And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
This verse belongs to the account of the foreign peoples and Assyrian colonists who were brought in and settled in Samaria after Israel was conquered. Israel had become divided through transgression and sins in neglecting to obey the statutes of God, so an idolatrous nation was suffered to overcome them. The Samaritans descended from those colonists together with the Israelites left in the region, who were intermingled for many generations with idolaters brought in from other nations.
The result was a mixed religion in which devotion to the Lord was combined with the worship of foreign gods, and that idolatry gradually contaminated the faith of Israel. Though still preserving reverence for the true God, they represented him by images of wood and stone before which they bowed in worship. They claimed their idols were only to remind them of the living God, the Ruler of the universe, yet they remained idolaters who were led to reverence their graven images.
On Mount Gerizim they worshiped in a rival temple according to the ceremonies and Mosaic ritual given through Moses, but mingled that worship with the taint of idolatry and did not wholly renounce it. After disasters and destruction of their temple left them under a curse, they recognized God's punishment for apostasy, determined to reform, and sought teachers from the Jews, so their views of God and his requirements became clearer and their service more nearly resembled the Jews. Even afterward they still clung to idolatry to a certain degree.
They would not respect Jerusalem as the true place of worship, and their claim to be God's people together with their temple on Mount Gerizim became a source of division and hostility with the Jews.
This verse belongs to the account of the foreign peoples and Assyrian colonists who were brought in and settled in Samaria after Israel was conquered. Israel had become divided through transgression and sins in neglecting to obey the statutes of God, so an idolatrous nation was suffered to overcome them. The Samaritans descended from those colonists together with the Israelites left in the region, who were intermingled for many generations with idolaters brought in from other nations.
The result was a mixed religion in which devotion to the Lord was combined with the worship of foreign gods, and that idolatry gradually contaminated the faith of Israel. Though still preserving reverence for the true God, they represented him by images of wood and stone before which they bowed in worship. They claimed their idols were only to remind them of the living God, the Ruler of the universe, yet they remained idolaters who were led to reverence their graven images.
On Mount Gerizim they worshiped in a rival temple according to the ceremonies and Mosaic ritual given through Moses, but mingled that worship with the taint of idolatry and did not wholly renounce it. After disasters and destruction of their temple left them under a curse, they recognized God's punishment for apostasy, determined to reform, and sought teachers from the Jews, so their views of God and his requirements became clearer and their service more nearly resembled the Jews. Even afterward they still clung to idolatry to a certain degree.
They would not respect Jerusalem as the true place of worship, and their claim to be God's people together with their temple on Mount Gerizim became a source of division and hostility with the Jews.