2 Kings 17:1-41
17 In the twelfth year of Aʹhaz the king of Judah, Ho·sheʹa+ the son of Eʹlah became king in Sa·marʹi·a+ over Israel for nine years.
2 And he continued to do what was bad in Jehovah’s eyes, only not as the kings of Israel that happened to be prior to him.+
3 It was against him that Shal·man·eʹser+ the king of As·syrʹi·a+ came up, and Ho·sheʹa came to be his servant and began to pay tribute+ to him.
4 However, the king of As·syrʹi·a got to find conspiracy+ in Ho·sheʹa’s case, in that he had sent messengers to So the king of Egypt+ and did not bring the tribute up to the king of As·syrʹi·a as in former years. Hence the king of As·syrʹi·a shut him up and kept him bound in the house of detention.+
5 And the king of As·syrʹi·a proceeded to come up against all the land and to come up to Sa·marʹi·a and lay siege+ against it for three years.
6 In the ninth year of Ho·sheʹa, the king of As·syrʹi·a captured Sa·marʹi·a+ and then led Israel into exile+ in As·syrʹi·a and kept them dwelling in Haʹlah+ and in Haʹbor at the river Goʹzan+ and in the cities of the Medes.+
7 And it came about because the sons of Israel had sinned+ against Jehovah their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharʹaoh the king of Egypt,+ and they began to fear other gods;+
8 and they kept walking in the statutes+ of the nations whom Jehovah had driven out from before the sons of Israel, and [in the statutes of] the kings of Israel that they had made;
9 and the sons of Israel went searching into the things that were not right toward Jehovah their God+ and kept building themselves high places+ in all their cities, from the tower+ of the watchmen clear to the fortified city;
10 and they kept setting up for themselves sacred pillars+ and sacred poles+ upon every high hill+ and under every luxuriant tree;+
11 and there on all the high places they continued to make sacrificial smoke the same as the nations+ whom Jehovah had taken into exile because of them, and they kept doing bad things to offend+ Jehovah;
12 And they continued to serve* dungy idols,+ concerning which Jehovah had said to them: “YOU must not do this thing”;+
13 and Jehovah kept warning+ Israel+ and Judah+ by means of all his prophets+ [and] every visionary,+ saying: “Turn back from YOUR bad ways+ and keep my commandments,+ my statutes,+ according to all the law+ that I commanded YOUR forefathers+ and that I have sent to YOU by means of my servants the prophets”;+
14 and they did not listen but kept hardening their necks+ like the necks of their forefathers that had not exercised faith+ in Jehovah their God;
15 and they continued rejecting his regulations and his covenant+ that he had concluded with their forefathers and his reminders*+ with which he had warned them, and they went following vain idols+ and became vain+ themselves, even in imitation of the nations that were all around them, concerning whom Jehovah had commanded them not to do like them;+
16 And they kept leaving all the commandments+ of Jehovah their God and proceeded to make for themselves molten statues,+ two calves,+ and to make a sacred pole,+ and they began to bow down to all the army of the heavens+ and to serve Baʹal;+
17 and they continued to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire+ and to practice divination+ and to look for omens,+ and they kept selling+ themselves to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, to offend+ him;
18 Therefore Jehovah got very incensed+ against Israel, so that he removed them from his sight.+ He did not let any remain but the tribe of Judah alone.+
19 Even Judah itself did not keep the commandments of Jehovah their God,+ but they went walking in the statutes of Israel+ that they had made.
20 Consequently Jehovah rejected all the seed*+ of Israel and kept afflicting them and giving them into the hand of pillagers, until he had cast them away from before him.+
21 For he ripped Israel off from the house of David, and they proceeded to make Jer·o·boʹam the son of Neʹbat king; and Jer·o·boʹam+ proceeded to part Israel from following Jehovah, and he caused them to sin with a great sin.+
22 And the sons of Israel went walking in all the sins of Jer·o·boʹam that he had done.+ They did not depart from them,
23 until Jehovah removed Israel from his sight,+ just as he had spoken by means of all his servants the prophets.+ So Israel went off its own soil into exile in As·syrʹi·a down to this day.+
24 Subsequently the king of As·syrʹi·a brought people from Babylon*+ and Cuʹthah and Avʹva+ and Haʹmath+ and Seph·ar·vaʹim+ and had them dwell in the cities of Sa·marʹi·a+ instead of the sons of Israel; and they began to take possession of Sa·marʹi·a and to dwell in its cities.
