Hoshea the Last King of Israel
In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king in Samaria over Israel — nine years.
And he did the evil in the eyes of the LORD — only, not like the kings of Israel who were before him.
Against him Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up; and Hoshea became his servant, and rendered him tribute.
And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea — for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and had not brought up tribute to the king of Assyria as year by year; and the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in a prison house.
Israel Carried Captive to Assyria
And the king of Assyria came up through all the land; and he came up to Samaria and besieged it three years.
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria; and he exiled Israel to Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And it was so because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt — and they feared other gods.
And they walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had dispossessed before the sons of Israel, and in those the kings of Israel had made.
And the sons of Israel did secretly things that were not right against the LORD their God; and they built themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city.
And they set up for themselves standing stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every leafy tree.
And they burned incense there, at all the high places, like the nations whom the LORD had exiled before them; and they did evil things, provoking the LORD.
And they served the idols, of which the LORD had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
And the LORD warned Israel and Judah by the hand of every prophet and every seer, saying: “Turn back from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the instruction that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”
But they did not listen; and they stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God.
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he cut with their fathers, and his testimonies that he testified against them; and they went after the worthless — and became worthless — and after the nations that were around them, of whom the LORD had commanded them not to do as they did.
And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made themselves a cast image — two calves — and made an Asherah pole, and bowed down to all the host of the heavens, and served the Baal.
And they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divinations and read omens; and they sold themselves to do the evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him.
And the LORD was very angry with Israel, and he removed them from his face; none was left except the tribe of Judah alone.
Even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God; and they walked in the statutes of Israel that they had made.
And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of plunderers — until he had thrown them away from his face.
For he tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD, and caused them to sin a great sin.
And the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam that he did; they did not turn aside from them —
until the LORD removed Israel from his face, as he had spoken by the hand of all his servants the prophets. And Israel was exiled from its own soil to Assyria, to this day.
Samaria Resettled
And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.
And it was, at the beginning of their living there, that they did not fear the LORD; and the LORD sent the lions among them, and they kept killing some of them.
And they said to the king of Assyria, saying: “The nations that you exiled and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; and he has sent the lions among them — and look, they are putting them to death, because they do not know the custom of the God of the land.”
And the king of Assyria commanded, saying: “Bring there one of the priests whom you exiled from there; and let them go and live there, and let him teach them the custom of the God of the land.”
And one of the priests whom they had exiled from Samaria came and lived at Bethel; and he was teaching them how they should fear the LORD.
But they kept making, nation by nation, its own gods; and they set them in the houses of the high places that the Samarians had made — nation by nation, in their cities where they were living.
And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
And they were fearing the LORD — and they made for themselves, from their whole range, priests of the high places, who were sacrificing for them in the houses of the high places.
The LORD they were fearing — and their own gods they were serving, according to the custom of the nations from which they had been exiled.
To this day they are doing according to the former customs. They are not fearing the LORD, and they are not doing according to their statutes and their customs, or according to the instruction and the commandment that the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whose name he made Israel.
And the LORD cut a covenant with them and commanded them, saying: “You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not bow down to them; and you shall not serve them, and you shall not sacrifice to them.
But the LORD, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm — him you shall fear, and to him you shall bow down, and to him you shall sacrifice.
And the statutes and the customs, and the instruction and the commandment, that he wrote for you, you shall keep to do all the days; and you shall not fear other gods.
And the covenant that I cut with you, you shall not forget; and you shall not fear other gods.
But the LORD your God you shall fear — and he will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.”
But they did not listen; instead, according to their former custom they are doing.
So these nations were fearing the LORD — and serving their carved images; their sons too, and the sons of their sons — as their fathers did, they are doing, to this day.