And the king of Assyria brought [people] from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in its cities.
Assyria did not only carry Israel away. It refilled the emptied land with foreign settlers, and they took over the cities of Samaria. Out of that move came a new people and a new religion that marked the land for centuries.
The move was political before it was religious.
Leslie M. GrantThe king of Assyria wanted to make sure the Israelites could never take their land back. So he brought people from other areas east of Canaan to replace them (v.24). But God was jealous for His land, and because the new settlers had no fear of God, He sent lions among them, killing some of them (v.25).
The place names are real towns on the map of the empire. Sepharvaim, for example, is one of them:
Morrish Bible DictionaryA place conquered by Assyria, and from where people were sent to colonise Samaria.
New tenants did not make the land theirs. The lions that met them were God pressing His own claim, which Israel's ruin had not cancelled.
H. L. RossierThese idolatrous nations, brought into the land of Israel, did not fear the Lord. He sent lions among them, which killed them. Despite its desolation, God was caring for the land of His inheritance. He was asserting His rights over it and would not let those rights be taken away. He would not let the land fall again under the curse He had freed it from when He destroyed the Canaanites. However great the ruin, the name of the Lord must not disappear completely from the land of Israel. God had the future in view, for the remnant, the true Israel, is to inherit the land.
The settlers knew a God stood behind the lions. They tried to fix the problem with ritual, and what came out was not a kingdom but a mixed faith.
William KellyWhen the Assyrians were planted in the ruined cities of Israel they set up their old Assyrian religion, and the Lord sent lions among them. They understood it. Man has a conscience. They knew it was a voice from the God of Israel. It was the God of Israel that claimed that land. No doubt they thought they could win Him over by reviving the old worship of Israel. In their folly they sent for a priest of Israel from among the captives, and so the old religion came back — a very strange mixture of the nominal worship of the LORD and real idolatry. But so it was. This was the start, not of the Samaritan kingdom, but of the Samaritan religion — a mixture of Judaism and idolatry carried on by pagans.
The teacher Assyria sent was part of the problem himself. He could only pass on what he already was.
H. L. RossierThe king of Assyria sent them one of the priests he had carried away captive, to "teach them the manner of the god of the land". But this priest had himself supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God. So he could teach them nothing but his own corruption... This is obvious, yet it must still be pressed home: a corrupted religion cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them after its own pattern.
Generations later, the descendants of these settlers offered to help rebuild the temple. Their own words gave them away.
Edward DennettThey say, "We do sacrifice to Him" — that is, to God — "since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here." In this way they revealed their true origin. By their own confession they were not the children of Abraham but Assyrians. So they had no claim to belong to the children of Israel. These were, in fact, the fathers of the Samaritans (see 2 Kings 17:24-41)... We may learn for ourselves from this incident the source of one of the gravest dangers in the work of the Lord. The kisses of an enemy are both deceitful and dangerous, though it seems so ungracious to refuse the offered help of professed friends.
The story does not end in contempt. The half-light left in Samaria became the place where Jesus chose to sit down and talk.
Hamilton SmithPeople in the Lord's day were right to see the Samaritans as a corrupt race. The beginning of their history is recorded in 2 Kings 17:24-41... In the end they became a corrupt people who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods". So they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and they knew the Messiah was coming.
- Replaced — Assyria moved settlers in so that Israel's exile would be permanent. One royal decision changed who lived in the land.
- Claimed — the lions showed that the land was still the Lord's inheritance. He kept it for a future remnant, whoever lived in the cities.
- Mixed — the settlers wanted the ritual, not the God. The result was the Samaritan religion: nominal worship of the LORD blended with real idolatry.
- Shaped — a corrupt teacher could pass on only his own corruption. A corrupted religion always shapes people after its own pattern.
- Known — the same mixed people later offered help that was really a danger, yet they still knew that the Messiah was coming.
And so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not Jehovah; and Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed [some] of them.
Assyria had just emptied the northern kingdom and moved in settlers from other nations. They arrived in a land God still called His own. They gave Him no place — and found out He had not moved out.
The lions were not an accident of nature. God was claiming ownership of a land Assyria had just emptied of its people.
H. L. RossierThese idolatrous nations, brought into the land of Israel, did not fear the Lord. He sent lions among them, which killed them. Though the land lay desolate, God was caring for the land of His inheritance. He was asserting His rights over it, and would not let them be taken away. He would not have the land fall again under the curse He had freed it from when He destroyed the Canaanites. Whatever the ruin, the name of the Lord must not be wiped out of the land of Israel. And this was with the future in view, for the remnant, the true Israel, is to inherit the land.
