2 Kings 17

to all that king Aliaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against the king came from Damascus. He took care to have it done exactly according to the pattern; directly contrary to the command of God, who had appointed what kind of altar ho would have, (Exod. xxvii. 1, 2, &c.) and that no other should bo made of any matter or figure whatsoever. But there aro always some men to be foundj that will comply with the most wicked commands. phrase, it shall be to me to inquire, or seek, or pray: a private altar for his proper use: whereby he pretended to have still some regard to it, though he had degraded it. Ver. 1G. So did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.] Whatsoever good inclinations he had, they were all overruled by the commands of the king, with which he entirely complied. Ver..1. JLNihe twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, began Hoshea the son ofElah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.] This doth not agree with xv. 30. where it is said he began to reign in the twentieth year of Jotham, which was the fourth of Ahaz. To this Ralbag thinks it sufficient to CHA?. XVII.] THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. say, that “till the twelfth year of Ahaz he was but a servant of the king of Assyria; nor was reputed a king, but only a governor under him. And so Abarbinel. And it is no improbable conjecture of Dr. Lightfoot’s, that Ahaz gave him a great deal of trouble, after the death of Pekah, in revenue of the slaughters he had made in Judah: so that he kept Hoshea out of the throne a great while, and upon this account is called the king of Israel, (2 Chron. xxviii. 19.) as well as because he w r alked in the ways of those kings. Our learned chronologer Mr. Winston thinks there was an interregnum, for the space of full twelve years, from the death of Jeroboam the second. Which he takes to be most probable, and almost certain, from those words of Hosea, who prophesied in that king’s time: " Now (or eTe long) they shall say, We have no king, because. we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us?” Hos. x. 3. (See his Short View of the Chronology of the Old Testament, p. 48.) And he reigned in Samaria over Israel nine years.’] viz. After his peaceable possession of the throne: for, from the time that he pretended to it, upon the slaughter of Pekah, Ire reigned seventeen or eighteen years; viz. twelve in the time of Ahaz, wbo reigned sixteen years, and six in the time of Hezekiah, (xviii. 10.) Asherim, which we translate groves, should be rendered idols of that name, as Selden hath observed, Syntag. de Diis Syris, ii. cap. 2. where he plainly demonstrates this word doth not signify the grove, but the numen or deity placed in the grove. For how should groves be set tender every great tree? as it is here said the Asherim were. And thus Kimehi saith in the root Ashur, that every wooden thing that was worshipped w T as called Asherah. And Procopius Gazjeus observes, that this word, which the LXX. here translate SXari, groves, others every where translate’AarapwS, which word, saith he, SijXoT rrjv’Aorapri/v,‘A^po- §ln)v, denotes Astarte, that is, Venus.. syria unto this day.] As they sold themselves to do evil, (ver. 17.) so God delivered them up to be slaves to those whose gods they had worshipped, (ver. 1G, 17.)

2 Kings 17:2

And he did (hat which was evil in the sight qf the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him. For he did not hinder his people from going to w r orship at Jerusalem; but, as the Hebrew doctors say, took away the guard that Jeroboam set in the passage, to keep men from going to the solemn feasts there. And one of the golden calves being carried away captive, his devotion, it is likely, was not great for the other remaining. And yet, notwithstanding, God exterminated Israel in his days; to shew (saith Seder Olam Rabba, cap. 22.) that it was not merely for the sake of their kings, upon whom the Israelites cast all the blame of theiT depravation, that they were carried captive. (See ver. 17 — 19, &c.)

2 Kings 17:3

Against him came tip Shalmaneser king of Assyria. Some take this to be but another name for Tiglathpileser. For which I find no ground, and. rather think Shalmaneser was his son, and successor in the kingdom of Assyria. And Hoshea became his servant, and gave him prese?its.] Made himself a tributary to him; and presented him with gifts in token of his subjection to him, and as an earnest of his future obedience.

