2 Kings 17:40 kjv
Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
2 Kings 17:40 nkjv
However they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals.
2 Kings 17:40 niv
They would not listen, however, but persisted in their former practices.
2 Kings 17:40 esv
However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.
2 Kings 17:40 nlt
But the people would not listen and continued to follow their former practices.
2 Kings 17 40 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Exod 32:9 | And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people." | Describes Israel's stubbornness. |
| Deut 9:7 | Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD. | Israel's long history of rebellion. |
| Neh 9:16 | But they and our fathers acted proudly and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. | Recounts Israel's persistent disobedience. |
| Psa 78:8 | ...and not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation... | Warning against continuing parental disobedience. |
| Jer 7:24 | But they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck and went backward instead of forward. | Refusal to obey God's voice. |
| Jer 13:10 | This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart... | Persistence in one's own evil ways. |
| Zech 7:12 | They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets... | Stubbornness preventing obedience. |
| Matt 15:8-9 | 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' | Outward observance without true heart change. |
| Acts 7:51 | "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you." | Resistance to God's Spirit and truth. |
| Rom 1:21 | For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. | Suppressing truth and turning to folly. |
| Rom 2:8 | but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. | Consequences for not obeying truth. |
| Eph 4:17-19 | ...no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God...due to their hardness of heart. | Gentiles walking in old, darkened ways. |
| Col 3:9-10 | Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. | Necessity of shedding old practices for new life. |
| Lev 26:14-15 | "But if you will not listen to me and will not do all these commandments...and spurn my rules, and your soul abhors my statutes, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant..." | God's warning against disobedience. |
| Deut 28:15 | "But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you." | Warnings for disobedience. |
| Deut 12:29-31 | "When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations whom you are going in to dispossess...do not inquire about their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods?'" | Warning against adopting pagan customs. |
| 2 Chr 33:9 | Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel. | Israelites embracing pagan practices. |
| Jer 3:6-10 | "Have you seen what faithless Israel did...? she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there she played the whore...Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart..." | Israel and Judah's deep-seated idolatry. |
| Ezek 20:31-32 | "When you present your gifts, through the burning of your children in the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols to this day...You say, 'Let us be like the nations, like the tribes of other lands, and worship wood and stone.'" | Continued idol worship despite God's dealings. |
| 2 Cor 6:14-17 | Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness...? Or what agreement has a temple of God with idols? | Against syncretism and mixture of worship. |
| 1 John 2:15-17 | Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world...is not from the Father but from the world. | Turning away from worldliness/old ways. |
| Heb 3:12 | Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. | Warning against heart of unbelief leading to apostasy. |
2 Kings 17 verses
2 Kings 17 40 Meaning
2 Kings 17:40 declares the continued rebellion of the foreign peoples settled in Samaria. Despite receiving instruction about the God of Israel, they persistently chose not to obey Him, instead reverting to or maintaining their deeply ingrained, pre-Yahwistic pagan customs and practices. This highlights their spiritual apathy and failure to genuinely abandon idolatry for exclusive devotion to Yahweh, revealing the strength of their inherited ways over newly acquired truth.
2 Kings 17 40 Context
2 Kings chapter 17 narrates the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to Assyria, directly attributing their demise to their persistent idolatry and disobedience to God's covenant (vv. 7-23). Following the conquest, the Assyrian king resettled various foreign peoples into the vacant land of Samaria (vv. 24ff). These new inhabitants faced attacks by lions, which they interpreted as punishment from "the god of the land" whom they did not know (vv. 25-26). In response, an exiled Israelite priest was sent back to teach them about Yahweh (vv. 27-28). However, the narrative reveals that despite this instruction, the foreign peoples did not fully abandon their own deities but engaged in syncretistic worship – fearing Yahweh while also serving their own gods and practices according to their original customs (vv. 29-34, 35-39). Verse 40 specifically concludes this cycle, emphasizing that despite learning about Yahweh, their core behavior remained unchanged; they refused true obedience, maintaining their former pagan ways. This persistent spiritual compromise ultimately mirrors the very reason for Israel's own exile, underscoring a universal pattern of human failure to yield to divine truth.
