2 Kings 17:29

17:29 But each of these nations made ¹  its own gods and put them in the shrines on the high places that the people of Samaria ²  had made. Each nation did this in the cities where they lived.

2 Kings 17:34

17:34 To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship ³  the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave ⁴  the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel.

Jeremiah 2:10-11

2:10 Go west ⁵  across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus ⁶  and see.

Send someone east to Kedar ⁷  and have them look carefully.

See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

2:11 Has a nation ever changed its gods

(even though they are not really gods at all)?

But my people have exchanged me, their glorious God, ⁸ 

for a god that cannot help them at all! ⁹ 

[17:29]  ¹ sn The verb “make” refers to the production of idols. See M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 210-11.

[17:29]  ² tn Heb “Samaritans.” This refers to the Israelites who had been deported from the land.

[17:34]  ³ tn Heb “fear.”

[17:34]  ⁴ tn Heb “commanded.”

[2:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “For go west.”

[2:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “pass over to the coasts of Kittim.” The words “west across the sea” in this line and “east of” in the next are implicit in the text and are supplied in the translation to give geographical orientation.

[2:10]  ⁷ sn Kedar is the home of the Bedouin tribes in the Syro-Arabian desert. See Gen 25:18 and Jer 49:38. See also the previous note for the significance of the reference here.

[2:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “have exchanged their glory [i.e., the God in whom they glory].” This is a case of a figure of speech where the attribute of a person or thing is put for the person or thing. Compare the common phrase in Isaiah, the Holy One of Israel, obviously referring to the Lord, the God of Israel.

[2:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “what cannot profit.” The verb is singular and the allusion is likely to Baal. See the translator’s note on 2:8 for the likely pun or wordplay.