2 Kings 13:5

13:5 The Lord provided a deliverer¹ for Israel and they were freed from Syria’s power.² The Israelites once more lived in security.³

2 Kings 17:8

17:8 they observed the practices⁴ of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel.⁵

2 Kings 17:41

17:41 These nations are worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day.

2 Kings 19:12

19:12 Were the nations whom my ancestors destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods?⁶

2 Kings 21:2

21:2 He did evil in the sight of⁷ the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations⁸ whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 21:9

21:9 But they did not obey,⁹ and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 23:10

23:10 The king¹⁰ ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech.¹¹

¹sn The identity of this unnamed “deliverer” is debated. For options see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 143.

²tn Heb “and they went from under the hand of Syria.”

³tn Heb “and the sons of Israel lived in their tents as before.”

⁴tn Heb “walked in the customs.”

⁵tn Heb “and [the practices of] the kings of Israel which they did.”

⁷tn Heb “Did the gods of the nations whom my fathers destroyed rescue them – Gozan and Haran, and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who are in Telassar?”

¹⁰tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

¹¹tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

¹³tn Heb “listen.”

¹⁶tn Heb “he”; the referent (the king) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁷sn Attempts to identify this deity with a god known from the ancient Near East have not yet yielded a consensus. For brief discussions see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor II Kings (AB), 288 and HALOT 592 s.v. מֹלֶךְ. For more extensive studies see George C. Heider, The Cult of Molek, and John Day, Molech: A God of Human Sacrifice in the Old Testament.