2 Kings 17

1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, yet not as the kings of Israel before him had done. 3Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4But the king of Assyria found Hoshea plotting against him, for he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt and had not paid the king of Assyria his tribute as in other years. So the king of Assyria arrested him and held him bound in prison. 5Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land. He went up to Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. 6In Hoshea’s ninth year the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried the Israelites away into exile to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, on the Habor, Gozan’s river, and in the cities of the Medes.

7This happened because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt and out from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had feared other gods. 8They walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, and in the statutes that the kings of Israel had made. 9In secret the Israelites did things against the LORD their God that were not right. They built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower to the fortified city. 10They set up standing stones and Asherah poles for themselves on every high hill and under every leafy tree. 11There on all the high places they burned incense, as the nations had done whom the LORD carried away before them, and they did evil things that provoked the LORD to anger. 12They served the idols, though the LORD had told them, “You must not do this.” 13Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer: “Turn back from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and my statutes, in keeping with the whole law that I commanded your ancestors and sent to you through my servants the prophets.” 14But they would not listen. They stiffened their necks as their ancestors had done, who did not trust in the LORD their God. 15They rejected his statutes, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the decrees by which he had warned them. They went after worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They followed the nations around them, although the LORD had commanded them not to do as those nations did. 16They abandoned every commandment of the LORD their God and made themselves cast images, two calves. They made an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire, practiced divination and read omens, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 18So the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. None was left but the tribe of Judah alone. 19Even Judah failed to keep the commandments of the LORD their God. They walked in the statutes that Israel had made. 20So the LORD rejected all Israel’s descendants. He afflicted them and handed them over to plunderers, until he had thrown them out of his presence. 21When he had torn Israel from David’s house, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and led them to commit a great sin. 22The Israelites walked in all the sins that Jeroboam committed and did not turn away from them, 23until the LORD removed Israel from his presence, as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So Israel went into exile from its own land to Assyria, to this day.

24From Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim the king of Assyria brought people and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25When they first lived there they did not fear the LORD, so the LORD sent lions among them, and the lions killed some of them. 26Word was brought to the king of Assyria: “The nations you carried away 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 what the god of the land requires.” 27Then the king of Assyria gave orders: “Send back there one of the priests you carried away from there. Let him go and live there and teach them the custom of the god of the land.” 28So one of the priests who had been carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and he taught them how they should fear the LORD. 29But each nation made its own gods and set them up in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, each nation in the cities where it lived. 30The people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima. 31The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, while the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire for Adrammelech and Anammelech, gods of Sepharvaim. 32They feared the LORD, but they also appointed priests of the high places from all sorts of their own people, who offered sacrifices for them in the shrines of the high places. 33They feared the LORD, and they served their own gods, according to the custom of the nations from which they had been carried away. 34To this day they keep to their former customs. They do not truly fear the LORD, and they do not follow their statutes and rulings, or the law and the commandment that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, the man he named Israel. 35The LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them, “Do not fear other gods, or bow down to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them, 36but fear the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. Bow down to him, and sacrifice to him. 37Be careful always to keep the statutes and the rulings, the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, and do not fear other gods. 38Do not forget the covenant I made with you, and do not fear other gods. 39Fear the LORD your God instead, and he will rescue you from the power of all your enemies.” 40But they would not listen; they kept to their former custom. 41So these nations feared the LORD and also served their idols. Their children and their grandchildren have done as their ancestors did, to this day.