Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
What does 2 Kings 17:19 mean?
Though the destruction of the kingdom of the ten tribes was but briefly related, it is in these verses largely commented upon, and the reasons of it given.
Key themes
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Keep this verse inside 2 Kings 17:19-23 and alongside a few nearby related passages.
Commentary on 2 Kings 17:19
This verse and the next are parenthetical. Here again, as in 2 Kings 17:13 , the writer is led on from his account of the sins and punishment of the Israelites to glance at the similar sins and similar punishment of the Jews. It was the worst reproach which could be urged against any Jewish king, that he "walked in the way of the kings of Israel" 2 Kings 8:18 ; 2 Kings 16:3 ; 2 Chronicles 21:6 ; 2 Chronicles 28:2 . The Baal worship is generally the special sin at which the phrase is leveled; but the meaning here seems to be wider. Compare Micah 6:16 .
Key words
- Judah
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Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God,.
- commandments
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Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God,.
Context in 2 Kings 17
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2 Kings 17 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as decline of Judah. Second Kings follows the ministries of Elijah and Elisha, recounts the decline of both kingdoms, and ends with Jerusalem’s fall and a faint glimmer of Davidic continuity. Read this chapter with the wider themes of prophetic witness, judgment, and exile in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.
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