1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years.
2 He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, though not to the extent of the kings of Israel who preceded him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched up against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.
4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was plotting against him; he had sent envoys to So king of Egypt and had stopped paying the yearly tribute to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison.
5 The king of Assyria then invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.
6 In Hoshea's ninth year the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the towns of the Medes.
7 All this happened because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, out from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had feared other gods
8 and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel, as well as the practices the kings of Israel had introduced.
9 The children of Israel secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. In all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city, they built themselves high places.
10 They set up sacred pillars and Asherim for themselves on every lofty hill and beneath every leafy tree.
11 There, at all the high places, they burned incense like the nations the LORD had driven into exile before them. They did evil things that provoked the LORD,
12 and they served idols, though the LORD had told them, "You must not do this."
13 The LORD warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer: "Turn back from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and statutes in keeping with the whole law that I commanded your fathers and sent to you through my servants the prophets."
14 But they would not listen. They were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 They rejected his statutes, the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They pursued worthless things and became worthless themselves. They followed the nations around them, although the LORD had ordered them not to do as those nations did.
16 They forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God and made themselves two calves of cast metal. They made an Asherah, bowed down to the whole host of heaven and served Baal.
17 They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire, practiced divination and looked for omens, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him.
18 So the LORD was furious with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left.
19 But Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God either; they followed the practices Israel had introduced.
20 The LORD rejected all of Israel's descendants. He humbled them and handed them over to plunderers until he had thrown them out of his presence.
21 When he tore Israel away from David's house, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drew Israel away from following the LORD and led them into great sin.
22 The children of Israel persisted in all the sins Jeroboam had committed and did not turn away from them,
23 until the LORD removed Israel from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was deported from their own land to Assyria, where they are to this day.
24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the children of Israel. They took over Samaria and lived in its towns.
25 When they first settled there, they did not fear the LORD, so the LORD sent lions among them, and they killed some of them.
26 The king of Assyria was told: "The nations you deported and settled in the towns of Samaria do not know what the god of the land requires. He has sent lions among them, which are killing them, because the people do not know what he requires."
27 So the king of Assyria gave this order: "Send back one of the priests you deported from there. Let him go and live there and teach the people what the god of the land requires."
28 One of the priests who had been deported from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how to fear the LORD.
29 Nevertheless each nation went on making its own gods, and they set them up in the houses of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, each nation in the towns where it lived.
30 The people from Babylon made Succoth-benoth, those from Cuth made Nergal, those from Hamath made Ashima,
31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire as offerings to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 They also feared the LORD, and they appointed from their own number priests for the high places, who officiated for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the LORD, yet they served their own gods in keeping with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.
34 To this day they keep to their old practices. They do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow their statutes and their ordinances, the law and the commandment the LORD gave the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
35 The LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them: "Do not fear other gods or bow down to them, serve them or sacrifice to them.
36 The LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, is the one you must fear; to him you must bow down, and to him you must sacrifice.
37 You must always be careful to keep the statutes and ordinances, the law and the commandment he wrote for you. Do not fear other gods.
38 Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not fear other gods.
39 Rather, fear the LORD your God, and he will rescue you from the power of all your enemies."
40 They would not listen, however, but kept on with their old practices.
41 So these nations feared the LORD while serving their carved images. To this day their children and grandchildren keep doing as their fathers did.