Assyria resettles Samaria’s towns
Divided Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 80a438556551c331 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Assyrian rule · Resettlement after the fall of Samaria
Assyria brings people from Babylon and other places to Samaria’s towns. After deaths attributed to lions, a deported priest is returned to teach worship of the LORD at Bethel. The narrator describes a continuing mixture of that worship with the newcomers’ own gods.
The chapter distinguishes the newcomers’ practices from wholehearted covenant obedience and includes a restatement of the command to worship the LORD alone. It does not establish that every original inhabitant was removed or supply a complete ancestry of all later Samaritans. The criticism concerns worship, not ethnic worth.
Primary Scripture
17:24 Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
17:25 Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
17:26 So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The peoples that you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land. Because of this, He has sent lions among them, which are indeed killing them off.”
17:27 Then the king of Assyria commanded: “Send back one of the priests you carried off from Samaria, and have him go back to live there and teach the requirements of the God of the land.”
17:28 Thus one of the priests they had carried away came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should worship the LORD.
17:29 Nevertheless, the people of each nation continued to make their own gods in the cities where they had settled, and they set them up in the shrines that the people of Samaria had made on the high places.
17:30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
17:31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.
17:32 So the new residents worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed for themselves priests of all sorts to serve in the shrines of the high places.
17:33 They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been carried away.
17:34 To this day they are still practicing their former customs. None of them worship the LORD or observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, whom He named Israel.
17:35 For the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites and commanded them, “Do not worship other gods or bow down to them; do not serve them or sacrifice to them.
17:36 Instead, worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him and offer sacrifices to Him.
17:37 And you must always be careful to observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments He wrote for you. Do not worship other gods.
17:38 Do not forget the covenant I have made with you. Do not worship other gods,
17:39 but worship the LORD your God, and He will deliver you from the hands of all your enemies.”
17:40 But they would not listen, and they persisted in their former customs.
17:41 So these nations worshiped the LORD but also served their idols, and to this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.
Related Scripture
Deuteronomy 6:13–15 · teaching
Exclusive worship is the covenant standard against which the mixed practices are evaluated.
Location evidence
Samaria, Bethel and Babylon are identified localities. Babylon is only one named place of origin; the map does not turn a straight connection into a reconstructed migration route.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.195, 32.276111]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Bethel: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.241389, 31.922778]. Classification source: editorial.
Samaria: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.195, 32.276111]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Samaria (CC BY 4.0)
Babylon: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [44.422222, 32.543333]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible.info: Babylon (CC BY 4.0)
OpenBible.info: Samaria (CC BY 4.0)
For the class
What difference does the narrator draw between adding worship of the LORD and exclusive covenant allegiance?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/divided-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm