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2 KingsChapter 17

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In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years.
He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, though not like the kings of Israel who came before him.
Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched against him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.
But the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy: Hoshea had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and had not paid the tribute to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year. So the king of Assyria seized him and bound him in prison.
Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched against Samaria, and besieged it for three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria, settling them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
All this happened because the Israelites 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 feared other gods
and followed the customs of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, and the practices the kings of Israel had introduced.
The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. They built themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
They set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree.
There, on every high place, they burned incense, just like the nations whom the LORD had carried into exile before them. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger.
They served idols, though the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this."
The LORD warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer: "Turn back from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and my statutes, according to the whole law that I commanded your fathers and that I sent to you through my servants the prophets."
But they would not listen. They stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God.
They rejected his statutes and the covenant he had made with their fathers, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They followed the nations around them, though the LORD had commanded them not to imitate them.
They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God. They made for themselves two cast metal calves, made an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire, practiced divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
So the LORD was furious with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left.
But even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God; they followed the customs Israel had introduced.
So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and handed them over to plunderers, until at last he cast them out of his presence.
For when he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and led them into great sin.
The Israelites persisted in all the sins Jeroboam had committed; they did not turn away from them,
until the LORD removed Israel from his presence, just as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria, where they remain to this day.
The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
When they first settled there, they did not fear the LORD, so the LORD sent lions among them, and the lions killed some of them.
Word was sent to the king of Assyria: "The nations you deported and settled in the towns of Samaria do not know the practice of the God of the land. He has sent lions among them, and they are killing them off, because the people do not know the practice of the God of the land."
Then 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 them the practice of the God of the land."
So one of the priests who had been deported from Samaria came and settled in Bethel, and he taught them how to fear the LORD.
Yet each nation went on making its own gods, and they set them up in the shrines the Samaritans had built at the high places, each nation in the towns where they lived.
The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
They feared the LORD, but they also appointed men from their own ranks as priests of the high places, and these officiated for them in the shrines of the high places.
They feared the LORD, yet they served their own gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been deported.
To this day they persist in their former customs. They do not fear the LORD, nor do they follow the statutes and ordinances, the law and the commandment that the LORD gave the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
For the LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them: "Do not fear other gods or bow down to them, do not serve them or sacrifice to them.
But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm—him you shall fear, to him you shall bow down, and to him you shall sacrifice.
You shall always be careful to keep the statutes and ordinances, the law and the commandment that he wrote for you. Do not fear other gods.
Do not forget the covenant I made with you, and do not fear other gods.
Rather, fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies."
But they would not listen; they kept following their former customs.
So these nations feared the LORD, yet they served their carved images; and their children and their children's children continue to this day to do just as their fathers did.
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