Second Book of Kings 17

¹ In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years.

² He did what is displeasing to Yahweh, though not like the preceding kings of Israel.

³ Shalmaneser king of Assyria made war on Hoshea who submitted to him and paid him tribute.

⁴ But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was playing a double game with him: he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and had not, as in previous years, handed over the tribute to the king of Assyria. For this the king of Assyria imprisoned him, in chains.

⁵ The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years.

⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan,[*a] and in the cities of the Medes.[*b]

⁷ This happened because the Israelites had sinned against Yahweh their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods,

⁸ they followed the practices of the nations that Yahweh had dispossessed for them.

⁹ The Israelites, and the kings they had made for themselves, plotted wicked schemes against their God. They built high places for themselves wherever they lived, from watchtower to fortified town.

¹⁰ They set up pillars and sacred poles for themselves on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

¹¹ They sacrificed there after the manner of the nations that Yahweh had expelled before them, and did wicked things there, provoking the anger of Yahweh.

¹² They served idols, although Yahweh had told them, ‘This you must not do’.

¹³ And yet through all the prophets and all the seers, Yahweh had given Israel and Judah this warning, ‘Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets’.

¹⁴ But they would not listen, they were more stubborn than their ancestors had been who had no faith in Yahweh their God.

¹⁵ They despised his laws and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They pursued emptiness, and themselves became empty through copying the nations round them although Yahweh had ordered them not to act as they did.

¹⁶ They rejected all the commandments of Yahweh their God and made idols of cast metal for themselves, two calves; they made themselves sacred poles, they worshipped the whole array of heaven, and they served Baal.

¹⁷ They made their sons and daughters pass through fire, they practised divination and sorcery, they sold themselves to evil-doing in the sight of Yahweh, provoking his anger.

¹⁸ For this, Yahweh was enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.

¹⁹ Judah did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God either, but copied the practices that Israel had introduced.

²⁰ Yahweh rejected the whole race of Israel; he brought them low, delivering them into the hands of marauders, until at length he thrust them away from him.

²¹ And indeed he had torn Israel away from the House of David, and they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; Jeroboam had drawn Israel away from Yahweh and led them into a great sin.

²² The Israelites copied the sin Jeroboam had committed; they did not give it up,

²³ until at length Yahweh thrust Israel away from him, as he had foretold through all his servants the prophets; he deported the Israelites from their own country to Assyria, where they still are today.

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 Israelites; they took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.

²⁵ When they first came to live there, they did not worship Yahweh, so Yahweh sent lions against them, which killed a number of them.

²⁶ They said to the king of Assyria, ‘The nations you deported and settled in the towns of Samaria do not know how to worship the god of the country, and he has sent lions against them; and now these are killing them because they do not know how to worship the god of the country’.

²⁷ So the king of Assyria gave this order: ‘Send back one of the priests whom I deported from there; let him go and live there and teach them how to worship the god of the country’.

²⁸ Accordingly, one of the priests they had deported from Samaria came to live in Bethel; he taught them how to worship Yahweh.

²⁹ Each national group made idols representing its own gods and put them in the temples of the high places made by the Samaritans; each national group did this in the towns allocated to it.

³⁰ The men of Babylon had made a Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuthah a Nergal, the men of Hamath an Ashima,

³¹ the Avvites a Nibhaz and a Tartak; while the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire in honour of Adrammelech and of Anammelech, gods of Sepharvaim.

³² They worshipped Yahweh as well, and they appointed priests out of their own number for the high places who officiated for them in the temples of the high places.

³³ They worshipped Yahweh and served their own gods at the same time, with the rites of the countries from which they had been deported.

³⁴ They still follow their old rites even now. They did not worship Yahweh[*c] and did not conform to his statutes or ritual, or the law or the commandments, which Yahweh had laid down for the sons of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel.

³⁵ Yahweh had made a covenant with them and had given them this command: ‘You are not to worship alien gods, you are not to bow down to them or serve them or offer them sacrifices.

³⁶ You are to bow down and offer sacrifice to Yahweh who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm.

³⁷ You are to observe the statutes and ritual, the law and the commandments which he has given you in writing and to which you are always to conform; you are not to worship alien gods.

³⁸ Do not forget the covenant I have made with you, and do not venerate alien gods.

³⁹ Venerate Yahweh alone, your God, and he will deliver you out of the power of all your enemies.’

⁴⁰ But they would not listen, and still followed their old rites.

⁴¹ These nations, then, worshipped Yahweh and served their carved images as well, their children, too, and their children’s children still behave today as their fathers behaved in the past.