2 Kings 17:28 - Exposition

Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria —the country, not the city, as in 2 Kings 17:24 and 2 Kings 17:25 — came and dwelt in Bethel. Bethel from a very early time greatly eclipsed Dan. While the allusions to Bethel, commonly called "Bethaven" (" House of nothingness" for "House of God "), are frequent in the Israelitish prophets ( Hosea 4:15 ; Hosea 5:8 ; Hosea 10:5 , Hosea 10:8 , Hosea 10:15 ; Amos 3:14 ; Amos 4:4 ; Amos 5:5 , Amos 5:6 ; Amos 7:10-13 ), there is but a single distinct allusion to Dan ( Amos 8:14 ). Bethel was "the king's chapel" and "the king's court" ( Amos 7:13 ). The priest selected by Sargon's advisers was a Bethelite priest, and, returning thither, took up the worship familiar to him. And taught them — i.e; the new settlers— how they should fear the Lord. This worship could only be that of the calf-priests instituted by Jeroboam, which was, however, most certainly a worship of Jehovah, and an imitation or travesty of the temple - worship at Jerusalem. Whether the returned priest set up a new calf-idol to replace the one which had been carried off to Assyria ( Hosea 10:5 ), is doubtful.