2 Kings 17:5-12

5Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and went up to 1Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, 2the king of Assyria captured Samaria and 3led the people of Israel 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. 8They also 1112followed the 13customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from the sons of Israel, and in the customs 14of the kings of Israel which they had 15introduced. 9And the sons of Israel 16did things secretly against the Lord their God which were not right. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from 17watchtower to fortified city. 10And 18they set up for themselves memorial stones and 1920Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did that the Lord had taken into exile before them; and they did evil things, provoking the Lord. 12They served idols, 21concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”