2 Kings 17:9-18

English Standard Version

⁹ And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, ^(A)from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up for themselves ^(B)pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, ¹¹ and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, ¹² and they served idols, ^(C)of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” ¹³ Yet the Lord ^(D)warned Israel and Judah ^(E)by every prophet ^(F)and every seer, saying, ^(G)“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”

¹⁴ But they would not listen, ^(H)but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They despised his statutes ^(I)and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after ^(J)false idols ^(K)and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the ^(L)Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. ¹⁶ And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves metal images of ^(M)two calves; and they ^(N)made an Asherah and ^(O)worshiped all the host of heaven and served ^(P)Baal. ^17 (Q)And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings^[a] and used ^(R)divination and ^(S)omens and ^(T)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but ^(U)the tribe of Judah only.