The lions point two ways at once. Back to the Canaanites, whom God destroyed to free the land from its curse. Forward to the day the true Israel inherits it.
The settlers knew nothing about Israel's God. Yet they linked the attacks with the God of the land they had moved into. Commentators read their reaction in two ways. One credits them with conscience:
William KellyWhen the Assyrians were planted in the ruined cities of Israel they set up their old Assyrian religion, and the Lord sent lions among them. They understood it. Man has a conscience. They knew it was a voice from the God of Israel. It was the God of Israel who claimed that land.
The other reading says what moved them was fear of the unknown, not any real turning toward God:
Leslie M. GrantWhen foreigners replaced Israel in their land, the Lord allowed lions to attack and kill some of them. They assumed this happened because they did not know the character of "the god of the land." Their fears were not moved by conscience toward God, but by superstition. All they needed, they considered, was to know the rituals of the religion of Israel.
Either way, what they went looking for next was a ritual, not God Himself.
Their fix was to bring in an expert. Assyria's king sent back a captured priest of Israel — but the priest was part of the corruption himself.
H. L. RossierThe king of Assyria sent them one of the priests who had been taken away captive, to "teach them the manner of the god of the land." But this priest had himself supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God. So he could teach them nothing but his own corruption... A corrupted religion cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them after its own pattern. Obvious as that is, it still has to be pressed home.
The priest came, and something lasting grew out of the mixture:
William KellyAnd so the old religion came back — a very strange mixture of worship of the LORD in name and real idolatry. This is how the Samaritan religion began. Not the Samaritan kingdom, but the Samaritan religion — Judaism and idolatry mixed together and carried on by foreign settlers.
Their failure has one name: they did not fear the LORD. That is exactly what God had demanded of Israel all through the chapter.
H. L. RossierNotice how this whole passage sets the fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom, before the conscience of the people, and of the nations too. God told Israel not to fear other gods, but to fear Him alone and worship Him alone. In this short passage the expression "fear the LORD" occurs eleven times! Everything else depended on this basic command, and still depends on it!
God got their attention, then left them to answer for themselves. The writer ends with an uncomfortable question.
H. L. RossierAs for these nations, the Lord made them feel His displeasure through the attack of the lions, and so pressed on them that they should turn to Him. Then He dealt with them on the same principle He had used with His own people: He left them to their own responsibility. They paid no more attention to it than Israel had. But which of these two groups was the more guilty?
The pattern outlived them:
Leslie M. GrantOn the surface they feared the Lord, but they contradicted that fear by appointing priests of the high places "for themselves"... Today we see the same evil all around us. People claim to respect God, but their works flatly contradict His Word.
- Land — The lions showed God still claiming the land. He had cleared it of the Canaanites, and He will give it to the true Israel.
- Warning — The attack told them a real God claimed that ground. Commentators differ on what answered it: conscience, or superstition.
- Teacher — A corrupt teacher only passes on his own corruption. He can never lead anyone into the truth.
- Mixture — What grew there was a religion of two layers: the Lord in name, their own gods in practice.
- Test — Everything hung, and still hangs, on the one thing they lacked: the fear of the Lord.
And they spoke to the king of Assyria saying, The nations that thou hast removed and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the god of the land.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the king of Assyria commanded saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye have brought away from thence; and let them go and abide there, and let him teach them the manner of the god of the land.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and abode in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they dwelt.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima,
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.
Assyria emptied Samaria of Israel and refilled the land with settlers from five foreign cities. This verse names the gods they brought in, and two of those gods demanded children. Why did God let such worship stand in His own land?
The Avvites brought in two gods. Of one, little more than a name and a meaning survives:
Morrish Bible DictionaryA god of the Avite colonists in Samaria. 2 Kings 17:31. The word is supposed to mean "darkness," or the under-world.
The god who received those children carried the character of a destroyer:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe god of the Sepharvites, to whom they burnt their children, placed in one of the houses of the high places among the Samaritans. 2 Kings 17:31. A sort of Adar-Mars, that is, a sun-god, who was regarded as a destroying being.
The verse is one line in a longer list. Each group of settlers kept its own imported god and housed it in shrines the previous inhabitants had built:
Leslie M. GrantThe people from these other nations who settled in the land brought their own religion with them. They made idols and placed them in shrines in high places which the Samaritans had built earlier. So Samaria became something like the United States at that time, a home for every kind of contradictory religion. The Babylonians had their idol, the men of Cuth another, the men of Hamath another, and the Avvites two more. The Sepharvites burned their children as sacrifices to two gods of Sepharvaim.
