TRV
Translation
King James Version
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
Complete Jewish Bible
In response, the king of Ashur gave this order: "Take back one of the cohanim you brought from there. Have him go and live there, and have him teach them the rules for worshipping the God of the land."
Berean Standard Bible
Then the king of Assyria commanded: “Send back one of the priests you carried off from Samaria, and have him go back to live there and teach the requirements of the God of the land.”
American Standard Version
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land.
World English Bible Messianic
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land.”
Geneva Bible (1599)
Then the King of Asshur commanded, saying, Carie thither one of the Priestes whome ye brought thence, and let him goe and dwell there, and teache them the maner of the God of the countrey.
Young's Literal Translation
And the king of Asshur commandeth, saying, `Cause to go thither one of the priests whom ye removed thence, and they go and dwell there, and he doth teach them the custom of the God of the land.'
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Commentary on 2 Kings 17 verses 24–41
24 ¶ And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
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.
30 And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.
34 Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35 With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the LORD, 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.
37 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.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
39 But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
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 their owners, but sad that the holy land should become a heathen land again. See what work sin makes. 2. That at their first coming God sent lions among them. They were probably insufficient to people the country, which occasioned the beasts of the field to multiply against them (Exo 23:29); yet, besides the natural cause, there was a manifest hand of God in it, who is Lord of hosts, of all the creatures, and can serve his own purposes by which he pleases, small or great, lice or lions. God ordered them this rough welcome to check their pride and insolence, and to let them know that though they had conquered Israel the God of Israel had power enough to deal with them - that he could have prevented their settling here, by ordering lions into the service of Israel, and that he permitted it, not for their righteousness, but the wickedness of his own people - and that they were now under his visitation. They had lived without God in their own land, and were not plagued with lions; but, if they do so in this land, it is at their peril. 3. That they sent a remonstrance of this grievance to the king their master, setting forth, it is likely, the loss their infant colony had sustained by the lions and the continual fear they were in of them, and stating that they looked upon it to be a judgment upon them for not worshipping the God of the land, which they could not, because they knew not how, Kg2 17:26. The God of Israel was the God of the whole world, but they ignorantly call him the God of the land, apprehending themselves therefore within his reach, and concerned to be upon good terms with him. Herein they shamed the Israelites, who were not so ready to hear the voice of God's judgments as they were, and who had not served the God of that land, though he was the God of their fathers and their great benefactor, and though they were well instructed in the manner of his worship. Assyrians begged to be taught that which Israelites hated to be taught. 4. That the king of Assyria took care to have them taught the manner of the God of the land (Kg2 17:27, Kg2 17:28), not out of any affection to that God, but to save his subjects from the lions. On this errand he sent back one of the priests whom he had carried away captive. A prophet would have done them more good, for this was but one of the priests of the calves, and therefore chose to dwell at Bethel for old acquaintance' sake, and, though he might teach them to do better than they did, he was not likely to teach them to do well, unless he had taught his own people better. However, he came and dwelt among them, to teach them how they should fear the Lord. Whether he taught them out of the book of the law, or only by word of mouth, is uncertain. 5. That, being thus taught, they made a mongrel religion of it, worshipped the God of Israel for fear and their own idols for love (Kg2 17:33): They feared the Lord, but they served their own gods. They all agreed to worship the God of the land according to the manner, to serve the Jewish festivals and rites of sacrificing, but every nation made gods of their own besides, not only for their private use in their own families, but to be put in the houses of their high places, Kg2 17:9. The idols of each country are here named, Kg2 17:30, Kg2 17:31. The learned are at a loss for the signification of several of these names, and cannot agree by what representations these gods were worshipped. If we may credit the traditions of the Jewish doctors, they tell us that Succoth-Benoth was worshipped in a hen and chickens, Nergal in a cock, Ashima in a smooth goat, Nibhaz in a dog, Tartak in an ass, Adrammelech in a peacock, Anammelech in a pheasant. Our own tell us, more probably, that Succoth-Benoth (signifying the tents of the daughters) was Venus. Nergal, being worshipped by the Cuthites, or Persians, was the fire, Adrammelech and Anammelech were only distinctions of Moloch. See how vain idolaters were in their imaginations, and wonder at their sottishness. Our very ignorance concerning these idols teaches us the accomplishment of that word which God has spoken, that these false gods should all perish (Jer 10:11); they are all buried in oblivion, while the name of the true God shall continue for ever. 6. This medley superstition is here said to continue unto this day (Kg2 17:41), till the time when this book was written and long after, above 300 years in all, till the time of Alexander the Great, when Manasse, brother to Jaddus the high priest of the Jews, having married the daughter of Sanballat, governor of the Samaritans, went over to them, got leave of Alexander to build a temple in Mount Gerizim, drew over many of the Jews to him, and prevailed with the Samaritans to cast away all their idols and to worship the God of Israel only; yet their worship was mixed with so much superstition that our Saviour told them they knew not what they worshipped, Joh 4:22.
