³⁴ And this is still going on today. They continue to follow their former practices instead of truly worshiping the Lord and obeying the decrees, regulations, instructions, and commands he gave the descendants of Jacob, whose name he changed to Israel.

¹⁰ saying, “Your name is Jacob, but you will not be called Jacob any longer. From now on your name will be Israel.”^[a] So God renamed him Israel.

²⁸ “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel,^[a] because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”

God’s Stubborn People

³³ And though they worshiped the Lord, they continued to follow their own gods according to the religious customs of the nations from which they came.

²⁷ The king of Assyria then commanded, “Send one of the exiled priests back to Samaria. Let him live there and teach the new residents the religious customs of the God of the land.” ²⁸ So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria returned to Bethel and taught the new residents how to worship the Lord.

²⁵ But since these foreign settlers did not worship the Lord when they first arrived, the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.

³¹ He took twelve stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel,^[a]

¹¹ And now you say, ‘Go and tell your master, “Elijah is here.”’

³¹ Then he said to Jeroboam, “Take ten of these pieces, for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give ten of the tribes to you!