2 Kings 17 40 Word analysis
- Nevertheless (אַף /
'aph): This is a strong adverb that can mean "also," "indeed," or in this context, a concessive "yet" or "nevertheless." It serves to highlight a contrast or a point that holds true despite previous information. Here, despite having an Israelite priest teach them about Yahweh, "nevertheless" they continued their old ways, signifying a conscious choice against the truth received. - they did not obey (וְלֹא שָׁמֵעוּ /
v'lo shama'u):- did not: The negation
lo(לֹא) strongly rejects compliance. - obey (שָׁמַע /
shama): This foundational Hebrew verb means "to hear," but crucially, it encompasses the idea of "listening with understanding leading to action," hence "obey." It implies not just mental assent to information, but active compliance. The failure to "shama" Yahweh was the primary sin of Israel and now of these new inhabitants. Their hearing did not translate into obedient living.
- did not: The negation
- but did (וַיַּעֲשׂוּ /
vayya'asu): "And they acted" or "they did." This conjunctive clause points to their continued course of action. They did something; it wasn't passive failure but active continuation of behavior. - according to their former manner (כְּמִשְׁפָּטָם הָרִאשׁוֹן /
k'mishpatam ha'rishon):- according to (כְּ /
k'h): A preposition meaning "as," "according to," "like." It describes the pattern or standard of their actions. - their manner (מִשְׁפָּטָם /
mishpatam):mishpat(מִשְׁפָּט): While often translated as "justice" or "judgment," it also frequently refers to an established custom, regulation, or practice. In this context, it speaks of their inherited traditions, religious rites, and habitual ways of life from their lands of origin. It signifies their established religious and cultural norms.- -am (םָ): The pronominal suffix for "their."
- the former (הָרִאשׁוֹן /
ha'rishon):- ha- (הָ): The definite article, "the."
rishon(רִאשׁוֹן): Meaning "first," "original," "prior," "former." This word emphatically underlines that their actions were a continuation or return to their old, deeply ingrained, and pagan practices, not a new or transformed way of life based on the teachings of the God of Israel. It suggests ancestral patterns were too strong to break.
- according to (כְּ /
Words-group Analysis:
- "Nevertheless, they did not obey": This phrase emphasizes the voluntary and intentional nature of their disobedience. Despite the opportunity, motivation (lions), and instruction (the priest), they chose not to comply with God's commands. It underlines a lack of genuine desire or commitment to exclusive worship of Yahweh. This parallels Israel's own long history of "not obeying" (e.g., Deut 9:7).
- "but did according to their former manner": This defines how their disobedience manifested. It was not a passive failing but an active regression or persistence in their deeply established idolatrous practices. It highlights the power of ingrained habits, traditions, and an unregenerate heart's default setting. The phrase exposes their syncretistic failure – a superficial acknowledgement of Yahweh alongside the retention of pagan rituals, illustrating a half-hearted, impure worship that God rejects. It reflects a refusal of transformation, preferring the comfortable old paths.
2 Kings 17 40 Bonus section
- The passage reveals the nature of external compulsion (fear of lions) driving some search for God, but without internal conviction, it often leads to syncretism rather than true repentance.
- This verse contributes significantly to the historical antagonism between Jews and Samaritans, as the latter were seen as perpetuating this mixed, impure form of worship (cf. John 4:9).
- The persistence in "their former manner" signifies that intellectual knowledge of God (taught by the priest) did not translate into a transformed lifestyle or heart commitment.
- It serves as a timeless warning that God requires singular devotion and does not condone syncretism or lukewarm adherence, no matter how politically or culturally expedient.
2 Kings 17 40 Commentary
2 Kings 17:40 acts as a potent summary of human resistance to divine truth and a damning verdict on superficial religious adherence. It reveals that the new Samaritan inhabitants, having been taught about Yahweh and understanding His claim over the land, ultimately chose persistent disobedience. Their actions were not merely a misunderstanding but a deliberate "doing according to their former manner," signifying a reversion to deeply ingrained, idolatrous practices. This illustrates the human heart's stubborn tendency to cling to old sinful habits and false worship patterns, even when exposed to divine revelation. The verse implicitly draws a parallel between the newly settled peoples' failure and Israel's own historical unfaithfulness, demonstrating that mere knowledge of God is insufficient; true faith demands wholehearted obedience and an unequivocal rejection of past sin and syncretism. It underscores that any worship mixed with adherence to pagan or self-derived practices is not acceptable to the God who demands exclusive devotion.