2 Kings 17:29 - meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
2 Kings 17:29
Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine singular construct
made
עֹשִׂ֔ים'o.Sim
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
gods
אֱלֹהָ֑יו'e.lo.Hav
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
put
יָנַחyânach
H3240
to deposit
houses
בְּבֵ֣יתbe.Veit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
places
הַבָּמ֗וֹתha.ba.Mot
H1116
an elevation · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
Samaritans
הַשֹּׁ֣מְרֹנִ֔יםha.Sho.me.ro.Nim
H8118
a Shomeronite (collectively) or inhabitants of Shomeron · definite article + noun, gentilic masculine plural absolute
made
עָשׂוּ֙'a.Su
H6213
to do or make · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
nation
גּ֖וֹיGoy
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine singular absolute
cities
בְּעָ֣רֵיהֶ֔םbe.'A.rei.Hem
H5892
a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the wi… · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
dwelt
יֹשְׁבִ֖יםyo.she.Vim
H3427
properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
1 Kings 12:31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
Micah 4:5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
1 Kings 13:32 For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Beth-el, and against all the houses of the high places which are…
Psalms 115:4-8 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
Psalms 135:15-18 The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
Isaiah 44:9-20 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they s…
Jeremiah 10:3-5 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Hosea 8:5-6 Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 2 Kings 17:24–end
Never was land lost, we say, for want of an heir. When the children of Israel were dispossessed, and turned out of Canaan, the king of Assyria soon transplanted thither the supernumeraries of his own country, such as it could well spare, who should be servants to him and masters to the Israelites that remained; and here we have an account of these new inhabitants, whose story is related here that we may take our leave of Samaria, as also of the Israelites that were carried captive into Assyria.
I. Concerning the Assyrians that were brought into the land of Israel we are here told, 1. That they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof, Kg2 17:24. It is common for lands to change thei…
Howbeit every nation made gods of their own--These Assyrian colonists, however, though instructed in the worship, and acknowledging the being of the God of Israel, did not suppose Him to be the only God. Like other heathens, they combined His worship with that of their own gods; and as they formed a promiscuous society from different nations or provinces, a variety of idols was acknowledged among them.
Adam Clarke on 2 Kings 17:29
Every nation made gods of their own - That is, they made gods after the fashion of those which they had worshipped in their own country.
John Gill on 2 Kings 17:29
Howbeit, every nation made gods of their own,.... Served and worshipped those they brought with them, and which were the work of their own hands, even the nations, or those out of the nations, mentioned 2 Kings 17:24 these, notwithstanding the instructions they had about the worship of the God of Israel, retained and served their own deities: and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt; as the Israelites had built high places everywhere for idolatry, and put images in them, 2 Kings 17:9 these Heathens placed their gods there in the room of them, which were as follow.
The Church Fathers
"And each nation made its own gods." [2 Kings 17:29] It is said of those nations brought into Samaria by the king of Assyria: And each nation made its own gods and placed them in the high places that the Samaritans had made, each nation in the cities in which they lived; for the men of Babylon made Socoth Benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima; moreover, the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; indeed, in the Book of Places it is read that Benoth and Nergal were cities that the Samaritans who had come from Babylon built in the region of Judea. Asima also a town, which they who had come from Hemath built. For Nebaaz and Thartha are cities which the Hevites founded in the same land of Judea. But it seems, according to the logic of the speech, that the names of the idols which these peoples had previously worshipped in their own land can also be understood here. Because it was said: And each nation made its own god, it was added as if to complete the thought: For the men of Babylon made Socoth Benoth, that is, tabernacles of Benoth. And better, if I am not mistaken, would the translator do, if he translated Socoth into tabernacles in Latin, and placed the name of the idol Benoth absolutely; and as is clearly said in what follows: But those who were from Sepharvaim burned their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim; where it is shown that Adrammelech and Anammelech were idols of the city of Sepharvaim. Thus it seems consequent that Nergel of the Cutheans, Asima of the Hemathites, Nebaaz and Thartha were idols of the Hevites.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Bethel — House of God. (1.) A place in Central Palestine, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz (Gen. 28:19). The…
High place — An eminence, natural or artificial, where worship by sacrifice or offerings was made (1 Kings 13:32; 2 Kings 17:29). The first altar after the Flood was built on a mountain (Gen. 8:20). Abraham also…
Israel, Kingdom of — (B.C. 975-B.C. 722). Soon after the death of Solomon, Ahijah’s prophecy (1 Kings 11:31-35) was fulfilled, and the kingdom was rent in twain. Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, was scarcely…
Palestine — Originally denoted only the sea-coast of the land of Canaan inhabited by the Philistines (Ex. 15:14; Isa. 14:29, 31; Joel 3:4), and in this sense exclusively the Hebrew name Pelesheth (rendered…
Assyria · Idolatry of, brought into Samaria — Idolatry of, brought into Samaria
Cuth · Samaria — Samaria
High Places · 11:7;12:31;14:23;15:14;22:43; — 11:7;12:31;14:23;15:14;22:43;
Judgments · .Into the hands of the Assyrians — .Into the hands of the Assyrians
Samaria · of Assyria — of Assyria
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Keil & Delitzsch on 2 Kings 17:24–end
The Samaritans and Their Worship. - After the transportation of the Israelites, the king of Assyria brought colonists from different provinces of his kingdom into the cities of Samaria. The king of Assyria is not Salmanasar, for it is evident from Kg2 17:25 that a considerable period intervened between the carrying away of the Israelites and the sending of colonists into the depopulated land. It is true that Salmanasar only is mentioned in what precedes, but the section vv. 24-41 is not so closely connected with the first portion of the chapter, that the same king of Assyria must necessarily be spoken of in both. According to Ezr 4:2, it was Esarhaddon who removed the heathen settlers to Sam…
The king of Assyria was Sargon II (721–705 BC). • the God of the land . . . has sent lions: Religious belief in the ancient Near East held that the tranquility and success of a land was strongly identified with its god and the rites associated with his worship. • One of the priests . . . returned to Bethel, though his instruction in how to worship the Lord was doubtless influenced by the religion of Jeroboam I and mixed with paganism. • The foreigners also continued to worship their own gods. They simply added the worship of Israel’s God to the worship of their own gods. Most of the false gods mentioned here are unknown. Their names may have been altered by Jewish scribes. • Nergal was the M…
That the citizens of Shomron had made. [I.e.,] the [Bnei] Yisroel while they were still there.
Each nation … its own god. [I.e.,] each nation, [placed] the deity they had worshiped in their land, here, too, each nation did so in the city which Sancheiriv had given them as a possession there in the cities of Yisroel.
