2 Kings 17:16-18

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, ¹  and worshiped ²  Baal. 17:17 They passed their sons and daughters through the fire, ³  and practiced divination and omen reading. They committed themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord and made him angry. ⁴ 

17:18 So the Lord was furious ⁵  with Israel and rejected them; ⁶  only the tribe of Judah was left.

2 Kings 21:6

21:6 He passed his son ⁷  through the fire ⁸  and practiced divination and omen reading. He set up a ritual pit to conjure up underworld spirits, and appointed magicians to supervise it. ⁹  He did a great amount of evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 78:58

78:58 They made him angry with their pagan shrines, ¹¹ 

and made him jealous with their idols.

Jeremiah 7:18-19

7:18 Children are gathering firewood, fathers are building fires with it, and women are mixing dough to bake cakes to offer to the goddess they call the Queen of Heaven. ¹²  They are also pouring out drink offerings to other gods. They seem to do all this just ¹³  to trouble me. 7:19 But I am not really the one being troubled!” ¹⁴  says the Lord. “Rather they are bringing trouble on themselves to their own shame! ¹⁵ 

Ezekiel 8:17-18

8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ¹⁶  8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ¹⁷  them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

¹ 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.

² tn Or “served.”

³ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

⁴ tn Heb “they sold themselves to doing what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering him.”

⁵ tn Heb “very angry.”

⁶ tn Heb “turned them away from his face.”

⁷ tc The LXX has the plural “his sons” here.

⁸ sn See the note at 2 Kgs 16:3.

⁹ tn Heb “and he set up a ritual pit, along with conjurers.” The Hebrew אוֹב (’ov), “ritual pit,” refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits. In 1 Sam 28:7 the witch of Endor is called a בַעֲלַת אוֹב (ba’alat ’ov), “owner of a ritual pit.” See H. Hoffner, “Second millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967), 385-401.

¹⁰ tc Heb “and he multiplied doing what is evil in the eyes of the Lord, angering.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix (“him”) has been accidentally omitted in the MT by haplography (note the vav that immediately follows).

¹¹ tn Traditionally, “high places.”

¹² tn The form for “queen” is unusual. It is pointed (מְלֶכֶת [mÿlekhet] instead of מַלְכַּת [malkat]) as though the Masoretes wanted to read the word for “work” (מְלֶאכֶת [mÿle’khet]), i.e., the “hosts of,” a word that several Hebrew mss read and an understanding the LXX reflects. The other ancient and modern versions generally, however, accept it as a biform for the word “queen.”

¹³ tn Heb “to provoke me.” There is debate among grammarians and lexicographers about the nuance of the Hebrew particle לְמַעַן (lÿma’an). Some say it always denotes purpose, while others say it may denote either purpose or result, depending on the context. For example, BDB 775 s.v. לְמַעַן note 1 says that it always denotes purpose, never result, but that sometimes what is really a result is represented ironically as though it were a purpose. That explanation fits nicely here in the light of the context of the next verse. The translation is intended to reflect some of that ironic sarcasm.

¹⁴ tn Heb “Is it I whom they provoke?” The rhetorical question expects a negative answer which is made explicit in the translation.

¹⁵ tn Heb “Is it not themselves to their own shame?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer which is made explicit in the translation.

¹⁶ tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”

¹⁷ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.