They Feared Yahweh and Served Their Gods
24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn’t fear Yahweh. Therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria don’t know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them; and behold, they kill them, because they don’t know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Yahweh. 29 However 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 in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 So they feared Yahweh, and also made from among themselves priests of the high places for themselves, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. 33 They feared Yahweh, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. 34 To this day they do what they did before. They don’t fear Yahweh, and they do not follow the statutes, or the ordinances, or the law, or the commandment which Yahweh commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel; 35 with whom Yahweh had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; 36 but you shall fear Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him. 37 The statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do forever more. You shall not fear other gods. 38 You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods. 39 But you shall fear Yahweh your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However they didn’t listen, but they did what they did before. 41 So these nations feared Yahweh, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.
Foreign settlers move into the emptied north, learn Yahweh's law from a deported priest, and add him to the collection — the exact sin that emptied it.
The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.
The second half of the deportation policy: with Israel scattered east, populations from five other conquered places are moved in. It breaks any remaining claim to the land and produces a province with no common history, which is the point.
So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn’t fear Yahweh. Therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
The settlers read the lion attacks in the standard terms of their world: every territory has a god, and this one is offended because nobody knows his procedures. Their report to the emperor is entirely sincere — they don't know the law of the god of the land 2 Kings 17:26 — and their diagnosis is half right in a way they cannot see. The land does belong to a God with a law, and ignorance of him is genuinely dangerous. What they have wrong is the category: they think they have a local problem to manage.
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the law of the god of the land.”
So an Assyrian emperor orders religious instruction for a province, and a deported Israelite priest is sent back to Bethel — of all places, the calf shrine — to teach people how to fear Yahweh 2 Kings 17:28. It is one of the strangest sentences in the Old Testament: the law of Moses taught in the north by imperial decree, in the town that had been the headquarters of its corruption, after everyone who should have been taught it was gone.
However 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 in which they lived.
The instruction is received and filed alongside everything else. The list of imported gods is given by name, ending with the Sepharvites who burned their children in the fire 2 Kings 17:31 — the practice that had just cost the previous tenants the country, arriving with the new ones.
They feared Yahweh, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
The verse is repeated three times in the closing paragraph, and it is the chapter's verdict. This is not a rejection of Israel's God. It is his inclusion — respectfully, seriously, with priests appointed and sacrifices offered — in a portfolio. And it is precisely, exactly the thing that destroyed the kingdom whose empty houses these people are living in. The land changed occupants and the sin stayed.
35 with whom Yahweh had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them; 36 but you shall fear Yahweh, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall sacrifice to him.
The covenant terms are quoted back at length, and the incompatibility is the whole content: not that Yahweh must be first, but that he cannot be one of several. Elijah had put the same thing as a question on Carmel 1 Kings 18:21, and it is being answered here in the negative by a population that has never heard of him.
So these nations feared Yahweh, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise, and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.
The chapter ends in the present tense of the writer, generations later, with the arrangement still running. The mixed worship of this province becomes the long quarrel between Jews and Samaritans, and a woman at a well will raise it with a tired traveler seven centuries on John 4:20 — where the answer given is not which mountain, but spirit and truth John 4:23–24.
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