2 Kings 17

¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah Hosheʹa the son of Elah began to reign in Samarʹia over Israel, and he reigned nine years. ²And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. ³Against him came up Shalmaneʹser king of Assyria; and Hosheʹa became his vassal, and paid him tribute. ⁴But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hosheʹa; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. ⁵Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samarʹia, and for three years he besieged it. ⁶In the ninth year of Hosheʹa the king of Assyria captured Samarʹia, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

⁷And this was so, because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods ⁸and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs which the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city; ¹⁰they set up for themselves pillars and Asheʹrim on every high hill and under every green tree; ¹¹and there they burned incense on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, ¹²and they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” ¹³Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵They despised his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings which he gave them. They went after false idols, and became false, and they followed the nations that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. ¹⁶And they forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an Asheʹrah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baʹal. ¹⁷And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only.

¹⁹Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. ²⁰And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

²¹When he had torn Israel from the house of David they made Jeroboʹam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboʹam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin. ²²The people of Israel walked in all the sins which Jeroboʹam did; they did not depart from them, ²³until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

²⁴And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaʹim, and placed them in the cities of Samarʹia instead of the people of Israel; and they took possession of Samarʹia, and dwelt in its cities. ²⁵And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. ²⁶So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations which you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samarʹia do not know the law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” ²⁷Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away thence; and let him go and dwell there, and teach them the law of the god of the land.” ²⁸So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samarʹia came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹But every nation still made gods of its own, and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they dwelt; ³⁰the men of Babylon made Sucʹcoth-beʹnoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashiʹma, ³¹and the Avʹvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharʹvites burned their children in the fire to Adramʹmelech and Anamʹmelech, the gods of Sepharvaʹim. ³²They also feared the Lord, and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. ³³So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. ³⁴To this day they do according to the former manner.

They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the ordinances or the law or the commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. ³⁵The Lord made a covenant with them, and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them; ³⁶but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. ³⁷And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, ³⁸and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, ³⁹but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰However they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.

⁴¹So these nations feared the Lord, and also served their graven images; their children likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.