1In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel. He reigned nine years.
2He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who were before him.
3Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him. Hoshea became his servant and gave him gifts.
4But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea was plotting against him. For Hoshea had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and he brought no gift to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. So the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.
5Then the king of Assyria came up through all the land. He went up to Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.
6In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria. He carried Israel away into Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7This happened because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had feared other gods,
8and had lived by the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the children of Israel, and by the customs which the kings of Israel had made.
9The children of Israel secretly did things that were not right against the LORD their God. They built themselves high places in all their cities, from the watchman's tower to the walled city.
10They set up standing images and groves for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree.
11There they burned incense in all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD had carried away before them. They did wicked things that stirred up the LORD to anger.
12They served idols, though the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."
13Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, "Turn from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and my statutes, following all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
14But they would not listen. They made their necks stiff, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.
15They refused his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings he gave them. They followed worthless things and became worthless themselves. They went after the nations around them, about whom the LORD had commanded them not to act as they did.
16They left all the commandments of the LORD their God. They made metal images for themselves, two calves, and they made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire. They used divination and spells. They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, and stirred him up to anger.
18So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and he removed them out of his sight. No one was left but the tribe of Judah alone.
19Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived by the customs which Israel had made.
20So the LORD turned away from all the descendants of Israel. He brought trouble on them and handed them over to those who robbed them, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21For he tore Israel away from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD, and made them commit a great sin.
22The children of Israel followed all the sins of Jeroboam which he did. They did not turn away from them,
23until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria, and they are there to this day.
24The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim. He settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel. They took over Samaria and lived in its cities.
25When they first lived there, they did not fear the LORD. So the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
26So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations which you have moved and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the way of the God of the land. So he has sent lions among them, and look, the lions are killing them, because they do not know the way of the God of the land."
27Then the king of Assyria gave this command: "Take back there one of the priests whom you brought from there. Let him go and live there, and let him teach them the way of the God of the land."
28So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel. He taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29But every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nation did this in the cities where they lived.
30The men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32So they feared the LORD, and also appointed from among the lowest of them priests of the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the shrines of the high places.
33They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, following the ways of the nations from which they had been carried away.
34To this day they follow their old ways. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes, or the rules, or the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
35The LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, or bow down to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them."
36But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, him you shall fear, and him you shall worship, and to him you shall offer sacrifice.
37You shall be careful to keep for ever the statutes, and the rules, and the law, and the commandment which he wrote for you. You shall not fear other gods.
38You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, and you shall not fear other gods.
39"But you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will save you out of the hand of all your enemies."
40But they did not listen. They kept following their old ways.
41So these nations feared the LORD, and served their carved images too. Their children and their children's children did the same. As their fathers did, so they do to this day.