2 Kings 17:5-12

5The king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.

6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, along the Habor (Gozan’s river), and in the cities of the Medes.

7This disaster happened because the people of Israel sinned against the Lord their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt and because they worshiped other gods.

8They lived according to the customs of the nations that the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites and according to what the kings of Israel did.

9The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city.

10They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

11They burned incense there on all the high places just like the nations that the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did evil things, angering the Lord.

12They served idols, although the Lord had told them, “You must not do this.”