The pull behind such worship did not come from the carved images:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe secret of all the abominations in idolatry is that Satan is the great mover of it. Israel heard that they were no more to offer sacrifices to demons. Leviticus 17:7. They "sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons." Psalm 106:37. They made their children pass through the fire to Molech, 2 Kings 23:10.
That power shows itself by overriding the deepest natural feelings a person has:
The Bible TreasuryIdolatry cannot instil the love of what is pure and lovely and of good report. On the contrary, it produces and strengthens the feelings and attitudes of all that is hateful and impure. And as we know in many cases, it has crushed the strongest instincts of nature, for parents have burnt their own children in honour of an idol.
The settlers did get instruction in Israel's God. It came through the wrong man:
H. L. RossierThe king of Assyria sent them one of the priests who had been carried away captive, to teach them the way of the god of the land. But this priest himself had supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God. So he could teach them nothing but his own corruption. On one hand they learned "how they should fear the LORD." On the other, "every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made" (v. 29). A corrupted religion cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them after its own pattern. This is obvious, yet it still needs saying.
God had already answered these settlers with lions. That judgment guarded His claim on the land:
H. L. RossierThese idolatrous nations, brought into the land of Israel, did not fear the Lord. He sent lions among them, which killed them. Despite its desolation, God was caring for the land of His inheritance. He was asserting His rights over it and would not let anyone take them away. He would not have the land fall again under the curse from which He had delivered it when He destroyed the Canaanites.
Later these newcomers looked for fellowship with God's people:
The Bible TreasuryIt was useless for these foreigners to seek fellowship. "So they feared the LORD but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away." They professed to fear the LORD, yet "they served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children — as their fathers did, so they do to this day" (2 Kings 17:33, 41). The true God could not agree to a partnership with false objects of worship, and behind those objects were demons.
- Mixture begins — settlers brought Nibhaz, Tartak, Adrammelech and Anammelech into shrines already standing in the land. One small country now held every kind of contradictory religion.
- Mixture is driven — Satan is the mover behind such worship. Scripture calls these offerings what they are: sacrifices to demons.
- Mixture costs — it crushes the strongest natural instincts. Here parents burned their own children in honour of an idol.
- Mixture spreads — a corrupted teacher passes on his own corruption. A corrupted religion never leads people into truth; it reshapes them after itself.
- Mixture is refused — God kept His claim on the land by sending lions. He would never share His worship with other gods.
So they feared Jehovah, and made to themselves from all classes of them priests of the high places, who offered [sacrifices] for them in the houses of the high places.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, whence they had been carried away.
Assyria carried Israel away and settled people from other nations in the empty land. They brought their own gods with them. This verse shows what came of it: an outward fear of the LORD laid over the customs they brought with them. Does worship like that count for anything with God?
The settlers were not Israelites at all. Commentators trace the origin of the Samaritans to this moment. A foreign people moved into a land that still belonged to God. They felt His hand against them, and tried to fix the problem with religion.
William KellyWhat took their place — what formed the kingdom of Samaria — was nothing but a mass of pagans. They took up the forms of Israel left behind, because God visited the land in a remarkable way. When the Assyrians were settled in the ruined cities of Israel, they set up their old Assyrian religion. Then the Lord sent lions among them. They understood it. Man has a conscience... No doubt they thought to win Him over by reviving the old worship of Israel. In their folly they sent for a priest of Israel from the captivity, and so the old religion came back in — a most strange mixture of nominal worship of the LORD and real idolatry. But so it was. So began not the Samaritan kingdom but the Samaritan religion: Judaism and idolatry blended together and carried on by pagans.
The settlers did get a teacher. But the priest sent to instruct them carried the very fault he was meant to cure.
H. L. RossierThe king of Assyria sent them one of the priests taken away captive, to "teach them the manner of the god of the land." But this priest had himself supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God. So he could teach them nothing but his own corruption... A corrupted religion cannot lead men on in the truth. It will always shape them after its own pattern. The point is obvious, yet it needs strong emphasis.
The chapter itself takes back the word "feared." The next verse holds their worship up against God's commands and finds nothing there.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 34 puts the whole matter in a true perspective. Verse 33 says, "they feared the LORD." Yet verse 34 says they kept following their former rituals: "they do not fear the LORD." Their claim in verse 33 was false and empty. They did not truly fear the LORD. They did not follow the statutes and ordinances of the LORD, or the law and commandment He had given to the children of Jacob, also named Israel. God had made a covenant with them, charging them, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them" (v.35).
