2 Kings 17:5-12

5The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.

6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes.

7All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods

8and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.

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

10They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.

11At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger.

12They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.”