2 Kings 17:1-9

1In Ahaz’s twelfth year as king of Judah, Hoshea, son of Elah, began to rule as king of Israel in Samaria. He ruled for nine years.

2He did what the Lord considered evil, but he didn’t do what the kings of Israel before him had done.

3King Shalmaneser of Assyria defeated Hoshea, who became his servant and was required to make annual payments to him.

4The king of Assyria found Hoshea to be a traitor. (Hoshea had sent messengers to King Dais of Egypt and had stopped making annual payments to the king of Assyria.) So the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison.

5Then the king of Assyria attacked the entire country. He attacked Samaria and blockaded it for three years.

6In Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the Israelites to Assyria as captives. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

7The Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt ⌞and rescued them⌟ from the power of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). They worshiped other gods

8and lived by the customs of the nations that the Lord had forced out of the Israelites’ way. They also did what their kings wanted them to do.

9The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that weren’t right: They built for themselves illegal places of worship in all of their cities, from the ⌞smallest⌟ watchtower to the ⌞largest⌟ fortified city.