2 Kings 17:4

And the king of Assy ria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. He designed to shake off his yoke, and be no longer his subject, as he found by two undeniable evidences. First, that he had sent to treat with the king of Egypt; and denied him the usual tribute, which he was bound to pay him every year. St. Jerome calls this king of •Egypt Sua, and Joscphus calls him Soan, and the IXX. Segor, who is the same with the famous Sabacon, an.Ethiopian mentioned by Diodorus Siculus and Herodotus. (See Sir J. Marsham, Can. Chron. sect. 16. and our famous Usher, in his Annals, vid. A. 3989.) Tlierefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.] He first besieged Samaria, and when he had taken it made him a close prisoner: the history of which follows.

2 Kings 17:5

Then the king of Assyria went tip throughout all theland. He first possessed himself of the country of Moab (as the same great primate observes), that, he might leave no enemies at his back; and destroyed their two chief cities, Ar and Kir-hares, according to the prediction of Isaiah, xvi. ver. 1. and the last: and then he invaded the kingdom of Israel, and possessed himself of it. And went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.] Josephus rightly observes two expeditions of this king against the land of Israel: first, when he made Hoshea tributary to him; and now, when he made himself master of the whole country, and besieged the capital city, (lib. ix, Antiq. cap. 13.)

2 Kings 17:6

In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assy rid took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor, by the river of Gozan. There is no reason that any should imagine these Israelites were carried into Colchis, Iberia, Armenia the less, andth$ farthest Scythia, when the Scripturasaith so expressly that they were carried into Assyria, and the cities of the Medes; and when the very places are to be found into which they are said here to be carried in those countries, viz. Chalac, and Chabor, and Gozan: for what was Chalach (as Bor chartus observes) but Ptolemy’s Chalachena, or the north of Assyria? and ChaboTis plainly enough the same with his Xafiwpag, a mountain between Media and Assyria. Between which mountain and the Caspian Sea there is the city Gauzania, that is Gozan, between the two channels of the river Cyrus. And in the cities of the Medes.] Whither Tiglath-pilcser had carried others of them out of Galilee.

2 Kings 17:7

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 served other gods.] This they had done a long time: for, from the beginning of Jeror boam’s schism to the carrying Israel captive was two hundred and sixty-three years.

2 Kings 17:8

And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom God cast out from before the children of Israel. Of the Amorites and other impious people, whom he. expelled from the land of Canaan to make room for them. And of the kings of Israel, which they hadmade.] viz. The golden calves, whose worship the kings of Israel had ordained, to keep them from going up to worship God at’ Jerusalem.

2 Kings 17:9

And the children of Israel did secretly those things which were not right against the Lord their God. Besides the public impiety authorized by their kings, they privately exercised idolatry, according to their own fancy. And they built them high places in all their city.] They w r ere not content to worship upon hills and mountains, but they raised high places in all cities to offer sacrifice.. From the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.] In all places, both those that were desert, and those that were inhabited; or both in the country and in the city. For the towers of the watchmen are thought to be those little houses. which the country people built, wherein to watch their flocks and their fruits, and preserve them from wild beasts or robbers. *: *

2 Kings 17:10

And they set them tip images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree. The Hebrew word

2 Kings 17:11

And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen, whom the Lord carried away before them; andtvrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. For, as the son of Sirach expresses it, they sought out all wickedness, till the vengeance came xipon them. (See Eeclus. xlvii. idt.) •

2 Kings 17:12

And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar. That is, liked it, and approved of it, as made perfectly agreeable to his mind. And the king approached to the altar, and offered thereon.] The morning sacrifice: which ho was so presumptuous, perhaps, as to offer himself. But not to God; for we are told expressly, 2 Chron. xxviii. 23. that he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus. A wonderful blindness! to worship those gods, and expect help from them, who could not preserve their own country from ruin. For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do these things.’] They worshipped many other gods, which were mere idols, against th"e express command of God, (Exod. xx. 23. Dent. iv. 15, 16, &c.)