So how do you tell real fear of God from the look of it?
H. L. RossierThose who appear to fear Him do not truly fear Him if they do not obey Him, for to fear Him is to obey Him. God does not tolerate mixtures.
The closing verses of the chapter are not vague. They repeat one demand again and again, and everything else rests on it.
H. L. RossierNotice how this whole passage sets the fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom, before the conscience of the people (vv. 35-40), and of the nations too. The Lord had said to Israel: "You shall not fear other gods" (vv. 35, 37, 38). "The LORD alone… him shall you fear, and him shall you worship" (v. 36). "But you shall fear the LORD your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies" (v. 39). In this short passage the expression "fear the LORD" occurs eleven times! Everything else depended on this basic command and still depends on it.
Why can God not accept a share of their worship? The answer lies in what stands behind those other gods.
The Bible TreasuryIt was impossible that the true God could consent to a partnership with false objects of worship, with demons behind them... People who are ignorant or unbelieving may brand faith in His word, and the bond between Him and His own, as narrow and arrogant and unloving. But those who value the truth feel, and rightly, that a relationship with Him must be exclusive... He never did and never will consent to merge into one those who are His and those who are not.
The same mixture did not die with Samaria. One writer holds this verse up to Christians who want the Lord and something else as well.
J Wilson SmithThink, dear reader, what honour you can place on your Lord by such a testimony. For most professing Christians today it is the Lord and some form of the world, something added to Himself. It is a mongrel Samaritan worship of the Lord and their own gods (2 Ki. 17:33). It is a shameful admission that the Lord is not enough to satisfy, a love of pleasure more than a love of God.
- Origin. Foreign settlers took the place of exiled Israel. Lions taught them whose land it was, so they answered with religion.
- Teacher. Their teacher came out of the corruption himself, so corruption was all he could pass on.
- Pretence. Verse 34 cancels verse 33: a fear that keeps the old rituals is no fear at all. To fear God is to obey Him.
- Demand. Eleven times in this short passage God calls for fear of Him alone. Everything else rests on that one command.
- Today. The Lord plus something else is Samaritan worship in modern dress, and it confesses that He is not enough.
To this day they do after their former customs they fear not Jehovah, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances, nor after the law and commandment that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Jehovah had made a covenant with them, and charged them saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
but Jehovah alone, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the statutes and the ordinances and the law, and the commandment which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And ye shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, neither shall ye fear other gods;
Israel has just gone into exile, and foreign settlers now fill the emptied land. Here the chapter repeats the terms God set long before — remember the covenant, fear no other god — and the rest of the chapter shows what happens when a people forget.
The verse is one line in a short summary of what God had done for Israel and what He asked in return.
Leslie M. GrantWe are reminded that the land really belonged to the nation God had brought up out of the land of Egypt with clear power, and Israel was to fear Him (v.36). They were told to be careful to keep His statutes, laws and ordinances, and to refuse to fear other gods. They were not to forget the covenant the Lord had made with them, but to fear the Lord, who would honour their submission and keep them from the grip of their enemies (vv.37-39).
Two things stand together here: remember what God promised, and refuse what other gods claim.
The repetition in these verses is deliberate, and it is worth counting.
H. L. RossierNotice how this whole passage sets the fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, before the conscience of the people (vv. 35-40) and of the nations too. The Lord had said to Israel: "You shall not fear other gods" (vv. 35, 37, 38). He said, "the LORD alone … Him you shall fear, and Him you shall worship" (v. 36). He also said, "but you shall fear the LORD your God, and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies" (v. 39). In this short passage the expression "fear the LORD" occurs eleven times! Everything else depended on this basic command and still depends on it!
The chapter itself supplies the test case. It first says the settlers feared the LORD, then denies it.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 34 puts the whole matter in true perspective. Though verse 33 says "they feared the LORD," verse 34 says they went on following their former rituals — "they do not fear the LORD." Their claim in verse 33 was false and empty… With them God had made a covenant, charging them, "You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them" (v.35).
So this command does not target open atheism. It targets a worship that keeps God's name and keeps everything else too. What divides real fear from claimed fear is obedience.
H. L. RossierThose who appear to fear Him do not truly fear Him if they do not obey Him, for to fear Him is to obey Him. God does not tolerate mixtures.
The teacher sent to instruct these newcomers was himself a product of the system that had ruined Israel, and that detail explains the outcome.