II. Concerning the Israelites that were carried into the land of Assyria. This historian has occasion to speak of them (Kg2 17:22), showing that their successors in the land did as they had done (after the manner of the nations whom they carried away), they worshipped both the God of Israel and those other gods; but what did the captives do in the land of their affliction? Were they reformed, and brought to repentance, by their troubles? No, they did after the former manner, Kg2 17:34. When the two tribes were afterwards carried into Babylon, they were cured by it of their idolatry, and therefore, after seventy years, they were brought back with joy; but the ten tribes were hardened in the furnace, and therefore were justly lost in it and left to perish. This obstinacy of theirs is here aggravated by the consideration, 1. Of the honour God had put upon them, as the seed of Jacob, whom he named Israel, and from him they were so named, but were a reproach to that worthy name by which they were called. 2. Of the covenant he made with them, and the charge he gave them upon that covenant, which is here very fully recited, that they should fear and serve the Lord Jehovah only, who had brought them up out of Egypt (Kg2 17:36), that, having received his statutes and ordinances in writing, they should observe to do them for evermore (Kg2 17:37), and never forget that covenant which God had made with them, the promises and conditions of that covenant, especially that great article of it which is here thrice repeated, because it had been so often inculcated and so much insisted on, that they should not fear other gods. He had told them that, if they kept close to him, he would deliver them out of the hand of all their enemies (Kg2 17:39); yet when they were in the hand of their enemies, and stood in need of deliverance, they were so stupid, and had so little sense of their own interest, that they did after the former manner (Kg2 17:40), they served both the true God and false gods, as if they knew no difference. Ephraim is joined to idols, let him alone. So they did, and so did the nations that succeeded them. Well might the apostle ask, What then, Are we better than they? No, in no wise, for both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin, Rom 3:9.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 24–41. Public domain.
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Origen of AlexandriaAD 253
HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 4.1.1-2
“Faithless Israel has shown itself less guilty than false Judah.” The letter of the text just read has something unclear that we need to understand first. Then, after this, if God wills, we shall know his mystical plan. He wants us then to know in these words, just as it is written in Kings, that the people were divided in those times into the kingdom of ten tribes under Jeroboam and the kingdom of two tribes under Roboam. And those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under Roboam Judah. And the division of the people persisted, according to the history, until today. For we know of nothing in the history that united Israel and Judah “into the same nation.” Then Israel first, under Jeroboam and under his successors, sinned excessively, and Israel sinned so much beyond Judah that they were sentenced by providence to become captives “to the Assyrians until the sign,” as the Scripture says. After this, the people of Judah also sinned, and as captives they were sentenced to Babylon, not until a sign, as Israel, but for “seventy years,” as Jeremiah prophesied and Daniel also mentioned.
Origen of AlexandriaAD 253
FRAGMENTS FROM THE CATENA ON JEREMIAH 28.2
[The Lord] takes hold of two principal lions, the Assyrians and the Babylonians. According to the history in the fourth book of Kings, there are two. For Assyria removed the sons of Israel to Assyria “until today,” but Babylon removed the sons of Judah “to Babylon.” Except he did not say here first and second, but first and last. For the first lion is the antagonistic devil; he is a murderer. The very last lion at the completion of the age is “the man of sin, the son of perdition, who exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship.”
CyprianAD 258
Epistle LXXV.6
Finally, how inseparable is the sacrament of unity and how hopeless are they and what greatest perdition they seek for themselves from the indignation of God—they who make a schism and, after having abandoned their bishop, appoint for themselves another false bishop from without—the divine Scripture declares in the book of Kings, when from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin ten tribes were separated and, abandoning their king, appointed themselves another from without. “And the Lord was offended,” it says, “at all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them and delivered them up to plunder till he cast them away from his face because Israel was torn from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam son of Nabath their king.” It said that the Lord was offended and gave them over to perdition because they had been dispersed from unity and had appointed another king for themselves.And so great indignation of the Lord remained against those who had made the schism that even when the man of God had been sent to Jeroboam to upbraid him for his sins and to foretell future vengeance, he was forbidden also to eat bread and to drink water among them. Since he had not heeded this and had dined contrary to the precept of God, he was immediately stricken by the majesty of divine censure; on his return, he was killed on the journey by the attack and bite of a lion. And does anyone of you dare to say that the life-giving water of baptism and heavenly grace can be common with schismatics with whom neither earthly food nor worldly drink ought to be common?
Moreover, the Lord satisfies us in his gospel and reveals a greater light of understanding that the same people who then had separated themselves from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin and, after having abandoned Jerusalem, had withdrawn to Samaria should be reputed among the profane and the Gentiles. For when he first sent his disciples upon the ministry of salvation, he commanded and said, “Do not go in the direction of the Gentiles or enter the town of the Samaritans.” Sending first to the Jews, he orders the Gentiles to be passed over as yet; but, adding that the city of the Samaritans, where there were schismatics, ought to be omitted, he shows that the schismatics were in the same category as the Gentiles.
