2 Kings 17

2 Kings Chapter 17 KJV

1Hoshea's wicked reign. 3Becoming tributary to Shalmaneser, and afterward conspiring with the king of Egypt against him, he is shut up in prison. 5Shalmaneser after a three years' siege taketh Samaria, and carrieth Israel away captive for their wickedness, as the prophets had predicted. 24The strange nations, which were transplanted into the land of Israel, are plagued with lions; they send for one of the captive priests to teach them the worship of God, which they mix with their own idolatry.
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began 1Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, 1but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
3 ¶ Against him came up Shalmaneser 1king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and agave him bpresents.
4 And the king of Assyria found 1conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no apresent to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and 2bound him in prison.
5 ¶ Then 1the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 ¶ In 1the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and 2carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of 3Gozan, and in the cities of 4the Medes.
7 For so it was, 1that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had 2brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8 And 1walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did 1secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, 2from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
10 And they 1set them up aimages and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:
12 For they served idols, 1whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the Lord 1testified against Israel, and against Judah, aby 2all the prophets, and by all 3the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but 1hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he 1testified against them; and 2they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and 1made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped 2all the host of heaven, and served 3Baal.
17 And 1they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used 2divination and 3enchantments, and 4sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them 1out of his sight: there was none left but 2the tribe of Judah only.
19 Also 1Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20 And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of 1spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 For he 1rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and 2made them sin a great sin.
22 For the children of 1Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by 1all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
24 ¶ And the king of Assyria brought men 1from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from 2Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead 3of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that 1they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent 2lions among them, which slew some of them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the 1priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in 1Beth-el, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 Howbeit every nation 1made gods of their own, and put them in 2the houses of the high places which the 3Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
30 And 1the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to 1Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they 1feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the 2lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They 1feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations awhom they carried away from thence.
34 Unto this day they do after 1the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, 2whom he named Israel;
35 With whom the Lord had 1made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the Lord, 1who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him 2shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
37 And 1the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and 2ye shall not fear other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you 1ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
39 But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 Howbeit 1they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
41 So these nations 1feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
2 Kings 17