25 And it came about at the start of their dwelling there that they did not fear+ Jehovah. Therefore Jehovah sent lions+ among them, and they came to be killers among them.
26 So they sent word to the king of As·syrʹi·a, saying: “The nations that you have taken into exile and then settled in the cities of Sa·marʹi·a have not known the religion* of the God* of the land, so that he keeps sending lions among them;+ and, look! they are putting them to death, inasmuch as there are none knowing the religion of the God of the land.”
27 At that the king of As·syrʹi·a commanded, saying: “Have one of the priests+ go there whom YOU led into exile from there, that he may go and dwell there and teach them the religion of the God of the land.”
28 Accordingly one of the priests whom they had led into exile from Sa·marʹi·a came and began dwelling in Bethʹel,+ and he came to be a teacher of them as to how they ought to fear Jehovah.+
29 However, each different nation came to be a maker of its own god,*+ which they then deposited in the house of the high places that the Sa·marʹi·tans* had made, each different nation,* in their cities where they were dwelling.
30 And the men of Babylon, for their part, made Sucʹcoth-beʹnoth, and the men of Cuth,+ for their part, made Nerʹgal, and the men of Haʹmath, for their part, made A·shiʹma.
31 As for the Avʹvites,+ they made Nibʹhaz and Tarʹtak; and the Seʹphar·vites+ were burning their sons in the fire+ to A·dramʹme·lech and A·namʹme·lech the gods of Seph·ar·vaʹim.
32 And they came to be fearers of Jehovah and went making for themselves from the people in general priests+ of high places, and they came to be functionaries for them in the house of the high places.
33 It was of Jehovah that they became fearers,+ but it was of their own gods that they proved to be worshipers,+ according to the religion of the nations from among whom they had led them into exile.+
34 Down to this day they are doing according to their former religions.+ There were none fearing Jehovah+ and none doing according to his* statutes and his judicial decisions+ and the law+ and the commandment+ that Jehovah had commanded the sons of Jacob,+ whose name he made Israel;+
35 when Jehovah concluded a covenant+ with them and commanded them, saying: “YOU must not fear other gods,+ and YOU must not bow down to them nor serve them* nor sacrifice to them.+
36 But Jehovah, who brought YOU up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm,+ is the One whom YOU should fear,+ and to him YOU should bow down,+ and to him YOU should sacrifice.+
37 And the regulations+ and the judicial decisions+ and the law and the commandment that he wrote for YOU,+ YOU should take care to do always;+ and YOU must not fear other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have concluded with YOU, YOU must not forget;+ and YOU must not fear other gods.+
39 But it is Jehovah+ YOUR God that YOU should fear, as he is the one that will deliver YOU out of the hand of all YOUR enemies.”+
40 And they did not obey, but it was according to their former religion that they were doing.+
41 And these nations came to be fearers of Jehovah,+ but it was their own graven images that they proved to be serving. As for both their sons and their grandsons, it was just as their forefathers had done that they themselves are doing down to this day.
Footnotes
^ Or, “And they continued to render sacred service to (worship).” Heb., wai·ya·ʽav·dhuʹ; Gr., e·laʹtreu·san. See Ex 3:12 ftn.
^ Or, “testimonies.”
^ Or, “offspring; posterity.”
^ “From Babylon,” LXXVg; Heb., mib·Ba·velʹ, “from Babel.”
^ Lit., “judgment; judicial decision.” Heb., mish·patʹ; Gr., kriʹma; Lat., le·giʹti·ma.
^ “God of.” Heb., ʼElo·hehʹ; Gr., The·ouʹ; Lat., Deʹi.
^ “Its own god [or, gods].” Heb., ʼelo·havʹ; Gr., the·ousʹ, pl.; Lat., deʹum.
^ “The Samaritans.” Heb., hash·Sho·mero·nimʹ; the only occurrence in M.
^ Lit., “nation, nation.” Heb., gohy gohy, used distributively, as in the preceding part of the vs.
^ Lit., “their”; likely referring to the “sons of Jacob.”