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 17:27 records the Assyrian king's pragmatic directive to address a perceived divine threat against the foreign populations resettled in the former Northern Kingdom of Israel. Following the deportation of the Israelites, these new inhabitants experienced lion attacks, which they superstitiously attributed to their ignorance of the local deity's customs. In a strategic move to stabilize the region and appease what he understood as a territorial god, the Assyrian monarch commanded the return of an exiled Israelite priest to teach the settlers "the manner of the God of the land," Yahweh. This pivotal action initiated the religious syncretism that would come to define the Samaritans, blending a superficial reverence for Yahweh with their pre-existing pagan practices.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The narrative in 2 Kings 17:27 employs several potent literary devices. Irony is strikingly prominent, as an idolatrous pagan king, who served as the very instrument of God's judgment against Israel, now paradoxically dictates the teaching of Yahweh's "manner." This highlights the superficial and pragmatic nature of the Assyrian king's concern for Yahweh, contrasting sharply with the true reverence and exclusive worship demanded by the God of Israel. There is also a clear element of foreshadowing, as this command directly sets the stage for the deep-seated religious syncretism that would characterize the Samaritans for centuries, a blending of Yahweh worship with pagan practices vividly described in subsequent verses like 2 Kings 17:33. Finally, the passage presents a stark contrast between the ancient Near Eastern understanding of territorial deities (as held by the Assyrians and settlers) and the biblical revelation of Yahweh as the one, universal, sovereign God over all creation, not confined to a specific land or subject to appeasement through mere ritual.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
The command in 2 Kings 17:27, while seemingly a pragmatic solution to a local problem, is fraught with profound theological implications, primarily highlighting the dangers of religious syncretism and a superficial understanding of God. The Assyrian king's decree, born of a polytheistic worldview, fundamentally misunderstood Yahweh as merely a territorial deity whose "manner" needed to be appeased, rather than the one true God who demands exclusive worship and a heart of genuine devotion. This led directly to the spiritual compromise of the Samaritans, who "feared the LORD, and served their own gods" (2 Kings 17:33), illustrating that a partial or coerced obedience, devoid of true faith, is an abomination to God. This narrative serves as a timeless warning against attempts to blend biblical truth with foreign ideologies or practices, emphasizing that God tolerates no rivals and demands wholehearted allegiance.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
The account of the Assyrian king's command to send an Israelite priest back to Samaria serves as a potent spiritual mirror for believers today. It underscores the critical importance of pure worship and an uncompromised understanding of God's nature. The settlers' "fear" of the Lord was not genuine reverence or faith, but a superstitious attempt to appease a perceived territorial deity to avoid harm. This challenges us to examine the motivation behind our own faith: do we seek God out of true love and devotion, or merely as a means to avoid negative consequences or gain personal benefit? The resulting syncretism in Samaria, where Yahweh was worshipped alongside pagan gods, is a stark warning against diluting biblical truth with cultural trends, personal preferences, or secular ideologies. In a world that constantly pressures believers to compromise, this passage calls us to an exclusive and wholehearted devotion to the one true God, recognizing His sovereignty over all aspects of life, not just those we deem "religious." Our worship must be rooted in truth and Spirit, reflecting a deep understanding of who God is, rather than a superficial adherence to rituals or a pragmatic attempt to control circumstances.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did the Assyrian king command an Israelite priest be sent back, rather than an Assyrian priest?
Answer: The Assyrian king's decision was a pragmatic one, rooted in the ancient Near Eastern belief in territorial deities. The new settlers attributed the lion attacks to their ignorance of "the manner of the God of the land" (2 Kings 17:26). From the Assyrian perspective, each land had its own patron god whose favor was necessary for stability and prosperity. To ignore the problem would risk continued unrest and potential rebellion, which was anathema to Assyrian imperial control. Sending an Assyrian priest would have been ineffective, as he would not know the specific "manner" or customs of Yahweh, the deity associated with the land of Israel. Therefore, the most logical and expedient solution was to return an Israelite priest, who possessed the indigenous knowledge necessary to appease the local deity and restore order. This was not a theological endorsement of Yahweh but a practical measure to ensure the smooth governance of a newly conquered territory.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The narrative of 2 Kings 17:27, with its depiction of a superficial and syncretistic attempt to "teach the manner of the God of the land," finds its ultimate fulfillment and profound contrast in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While the returned Israelite priest offered a partial and compromised understanding of Yahweh, Jesus is the definitive and perfect revelation of God Himself. He did not merely teach the "manner" of God but embodied it, declaring, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Unlike the territorial deity concept prevalent in the ancient world, Jesus' ministry demonstrated God's universal sovereignty and boundless love, commissioning His disciples to "make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19), not just one specific land. Furthermore, the superficial "fear" of the Lord by the Samaritans, driven by a desire to avoid harm, is transformed by Christ into true worship "in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24), rooted in a personal relationship and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, not mere external rituals. Jesus, as the true and final High Priest (Hebrews 4:14-16), mediates a New Covenant where the knowledge of God is written on hearts, not just taught as external laws (Hebrews 8:10-12). Thus, what began as a pragmatic, yet flawed, attempt to appease a perceived local deity points forward to the complete and perfect revelation of God's character and salvation found exclusively in Christ, who truly teaches us the way to the Father.