TRV
Translation
King James Version
For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
Complete Jewish Bible
moreover, they served idols, something ADONAI had expressly told them not to do.
Berean Standard Bible
They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.”
American Standard Version
and they served idols, whereof Jehovah had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
World English Bible Messianic
and they served idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
Geneva Bible (1599)
And serued idoles: whereof the Lord had sayd vnto them, Ye shall do no such thing,
Young's Literal Translation
and serve the idols, of which Jehovah said to them, `Ye do not do this thing;'
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In the KJVVerse 9,996 of 31,102
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Commentary on 2 Kings 17 verses 7–23
7 ¶ For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
10 And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly related, it is in these verses largely commented upon by our historian, and the reasons of it assigned, not taken from the second causes - the weakness of Israel, their impolitic management, and the strength and growing greatness of the Assyrian monarch (these things are overlooked) - but only from the First Cause. Observe, 1. It was the Lord that removed Israel out of his sight; whoever were the instruments, he was the author of this calamity. It was destruction from the Almighty; the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger, Isa 10:5. It was the Lord that rejected the seed of Israel, else their enemies could not have seized upon them, Kg2 17:20. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord? Isa 43:24. We lose the benefit of national judgments if we do not eye the hand of God in them, and the fulfilling of the scripture, for that also is taken notice of here (Kg2 17:23): The Lord removed Israel out of his favour, and out of their own land, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. Rather shall heaven and earth pass than one tittle of God's word fall to the ground. When God's word and his works are compared, it will be found not only that they agree, but that they illustrate each other. But why would God ruin a people that were raised and incorporated, as Israel was, by miracles and oracles? Why would he undo that which he himself had done at so vast an expense? Was it purely an act of sovereignty? No, it was an act of necessary justice. For, 2. They provoked him to do this by their wickedness. Was it God's doing? Nay, it was their own; by their way and their doings they procured all this to themselves, and it was their own wickedness that did correct them. This the sacred historian shows here at large, that it might appear that God did them no wrong and that others might hear and fear. Come and see what it was that did all this mischief, that broke their power and laid their honour in the dust; it was sin; that, and nothing else, separated between them and God. This is here very movingly laid open as the cause of all the desolations of Israel. He here shows,
I. What God had done for Israel, to engage them to serve him. 1. He gave them their liberty (Kg2 17:7): He brought them from under the hand of Pharaoh who oppressed them, asserted their freedom (Israel is my son), and effected their freedom with a high hand. Thus they were bound in duty and gratitude to be his servants, for he had loosed their bonds; nor would he that rescued them out of the hand of the king of Egypt have contradicted himself so far as to deliver them into the hand of the king of Assyria, as he did, if they had not, by their iniquity, betrayed their liberty and sold themselves. 2. He gave them their law, and was himself their king. They were immediately under a divine regimen. They could not plead ignorance of good and evil, sin and duty, for God had particularly charged them against those very things which here he charges them with (Kg2 17:15), That they should not do like the heathen. Nor could they be in any doubt concerning their obligation to observe the laws which they are here charged with rejecting, for they were the commandments and statutes of the Lord their God (Kg2 17:13), so that no room was left to dispute whether they should keep them or no. He had not dealt so with other nations, Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20. 3. He gave them their land, for he cast out the heathen from before them (Kg2 17:8), to make room for them; and the casting out of them for their idolatries was as fair a warning as could be given to Israel not to do like them.
II. What they had done against God, notwithstanding these engagements which he had laid upon them. 1. In general. They sinned against the Lord their God (Kg2 17:7), they did those things that were not right (Kg2 17:9), but secretly. So wedded were they to their evil practices that when they could not do them publicly, could not for shame or could not for fear, they would do them secretly - an evidence of their atheism, that they thought what was done in secret was from under the eye of God himself and would not be required. Again, they wrought wicked things in such a direct contradiction to the divine law that they seemed as if they were done on purpose to provoke the Lord to anger (Kg2 17:11), in contempt of his authority and defiance of his justice. They rejected God's statutes and his covenant (Kg2 17:15), would not be bound up either by his command or the consent they themselves had given to the covenant, but threw off the obligations of both, and therefore God justly rejected them, Kg2 17:20. See Hos 4:6. They left all the commandments of the Lord their God (Kg2 17:16), left the way, left the work, which those commandments prescribed them and directed them in. Nay, lastly, they sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, that is, they wholly addicted themselves to sin, as slaves to the service of those to whom they are sold, and, by their obstinately persisting in sin, so hardened their own hearts that at length it had become morally impossible for them to recover themselves, as one that has sold himself has put his liberty past recall. 