15. They rejected his regulations and the covenant he had made with their ancestors, along with the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless images so that they too became worthless. And they imitated the neighboring nations that the Lord had forbidden them to imitate.
16. They deserted all the commandments of the Lord their God. They made themselves two metal idols cast in the shape of calves and made a sacred pole. They bowed down to all the heavenly bodies. They served Baal.
17. They burned their sons and daughters alive. They practiced divination and sought omens. They gave themselves over to doing what was evil in the Lord’s eyes and made him angry.
18. So the Lord was very angry at Israel. He removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was spared.
19. But Judah didn’t keep the commands of the Lord their God either. They followed the practices of Israel.
20. So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants. He punished them, and he handed them over to enemies who plundered them until he finally threw them out of his sight.
21. When Israel broke away from David’s dynasty, they made Nebat’s son Jeroboam the king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from the Lord. He caused them to commit great sin.
22. And the Israelites continued walking in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They didn’t deviate from them,
23. and the Lord finally removed Israel from his presence. That was exactly what he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from its land to Assyria. And that’s still how it is today.
24. The Assyrian king brought people from Babylon, Cuth, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, resettling them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. These people took control of Samaria and settled in its cities.
25. But when they began to live there, they didn’t worship the Lord, so the Lord sent lions against them, and the lions began to kill them.
26. Assyria’s king was told about this: "The nations you sent into exile and resettled in the cities of Samaria don’t know the religious practices of the local god. He’s sent lions against them, and the lions are killing them because none of them know the religious practices of the local god."
27. So Assyria’s king commanded, "Return one of the priests that you exiled from there. He should go back and live there. He should teach them the religious practices of the local god."
28. So one of the priests who had been exiled from Samaria went back. He lived in Bethel and taught the people how to worship the Lord.
29. But each nationality still made its own gods. They set them up in the houses that the people of Samaria had made at the shrines. Each nationality did this in whichever cities they lived.
30. The Babylonian people made the god Succoth-benoth, the Cuthean people made Nergal, and the people from Hamath made Ashima.
31. The Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak. The Sepharvites burned their children alive as a sacrifice to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the Sepharvite gods.