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.
The northern kingdom has just fallen, foreign settlers now fill the land, and God looks back over the whole story. In a long list of bans, verse 36 gives the one positive command: fear the LORD who brought you out of Egypt, and Him only.
This is not new instruction. God is repeating terms He set long before, now over a land full of new settlers and mixed religion.
We are reminded that the land belonged to the nation God had brought up out of Egypt with power openly displayed, 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.
Verse 36 asks for three things: fear, bowing and sacrifice. The first of these runs through the whole section, pressed on Israel and on the new settlers alike. (Where the ESV reads "the LORD," the older translation quoted below prints God's name as "Jehovah.")
Notice how this whole passage presses the fear of the Lord, the 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, "Jehovah alone … Him you shall fear, and Him you shall worship" (v. 36). And again: "but you shall fear Jehovah your God, and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies" (v. 39). In this short passage the expression "fear Jehovah" occurs eleven times! Everything else depended on this basic command, and still depends on it.
The verse gives a reason for its demand. This is the God who brought them out of Egypt, and that rescue is why worship belongs to Him alone.
It was on this very ground that, long ago, God sought to be known as God by the Jews. He claimed to be worshipped by them as the one only God, because He had shown Himself their Redeemer. "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me." In this act He had made Himself known as God, full of grace and power for captive sinners. If we do not know Him like that, we do not know Him as He truly is. Any thought about God that disagrees with this is only the mind of a darkened creature busy with its own idolatry. The true God is He who reveals Himself in redeeming grace and power.
The verse says God used "great power" and "an outstretched arm." Those words come from the exodus story, and God later promised that same power to a nation in exile.
The nation of Israel was redeemed from Egypt both by purchase and by power (Ex. 15:6, 13, 16). As their Goel, Jehovah brought them out of slavery "with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment" (Ex. 6:6). Centuries later the Assyrians and then the Chaldeans carried the nation into captivity. Even then Jehovah kept sending them promises of deliverance by redemption, calling Himself "Jehovah, your Redeemer (Goel)."
("Goel" means a kinsman who buys back what his relative has lost.)
The settlers around Samaria added the LORD to their list of gods. Verse 36 rules that out, and a mixture like that never stays harmless.
A corrupted religion cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them to its own pattern. This fact is obvious, yet it still needs to be stressed. … Those who seem to fear Him do not really fear Him if they do not obey Him. To fear Him is to obey Him. God does not tolerate mixtures.
The mixture showed in their worship, and in the priests they chose to run it.
On the surface they feared the Lord (v.32). But they contradicted that fear by appointing "for themselves" priests of the high places… Today we see the same evil all around us. People claim to respect God, but their works flatly contradict His Word.
Israel broke the command, but God did not withdraw it. God's rights over the people and over the land outlast their failure.
Jehovah kept His sovereign rights over the people despite their unfaithfulness. In the same way, we find Him defending His claim to the land after the people were driven out. He maintains these rights for ever.
- Ground — The claim rests on what God did. He brought them out of Egypt, so worship belongs to Him alone.
- Gift — He redeemed them "both by purchase and by power," acting as their kinsman-Redeemer.
- Fear — The word appears eleven times in this short passage. To fear Him is to obey Him, and everything else depended on that.
- Failure — Adding the LORD to a shelf of other gods is not obedience. A corrupted religion shapes people to its own pattern instead of leading them in the truth.
- Faithfulness — Israel forgot the covenant. God never dropped His claim on the people or the land, and He keeps those rights for ever.
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.
Here God sums up why the northern kingdom fell, pointing back to the terms He wrote down: statutes to keep always, and no other gods. It raises two questions: what those four words cover, and how a people could recite them and still be judged.
The whole passage repeats one demand. One commentator counts how often:
Notice 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). 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 wording quoted from verse 36 follows an older translation.)
"Statutes and rules and law and commandment" is not a pile of synonyms. Rossier, writing on a similar list in 1 Kings, gives each term its own weight:
The Word of God directs the walk itself… The Word has different characteristics, and we need to pay attention to all of them… His statutes are the things He has established, and they carry His authority. His commandments express His will, and we are obliged to submit to it. His ordinances (or judgments) are the principles He conveys and acts by. His testimonies are the thoughts He has communicated to us, and faith must receive them.
God wrote these things down, and the verse says to keep them always. People easily assume that rules from another era no longer apply. One writer answers that directly:
The people left in the land were reminded that the law had been given to "all Israel," and therefore it applied to them. What is more, all the "statutes and judgments" that had supplemented the main commandments stood in their integrity, neither repealed nor altered. Changes in human circumstances do not impose any change upon the Divine requirements.
