5. Then Shalmaneser invaded Israel and besieged Samaria. In the third year of the siege,
6. which was the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the Assyrian emperor captured Samaria, took the Israelites to Assyria as prisoners, and settled some of them in the city of Halah, some near the River Habor in the district of Gozan, and some in the cities of Media.
7. Samaria fell because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who had rescued them from the king of Egypt and had led them out of Egypt. They worshipped other gods,
8. followed the customs of the people whom the Lord had driven out as his people advanced, and adopted customs introduced by the kings of Israel.
9. The Israelites did things that the Lord their God disapproved of. They built pagan places of worship in all their towns, from the smallest village to the largest city.
10. On all the hills and under every shady tree they put up stone pillars and images of the goddess Asherah,