10. They set up for themselves stone pillars and poles of Asherah worship on every high hill and under every green tree.
11. They burned incense there on all the high places, like the nations which Yahweh deported before them, and they did evil things to provoke Yahweh.
12. They served idols which Yahweh had said to them, “You shall not do this thing!”
13. Yahweh warned Israel and Judah by the hand of his every prophet, with every seer saying, “Turn from all of your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my ordinances, according to all the law which I commanded your ancestors, which I sent to you by the hand of my servants the prophets.”
14. But they did not listen and they stiffened their necks, like the necks of their ancestors who did not believe in Yahweh their God.
15. They rejected his statutes, his covenant which he made with their ancestors, and his warnings which he gave to them; and they went after the idols, became vain, and went after all the nations which were all around them, which Yahweh had commanded them not to do as they did.
16. They abandoned all the commands of Yahweh their God and made for themselves two molten calf-shaped idols; they made a pole of Asherah worship and bowed down to the army of the heavens and served Baal.
17. They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, they practiced divination and read omens, and they sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of Yahweh to provoke him.
18. So Yahweh was very angry with Israel and he removed them from his presence; none remained except the tribe of Judah alone.
19. Even Judah did not keep the commands of Yahweh their God, and they walked in the customs of Israel which they introduced,
20. so Yahweh rejected all the offspring of Israel and punished them, and he gave them into the hand of the plunderers until he banished them from his presence.
21. For he had torn Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king, but Jeroboam detached Israel from following Yahweh, and he made them sin a great sin.
22. The Israelites walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and they did not depart from it,
23. until Yahweh removed Israel from his presence as he had foretold by the hand of all his servants, the prophets. And so he deported Israel from upon his land to Assyria until this day.
24. The king of Assyria brought from Babylonia, from Cush, from Arva, from Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and he settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites, so they took possession of Samaria and lived in her cities.
25. It happened that when they began living there, they did not fear Yahweh, so Yahweh sent lions among them, and they were killing them.
26. So they said to the king of Assyria, “The nations whom you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the customs of the God of the land, so he sent lions among them, and now they are killing them because they do not know the customs of the God of the land.”
27. Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Release one of the priests whom you deported from there, and let him go and settle there. Let him teach them the customs of the God of the land.”
28. So one of the priests went, whom they had deported from Samaria, and he settled in Bethel and was teaching them how they should fear Yahweh.