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.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.
- BSB Nevertheless, the people of each nation continued to make their own gods in the cities where they had settled, and they set them up in the shrines that the people of Samaria had made on the high places.
- NKJV However every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt.
- NASB But every nation was still making gods of its own, and they put them in the houses of the high places which the people of Samaria had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived.
- NLT But these various groups of foreigners also continued to worship their own gods. In town after town where they lived, they placed their idols at the pagan shrines that the people of Samaria had built.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Each nation also made its own gods and placed them in the high-place shrines. The settlers added their idols to the worship of the land.
Overview
Alongside any instruction about the LORD, every group of settlers continued making and worshiping its own national gods. They reused the high-place shrines built earlier by the Israelites for their idolatry. This mixture of devotions epitomizes the syncretism that the narrator condemns throughout the chapter.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Kgs 12:31And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
- Mic 4:5For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
- Ps 115:4–8Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
- Hos 8:5–6Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?
- Isa 44:9–20They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
- Jer 10:3–5For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
- 1 Kgs 13:32For the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.
- Ps 135:15–18The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
- Rom 1:23And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
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Christ at the center
Amid the long decline toward exile, the promise to David's house refuses to die; the flickering lamp kept burning anticipates the coming King who will not fail or be cut off.
How 2 Kings 17:29 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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