2 Kings
2 Kings 17 ©
1 Hoshea's wicked reign. 3 Becoming tributary to Shalmaneser, and afterward conspiring with the king of Egypt against him, he is shut up in prison. 5 Shalmaneser after a three years' siege taketh Samaria, and carrieth Israel away captive for their wickedness, as the prophets had predicted. 24 The strange nations, which were transplanted into the land of Israel, are plagued with lions; they send for one of the captive priests to teach them the worship of God, which they mix with their own idolatry.
And the king of Assyria found dconspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no 3present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and ebound him in prison.
¶In gthe ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and hcarried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of iGozan, and in the cities of jthe Medes.
For so it was, kthat the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had lbrought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
And they pset them up 4images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
Yet the LORD rtestified against Israel, and against Judah, 5by sall the prophets, and by all tthe seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he vtestified against them; and wthey followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
For he irent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam *drave Israel from following the LORD, and jmade them sin a great sin.
¶And the king of Assyria brought men mfrom Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from nHamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead oof the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the *manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the *manner of the God of the land.
Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the rpriests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the *manner of the God of the land.
Howbeit every nation tmade gods of their own, and put them in uthe houses of the high places which the vSamaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to xAdrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
So they yfeared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the zlowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
They afeared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the *manner of the nations 6whom they carried away from thence.
Unto this day they do after bthe former *manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, cwhom he named Israel;
And gthe statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and hye shall not fear other gods.
And the covenant that I have made with you iye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
Howbeit jthey did not hearken, but they did after their former *manner.