsÿva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.

¹⁶tn Or “served.”

¹⁷sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

¹⁸tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”

¹⁹tn Heb “very angry.”

²⁰tn Heb “turned them away from his face.”

²¹tn Heb “they walked in the practices of Israel which they did.”

²²tn Or “afflicted.”