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The Origin of the Samaritans
v. 24. And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sephar-vaim, colonists from all these cities, districts, and provinces to the north and east, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel, the great majority of whom had been taken away and never saw the land of their birth again; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
v. 25. And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they feared not the Lord, there was no worship of Jehovah in the land; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which had had a chance to multiply during the time that the country lay waste, which slew some of them.
v. 26. Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, sending him a special message, saying, The nations which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the God of the land, for they believed that each country had its own god; therefore He hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land, had no idea of the religious customs and worship which He desired.
v. 27. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence, one of those addicted to calf-worship, and let them go and dwell there, that is, the colonists, who were not to leave the country, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
v. 28. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, one of the former centers of calf-worship, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. It was, indeed, only a very meager and insufficient instruction, because the man himself possessed only an incomplete knowledge of Jehovah. Therefore a strange mixture of religions resulted.
v. 29. Howbeit, every nation made gods of their own, retaining their old idols, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, in the old places of worship, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt; since they lived in communities according to the countries from which they came, they retained their ancient worship beside that of Jehovah. The religion of Samaria therefore became a monstrosity, as the further description shows.
v. 30. And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the goddess of victories and also of fertility, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, the god of battles, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, a very repulsive god under the picture of a goat,
v. 31. and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, the former in the shape of a dog, the latter in that of a donkey, and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim, idols like the Moloch of the southeastern nations.
v. 32. So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them, from the mass of the people, without regard to Levitical extraction, priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
v. 33. They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence. It was a hybrid religion of the most abominable kind, which has left its impress on the people of that country to this day.
v. 34. Unto this day they do after their former manners; they fear not the Lord, for it is impossible for true reverence and devotion to exist under such conditions, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel,
v. 35. with whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, in the assembly at Mount Sinai and through Moses, His servant, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;
v. 36. but the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, Him shall ye fear, and Him shall ye worship, and to Him shall ye do sacrifice, Deu_10:20.
v. 37. And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the Law, and the commandment which He wrote for you ye shall observe to do forevermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
v. 38. And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget, Deu_4:23;neither shall ye fear other gods.
v. 39. But the Lord, your God, ye shall fear; and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
v. 40. Howbeit, they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner, they continued the worship introduced by Jeroboam.
v. 41. So these nations, the inhabitants of Samaria,feared the Lord, they knew of Him and were afraid of Him as a mighty God, and served their graven images, to those they gave their faith and worship, both their children and their children's children; as did their fathers, so do they unto this day. Although the Samaritans, after the Jewish exile, discontinued the actual gross service of idols, they remain in their blindness and darkness to this day, accepting only the five Books of Moses as the Word of God and rejecting Jesus as the Messiah. They are nearer the true religion than the heathen, but the knowledge which they possess is not the saving knowledge. There is only one way to heaven—through the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior.