9. The Israelites secretly did what was not right against the Lord their God. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city.
10. They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
11. They burned incense on all the high places just like those nations that the Lord had driven out before them. They did evil things, provoking the Lord.
12. They served idols, although the Lord had told them, “You must not do this.”
13. Still, the Lord warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep My commands and statutes according to all the law I commanded your ancestors and sent to you through My servants the prophets.”
14. But they would not listen. Instead they became obstinate like their ancestors who did not believe the Lord their God.
15. They rejected His statutes and His covenant He had made with their ancestors and the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.
16. They abandoned all the commands of the Lord their God. They made cast images for themselves, two calves, and an Asherah pole. They worshiped the whole heavenly host and served Baal.
17. They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and practiced divination and interpreted omens. They devoted themselves to do what was evil in the Lord’s sight and provoked Him.
18. Therefore, the Lord was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained.
19. Even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced.
20. So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and handed them over to plunderers until He had banished them from His presence.
21. When the Lord tore Israel from the house of David, Israel made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam led Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit great sin.
22. The Israelites persisted in all the sins that Jeroboam committed and did not turn away from them.
23. Finally, the Lord removed Israel from His presence just as He had declared through all His servants the prophets. So Israel has been exiled to Assyria from their homeland until today.
24. Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in place of the Israelites in the cities of Samaria. The settlers took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.
25. When they first lived there, they did not fear Yahweh. So the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
26. The settlers spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations that you have deported and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land. Therefore He has sent lions among them that are killing them because the people don’t know the requirements of the God of the land.”
27. Then the king of Assyria issued a command: “Send back one of the priests you deported. Have him go and live there so he can teach them the requirements of the God of the land.”
28. So one of the priests they had deported came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should fear Yahweh.
29. But the people of each nation were still making their own gods in the cities where they lived and putting them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made.