2 Kings 17:1-23

Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel during Ahaz’s twelfth year as king of Judah. Hoshea ruled in Samaria nine years. He did what the LORD said was wrong, but he was not as bad as the kings of Israel who had ruled before him. Shalmaneser king of Assyria came to attack Hoshea. Hoshea had been Shalmaneser’s servant and had made the payments to Shalmaneser that he had demanded. But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea had made plans against him by sending messengers to So, the king of Egypt. Hoshea had also stopped giving Shalmaneser the payments, which he had paid every year in the past. For that, the king put Hoshea in prison. Then the king of Assyria came and attacked all the land of Israel. He surrounded Samaria and attacked it for three years. He defeated Samaria in the ninth year Hoshea was king, and he took the Israelites away to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes. All these things happened because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God. He had brought them out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of the king of Egypt, but the Israelites had honored other gods. They lived like the nations the LORD had forced out of the land ahead of them. They lived as their evil kings had shown them, secretly sinning against the LORD their God. They built places to worship gods in all their cities, from the watchtower to the strong, walled city. They put up stone pillars to gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree. The Israelites burned incense everywhere gods were worshiped, just as the nations who lived there before them had done, whom the LORD had forced out of the land. The Israelites did wicked things that made the LORD angry. They served idols when the LORD had said, “You must not do this.” The LORD used every prophet and seer to warn Israel and Judah. He said, “Stop your evil ways and obey my commands and laws. Follow all the teachings that I commanded your ancestors, the teachings that I gave you through my servants the prophets.” But the people would not listen. They were stubborn, just as their ancestors had been who did not believe in the LORD their God. They rejected the LORD’s laws and the agreement he had made with their ancestors. And they refused to listen to his warnings. They worshiped useless idols and became useless themselves. They did what the nations around them did, which the LORD had warned them not to do. The people rejected all the commands of the LORD their God. They molded statues of two calves, and they made an Asherah idol. They worshiped all the stars of the sky and served Baal. They made their sons and daughters pass through fire and tried to find out the future by magic and witchcraft. They always chose to do what the LORD said was wrong, which made him angry. Because he was very angry with the people of Israel, he removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left. But even Judah did not obey the commands of the LORD their God. They did what the Israelites had done, so the LORD rejected all the people of Israel. He punished them and let others destroy them; he threw them out of his presence. When the LORD separated them from the family of David, the Israelites made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam led the Israelites away from the LORD and led them to sin greatly. So they continued to do all the sins Jeroboam did. They did not stop doing these sins until the LORD removed the Israelites from his presence, just as he had said through all his servants the prophets. So the Israelites were taken out of their land to Assyria, and they have been there to this day.

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