2 Kings 17:27

27 So the emperor commanded: "Send back one of the priests we brought as prisoners; have him go back and live there, in order to teach the people the law of the god of that land."

2 Kings 17:27 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 17:27

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying
Gave the following orders and directions:

carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence;
for they carried away all the people of every class, civil and religious:

and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of
the God of the land;
it is in the plural number, "let them go" {o}; there might be more priests than one ordered, or, however, others, to attend and assist him in his work; the Jews say ^F16, two were sent to circumcise them, and teach them the book of the law; and they give their names, Dosthai, or Dosithaeus, and Zachariah; and Josephus ^F17 says, the people desired that priests might be sent to them of the captives.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 (wbvyw wkly) "eant et sedeant", Montanus.
F16 Pirke Eliezer, c. 38.
F17 Antiqu. l. 9. c. 14. sect. 3.

2 Kings 17:27 In-Context

25 When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord, and so he sent lions, which killed some of them.

26 The emperor of Assyria was told that the people he had settled in the cities of Samaria did not know the law of the god of that land, and so the god had sent lions, which were killing them.

27 So the emperor commanded: "Send back one of the priests we brought as prisoners; have him go back and live there, in order to teach the people the law of the god of that land."

28 So an Israelite priest who had been deported from Samaria went and lived in Bethel, where he taught the people how to worship the Lord.

29 But the people who settled in Samaria continued to make their own idols, and they placed them in the shrines that the Israelites had built. Each different group made idols in the cities they were living in:

Footnotes

• [a]. [Some ancient translations] him; [Hebrew] them.