2 Kings 17:13

And he burnt his burnt-offering. Some understand it, that he burnt it with spices. And his meat-offering, and poured his drink-offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace-offerings, upon the altarJ] These were all prescribed by the law of Moses: but he offered them in a wrong place, and unto other gods. Yet the Lord testified against Israel and Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seersJ) I have before noted, that Abarbinel, in his commentary on these books,- hath observed one or more prophets that were in every king’s reign, both in Israel and Judah, from the time of Saul to Zedekiah, in whose time Jerusalem was laid desolate. These admonished them of their duty, as it here follows, and endeavoured to preservo them in God’s true religion, or to recover them when they apostatized from it; particularly in the days of this very king, when Israel was carried captive, they had the prophets Hosea, Amos, Isaiah, and Micah: and in the days of the last king when Judah was carried captive, they had Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments, and my statutes, according to all the laws which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.] As he had given them his laws by Moses; so he continued a succession of prophets after him, whom he sent to call upon them to observe these laws. •

2 Kings 17:14

And he brought also the brazen altar, that was before the Lord, from the f ore-front of the house, from be* tiveen the altar and the house of the Lord, and put it on the north side of the altar.] By these words, it is plain that Urijah had little more modesty than Ahaz: for he had placed Ahaz’s altar behind the altar of the Lord, between it and the east gate of the court of the priests. But when Ahaz came, he removed Solomon’s altar out of its place, which was before the sanctuary, and set it towards the north side of the court; that he might bring up his own, and set it there, where the altar of tbe Lord had stood. (See Dr. Lightfoot of the Temple, chap. 34. latter end.) Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like the neck of their fathers^ A metaphor taken from refractory oxen, that will not bow down their necks to the yoke. Even so the Israelites refused to submit to the yoke of God’s law T s. That did not believe in the Lord their God.] This was the priginal of all the sins they committed: they did not believo God’s prophets, but hearkened to deceivers.

2 Kings 17:15

And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great jxltar. Which he had now erected in the place of God’s altar. Burn the morning burnt-offering, and the evening meat* offering, and the king’s burnt-sacrifice, and his meat-offering, with the burnt-offering of all the people of the land, and their meat-offering, and their drink-offerings, and sprinkle Upon it all the blood of the burnt-offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice.] He makes a solemn injunction, that all the public sacrifices, of what sort soever they were, whether made by himself or by the people, should be constantly offered upon his altar. Which he calls the great altar, because it was much bigger, I suppose, than the altar of God. And the brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by.] Ho would not have it thought that he intended wholly to lay aside the altar made by Solomon: but rather to do it great honour, by reserving it for his own private use; when he pleased to inquire of God by it. But there being no mention of the name of the Lord, some think the meaning is no more, but that ho would have it stand where he. had set it; till he considered what to do with it: and they fancy that he made the famous dial of Ahaz with the brass of it. So they understand the Hebrew words li lebaker — I will take care of it, and order what shall be done with it. And therefore, according to this interpretation, he laid it quite aside. But the other seems more agreeable to the Hebrew And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them.’] By his servants the prophets. And they followed vanities.] So idols are called, which, as the apostle speaks, arc nothing; having no power to do either hurt or. good.. / And became vain.] Like the idols they worshipped; senseless, sottish, and good for nothing. And went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.] See Exod. xxiii. 24. 32. and many other places. Ver. 1G. And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove*] The making a grove was a greater impiety than is commonly imagined. For in their groves they worshipped Baalim, as appears from Judg. iii. 7.; that is, heroes, to whom those groves were consecrated, being their sepulchre. And here many filthy rites were practised, in honour of Venus, Bacchus, and such-like deities. And worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal] They grew worse and worse, not contenting themselves with the worship of the two calves, &c. but worshipped the stars of heaven, (against which Moses had given them a particular caution, Deut. iv. 19.) Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, and the moon, but especially Baal, which was the sun.

