Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

1 ^tIn the third year of ^uHoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^vHezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.

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.

9 In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, ^fShalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and ^gbesieged it, 10 and at the end of three years he took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 The king of Assyria ^hcarried the Israelites away to Assyria and put 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.

Restore Us, O God

To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.