2. In particular. Though they were guilty (no doubt) of many immoralities, and violated all the commands of the second table, yet nothing is here specified, but their idolatry. This was the sin that did most easily beset them; this was, of all sins, most provoking to God: it was the spiritual adultery that broke the marriage-covenant, and was the inlet of all other wickedness. Hence it is again and again mentioned here as the sin that ruined them. (1.) They feared other gods (Kg2 17:7), that is, worshipped them and paid their homage to them, as if they feared their displeasure. (2.) They walked in the statutes of the heathen, which were contrary to God's statutes (Kg2 17:8), did as did the heathen (Kg2 17:11), went after the heathen that were round about them (Kg2 17:15), so prostituting the honour of their peculiarity, and defeating God's design concerning them, which was that they should be distinguished from the heathen. Must those that were taught of God go to school to the heathen - those that were appropriated to God take their measures from the nations that were abandoned by him? (3.) They walked in the statutes of the idolatrous kings of Israel (Kg2 17:8), in all the sins of Jeroboam, Kg2 17:22. When their kings assumed a power to alter and add to the divine institutions they submitted to them, and thought the command of their kings would bear them out in disobedience to the command of their God. (4.) They built themselves high places in all their cities, Kg2 17:9. If in any place there was but the tower of the watchmen (a country tower that had no walls, but only a tower to shelter the watch in time of danger), or but a lodge for shepherds, it must be honoured with a high place, and that with an altar. If there was a fenced city, it must be further fortified with a high place. Having forsaken God's only place, they knew no end of high places, in which every man followed his own fancy and directed his devotion to what god he pleased. Sacred things were hereby profaned and laid common, when their altars were as heaps in the furrows of the field, Hos 12:11. (5.) They set them up images and groves - Asherim (even wooden images, so some think the term, which we translate groves, should be rendered) or Ashtaroth (so others) - directed contrary to the second commandment, Kg2 17:10. They served idols (Kg2 17:12), the works of their own hands and creatures of their own fancy, though God had warned them particularly not to do this thing. (6.) They burnt incense in all the high places, to the honour of strange gods, for it was to the dishonour of the true God, Kg2 17:11. (7.) They followed vanity. Idols are called so, because they could do neither good nor evil, but were the most insignificant things that could be; those that worshipped them were like unto them, and so they became vain and good for nothing (Kg2 17:16), vain in their devotions, which were brutish and ridiculous, and so became vain in their whole conversation. (8.) Besides the molten images, even the two calves, they worshipped all the host of heaven - the sun, moon, and stars: for it is not meant of the heavenly host of angels; they could not rise so far above sensible things as to think of them. And, withal, they served Baal, the deified heroes of the Gentiles, Kg2 17:16. (9.) They caused their children to pass through the fire, in token of their dedicating them to their idols. (10.) They used divinations and enchantments, that they might receive directions from the gods to whom they paid their devotions.
III. What means God used with them, to bring them off from their idolatries, and to how little purpose. He testified against them, showed them their sins and warned them of the fatal consequences of them by all the prophets and all the seers (for so the prophets had been formerly called), and pressed them to turn from their evil ways, Kg2 17:13. We have read of prophets, more or less, in every reign. Though they had forsaken God's family of priests, he did not leave them without a succession of prophets, who made it their business to teach them the good knowledge of the Lord, but all in vain (Kg2 17:14); they would not hear, but hardened their necks, persisted in their idolatries, and were like their fathers, that would not bow their necks to God's yoke, because they did not believe in him, did not receive his truths, nor would venture upon his promises: it seems to refer to their fathers in the wilderness; the same sin that kept them out of Canaan turned these out, and that was unbelief.
IV. How God punished them for their sins. He was very angry with them (Kg2 17:18); for, in the matter of his worship, he is a jealous God, and resents nothing more deeply than giving that honour to any creature which is due to himself only. He afflicted them (Kg2 17:20) and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, in the days of the judges and of Saul, and afterwards in the days of most of their kings, to see if they would be awakened by the judgments of God to consider and amend their ways; but, when all these corrections did not prevail to drive out the folly, God first rent Israel from the house of David, under which they might have been happy. As Judah was hereby weakened, so Israel was hereby corrupted; for they made a man king who drove them from following the Lord and caused them to sin a great sin, Kg2 17:21. This was a national judgment, and the punishment of their former idolatries; and, at length, he removed them quite out of his sight (Kg2 17:18, Kg2 17:23), without giving them any hopes of a return out of their captivity.
Lastly, Here is a complaint against Judah in the midst of all (Kg2 17:19): Also Judah kept not the commandments of God; though they were not as yet quite so bad as Israel, yet they walked in the statutes of Israel; and this aggravated the sin of Israel, that they communicated the infection of it to Judah; see Eze 23:11. Those that bring sin into a country or family bring a plague into it and will have to answer for all the mischief that follows.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 7–23. Public domain.
