¹⁵ Do not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land; else, when they prostitute themselves with their gods and sacrifice to them, one of them may invite you and you may partake of the sacrifice. ¹⁶ And when you take their daughters as wives for your sons, and their daughters prostitute themselves with their gods, they will make your sons do the same.

^11 (A)the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. They served the Baals,^{[a] 12} and abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the one who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, and bowed down to them, and provoked the Lord.

¹³ Because they had abandoned the Lord and served Baal and the Astartes,^{[b] 14} the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel, and he delivered them into the power of plunderers who despoiled them. He sold them into the power of the enemies around them, and they were no longer able to withstand their enemies. ¹⁵ Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord turned against them, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them;^(B) and they were in great distress. ¹⁶ But the Lord raised up judges to save them from the power of their plunderers; ¹⁷ but they did not listen to their judges either, for they prostituted themselves by following other gods, bowing down to them. They were quick to stray from the way their ancestors had taken, who obeyed the commandments of the Lord; but these did not. ¹⁸ When the Lord raised up judges for them, he would be with the judge and save them from the power of their enemies as long as the judge lived. The Lord would change his mind when they groaned in their affliction under their oppressors. ¹⁹ But when the judge died, they would again do worse than their ancestors, following other gods, serving and bowing down to them, relinquishing none of their evil practices or stubborn ways.^(C)

^20 (D)The anger of the Lord flared up against Israel, and he said: Because this nation has transgressed my covenant, which I enjoined on their ancestors, and has not listened to me, ²¹ I for my part will not clear away for them any more of the nations Joshua left when he died. ^22 (E)They will be made to test Israel, to see whether or not they will keep to the way of the Lord and continue in it as their ancestors did. ²³ Therefore the Lord allowed these nations to remain instead of expelling them immediately. He had not delivered them into the power of Joshua.

^27 (A)Gideon made an ephod out of the gold and placed it in his city, Ophrah. All Israel prostituted themselves there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his household.

^33 (A)But after Gideon was dead, the Israelites again prostituted themselves by following the Baals, making Baal-berith^[a] their god.

Chapter 11

The End of Solomon’s Reign.^{[a] 1 (A)}King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites— ^2 (B)from nations of which the Lord had said to the Israelites: You shall not join with them and they shall not join with you, lest they turn your hearts to their gods. But Solomon held them^[b] close in love. ³ He had as wives seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines, and they turned his heart.

⁴ When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to follow other gods, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David his father had been. ⁵ Solomon followed Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. ⁶ Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he did not follow the Lord unreservedly as David his father had done. ⁷ Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and to Molech, the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain opposite Jerusalem. ⁸ He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

^9 (C)The Lord became angry with Solomon, because his heart turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice ¹⁰ and commanded him not to do this very thing, not to follow other gods. But he did not observe what the Lord commanded.

⁷ This came about because the Israelites 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. They venerated other gods, ^8 (A)they followed the rites of the nations whom the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites and those that the kings of Israel had practiced. ⁹ They adopted unlawful practices toward the Lord, their God. They built high places in all their cities, from guard post to garrisoned town. ¹⁰ They set up pillars and asherahs^[a] for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree. ¹¹ They burned incense there, on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had sent into exile at their coming. They did evil things that provoked the Lord, ¹² and served idols, although the Lord had told them: You must not do this.

^13 (B)The Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and seer: Give up your evil ways and keep my commandments and statutes, in accordance with the entire law which I enjoined on your ancestors and which I sent you by my servants the prophets. ¹⁴ But they did not listen. They grew as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who had not believed in the Lord, their God.^{(C) 15} They rejected his statutes, the covenant he had made with their ancestors, and the warnings he had given them. They followed emptiness and became empty; they followed the surrounding nations whom the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.^{(D) 16} They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord, their God: they made for themselves two molten calves; they made an asherah; they bowed down to all the host of heaven; they served Baal.^{(E) 17 (F)}They immolated their sons and daughters by fire. They practiced augury and divination. They surrendered themselves to doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight, and provoked him.

^18 (G)The Lord became enraged, and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left. ¹⁹ Even the people of Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord, their God, but followed the rites practiced by Israel. ²⁰ So the Lord rejected the entire people of Israel: he afflicted them and delivered them over to plunderers, finally casting them from his presence.^{(H) 21} When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam, son of Nebat, king; but Jeroboam lured the Israelites away from the Lord, causing them to commit a great sin.^{(I) 22} The Israelites imitated Jeroboam in all the sins he committed; they would not depart from them.

²³ Finally, the Lord removed Israel from his presence, just as he had declared through all his servants, the prophets. Thus Israel went into exile from their native soil to Assyria until this very day.

Foreigners Deported to Israel. ²⁴ The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. ²⁵ When they first settled there, they did not venerate the Lord, so he sent lions among them that killed some of them. ²⁶ A report reached the king of Assyria: “The nations you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the proper worship of the god of the land, so he has sent lions among them that are killing them, since they do not know the law of the god of the land.” ²⁷ The king of Assyria gave the order, “Send back some of the priests you deported, to go there and settle, to teach them the proper worship of the god of the land.” ²⁸ So one of the priests who had been deported from Samaria returned and settled in Bethel, and began to teach them how to venerate the Lord.

²⁹ Thus each of these nations continued to make its own gods, setting them up in the shrines of the high places the Samarians had made: each nation in the cities in which they dwelt. ³⁰ The Babylonians made Sukkot-Benot;^[b] the people of Cuth made Nergal; those from Hamath made Ashima; ³¹ those from Avva made Nibhaz and Tartak; and those from Sepharvaim immolated their children by fire to their city gods, King Hadad and King Anu. ³² At the same time, they were venerating the Lord, appointing from their own number priests for the high places to officiate for them in the shrines on the high places. ³³ They were both venerating the Lord and serving their own gods. They followed the custom of the nations from among whom they had been deported.

³⁴ To this very day they continue to act according to their former customs, not venerating the Lord nor observing the statutes and regulations, the law and commandment, that the Lord enjoined on the descendants of Jacob, whom he had named Israel.^{(J) 35} When the Lord made a covenant with them, he commanded them: You must not venerate other gods, nor bow down to them, nor serve them, nor offer sacrifice to them,^{(K) 36} but only to the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm. Him shall you venerate, to him shall you bow down, and to him shall you offer sacrifice. ³⁷ You must be careful always to observe the statutes and ordinances, the law and commandment, which he wrote for you; you must not venerate other gods. ³⁸ The covenant I made with you, you must not forget; you must not venerate other gods. ³⁹ You must venerate only the Lord, your God; it is he who will deliver you from the power of all your enemies. ⁴⁰ But they did not listen; they continued to act according to their former customs.

⁴¹ But these nations were both venerating the Lord and serving their own idols. Their children and children’s children are still acting like their ancestors, to this very day.

⁹ A conspiracy has been found, the Lord said to me, among the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ¹⁰ They have returned to the crimes of their ancestors who refused to obey my words. They also have followed and served other gods; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors.^(A)