2 Kings 17:17

And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases. Seol Kings vii. 28, 29. And removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brazen oxen that were under it, and put it ttpon a pavement of stones.] This was done out of contempt, that the sea might not appear so great and stately, nor be so useful to the priests, as it was before. For he-intended quite to abolish, not only to deface, the service of God at the temple. So we read in 2 Chron. xxviii. 24. that he shut np the doors of the house of God, that none should worship’ there. And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments.] Which were the most abominable sins of the heathen. (See Ley. xviii. 21. xix. 26. xx. 2, 3, &c. Deut. xviii. 10. and upon ver. 3. of the foregoing chapter.). And sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.] They were so industrious to do wickedly, and so incessant in it, as if they had been slaves that were sold to that drudgery.

2 Kings 17:18

And the covert for the sabbath that they had built in the house. There is a vast variety of opinions concerning this musach (which wo translate covert), and why it is called the covert for the sabbath. The most probable is, that it was a covered place, where the king sat in the porch of the temple, or at the entrance of it, upon the sabbath, or other great solemnities, which were called by that name. ThusProcopius Gazaeus: This Ahaz took away, intending not to trouble himself to come to the temple; but to sacrifice any where: in every corner of Jerusalem, and in the several cities of Judah, which he would have be thought as holy as Jerusalem, (2 Chron. xxviii. 24, 25.) And it is a probable conjecture of a very learned man of our own, that Ahaz did this to express his hatred and contempt of the sabbath: for the worship of idols and violation of the sabbath are frequently joined together in Scripture, especially in Ezek. xx. 1G. xxii. 8, 9. xxiv. 37, 38. and in a remarkable place in the Maccabees, i. 44. (See Spencer, de Leg. Hebraeor. lib. i. cap. 1. 12.) And the king’s entry without, turned he from the house of the Lord.] The passage through which the king came from his own house to the temple/ he turned “another way. For the king of Assyria.] That he might ingratiate himself with him, by contemning his own country religion, and approaching nearer to his. But Procopius takes it the quite contrary way; that he did this for fear of the king of Assyria. Which moved him to make a shorter passage into the house of the Lord, that he might flee thither instantly for safety, in case of any danger: which is not probable, because he profaned it, and shut up the doors of it Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight.] From the holy land, where his temple was, in which he dwelt among them. Till there. was none left but the tribe of Judah only.] Unto whom adhered part of Benjamin and the Levites; w r ho, as it here follows, imitated the wickedness of Israel; but yet had some mixture of good kings among them. Whereas all the kings of Israel persisted in the sins of Jeroboam; and therefore, before their removal out of their land, they suffered great calamities, no less than nine of their kings being killed (as Abarbinel notes) before their last king was carried captive.

2 Kings 17:19

Now the rtst of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?. Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in thestatutes of Israel which they made.] Followed the idolatrous devices of the ten tribes; as they did most notoriously in the last reign of Ahaz: whose son Hezekiah indeed made a noble reformation; but it lasted no longer than his time, so extremely was this nation corrupted.

2 Kings 17:20

And Ahaz slept xvith his fathers, and was buried ivith his fathers in the city of David; and Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead. And the Lord rejected. With loathing and abhorrence, as the word imports.. All the house of Israel.] The whole ten tribes. And afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.] See x. 32,33. xiii.3. 7..

2 Kings 17:21

For he rent Israel from the house of David. Here was the foundation of their ruin. And he made Jeroboam the son of Nebat their king; and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made Israel sin a great sin.] Of which he was the author; but they were too forward to comply with him..

2 Kings 17:22

For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he did: they departed not from them. They were so inclined to idolatry, that a long succession of God’s judgments upon them could not reclaim them.

2 Kings 17:23

Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. .Unto whose admonitions and threatenings they had no regard. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to As-