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Ishodad of MervAD 850
BOOKS OF SESSIONS 2 KINGS 16:15
With the words “from watchtower to fortified city” [the Scripture] denounces the large number of their idols, that is, [there were] idols from border to border. The text refers to the “fortified city” as Jerusalem, but other [interpreters] say Antioch.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Second Kings 17:12 succinctly articulates a core reason for the Northern Kingdom of Israel's downfall and subsequent exile to Assyria: their pervasive and deliberate practice of idolatry. This verse highlights that their worship of false gods was not an act of ignorance but a conscious and direct violation of the explicit commands given to them by the LORD, the covenant God of Israel, thereby sealing their fate under divine judgment and underscoring the severe consequences of covenant unfaithfulness.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The verse employs several literary devices to convey its powerful and condemnatory message. Contrast is profoundly evident in the stark juxtaposition of "idols" (worthless things) with "the LORD" (YHWH, the true, living, and covenant-keeping God), highlighting the immense spiritual chasm Israel created by choosing the impotent over the omnipotent. Emphasis is achieved through the direct and unequivocal statement "Ye shall not do this thing," which underscores the clarity, non-negotiable nature, and absolute importance of God's command. This also functions as a form of Repetition within the broader narrative of 2 Kings and the Deuteronomistic History, as God's warnings against idolatry are a recurring motif, demonstrating His long-suffering patience before the inevitable judgment. Finally, the verse serves as a form of Retrospective Justification, providing the divine rationale for the impending judgment and exile by explicitly pointing to Israel's persistent and deliberate disobedience to a known, fundamental command.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
The theological weight of 2 Kings 17:12 is immense, revealing core truths about God's character, the nature of sin, and the consequences of covenant unfaithfulness. God's absolute prohibition against idolatry stems from His unique sovereignty, holiness, and His identity as a "jealous God" who will not share His glory with another. Idolatry is not merely a ritualistic error but a profound betrayal of the covenant relationship, a spiritual adultery that rejects the God who redeemed Israel and faithfully provided for them. It breaks the deepest bond of loyalty and affection. The verse underscores that God's judgment is righteous and just, a direct and inevitable consequence of persistent, willful rebellion against His clearly revealed will. This divine response highlights His unwavering faithfulness to His covenant, which included both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, demonstrating that His warnings are not idle threats but expressions of His unchanging commitment to His own character and His people's ultimate good.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
While contemporary believers may not bow to physical statues made of wood or stone, the principle of idolatry remains profoundly relevant and insidious. Anything that takes the place of God in our hearts, demanding our ultimate loyalty, affection, trust, or pursuit, becomes an idol. This can manifest as an insatiable pursuit of wealth, career success, personal comfort, relationships, reputation, or even self-righteousness. 2 Kings 17:12 serves as a stark reminder that God demands undivided devotion and that spiritual compromise carries severe consequences, both individually and corporately. It challenges us to examine our lives honestly, identifying anything that subtly or overtly competes with our supreme allegiance to the LORD. True worship involves not just avoiding overt sin but actively aligning our desires, priorities, and actions with God's revealed will, ensuring that He alone holds the supreme and rightful place in our lives. Our obedience is a tangible reflection of our love and trust in Him, and this verse calls us to a radical, exclusive commitment to Him who is truly worthy of all worship.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why was idolatry such a serious offense to God?
Answer: Idolatry was considered an extremely serious offense because it directly violated the unique nature and sovereignty of God. The LORD is the one true, living God, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. To worship anything or anyone else was to deny His supreme authority, diminish His glory, and betray the exclusive covenant relationship He had established with Israel. It was spiritual adultery, a rejection of the God who had delivered them from bondage and provided for their every need. Furthermore, idolatry inevitably led to moral corruption, as the practices associated with false gods often involved immorality, violence, and injustice, directly contradicting the righteous and holy character of the LORD and His ethical demands (e.g., Deuteronomy 6:4, Isaiah 42:8).
How did Israel's idolatry lead to their exile?
Answer: Israel's idolatry was not an isolated sin but a persistent, systemic pattern of covenant unfaithfulness that ultimately led to their exile. God had warned them repeatedly through His prophets (e.g., Jeremiah 7:25-26), explaining the consequences of disobedience outlined in the Mosaic Law (e.g., Deuteronomy 28:36). Their turning to false gods was a rejection of divine guidance and protection, leaving them vulnerable to their enemies. The exile to Assyria was not an arbitrary punishment but a disciplinary act of divine justice, fulfilling the curses of the covenant. It was God's way of purging His people of their idolatry and demonstrating His holiness and faithfulness to His word, even in judgment.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The Old Testament narrative of Israel's idolatry and subsequent judgment, powerfully exemplified in 2 Kings 17:12, profoundly foreshadows the ultimate solution to humanity's inherent tendency toward idolatry found in Jesus Christ. Israel's failure to maintain undivided devotion to the LORD underscores the human heart's universal propensity to create and serve false gods, whether they be physical idols or the more subtle idols of self, power, possessions, or even human approval. Christ, as the perfect Lamb of God, entered a world steeped in spiritual darkness and idolatry, offering Himself as the once-for-all sacrifice to atone for the sin of idolatry and all unrighteousness (e.g., Hebrews 9:14). Through His death and resurrection, He breaks the power of sin and sets us free from the bondage of serving anything other than the one true God. The New Covenant, inaugurated by His blood, writes God's law on our hearts, enabling true worship "in spirit and truth" (e.g., John 4:23-24). In Christ, we are called to put to death the "earthly things" that become idols, such as "sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry" (e.g., Colossians 3:5). He is the ultimate object of our worship, the one in whom all things hold together, and through whom we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives of undivided devotion, fulfilling the very command Israel failed to keep (e.g., 1 John 5:21).