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

2 And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who were before him.

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

4 But the king of Assyria found Hoshea treacherous: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done from year to year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and kept him in prison.

5 Then the king of Assyria overran the whole country, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.

6 In Hoshea’s ninth year the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and settled them in Halah and along the Habor at the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

7 ¶ This was so because, the children 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 they had feared other gods,

8 And followed the customs of the heathen, whom the LORD drove out before the children of Israel, customs the kings of Israel had introduced.

9 And against the LORD their God the children of Israel secretly did those things that were not right, and they built high places in all their cities, from the watchman’s tower to the fortified city.

10 And they set up images and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree:

11 And they burnt incense there in all the high places, as the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them had done; and did wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:

12 For they served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, You shall not do this thing.

13 Yet the LORD warned Israel, and Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to the whole law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.

14 Yet they would not hear, but hardened their necks, as did their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.

15 And they rejected his statutes, and the covenant that he made with their fathers, and his warnings to them; and they followed what was worthless, and became worthless, like the heathen who were around them, although the LORD had ordered them, not to do as they do.

16 And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made themselves molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the starry host of heaven, and served Baal.

17 And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used fortune-telling and enchantments, and gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.

18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them from his sight: and only the tribe of Judah was left.

19 Judah likewise did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but followed the customs that Israel had introduced.

20 And so the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of those who plundered them, and finally put them out of his sight.

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

22 For the children of Israel continued in all the sins that Jeroboam had committed; and they did not depart from them;

23 Until the LORD removed Israel from his sight, as he said he would by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria and they are still there today.

24 ¶ Then the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and lived in its cities.

25 But when they first began living there, they did not fear the LORD: therefore the LORD sent lions among them, who slew some of them.

26 Therefore they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations that you have removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, do not know the way of the God of the land: therefore he has sent lions among them, and, they kill them, because they do not know the way of the God of the land.

27 Then the king of Assyria gave a command, saying, Take one of the priests that you took from Samaria back there; and let him and his helpers live there, and teach them the way of the God of the land.

28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD.

29 However every nationality made gods of their own, and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nationality in the cities where they lived.

30 The men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,

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

32 So they feared the LORD, yet appointed all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines in the high places.

33 They feared the LORD, yet served their own gods, after the custom of the nations from whom they had been carried away.

34 To this day they follow their former custom: they do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow the statutes, or the judgements, the law and commandments that the LORD gave to the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;

35 With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, or bow down to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them:

36 But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, him shall you fear, and him shall you worship, and to him shall you offer sacrifice.

37 And the statutes, ordinances, law, and commandment, that he wrote for you, you shall observe to do for evermore; and you shall not fear other gods.

38 And you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you; nor shall you fear other gods.

39 But you shall fear the LORD your God; and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.

40 However they did not listen, but they did as they had done before.

41 So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children’s children: they do as their fathers did, to this day.