2 Kings 17:24

And the king of Assyria brought men. . This was not done by Shalmaneser, but by his son Esar-haddon, (Ezra iv. 2.) From Babylon.] Which was then subject to the king of Assyria; but not long after revolted. And from Cuthah.] A city of Chaldea, as Abarbinel expounds it: and so doth our Dr. Hyde out of several Persian writers, (Hist. Relig. Vet.Pers. cap. 2.) But it rather here signifies a country called Cush also (which, perhaps, had its name from the forenamed city), from whence the greatest part of this colony being brought, the people in aftertitnes were called Cuthsei. For the same author truly observes, that the country called Cush was, in the Babylonish dialect (afterward called the Chaldean), called Cutti. For they were wont to change the letter schin into thau. In this country, in the land of Shinar, Cush first settled; and his posterity spread itself into Arabia. And from Ava.] The Avites were a very ancient people, who* were” driven by the Caphtorim out of Hazerim; and went and settled beyond Euphrates. (See upon Deut. ii. 23.) And from Hamath.] This was a city of Syria, on the borders of Canaan; which was now subject to the king of Assyria, by a late conquest of it, (xvi. 9.) -, And from Sepharvaim.] There is a city called Siphara, on the side of which the river Euphrates runs, not far from the sea. From this mixture of nations it was, that afterward there happened such a confusion of laws, and manners, and rites of religion, as was in this country. And placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria.] That is, the whole country, wherein the ten tribes formerly dwelt. Anddweltin thecities thereof] Which were not destroyed, I suppose, but left standing, with a design to send new inhabitants into thera.

2 Kings 17:25

And it was so, at the beginning of their divelling there, that they feared not the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. And did not the Israelites also want the fear of the Lord, as Abarbinel here notes, and yet were not devoured by lions? To which he answers, that though the Israelites also served idols, yet they did not deny the Divine power and providence; but imagined these idols to be the intermediate causes by which the Divine influences might be conveyed unto them: for it is plain Jeroboam did not deny the Lord, (1 Kings xiii. G.) but acknowledged his power. But these new inhabitants believed the idols which they worshipped to be true gods; and therefore were destroyed by lions, because they did not acknowledge the power and providence of God over all inferior beings, whose land this was; and hereby he vindicated his ancient inheritance and possession to himself. Ver, 26*. Wherefore they spake unto the king of Assyria, saying, The 7iatio?is 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.] They took the God of Israel to be of the same kind with their own, who affected a particular. country and people, and would be honoured with peculiar rites, which were acceptable to him, and none else. The Syrians had the same conceit of topical gods, as I observed upon 1 Kings xx. 23. and see below, xviii. 35.

2 Kings 17:27

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying. Carry thither one of the priests, whom ye brought from thence, and tet them go and dwell there, and let’ Mm teach them the manner of the God of the land.] The Jews in Pirke Eliezer, cap. 38. tell the story thus: that the king of Assyria called the elders of Israel together, and said, All the while you dwelt in the laud of Samaria, it was not infested with lions; what is the reason that my people are devoured by them? To which they answered, Our lord the king, this land will not receive any uncircuracised nation. Let two of you go then (replied the king) and circumcise them, and teach them the book of the law. So R. Dosithaeus and R. Zachariah were sent, who did the business. Here they make bold to go beyond the Scripture, in making two great doctors to have been sent, when there was but one. Though it is very probable there were some associates who accompanied this principal priest: for the text saith, when the king bade them carry one of the priests thither, he added, and let them dwell there. Which signifies he did not go alone: though he alone was to teach them, as it follows, the maimer of the God of the land.

2 Kings 17:28

Then one of the priests, whom they had carried away from Samaria, came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them haw they should fear the Lord. That is, how they should worship and serve him. From whence many learned men conclude, that he brought the book of the law with him, without which he could not fully instruct them how to worship God, and govern themselves: which book they suppose was written in the Babylonian character, because it was to teach a colony of that nation. This is opposed by a late learned man, who earnestly contends, that the book of the law was not brought to them till the time of Sanballat; and therefore this priest instructed them without the book, only by tradition. Which is not probable; for they would have had little regard to him, if he had not produced the authority of that holy book, delivered to them by that great lawgiver Moses," the man of God: for, that he taught them the right way of worshipping God according to the law, as it was practised in Judah, is very likely; being sensible that God abhorred the other worship which Israel practised; for which he had thrown them out of their land..

