2 Kings 17:5-17

5Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to 1Samaria and besieged it three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, 2the king of Assyria captured Samaria and 3carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and 4settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of 5Gozan, and 6in the cities of the Medes.

7Now 7this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, 8who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, 9and they had 10feared other gods 8and 11walked in the 12customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs 13of the kings of Israel which they had 14introduced. 9The sons of Israel 15did things secretly which were not right against the Lord their God. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from 16watchtower to fortified city. 1017They set for themselves sacred pillars and 1819Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did which the Lord had carried away to exile before them; and they did evil things provoking the Lord. 12They served idols, 20concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” 13Yet the 21Lord warned Israel and Judah 22through all His prophets and 23every seer, saying, “24Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.” 14However, they did not listen, but 25stiffened their neck 26like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 1527They rejected His statutes and 28His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And 29they followed vanity and 30became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the 31Lord had commanded them not to do like them. 16They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even 32two calves, and 33made an 34Asherah and 35worshiped all the host of heaven and 36served Baal. 17Then 37they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and 38practiced divination and enchantments, and 39sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him.