2 Kings 17:34

34. They do They here refers to the mixed population, composed of the colonists from the several Eastern nations mentioned in the preceding verses.

After the former manners They continued in our historian’s day to practice the mixed religion described in 2 Kings 17:29-33.

They fear not the Lord That is, as is immediately explained, they do not reverence and worship him according to the requirements of that holy law which he gave to the people whom he named Israel. There was at least a portion of them who, like the teaching priest and other Israelites at Beth-el, worshipped Jehovah in connexion with images like the golden calves of Jeroboam; but this was a form of worship so akin to idolatry, and so alien to the requirements of the law, that our author does not attempt to distinguish particularly the different classes of the people, but treats them all as being in irreconcilable antagonism to the statutes and ordinances of the true Israel.

Thus these Samaritans continued till the return of the Jews from exile, when they desired to unite with Zerubbabel and the chief of the fathers in rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem. Ezra 4:2. The latter denied their request, and thenceforth the Samaritans were regarded as “the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin.” They long hindered the rebuilding of the temple, and also opposed Nehemiah in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah 4:0. Subsequently a son of Jehoiada, the high priest, married the daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan governor, (Nehemiah 13:28,) and was expelled from Jerusalem, whereupon he withdrew to the Samaritans, and Sanballat built for him a temple on Mount Gerizim to rival that at Jerusalem. JOSEPHUS, Antiq., 2Ki 11:8 ; 2 Kings 11:2 ; 2 Kings 11:4. From this time the Samaritans seem to have gradually abandoned their earlier idolatry, and became thoroughly monotheistic, but the enmity between them and the Jews never ceased. It rather became intensified, and in the time of our Lord the two nations had no dealings with each other. John 4:9. Compare note on Matthew 10:5. A remnant of the Samaritans still linger in the vale of Shechem, and three times a year go up to the top of Mount Gerizim to worship.