2 Kings 18:33

18:33 Have any of the gods of the nations actually rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?¹

2 Kings 19:17

19:17 It is true, Lord, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands.

2 Kings 21:2

21:2 He did evil in the sight of² the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations³ whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 16:3

16:3 He followed in the footsteps of⁴ the kings of Israel. He passed his son through the fire,⁵ a horrible sin practiced by the nations⁶ whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 17:8

17:8 they observed the practices⁷ of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel.⁸

2 Kings 17:33

17:33 They were worshiping⁹ the Lord and at the same time serving their own gods in accordance with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.

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?¹⁰

2 Kings 21:9

21:9 But they did not obey,¹¹ and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

2 Kings 17:15

17:15 They rejected his rules, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the laws he had commanded them to obey.¹² They paid allegiance to¹³ worthless idols, and so became worthless to the Lord.¹⁴ They copied the practices of the surrounding nations in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command.¹⁵

2 Kings 17:26

17:26 The king of Assyria was told,¹⁶ “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land, so he has sent lions among them. They are killing the people¹⁷ because they do not know the requirements of the God of the land.”

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.

¹tn Heb “Have the gods of the nations really rescued, each his land, from the hand of the king of Assyria?” The infinitive absolute lends emphasis to the main verb. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course not!”

²tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

³tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

³tn Heb “he walked in the way of.”

⁴sn This may refer to child sacrifice, though some interpret it as a less drastic cultic practice. For discussion see M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 266-67.

⁵tn Heb “like the abominable practices of the nations.”

⁴tn Heb “walked in the customs.”

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

⁵tn Heb “fearing.”

⁶tn 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?”

⁷tn Heb “listen.”

⁸tn Or “and his warnings he had given them.”

⁹tn Heb “They went [or, ‘followed’] after.” This idiom probably does not mean much if translated literally. It is found most often in Deuteronomy or in literature related to the covenant. It refers in the first instance to loyalty to God and to His covenant or His commandments (1 Kgs 14:8; 2 Chr 34:31) with the metaphor of a path or way underlying it (Deut 11:28; 28:14). To “follow other gods” was to abandon this way and this loyalty (to “abandon” or “forget” God, Judg 2:12; Hos 2:13) and to follow the customs or religious traditions of the pagan nations (2 Kgs 17:15). The classic text on “following” God or another god is 1 Kgs 18:18, 21 where Elijah taunts the people with “halting between two opinions” whether the Lord was the true God or Baal was. The idiom is often found followed by “to serve and to worship” or “they served and worshiped” such and such a god or entity (Jer 8:2; 11:10; 13:10; 16:11; 25:6; 35:15).

¹⁰tn Heb “they followed after the worthless thing/things and became worthless.” The words “to the Lord” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit from the context. There is an obvious wordplay on the verb “became worthless” and the noun “worthless thing”, which is probably to be understood collectively and to refer to idols as it does in Jer 8:19; 10:8; 14:22; Jonah 2:8.

¹¹tn Heb “and [they walked] after the nations which were around them, concerning which the Lord commanded them not to do like them.”

⁹tn Heb “and they said to the king of Assyria, saying.” The plural subject of the verb is indefinite.

¹⁰tn Heb “Look they are killing them.”