2 Kings 17

¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah began to reign over Israel in Samaria for nine years.

²And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, however, not as the kings of Israel who were before him.

³Against him Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute.

⁴But the king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had not brought tribute to the king of Assyria year by year; so the king of Assyria arrested him and bound him in the house of prison.

⁵And the king of Assyria marched up through all the land; and he came up against Samaria and besieged it three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷And it came about because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they feared other gods.

⁸And they walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the practices of the kings of Israel that they had followed.

⁹And the children of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.

¹⁰They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every leafy tree.

¹¹And they burned incense there at all the high places, like the nations whom the LORD had exiled from before them; and they did evil things to provoke the LORD.

¹²And they served the idols, which the Lord had said to them, You shall not do this thing.

¹³The LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, 'Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.'

¹⁴But they did not listen, and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers who did not believe in the LORD their God.

¹⁵And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his testimonies that he had testified against them, and they went after vanity and became vain, and after the nations that were around them, which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them.

¹⁶They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images -- two calves -- and made an Asherah pole, and bowed down to all the host of heaven, and served Baal.

¹⁷And they passed their sons and their daughters through fire, practiced divination and augury, and sold themselves to doing what was bad in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him.

¹⁸The LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight; only the tribe of Judah remained.

¹⁹Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God; they walked in the statutes of Israel that they had practiced.

²⁰And the Lord rejected all the offspring of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he cast them from his presence.

²¹For when he tore Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and made them commit a great sin.

²²The people of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam that he had committed; they did not turn from them,

²³until the LORD removed Israel from his presence, as he had spoken through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from its land to Assyria, to this day.

²⁴And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ivvah, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and settled in its cities.

²⁵And at the beginning of their dwelling there they did not fear the Lord, so the Lord sent lions among them, and they were killing among them.

²⁶They said to the king of Assyria, 'The nations that you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the god of the land; so he has sent lions among them, and they are killing them, because they do not know the custom of the god of the land.'

²⁷And the king of Assyria commanded, saying: 'Take there one of the priests whom you deported from there, and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the requirements of the God of the land.'

²⁸So one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and was teaching them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹But every nation still made its own gods and placed them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they settled.

³⁰The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuthah made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima.

³¹And the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³²And they were fearing the Lord and also appointed for themselves from among their number priests of the high places, and they were serving for them in the houses of the high places.

³³They were fearing the LORD but serving their gods, according to the custom of the nations from which they had been deported.

³⁴To this day they are acting according to their former customs; they do not fear the LORD, and they do not observe the statutes, ordinances, law, or commandments that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.

³⁵And the LORD made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying: 'You shall not fear other gods, you shall not bow down to them, you shall not serve them, and you shall not sacrifice to them.'

³⁶But rather the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, him you shall fear and to him you shall bow down and to him you shall sacrifice.

³⁷The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall observe and do all your days; and you shall not fear other gods.

³⁸The covenant that I made with you, do not forget; and do not fear other gods.

³⁹But the LORD the God of you all you shall fear, and he will deliver you all from the hand of all the enemies of you all.

⁴⁰But they did not listen; rather, they acted according to their former manner.

⁴¹So these nations were fearing the LORD and also serving their idols; their children likewise, and their children's children -- as their fathers did, so they are doing to this day.