H. L. RossierThe king of Assyria sent them one of the priests who had been carried away captive, to "teach them the manner of the god of the land." But this priest himself had supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God. So he could teach them nothing but his own corruption… A corrupted religion — and this obvious fact needs special stress — cannot lead men on in the truth. It will always shape them according to its own pattern.
The result was not a swap of one religion for another, but a blend.
J. N. DarbyThe history of what happened after foreign nations were brought in shows the strange confusion that had taken place in Israel. It is one of the former priests of Jeroboam's system who comes to teach them the fear of the LORD. Along with this they worship their own gods. A mixture, hateful to the Lord, is the result.
Israel had to remember the covenant. But God's own rights did not depend on Israel's memory. Even with the land emptied, He kept His claim on it.
H. L. RossierIn spite of its desolation, God was caring for the land of His inheritance. He was asserting His rights over it, not allowing them to be taken away… Whatever the ruin might be, the name of the Lord must not be entirely removed from the land of Israel, and that with a view to the future, for the remnant, the true Israel, is to inherit the land.
Commentators bring the warning into the present.
Leslie M. GrantOutwardly they feared the Lord (v.32), but contradicted that fear by appointing "for themselves" priests of the high places… Today the same evil is seen all around us. People claim to respect God, but their works are in flat contradiction to His Word, often adopting the rituals of foreign nations.
- Remember — the covenant was something God had already made and done; Israel's part was not to forget it.
- Fear — "fear the LORD" appears eleven times in this short passage. Everything else depended on this one command, and still does.
- Refuse — the covenant named what fear of God rules out: no other gods bowed to, served or sacrificed to.
- Mixture — forget the covenant and religion does not vanish; it blends. People claim to fear God while their worship says otherwise, and commentators call that mixture hateful to the Lord.
- God remembers — Israel forgot. God kept His rights over people and land, and holds them for a future remnant.
but ye shall fear Jehovah your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
This verse ends a long chapter about Israel's failure. It closes not with a threat but with an offer. New settlers in the land had added the LORD to the gods they already had. So two questions stand behind the verse. What counts as fearing Him? And what does He promise those who do?
The closing section of the chapter repeats one requirement again and again. One writer counted how often.
H. L. RossierNotice how this whole passage presses the fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom, on the conscience of the people (vv. 35-40), and on the nations too. The Lord had said to Israel: "You shall not fear other gods" (vv. 35, 37, 38)… In this short passage the expression "fear the LORD" occurs eleven times! Everything else depended on this basic requirement, and still does.
The word "fear" can mislead a modern reader. It helps to hear first what it does not mean.
H J VineThis fear of the Lord is not the slavish dread that marks the superstitious. No. It is a reverent trustfulness accompanied by hatred of evil. "The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil" (Prov. 8:13). "The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever." Where people keep this fear, the presence of the Lord is a reality and a joy.
This promise is the last link in a chain that runs back to Egypt, the covenant, and the land itself.
Leslie M. GrantThe land really belonged to the nation God had brought up from the land of Egypt with obvious power, and Israel was to fear Him (v. 36). God told them to keep His statutes, laws and ordinances carefully, and to refuse to fear other gods. They were not to forget the covenant the Lord had made with them. They were to fear the Lord, who would honour their submission and preserve them from the bondage of their enemies (vv. 37-39).
Fearing God does not leave a person timid. It works the opposite way.
William KellyWe read next that in the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence. This fear takes away all other fear and becomes a tower of strength. It also helps others who tremble at His word, especially His children. What place of refuge is so sure and near?
The settlers in Samaria said they feared the LORD. A few verses later the record itself denies it.
Leslie M. GrantVerse 34 puts the whole matter in true perspective. Verse 33 says, "they feared the LORD." But verse 34 says they kept following their former rituals: "they do not fear the LORD." Their claim in verse 33 was false and empty. They did not truly fear the Lord. They did not follow His statutes and ordinances, or the law and commandment He had given to the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel.
The religion that shaped them explains how they got there.
H. L. RossierA corrupted religion cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them after its own pattern. The fact is obvious, yet we must still insist on it.
The same promise appears earlier, when Israel faced the Philistines. There the condition comes with it.
Samuel RidoutIf He has His place in the heart or in the land, all strange gods must be put away… He cannot endure a heart divided between Himself and a false god. All this is simple enough. Yet there must still be preparation and purpose of heart to carry it out in a real and lasting way… If they are ready for this, then there is the clear promise: "He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." God Himself had removed His ark from the Philistines' land. Yet in His holiness He could not rescue them from that same enemy until the people were right before Him.
