17. They burned their sons and daughters alive. They practiced divination and sought omens. They gave themselves over to doing what was evil in the Lord’s eyes and made him angry.
18. So the Lord was very angry at Israel. He removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was spared.
19. But Judah didn’t keep the commands of the Lord their God either. They followed the practices of Israel.
20. So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants. He punished them, and he handed them over to enemies who plundered them until he finally threw them out of his sight.
21. When Israel broke away from David’s dynasty, they made Nebat’s son Jeroboam the king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from the Lord. He caused them to commit great sin.
22. And the Israelites continued walking in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They didn’t deviate from them,
23. and the Lord finally removed Israel from his presence. That was exactly what he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from its land to Assyria. And that’s still how it is today.
24. The Assyrian king brought people from Babylon, Cuth, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, resettling them in the cities of Samaria in place of the Israelites. These people took control of Samaria and settled in its cities.
25. But when they began to live there, they didn’t worship the Lord, so the Lord sent lions against them, and the lions began to kill them.