23. until the Lord took Israel away from his sight. And he said this would happen. He sent his prophets to tell the people this would happen. So the Israelites were taken out of their country into Assyria. And they have been there to this day.
24. The king of Assyria took the Israelites out of Samaria and brought in other people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim. They took over Samaria and lived in the cities around it.
25. When these people began to live in Samaria, they did not honor the Lord, so the Lord sent lions to attack them. The lions killed some of them.
26. Some people said to the king of Assyria, “The people who you took away and put in the cities of Samaria don’t know the law of the god of that country. So that god sent lions to attack them. The lions killed them because they don’t know the law of the god of that country.”
27. So the king of Assyria gave this command: “You took some priests from Samaria. Send one of them who I captured back to Samaria. Let that priest go and live there. Then he can teach the people the law of the god of that country.”
28. So one of the priests who the Assyrians had carried away from Samaria came to live in Bethel. He taught the people how they should honor the Lord.
29. But all those people made gods of their own. They put them in the temples at the high places that the people of Samaria had made. They did this wherever they lived.
30. The people of Babylon made the false god Succoth Benoth. The people of Cuthah made the false god Nergal. The people of Hamath made the false god Ashima.