2 Kings 17:37
And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods. And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
The statutes and ordinances and law and commandment that God Himself wrote were to be kept continually and done forevermore, with fear and worship and sacrifice given to Him alone as the living God who rules the universe, and with no fear rendered to other gods. That charge was laid upon the people whom the Lord brought up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, calling them to fear and worship and sacrifice to Him alone. It stood as part of His covenant which they were not to forget, joined to the promise that fearing the Lord their God would deliver them out of the hand of their enemies.
It rested in a special sense upon those settled in Samaria and Galilee, a mixed race sprung from intermarriage of heathen colonists from the provinces of Assyria with the remnant of the ten tribes left in the land, including the Samaritans dwelling close by those rebuilding the temple. Neglect of God's statutes brought division from Israel, and because of sin the ancestors were overcome and defeated and exiled by an idolatrous nation.
The Samaritans claimed to revere the true God and kept the Mosaic ritual with the Jewish customs and practices given through Moses, yet their religion was contaminated across generations by mixing with idolaters and heathen worship. They bowed before graven images of wood and stone while saying their idols were but to remind them of the living God, but in heart and practice they remained idolaters who did not wholly give up idolatry. Reverence for God does not excuse the worship of images, so by this mingling they broke the command, and this failure fueled division and hostility with the Jews.
The verse is held up as Israel's own history showing the future as the result of their course, for through thousands of years of refusing to listen and continuing after their former manner they forged fetters of bondage no human power could break. They feared the Lord while serving their graven images, as did their fathers, and so did their children and their children's children unto this day.