23. until the Lord got rid of them, just as he had warned his servants the prophets.That's why the people of Israel were taken away as prisoners to Assyria, and that's where they remained.
24. The king of Assyria took people who were living in the cities of Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and forced them to move to Israel. They took over the towns where the Israelites had lived, including the capital city of Samaria.
25. At first these people did not worship the Lord, so he sent lions to attack them, and the lions killed some of them.
26. A messenger told the king of Assyria, “The people you moved to Israel don't know how to worship the god of that country. So he sent lions that have attacked and killed some of them.”
27. The king replied, “Get one of the Israelite priests we brought here and send him back to Israel. He can live there and teach them about the god of that country.”
28. One of the Israelite priests was chosen to go back to Israel. He lived in Bethel and taught the people how to worship the Lord.
29. But in towns all over Israel, the different groups of people made statues of their own gods, then they placed these idols in local Israelite shrines.
30. The people from Babylonia made the god Succoth-Benoth; those from Cuthah made the god Nergal; those from Hamath made Ashima;
31. those from Avva made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the people from Sepharvaim sacrificed their children to their own gods Adrammelech and Anammelech.
32-33. They worshipped their own gods, just as they had before they were taken away to Israel. They also worshipped the Lord, but they chose their own people to be priests at the shrines.
34. Everyone followed their old customs. None of them worshipped only the Lord, and they refused to obey the laws and commands that the Lord had given to the descendants of Jacob, the man he named Israel.
35. At the time when the Lord had made his solemn agreement with the people of Israel, he told them:Do not worship any other gods! Do not bow down to them or offer them a sacrifice.