2 Kings 17:29

2Ki 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.

Ver. 29. Made gods of their own.] Goodly gods, that were made of men. Olim truncus eram ficulnus, &c. God made man after his own image, and men, to be even with him, will needs make gods after their image. See Rom 1:23 2Co 8:5.

Every nation in the cities.] So each city had its own god, and lest they should miss of the right, they closed their petitions with that general Diique deaeque omnes; or, as Medics doth in the tragedy, O Deus quisquis es, vel in caelo vel in terra; O God, whoever thou art in heaven or earth. {a} But God requireth that we be at a better certainty. {Heb 11:6 Mat 16:15}

{a} Servius in Georgic, lib. i.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ki 17:29. Howbeit, every nation made gods of their own — Or, worshipped, as the Hebrew word here used sometimes means; of which see Exo 32:35. That is, they worshipped the gods which they had served in the places from whence they came. And put them in the high places which the Samaritans — That is, which the former inhabitants of the city and kingdom had made.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(29) Howbeit.—And. The colonists did not fear Jehovah in a monotheistic sense; they simply added his cultus to that of their ancestral deities.

The houses of the high places.—The temples or chaples which constituted the sanctuaries of the different cities in the Samaritan territory.

The Samaritans—i.e., the people of northern Israel. (Comp. Samaria in 2Ki_17:24.)

Dwelt.—Were dwelling.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

29. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own] When they beheld the calves of Dan and Bethel, they would see nothing higher in them than in their own objects of worship. So the adoption of the new form of worship would not draw them from the attachment to their earlier divinities.

the high places which the Samaritans] All was ready for the strangers to set up their idols in every place to which they came.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Kg2 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, Kg2 17:9 these Heathens placed their gods there in the room of them, which were as follow.

these Heathens placed their gods there in the room of them, which were as follow.

2 Kings 17:30

kg2 17:30

kg2 17:30

kg2 17:30And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth,.... That is, those that came from Babylon made and served an idol of this name, which, according to the Jewish writers (u), were the figures of an hen and chickens; but others suppose them to be the Pleiades, or seven stars, the stars being had in great veneration by the Babylonians; though others rather think those Succothbenoth, "tabernacles", or "booths of the daughters", as the words may be rendered, have respect to the apartments in the temple of Venus, or Mylitta with the Babylonians and Assyrians, in which women once in their lives prostituted themselves to whomsoever asked them, in honour of Venus; of which filthy practice of theirs Herodotus (w) makes mention; and Valerius Maximus speaks (x) of a temple of Sicca Venus, which is near in sound to this, where the like impurities were committed:

and the men of Cuth made Nergal; which, according to the Jews, was in the likeness of a cock; but others, because the first part of the word signifies a lamp, suppose fire is meant, worshipped by the Persians, from whom it is thought these men came; but rather the word signifies, as Hillerus (y) observes, the fountain of light, and denotes the sun, worshipped by the Babylonians, Cuth being a province of theirs; from hence one of the princes of Babylon had part of his name, Jer 39:3.

and the men of Hamath made Ashima; which, the Jews say, was in the form of a goat, without any wool on it, or an ape (z); but according to Hillerus (a), with the Arabs, Ashima is the name of a lion, a symbol of the sun, under which form it might be worshipped; unless Ashima is the same with Shamaim, the heavens, worshipped by the Heathens; we read of the Ashemath of Samaria, by which they swore, Amo 8:14, though that was before these men came thither.

(u) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 63. 2. (w) Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 199. (x) L. 2. c. 6. sect. 15. (y) Onomastic. Sacr. p. 601. (z) David de Pomis Lexic. fol. 17. 2. (a) Onomast. Sacr. p. 609.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The “Samaritans” here are the Israelites. The temples built by them at the high places 1Ki 12:31; 1Ki 13:32 had remained standing at the time of their departure. They were now occupied by the new-comers, who set up their own worship in the old sanctuaries.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Dwelt. This impure service did not deserve a mitigation of the late chastisement. But God often punishes in this world (Haydock) to manifest his glory, (John ix. 3.) and spares to display his power (Calmet) and goodness. (Haydock) --- He had sufficiently convinced these nations of his dominion over all.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Made gods of their own or, worshipped, (as that verb is sometimes used; of which see Exo 32:35) i.e. those whom they worshipped in the places from whence they came, whose names here follow.

The Samaritans, i.e. the former people, or inhabitants, not of the city, but of the kingdom of Samaria.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

29. Every nation made gods of their own — While trying to observe the manner of the god of their new country they did not reject or neglect their old divinities. This was no inconsistency for a heathen, for none of these idolaters supposed that the gods of his own land were the only true divinities.

Houses of the high places — Which the exiled Israelites had built, and which had been left standing in the various cities of Samaria. The Samaritans in this verse are not the new colonists, but the former Israelitish population, called Samaritans from the name of their capital city.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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. The several bands of settlers found in the cities assigned to them "houses of the high places," or high-place temples (ver. 9), which had been left standing when the inhabitants were carried off. These "houses" they converted to their own use, setting up in them their several idolatries.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Succoth Benoth ... Nergal ... Ashima ... Nibhaz ... Tartak ... Adrammelek ... Anammelek

These are the names of gods, both male and female. (See: How to Translate Names)

Kuthah ... Hamath

These are the names of places. (See: How to Translate Names)

Avvites ... Sepharvites

These are the names of people groups. (See: How to Translate Names)

burned their children in the fire

"sacrificed their own children" or "burned their children in fire as an offering"

translationWords

high place

people group

Babylon

Hamath

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

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.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.