2 Kings 17:5-23

Evangelical Heritage Version

⁵ Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land. He went up against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. ⁶ In Hoshea’s ninth year, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He made them live in Halah and along the Habur River, which is the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.^[a]

⁷ This happened because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they feared other gods. ⁸ They walked in the practices of the nations, whom the Lord had driven out before the people of Israel, and the practices which the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹ The people of Israel did secret things against the Lord their God, which were not right. They also built high places for themselves in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up sacred memorial stones and Asherah poles for themselves upon every high hill and under every leafy tree. ¹¹ They offered sacrifices at all the high places, like the nations that God drove out before them. They did evil things, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹² They served filthy idols even though the Lord had said to them, “You must not do this.”

¹³ The Lord had warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways and keep my commands and my regulations, according to the entire law which I commanded your fathers and which I sent to you through my servants the prophets.” ¹⁴ But they did not listen. They made their necks just as stiff as their fathers, who did not trust in the Lord their God.

¹⁵ They rejected his regulations and the covenant which he made with their fathers and the testimony with which he warned them. They followed useless idols, and they became useless themselves. They followed the other nations around them, about whom the Lord had commanded them, “Do not do as they do.” ¹⁶ They deserted all the commands of the Lord their God, and they made for themselves cast metal images, two calves. They made Asherah poles, and they bowed down to the whole army of the heavens,^[b] and they served Baal. ¹⁷ They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire. They engaged in divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸ So the Lord was furious with Israel, and he removed them from his presence. None was left—only the tribe of Judah.

¹⁹ Even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They walked in the practices which Israel introduced. ²⁰ So the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and he afflicted them. He gave them into the hand of plunderers until he cast them out of his presence.

²¹ When the Lord tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. But Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the Lord. He caused them to commit a great sin. ²² The people of Israel walked in all the sins which Jeroboam did. They did not turn from them ²³ until the Lord removed Israel from his presence, just as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So Israel went to Assyria, into exile from her homeland to this day.