2 Kings 17:29

Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and pttt them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. It seems the people of Israel, who are here called Samaritans, had built little temples in the high places; wherein these new inhabitants worshipped the gods of the country from which they came, (that is, the gods of Assyria, Ezek. xxvii. 7.) together with the God of Israel.

2 Kings 17:30

And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth. The Jewish doctors do but trifle in their exposition of this word, which they say signifies a hen and chickens. The word plainly imports, the tabernacles of daughters, or of young maidens: w r ho were consecrated to Venus, whose name Mr. Selden probably conjectures was derived from Benoth. The old idolaters, it is evident, did prostitute their, daughters in honour of Venus, as not only Strabo, Herodotus, and other profane writers testify; but some think is suggested in holy Scripture, Lev. xix. 29. And Microsoft ® 3U A COMMENTARY UPON [chap. XVII. therefore they of Babylon are said to make the tabernacles of daughters; that is, chapels wherein their daughters were prostituted to every one that caine to worship Venus, as the manner was in Babylon, from whence the forcnamed authors testify this filthiness had its original. (Sec Scldcn; deDiis Syris Syntag. ii. cap. 7. and Vossius, do Idololatr. lib. ii. cap. 22.) Ah(T the men qf Cath made NergaL] Which the Jews would have to signify a cock. But their conjecture is better, who think it signified fire. For the men of Cutli are those that were afterward called Persians; who, it is certain, anciently worshipped the fire. (See Selden, cap. 8.)’ But the famous Boehartus ingenuously confesses he doth not know what Nergal was; but that there is a sort of palm-tree called Nergil by the Persians, Arabians, and Indians, of which they report strange things. From whence, perhaps, the Persians gave the name of Nergal to this idol, as in Syria their god was called Rimmon, from the pomegranate. (Hierozoieon, pan ii. lib. i, cap. 1G.) And the men of Hamath made Ashima.’] I know no ground the Jews have to say, this word Ashima signifies a smooth goat. Our great Seidell modestly acknowledges he doth not know what god it was, (ib. cap. 9.) But a late author takes Ashima to be the same with Mars: because among the ancients AS signified the same with y.4/)rjc among the Greeks; and schemah is as much as hearing or obedient, (Jo.‘Gensius de Victimis Humanis, par. i; p. 92.) And this A S he conjectures is the same whom the Romans called Hesus, whom Lucan mentions in his Pharsalia, lib. i. ver. 443. " Horrentquc feris altaribus Hesus." But, after all, I’think my learned friend Dr. Alix hath made the most probable conjecture,’ that Ashima is the name of God, whom the Hebrews call Hashem, the name< from whence Ashima, I doubt not, is derived. Accordingly Abcn Ezra saith, in his preface to the book of Esther, that he saw in a Samaritan Pentateuch, Gen. i. 1. Sara Ashima, instead oiBaraElohim. Which Boehart censures as a falsity, because no such word is to be found in the whole Samaritan Pentateuch; but it might be then in some paraphrase upon it.

2 Kings 17:31

And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tart ak. Nobody knows what these were; for no credit is to be given to the Jews, who say, the former was in the shape of a dog, and the other of an ass. Selden thinks they were the same idol called by different names, but was not able to give an account of them. And the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.] These were the same gods with Moloch; unto whom the same sacrifices were offered. The Jews, after their vain fancies, make one of them to have been in the form of a peacock:’, and the other of a pheasant: but in all probability they were but different names of Moloch, which was the sun, as is evident from xxiii. 10, 11.; and the addition of Addir, w T hich signifies magnificent or patent, rtiakes Adrammelech as much as the mighty Moloch; and of Ana, which signifies to answer, makes Anammelech as much as oracular Moloch. For Moloch, and Melech, and Milcom, are all the very same in the language of different people, signifying a king: the sun being by them accounted the king, us the moon the queen of heaven. And (here is nothing more known than that the gentiles burnt their children in sacrifice to him. But whether these people did so, or only made them pass through the fire to purify them, may be questioned; though the words seem to import the former: which was the practice of the Phoenicians, Syrians, Tyrians, Carthaginians, Cretans, Arabians, and many other nations; and is still practised by the Americans, and other gentiles. A learned writer of our own, Dr. Hyde, in the book beforementioned, had a quite different apprehension of these words: for he will have Adrammelech to signify the king of the flock, Adre being as much as Greges; and Anammelech he thinks is much of the same signification, Ana being as much as Pecns, in the Persian language: always signifying collectively in the plural number, the lesser cattle, sheep and goats. Of which he imagines these gods had the care, and were therefore worshipped; the riches of those people consisting much in cattle. They were also celestial constellations (as he there observes), which they imagined promoted the breeding and growth of cattle.

