Hoshea Reigns in Israel
1 In the twelfth year of pAhaz king of Judah, qHoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he rdid what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Against him came up sShalmaneser king of Assyria. tAnd Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4 But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of uEgypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. 5 Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he vbesieged it.
The Fall of Israel
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he wcarried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Exile Because of Idolatry
7 And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, xwho had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods 8 and ywalked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel, zand in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. 9 And the people of Israel did secretly against the Lord their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, afrom watchtower to fortified city. 10 bThey set up for themselves cpillars and dAsherim eon every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they fmade offerings on all the high places, gas the nations did whom the Lord carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the Lord to anger, 12 and they served idols, hof which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.” 13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every iseer, saying, j“Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”
14 But they would not listen, but were kstubborn, as their fathers had been, lwho did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They mwent after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, nconcerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God, and omade for themselves metal images of two calves; and they pmade an Asherah and qworshiped all the host of heaven and rserved Baal. 17 And they sburned their sons and their daughters as offerings1 and used tdivination and uomens and vsold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and wremoved them out of his sight. None was left xbut the tribe of Judah only.
19 Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but ywalked in the customs that Israel had introduced. 20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of zplunderers, until he had acast them out of his sight.
21 When he had btorn Israel from the house of David, cthey made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord and dmade them commit great sin. 22 The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. eThey did not depart from them, 23 until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria funtil this day.
Assyria Resettles Samaria
24 And the king of Assyria gbrought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. 25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the Lord. Therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him2 go and dwell there and hteach them the law of the god of the land.” 28 So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the ishrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites jburned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 They also feared the Lord and kappointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 So they feared the Lord but lalso served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.
34 mTo this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the Lord, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, nwhom he named Israel. 35 The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or obow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall fear the Lord, who pbrought you out of the land of Egypt with qgreat power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. 37 And the rstatutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, 38 and you shall not sforget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, 39 but you shall fear the Lord your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the Lord and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.
25 But they pbroke faith with the God of their fathers, and qwhored after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. 26 So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, the spirit of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and he took them into exile, namely, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and rbrought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan, to this day.
The Lord Our God Is Holy
1 The Lord yreigns; let the peoples tremble!
He sits zenthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is great in Zion;
he is exalted aover all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name!
bHoly is he!
4 The King in his might loves justice.1
You have established equity;
you have executed cjustice
and righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God;
dworship at his footstool!
Holy is he!
6 eMoses and Aaron were among his priests,
fSamuel also was among those who gcalled upon his name.
hThey called to the Lord, and he answered them.
7 iIn the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;
they kept his testimonies
and the statute that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them;
you were a forgiving God to them,
but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at his holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy!
Give Thanks to the Lord, for He Is Good
1 Praise the Lord!
Oh mgive thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Who can utter the mighty deeds of the Lord,
or declare all his praise?
3 nBlessed are they who observe justice,
who do righteousness at all times!
4 Remember me, O Lord, when you show favor to your people;
help me when you save them,1
5 that I may look upon the prosperity of oyour chosen ones,
that I may rejoice in the gladness of your nation,
that I may glory with your inheritance.
6 Both pwe and our fathers have sinned;
we have committed iniquity; we have done wickedness.
7 Our fathers, when they were in Egypt,
did not consider your wondrous works;
they did not remember the qabundance of your steadfast love,
but rrebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea.
8 Yet she saved them tfor his name’s sake,
that he might umake known his mighty power.
9 vHe rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry,
and he wled them through the deep as through a desert.
10 So he saved them from the hand of the foe
and redeemed them from the power of the enemy.
11 And the waters covered their adversaries;
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed his words;
xthey sang his praise.
13 But they soon forgot his works;
they did not wait for his ycounsel.
14 zBut they had a wanton craving in the wilderness,
and put God to the test in the desert;
15 he gave them what they asked,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
16 aWhen men in the camp were jealous of Moses
and Aaron, the holy one of the Lord,
17 the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
18 Fire also broke out in their company;
the flame burned up the wicked.
19 bThey cmade a calf in Horeb
and worshiped a dmetal image.
20 They eexchanged the glory of God2
for the fimage of an ox that eats grass.
21 They gforgot God, their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham,
and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.
23 hTherefore he said he would destroy them—
had not Moses, his chosen one,
istood in the breach before him,
to turn away his wrath from destroying them.
24 Then they despised the pleasant land,
jhaving no faith in his promise.
25 They kmurmured in their tents,
and did not obey the voice of the Lord.
26 Therefore he raised his hand and lswore to them
mthat he would make them fall in the wilderness,
27 and would make their offspring fall among the nations,
nscattering them among the lands.
28 oThen they yoked themselves to the Baal of Peor,
and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;
29 they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 Then Phinehas stood up and intervened,
and the plague was stayed.
31 And pthat was qcounted to him as righteousness
from generation to generation forever.
32 rThey angered him at the waters of Meribah,
and it went ill with Moses on their account,
33 for they made his spirit bitter,3
and he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 sThey did not destroy the peoples,
tas the Lord commanded them,
35 ubut they mixed with the nations
and learned to do as they did.
36 They served their idols,
which became a vsnare to them.
37 wThey sacrificed their sons
and their daughters xto the demons;
38 they poured out innocent blood,
the blood of their sons and daughters,
whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
and the land was ypolluted with blood.
39 Thus they became unclean by their acts,
and played the zwhore in their deeds.
40 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he abhorred his heritage;
41 he gave them into the hand of the nations,
so that athose who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies boppressed them,
and they were brought into subjection under their power.
43 Many times he cdelivered them,
but they were rebellious in their purposes
and were brought low through their iniquity.
44 Nevertheless, he looked upon their distress,
when he heard their dcry.
45 For their sake he eremembered his covenant,
and frelented according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
46 He caused them to be gpitied
by all those who held them captive.
47 hSave us, O Lord our God,
and igather us from among the nations,
that we may give thanks to your holy name
and glory in your praise.
48 jBlessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the Lord!