What happened in Samaria was not a one-off. The same idea keeps coming back.
The Bible TreasuryPeople have often renewed these proposals for an all-inclusive religion. The Samaritans worshipped the Lord and the gods of the country around… Today the same proposal comes back with all energy and from all sides.
- One command. The passage repeats "Fear the LORD" eleven times. Everything else in Israel's life hung on that one requirement, and it still does.
- One meaning. This fear is not superstitious dread. It is reverent trust joined to a hatred of evil, and it drives out every other fear.
- One promise. God pledges to preserve from the enemy those who submit to Him and do not forget His covenant.
- One counterfeit. Samaria claimed to fear the LORD while keeping its own gods. The record answers that they did not fear Him. A corrupted religion only reproduces itself in those it teaches.
- One condition. God will not accept a divided heart. He could not rescue His people while they stayed that way. The promise of deliverance belongs to those who serve Him alone.
And they did not hearken, but did after their former customs.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And these nations feared Jehovah, and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children as did their fathers, so do they, unto this day.
Assyria moved foreign settlers into Samaria, and this verse is the chapter's final verdict on them. They kept up the fear of the LORD and their idols at the same time and handed both down to their children — which raises the question of what such "fear" is worth.
The verse is about settlers, not Israelites. Here is how they came to be there:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe king of Assyria had settled colonists from the East in the cities. They were now in the LORD's land, but they did not fear Him, so He sent lions among them. When the king of Assyria heard of this, he sent them a priest who had been carried away from Samaria, to teach them how they should fear the God of that land. The result was that they feared the LORD, and served their own gods!
Read alongside verse 34, the chapter's own language turns on itself. What the settlers called fear, God did not call fear:
Leslie M. GrantVerse 34 puts the whole matter in a true perspective. Verse 33 says, "they feared the LORD." Yet verse 34 says they kept following their former rituals: "they do not fear the LORD." Their claim in verse 33 was false and empty. They did not truly fear the LORD. They did not follow His statutes and ordinances, or the law and commandment which the LORD had given to the children of Jacob, also named Israel.
So what does real fear look like?
H. L. RossierThose who appear to fear Him do not truly fear Him if they do not obey Him. To fear Him is to obey Him. God does not tolerate mixtures.
The teacher sent to fix the problem carried the problem in himself:
H. L. RossierThis priest had himself supported the dreadful mixture of idolatry with the worship of the true God. So he could teach them nothing but his own corruption. On the one hand they learned "how they should fear the LORD." On the other hand, "every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made" (v. 29). This fact is obvious, yet it still needs to be insisted on: a corrupted religion cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them according to its own pattern.
The surrounding verses hammer one demand, and the count itself is the argument:
H. L. RossierNotice how this whole passage presses the fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom, on the conscience of the people (vv. 35-40), and of the nations too. The Lord had said to Israel: "You shall not fear other gods" (vv. 35, 37, 38). He said, "the LORD alone… Him you shall fear, and Him you shall worship" (v. 36). He also said, "you shall fear the LORD your God, and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies" (v. 39). In this short passage the expression "fear the LORD" occurs eleven times! Everything depended on this elementary command, and still depends on it.
Some call such separation narrow and unkind:
The Bible TreasuryIt was impossible for the true God to consent to a partnership with false objects of worship. People who are ignorant or unbelieving may brand faith in His word and the bond between Him and His own as narrow and presumptuous and uncharitable. But those who value the truth rightly feel that a relationship with Him must be exclusive.
Writers apply the verse beyond Samaria. The modern form of it is not carved images but an addition to Christ:
J Wilson SmithFor most professing Christians today it is the Lord and some form of the world, some addition to Himself. It is a mixed, Samaritan worship of the Lord and their own gods. It is a sad admission that the Lord is not enough to satisfy, a love of pleasure more than a love of God.
- Origin. These were foreign settlers, not Israelites. Lions came among them, so a priest taught them a little about the LORD — and they worshipped Him and their own gods together.
- Verdict. The chapter answers itself: what verse 33 calls fear, verse 34 calls no fear at all — the claim was empty.
- Cause. The teacher sent to them was already compromised. A corrupted religion cannot lead people into the truth; it shapes them to its own pattern.
- Remedy. Eleven times in a few verses God presses one thing — fear Him alone. And to fear Him is to obey Him.
- Result. The mixture outlived the people who made it and reached their children and grandchildren. But a relationship with God must be exclusive.