2 Kings 17:32

So they feared the Lord. Worshipped the Lord God of Israel. And made unto themselves of the’ lowest of them priests of tlie high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.’] I suppose these sacrifices were offered to the God of Israel, but in high places, and by priests of their own making. As for their sacrifices to the gods of their several countries, no doubt they brought priests along with them, to perform the service belonging to them.

2 Kings 17:33

They feared the Lord, and served their oivn gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence. That is, after the manner of the ten tribes, who worshipped the Lord, and the golden calves together with him, and sometimes Baal, and other gods, (ver. 16.)

2 Kings 17:34

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.] These, and the following words, give an account of the children of Israel; who, being carried captive out of their own land (as hath been related), were not at all amended thereby; but still neglected all the laws which God had given them, and did not worship him alone; and therefore in truth they feared not the Lord.

2 Kings 17:35

With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall?iotfear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor save them, nor sacrifice to them. Whose sins he aggravates (and thereby justifies his severe proceedings against them) by representing them as a select people, who were in a strict and gracious covenant with him, obliging them not to shew the least respect to any other god but himself. Ver. 3G. But the Lord, who brought you tip out of the land of Egypt with great power, and a stretched-ont arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye tvorship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice,] This was a benefit, one would think, that should never have been forgotten; but eternally engaged them to his service, who delivered them from so vile a slavery.

2 Kings 17:37

And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall (§ CHAP. XVIII. THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. observe to do for evermore; and ye shallnotfear other gods.) This is repeated again, being so very often mentioned in the book of the law, that they should worship no other god.

2 Kings 17:38

And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear otlier gods.~\ Which was the principal thing in the covenant.

2 Kings 17:39

But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. As he did whensoever they renounced idolatry, and promised to worship him alone; as wc read throughout their whole Iiistory in these holy books.

2 Kings 17:40

Ilowbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. They soon revolted, when they solemnly protested to repent; and did just as they had done before, as the same books testify.

2 Kings 17:41

So those nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they nnto this day. Just thus did the nations who came in their room into the country of Samaria: they joined their own gods with the Lord God of Israel, and continued so to do, they and their posterity, unto the time this book was written, and long after. For, as Mr. Mede hath observed, this medley of religions lasted above three hundred years, till towards the end of the Persian monarchy. At which timeManasse, brother to Jadda the high-priest of the Jews (that were returned to their own land), married the daughter of Sanballat, governor of Samaria. And after his example, other Jews of the best rank having married strange wives, contrary to the law, and being loath to leave them, betook themselves thither also; whom Sanballat entertained, and made his son-in-law their priest. And when Alexander the* Great subdued the Persian monarchy, lie obtained leave of him to build a temple upon Mount Gerizim, where Manasseh exercised the office of high-priest. This was very prejudicial to the Jews, and the occasion of a schism; whilst those who were discontented or excommunicated at Jerusalem were wont to run hither. Yet by this means the Samaritans (having gotten one. of the sons of Aaron for their priest, and so many Jews being mingled among them) were brought to throw away all their false gods, and worship the God of Israel only. Yet so, that though they seemed to themselves to be the true worshippers of God, they retained a smack of idolatry; worshipping God under a visible representation, viz. that of a dove. Just as their predecessors, the ten tribes, worshipped the same God under the similitude of a calf, (book i. discourse 13.) And indeed this inclination to have some sensible representation of God was so universal, that they who had none, were thought by the gentile world to worship nothing,.