Hoshea Reigns over Israel

17 In the twelfth year of King Ahaz of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel; he reigned nine years.^{(A) 2} He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not like the kings of Israel who were before him. ³ King Shalmaneser of Assyria came up against him; Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.^{(B) 4} But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to King So of Egypt and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria confined him and imprisoned him.

Israel Carried Captive to Assyria

⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria; for three years he besieged it. ⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria; he carried the Israelites away to Assyria. He placed them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.^(C)

⁷ This occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods^{(D) 8} and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel and in the customs that the kings of Israel had introduced.^{[a](E) 9} The people of Israel did^[b] things that were not right against the Lord their God. They built for themselves high places at all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city;^{(F) 10} they set up for themselves pillars and sacred poles^[c] on every high hill and under every green tree;^{(G) 11} there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord had carried away before them. They did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger; ¹² they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”^{(H) 13} Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law that I commanded your ancestors and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”^{(I) 14} They would not listen but were stubborn, as their ancestors had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God.^{(J) 15} They despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their ancestors and the warnings that he had given them. They went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do as they did.^{(K) 16} They rejected all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves cast images of two calves; they made a sacred pole,^[d] worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.^{(L) 17} They made their sons and their daughters pass through fire, used divination and augury, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.^{(M) 18} Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah alone.^(N)

¹⁹ Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. ²⁰ The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel; he punished them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had banished them from his presence.^(O)

²¹ When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and made them commit great sin.^{(P) 22} The people of Israel continued in all the sins that Jeroboam committed; they did not depart from them ²³ until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had foretold through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

Bear One Another’s Burdens

6 My brothers and sisters, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. ² Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill^[a] the law of Christ.^{(A) 3} For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves.^{(B) 4} All must test their own work; then that work, rather than their neighbor’s work, will become a cause for pride.^{(C) 5} For all must carry their own loads.

⁶ Those who are taught the word must share in all good things with their teacher.^(D)

⁷ Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.^{(E) 8} If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.^{(F) 9} So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.^{(G) 10} So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all and especially for those of the family of faith.^(H)

Final Admonitions and Benediction

¹¹ See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! ¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.^{(I) 13} Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. ¹⁴ May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which^[b] the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.^{(J) 15} For^[c] neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation is everything!^{(K) 16} As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

¹⁷ From now on, let no one make trouble for me, for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body.^(L)

¹⁸ May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Assyria Resettles Samaria

²⁴ The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria in place of the people of Israel; they took possession of Samaria and settled in its cities.^{(A) 25} When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them that killed some of them. ²⁶ So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them; they are killing them because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” ²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there; let him^[a] go and live there and teach them the law of the god of the land.”^{(B) 28} So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel; he taught them how they should worship the Lord.

²⁹ But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived; ³⁰ the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the people of Cuth made Nergal, the people of Hamath made Ashima;^{(C) 31} the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.^{(D) 32} They also worshiped the Lord and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places.^{(E) 33} So they worshiped the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.^{(F) 34} To this day they continue to practice their former customs.

They do not worship the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the ordinances or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.^{(G) 35} The Lord had made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not worship other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them,^{(H) 36} but you shall worship the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice.^{(I) 37} The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to observe. You shall not worship other gods;^{(J) 38} you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods,^{(K) 39} but you shall worship the Lord your God; he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” ⁴⁰ They would not listen, however, but continued to practice their former custom.

⁴¹ So these nations worshiped the Lord but also served their carved images; to this day their children and their children’s children continue to do as their ancestors did.^(L)

Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

4 Now when Jesus^[a] learned that the Pharisees had heard, “Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John”^{(A) 2} (although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized), ³ he left Judea and started back to Galilee. ⁴ But he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.^{(B) 6} Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)^{[b](C) 10} Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”^{(D) 11} The woman said to him, “Sir,^[c] you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹² Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” ¹³ Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”^{(E) 15} The woman said to him, “Sir,^[d] give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”^(F)

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” ¹⁷ The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” ¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir,^[e] I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you^[f] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”^{(G) 21} Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you^[g] will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.^{(H) 22} You^[h] worship what you^[i] do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.^{(I) 23} But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.^{(J) 24} God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”^{(K) 25} The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”^{(L) 26} Jesus said to her, “I am he,^[j] the one who is speaking to you.”^(M)