6. In the ninth year of Hoshĕa, the sovereign of Ashshur captured Shomeron and exiled Yisra’ĕl to Ashshur, and settled them in Ḥalaḥ and Ḥaḇor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7. Now this came to be because the children of Yisra’ĕl had sinned against יהוה their Elohim – who had brought them up out of the land of Mitsrayim, from under the hand of Pharaoh sovereign of Mitsrayim – and feared other mighty ones,
8. and walked in the laws of the gentiles whom יהוה had dispossessed from before the children of Yisra’ĕl, and of the sovereigns of Yisra’ĕl that they had made.
9. And the children of Yisra’ĕl secretly did against יהוה their Elohim matters that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower unto the walled city,
10. and set up for themselves pillars and Ashĕrim on every high hill and under every green tree,
11. and burned incense there on all the high places, like the gentiles whom יהוה had removed from their presence. And they did evil matters to provoke יהוה,
12. and served the idols, of which יהוה had said to them, “Do not do this.”
13. And יהוה warned Yisra’ĕl and Yehuḏah, through all of His prophets, and every seer, saying, “Turn back from your evil ways, and guard My commands and My laws, according to all the Torah which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.”
14. But they did not listen and hardened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not put their trust in יהוה their Elohim,
15. and rejected His laws and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His witnesses which He had witnessed against them, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless, and after the gentiles who were all around them, of whom יהוה had commanded them not to do like them.
16. And they left all the commands of יהוה their Elohim, and made for themselves a moulded image, two calves, and made an Ashĕrah and bowed themselves to all the host of the heavens, and served Ba‛al,
17. and caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, and practised divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of יהוה, to provoke Him.