2 Kings 17:1-23

¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned nine years. ²He did evil in the sight of the Lord, only not as the kings of Israel who were before him. ³Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and paid him tribute. ⁴But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had offered no tribute 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 invaded the whole land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. ⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. ⁷Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they had feared other gods ⁸and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. ⁹The sons of Israel did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰They set for themselves sacred pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, ¹¹and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord. ¹²They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” ¹³Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” ¹⁴However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. ¹⁶They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. ¹⁷Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him. ¹⁸So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from His sight; none was left except the tribe of Judah. ¹⁹Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs which Israel had introduced. ²⁰The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight. ²¹When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. ²²The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them ²³until the Lord removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.