The chapter says these settlers "feared the LORD" — and then says they did not. One commentator holds the two statements together:
Verse 34 puts the whole matter in a true perspective. Verse 33 says, "they feared the Lord." 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 really fear the Lord. They did not follow the statutes and ordinances of the Lord, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, otherwise named Israel.
The same writer refuses to leave this in the past:
On the outside they feared the Lord (v. 32). But they contradicted that fear by appointing "for themselves" priests of the high places… Today we see the same evil all around us. People claim to respect God, but their works flatly contradict His Word, and they often adopt the rituals of foreign nations.
A priest came back to teach these people how to fear the LORD. He failed, and the reason matters:
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 cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them to its own pattern. This fact is obvious, yet it still needs stressing… Those 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 demand came with a promise attached:
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 free from the power of their enemies.
- Fear first. The passage says "fear the LORD" eleven times. Everything else depended on it, and still does.
- Fear defined. His statutes carry His authority. His commandments express His will. His ordinances show how He acts. His testimonies are the thoughts faith must receive.
- Fear fixed. God wrote them down, so changed circumstances change nothing. The statutes stood neither repealed nor altered.
- Fear faked. One verse says they feared the LORD; the next says they did not. To fear Him is to obey Him — and the same contradiction is common today.
- Fear rewarded. Those who did not forget His covenant had His promise: He would deliver them from all their enemies.
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.
We 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.
Notice 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.
Verse 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.
Those 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.
The 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.
The 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.
In 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.
Outwardly 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.
Notice 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.
This 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.
The 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.
We 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.
Verse 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.
A 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.
If 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.
People 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.
God had just charged Israel to fear Him alone, with a promise to rescue them. Verse 40 gives the answer He received from the nations now settled in Samaria: they kept the ways they came with. So this whole section presses one question. Can a religion that keeps its old gods beside the true God count as the fear of the LORD?
The message they ignored was not obscure. One writer counts how often this short section repeats one command, and says everything else rests on it.
Notice how this whole passage sets the fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom, before the conscience of the people (vv. 35-40), and before the nations. The Lord had said to Israel: "You shall not fear other gods" (vv. 35, 37, 38). He said, "the LORD alone … Him shall you fear, and Him shall you 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 upon this basic command and still depends on it!
What replaced obedience still looked like religion. One writer marks the gap between appearance and reality, and how far down the generations it ran.
But now the land was given over to people who paid no attention at all to the commands of God. So these nations who entered the land looked as if they feared the Lord, but in fact served their carved images. Their children and their children's children followed the same course of evil. Some Israelites were still scattered through Samaria, but they did not soften the picture of guilty contempt for God's law. It only added to the mixture of many elements of evil.
They were not left without a teacher. A priest came to them for that very purpose. The same writer shows why he failed, and what real fear of God involves.
The 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 cannot lead people on in the truth. It will always shape them after its own pattern. This fact is obvious, and yet it must still be stressed… Those 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.
Their failure does not leave the land ownerless. One writer names what the mixture produced, and what God still held.
Together with this they worship their own gods. A mixture, hateful to the Lord, is the consequence. Despite their unfaithfulness, the LORD kept His sovereign rights over the people. In the same way, we find Him defending His claim to the land after the people were driven out. He maintains these rights for ever.
Commentators apply this pattern to our own day. One sees the same split in the religion around us:
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.
Another compares this Samaritan mixture to something that is not even plain idolatry:
This mixture could not be likened to pure idolatry. It makes us think of the blend called Christendom, in whatever form it appears. It reaches from the time of Roman and Greek worship of Mary, to the much more subtle forms of Protestant Christendom. There the worship of the true God is tied to the moral darkness of the world, and what people claim has no relationship to what ought to mark the people of God.
This verse is not the last word on these people. One writer traces what they became, and what they still knew.
They lived in the land of the LORD, and yet did not fear the LORD, so the LORD troubled them… As a result they became a corrupt people who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods." So they had some dim knowledge of the Lord, and knew that the Messiah was coming.
- Command — Eleven times in this short passage God presses one thing: fear the LORD. To fear Him is to obey Him. Everything else depended on that, and still does.
- Refusal — They would not listen. The old ways stayed, and the fear of the LORD became an appearance laid over them.
- Cause — The teacher sent to them was himself mixed. A corrupted religion cannot lead anyone into truth; it reproduces its own pattern.
- Spread — The refusal did not stop with them. Their children and their grandchildren walked the same road, and the mixture only grew.
- Warning — The same double life runs on wherever people claim to respect God while their works contradict His Word. Yet even here a dim knowledge of the Lord and of the coming Messiah survived.