2 Raja-raja 17:7-8

A Summary of Israel’s Sinful History

17:7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of ¹  Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped ²  other gods; 17:8 they observed the practices ³  of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel. ⁴ 

2 Raja-raja 17:16-20

17:16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, ⁵  and worshiped ⁶  Baal. 17:17 They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, ⁷  and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry. ⁸ 

17:18 So the Lord was furious ⁹  with Israel and rejected them; ¹⁰  only the tribe of Judah was left. 17:19 Judah also failed to keep the commandments of the Lord their God; they followed Israel’s example. ¹¹  17:20 So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated ¹²  them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.

[17:7]  ¹ tn Heb “and from under the hand of.” The words “freed them” are added in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[17:7]  ² tn Heb “feared.”

[17:8]  ³ tn Heb “walked in the customs.”

[17:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”

[17:16]  ⁵ tn The phrase כָל צְבָא הַשָּׁמַיִם (khol tsÿva’ hashamayim), traditionally translated “all the host of heaven,” refers to the heavenly lights, including stars and planets. In 1 Kgs 22:19 these heavenly bodies are pictured as members of the Lord’s royal court or assembly, but many other texts view them as the illegitimate objects of pagan and Israelite worship.

[17:16]  ⁶ tn Or “served.”

[17:17]  ⁷ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

[17:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”

[17:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “very angry.”

[17:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “turned them away from his face.”

[17:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “they walked in the practices of Israel which they did.”

[17:20]  ¹² tn Or “afflicted.”