¹⁷ until ^(A)I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.

¹¹ And ^(A)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it,

³² until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, ^(A)a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and ^(B)honey, that you may live, and not die. And do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you by saying, “The Lord will deliver us.”

⁹ In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^(A)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, ¹⁰ and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. ¹¹ The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria and put them in ^(B)Halah, and on the ^(C)Habor, ^(D)the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, ¹² because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

The Fall of Israel

⁶ In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria ^(A)captured Samaria, ^(B)and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria ^(C)and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of ^(D)Gozan, and in the cities of ^(E)the Medes.

Exile Because of Idolatry

⁷ And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, ^(F)who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods ^8 (G)and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, ^(H)and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 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, ^(I)from watchtower to fortified city. ¹⁰ They set up for themselves ^(J)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, ^(K)of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” ¹³ Yet the Lord ^(L)warned Israel and Judah ^(M)by every prophet ^(N)and every seer, saying, ^(O)“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, ^(P)but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. ¹⁵ They despised his statutes ^(Q)and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after ^(R)false idols ^(S)and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the ^(T)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 ^(U)two calves; and they ^(V)made an Asherah and ^(W)worshiped all the host of heaven and served ^(X)Baal. ^17 (Y)And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings^[a] and used ^(Z)divination and ^(AA)omens and ^(AB)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 ^(AC)the tribe of Judah only.

^19 (AD)Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. ²⁰ And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them ^(AE)and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

^21 (AF)When he had torn Israel from the house of David, ^(AG)they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord ^(AH)and made them commit great sin. ²² The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, ²³ until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, ^(AI)as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. ^(AJ)So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

¹² a land that the Lord your God cares for. ^(A)The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, ^(A)a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, ⁸ a land of wheat and barley, ^(B)of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, ⁹ a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper.