2 Kings 17:34

_UNTO THIS DAY THEY DO AFTER THE FORMER MANNERS: THEY FEAR NOT THE LORD, NEITHER DO THEY AFTER THEIR STATUTES, OR AFTER THEIR ORDINANCES, OR AFTER THE LAW AND COMMANDMENT WHICH THE LORD COMMANDED THE CHILDREN OF JACOB, WHOM HE NAMED ISRAEL;_ Unto this day - the time of the Babylonian exile, when this book was composed. Their religion was a strange medley or compound of the service of God and the service of idols. Such was the first settlement of the people, afterward called Samaritans, who were sent from Assyria to colonize the land, when the kingdom of Israel, after having continued 256 years, was overthrown....

24-41 The terror of the Almighty will sometimes produce a forced or feigned submission in unconverted men; like those brought from different countries to inhabit Israel. But such will form unworthy thoughts of God, will expect to please him by outward forms, and will vainly try to reconcile his service with the love of the world and the indulgence of their lusts. May that fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom, possess our hearts, and influence our conduct, that we may be ready for every change. Wordly settlements are uncertain; we know not whither we may be driven before we die, and we must soon leave the world; but the righteous hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from him....

THEY FEAR NOT THE LORD - The new-comers in one sense feared Yahweh 2Ki 17:33, 2 Kings 17:41. They acknowledged His name, admitted Him among their gods, and kept up His worship at the high place at Bethel according to the rites instituted by Jeroboam 2 Kings 17:28. But in another sense they did not fear Him. To acknowledge Yahweh together with other gods is not really to acknowledge Him at all....

EXPOSITION 2 KINGS 17:1 THE REIGN OF HOSHEA OVER ISRAEL. DESTRUCTION OF THE ISRAELITE KINGDOM, AND THE GROUNDS OF IT RE-PEOPLING OF THE KINGDOM BY ASSYRIAN COLONISTS. 2 KINGS 17:1 REIGN OF HOSHEA. Hoshea, the last King of Israel, had a short reign of nine years only, during two of which

UNTO THIS DAY THEY DO AFTER THE FORMER MANNERS,.... Which may be understood either of the new colonies in Samaria doing after the former customs in their own land, or after the customs of the idolatrous Israelites; or of the Israelites in captivity continuing in their idolatry, not being in the least reformed by their troubles; or of such of them as were left in the land, who repented not of their idolatries, nor reformed from them: THEY FEAR NOT THE LORD; did not worship him, at least not alone, and much less in a spiritual manner, with reverence and godly fear: NEITHER DO THEY AFTER THEIR STATUTES, OR AFTER THEIR ORDINANCES, OR AFTER THE LAW AND COMMANDMENT WHICH THE LORD COMMANDED THE CHILDREN OF JACOB, WHOM HE NAMED ISRAEL; that is, they did not observe the statutes and ordinances of the law given on Mount Sinai respecting religious worship, to act according to them....

2 Kings 17:23. _So was Israel carried away out of their own hand to Assyria this day. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof._ It was a part of the tactics of the Assyrian empire to take people away from their original location and colonize them in other places to shift them to another land; so that while the Israelites were taken to Babylon, numbers of those who had lived round about Babylon were brought to live in the Samaritan province, in order that nationalities might thus be broken down and patriotism might expire, thus making it easier for the Assyrian tyrant to govern the land....

7. ASSYRIA CONQUERS ISRAEL AND THE CAPTIVITY CHAPTER 17 _ 1. Hoshea, Israel's last king (2 Kings 17:1)_ 2. Shalmaneser imprisons Hoshea (2 Kings 17:3) 3. Israel carried into captivity (2 Kings 17:5) 4. Retrospect and Israel's sins (2 Kings 17:7) 5. The colonization of Samaria (2 Kings 17:24) Israel's last king was Hoshea. His name means “deliverance.” It indicates what might have been had he and the people repented of their sins. The record of his character is brief. “And he did that which was

THE ORIGIN OF THE SAMARITANS. This is a somewhat mixed account. 2 Kings 17:24 describes the settlement of the land with captives from other parts of the Assyrian empire, and the sending of a priest to teach them the manner of the God of the country. Next, 2 Kings 17:29 relates that the new settlers not only feared (_i.e._ worshipped) Yahweh, but also served their own gods. Finally (2 Kings 17:34) there is a general statement regarding the sin of Israel. This has no connexion with what precedes, nor does it in any way describe the Samaritan religion. It is perhaps nothing more than a new description of the sins for which Israel and Judah were carried away captive....

THEY. These, according to the Structure, are the Israelites. The member (34-40, p. 514) records their continued obduracy in their dispersion. STATUTES. See note on Deuteronomy 4:1. WHOM, &C. Render: "after the manner of the [several] nations; [gods] which had caused them [i.e. the Israelites] to go captive thence [i.e. out of the Land]. Genesis 32:28; 1 Kings 18:31....

_they fear not the Lord_ i.e. This worship of Jehovah, merely because they regard Him as the local deity of the land, is no worship at all. God will not be served from policy. There need be no difficulty in understanding the words here in contrast to -they feared the Lord" in verses 32, 33, 41. These latter express what the new colonists thought they were doing, and what they also thought to be enough. This verse expresses what the writer knew to be the truth as God regarded the service. _neither do they after their statutes_ -Their" refers by anticipation to -the children of Jacob", who are mentioned at the close of the verse. _after the law and commandment_ As the preposition is twice expressed in Hebrew, R.V. has OR AFTER THE COMMANDMENT. _whom he named Israel_ See Genesis 32:28....