2 Kings 17:34

A FINAL LAMENT OVER THE SINS OF GOD'S PEOPLE

"Unto this day they do after the former manner: they fear not Jehovah, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law or after the commandment which Jehovah commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel; with whom Jehovah had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them: but Jehovah, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm, him shall ye fear, and unto him shall ye bow yourselves, and unto him shall ye sacrifice: 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: and the covenant which I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods: but Jehovah your God shall ye fear; and he will deliver you out of the hand of aU your enemies. Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner. So these nations feared Jehovah, and served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children's children, as did their fathers, so do they unto this day."

Montgomery called this paragraph "A condemnation of the Samaritan sect."[18] However, there are overtones in the passage which must be understood as applicable to the entire nation of God's chosen people, Judah and Israel alike.

"In some ways, this chapter is the heart of 2Kings, completing the stage of history that was begun when Yahweh declared the division of Solomon's kingdom through Ahijah the prophet and by the agency of Jeroboam ben Nebat. The Northern kingdom was to serve as an example to the house of David; but Judah learned little (or nothing at all) from the experience of Israel; because they had to go through the same judgment and destruction and exile."[19]

"The law and the commandment which he wrote for you" (2 Kings 17:37). Here is a reference to the fact that the Law of Moses, as found in the Pentateuch, was written down and preserved for Israel. The idea, once prevalent, but no longer tenable, that writing did not exist in those days is false. The science of writing was known long before Moses.