2K 17:1In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel; he reigned for nine years.
2K 17:2And he did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not like the kings of Israel that had been before him.
2K 17:3Against him Shalmaneser the king of Assyria came up, and Hoshea became his servant and rendered presents to him.
2K 17:4But the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So the king of Egypt and did not send up a present to the king of Assyria as he had from year to year. And the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.
2K 17:5And the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, and he went up against Samaria and besieged it three years.
2K 17:6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away into Assyria; and he placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2K 17:7And this happened because the children of Israel sinned against Jehovah their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and had feared other gods;
2K 17:8And they walked in the statutes of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed before the children of Israel and those of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
2K 17:9And the children of Israel secretly did things against Jehovah their God that were not right; and they built high places in all their cities for themselves, from the watchmen’s tower to the fortified city.
2K 17:10And they set up for themselves pillars and Asherahs on every high hill and under every flourishing tree;
2K 17:11And there they burned incense in all the high places, as did the nations that Jehovah had carried away from before them, and they did wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger;
2K 17:12And they served idols, concerning which Jehovah had said to them, You shall not do this thing.
2K 17:13And Jehovah testified against Israel and against Judah through all the prophets and all the seers, saying, Turn from your evil ways; and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.
2K 17:14But they would not hear; and they stiffened their necks, which became like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Jehovah their God.
2K 17:15And they rejected His statutes and His covenant, which He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies, which He had testified unto them; and they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations that were around them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them not to act like them.
2K 17:16And they forsook all the commandments of Jehovah their God and made for themselves molten images, that is, two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshipped all the host of heaven; and they served Baal.
2K 17:17And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through fire and practiced divination and enchantments; and they sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of Jehovah, in order to provoke Him to anger.
2K 17:18Therefore Jehovah was very angry with Israel, and He removed them out of His sight; nothing remained except the tribe of Judah.
2K 17:19Judah also did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God but walked in the statutes of Israel, which they had made.
2K 17:20And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel; and He afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
2K 17:21For He tore Israel from the house of David. Now they had made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following Jehovah and made them commit a great sin.
2K 17:22And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them,
2K 17:23Until Jehovah removed Israel from His sight, as He had said through all His servants the prophets. And Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria; as it is unto this day.
2K 17:24And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Avva and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.
2K 17:25And when they began dwelling there, they did not fear Jehovah, so Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
2K 17:26And they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations that you have carried away and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and now they are killing them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land.
2K 17:27And the king of Assyria gave a command, saying, Take there one of the priests whom you have carried away from there; and let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the custom of the God of the land.
2K 17:28Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and he taught them how to fear Jehovah.
2K 17:29And every nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they dwelt.
2K 17:30And the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima,
2K 17:31And the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
2K 17:32So they feared Jehovah; and they made for themselves from all their classes priests for the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the houses of the high places.
2K 17:33They feared Jehovah but served their own gods after the custom of the nations, from which they had been carried away.
2K 17:34Unto this day they have done according to their former customs: They do not fear Jehovah; nor do they act according to their statutes and their ordinances, nor according to the law and commandment that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom He named Israel.
2K 17:35And Jehovah had made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them.
2K 17:36But Jehovah alone, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm, Him shall you fear, and Him shall you worship, and to Him shall you sacrifice.
2K 17:37And the statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment which He wrote out for you, you shall be certain to do forever; and you shall not fear other gods.
2K 17:38And you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, neither shall you fear other gods;
2K 17:39But you shall fear Jehovah your God, and He will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
2K 17:40But they did not listen but acted according to their former customs.
2K 17:41So these nations feared Jehovah but served their graven images, as well as their children and their children’s children; as their fathers had done, so they have done unto this day.
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