Hoshea the Last King of Israel
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel for nine years. 2 He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him.
3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became his servant and brought him tribute. 4 The king of Assyria discovered a conspiracy by Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to King So of Egypt and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had been doing every year. Therefore the king of Assyria seized him and bound him in prison.
Israel Exiled Because of Idolatry
5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire territory, up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria overtook Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria, placing them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and because they had feared other gods. 8 They walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord cast out from before the Israelites, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had introduced.
9 The Israelites secretly did things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built high places for themselves in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 There they burned incense in all the high places like the nations before them whom the Lord had driven away did, and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. 12 They served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
13 Yet the Lord testified to Israel and to Judah, by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes according to the entire law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
14 But they would not listen and were stiff-necked like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified to them. They pursued worthless things and became worthless themselves and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not imitate.
16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God and made molten images for themselves (two calves) and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17 They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was 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. There was none left other than the tribe of Judah.
19 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20 The Lord rejected all the offspring of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of raiders, until he had cast 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 drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit a great sin. 22 The Israelites walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and they did not depart from them 23 until the Lord removed Israel from his sight, as he said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken out of their own land to Assyria to this day.
Israel’s Cities Resettled by Foreigners
24 The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the Israelites; and they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 They spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations which you have deported and placed in the cities of Samaria don’t know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them which are killing the people because they don’t know the law of the god of the land.”
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Take one of the priests whom you brought from there and let them go and dwell there and let him teach them the law of the god of the land. 28 So one of the priests whom they had taken from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 However each nationality made gods of their own nation and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nationality did this in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites 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, and also made from among themselves, priests of the high places for themselves, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. 33 They feared the Lord, and also served their own gods, after the ways of the nations from which they had been deported.
34 To this day they do what they did before. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes, or the ordinances, or the law, or the commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel, 35 with whom the Lord had made a covenant and commanded them, saying, “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow down to him, and you shall sacrifice to him. 37 The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which he wrote for you, you shall be careful to do forevermore: You shall not fear other gods. 38 You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not 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 what they did before. 41 So these nations feared the Lord, and also served their engraved images. Their children did likewise and so did their children’s children. They do as their fathers did to this day.