2 Kings 17:28

17:28 So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel.¹ He taught them how to worship² the Lord.

2 Kings 17:32

17:32 At the same time they worshiped³ the Lord. They appointed some of their own people to serve as priests in the shrines on the high places.⁴

2 Kings 17:34

17:34 To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship⁵ the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave⁶ the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel.

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.

Joshua 22:25

22:25 The Lord made the Jordan a boundary between us and you Reubenites and Gadites. You have no right to worship the Lord.’⁷ In this way your descendants might cause our descendants to stop obeying⁸ the Lord.

Jeremiah 10:7

10:7 Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations,⁹

because you deserve to be revered.¹⁰

For there is no one like you

among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings.¹¹

Daniel 6:26

6:26 I have issued an edict that throughout all the dominion of my kingdom people are to revere and fear the God of Daniel.

“For he is the living God;

he endures forever.

His kingdom will not be destroyed;

his authority is forever.¹²

Jonah 1:9

1:9 He said to them, “I am a Hebrew! And I worship¹³ the Lord,¹⁴ the God of heaven,¹⁵ who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹map For location see Map4-G4; Map5-C1; Map6-E3; Map7-D1; Map8-G3.

²tn Heb “fear.”

³tn Heb “feared.”

⁴tn Heb “and they appointed for themselves from their whole people priests for the high places and they were serving for them in the house[s] of the high places.”

⁵tn Heb “fear.”

⁶tn Heb “commanded.”

⁷tn Heb “You have no portion in the Lord.”

⁸tn Heb “fearing.”

⁹tn Heb “Who should not revere you…?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

¹⁰tn Heb “For it is fitting to you.”

¹¹tn Heb “their royalty/dominion.” This is a case of substitution of the abstract for the concrete “royalty, royal power” for “kings” who exercise it.

¹²tn Aram “until the end.”

¹³tn Or “fear.” The verb יָרֵא (yare’) has a broad range of meanings, including “to fear, to worship, to revere, to respect” (BDB 431 s.v.). When God is the object, it normally means “to fear” (leading to obedience; BDB 431 s.v. 1) or “to worship” (= to stand in awe of; BDB 431 s.v. 2). Because the fear of God leads to wisdom and obedience, that is probably not the sense here. Instead Jonah professes to be a loyal Yahwist – in contrast to the pagan Phoenician sailors who worshiped false gods, he worshiped the one true God. Unfortunately his worship of the Lord lacked the necessary moral prerequisite.

¹⁴tn Heb “The Lord, the God of heaven, I fear.” The Hebrew word order is unusual. Normally the verb appears first, but here the direct object “the Lord, the God of heaven” precedes the verb. Jonah emphasizes the object of his worship. In contrast to the Phoenician sailors who worship pagan polytheistic gods, Jonah took pride in his theological orthodoxy. Ironically, his “fear” of the Lord in this case was limited to this profession of theological orthodoxy because his actions betrayed his refusal to truly “fear” God by obeying him.

¹⁵tn Heb “the God of the heavens.” The noun שָׁמַיִם (shamayim, “heavens”) always appears in the dual form. Although the dual form sometimes refers to things that exist in pairs, the dual is often used to refer to geographical locations, e.g., יְרוּשָׁלַיִם (yÿrushalayim, “Jerusalem”), אֶפְרַיִם (’efrayim, “Ephraim”), and מִצְרַיִם (mitsrayim, “Egypt,” but see IBHS 118 §7.3d). The dual form of שָׁמַיִם does not refer to two different kinds of heavens or to two levels of heaven; it simply refers to “heaven” as a location – the dwelling place of God. Jonah’s point is that he worships the High God of heaven – the one enthroned over all creation.