10. and they set up pillars and Asherah poles for themselves on every high hill and under every leafy tree.
11. There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom Adonai had driven out before them. So they did wicked things to provoke Adonai.
12. They worshipped idols, about which Adonai had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”
13. Yet Adonai had forewarned Israel and Judah by the hand of every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the Torah which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by the hand of My servants the prophets.”
14. Yet they would not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not trust in Adonai their God.
15. So they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies that He testified against them. Instead they went after futile things and became futile, following the nations that surrounded them, about whom Adonai had charged them not to emulate.
16. So they abandoned all the mitzvot of Adonai their God. So they made for themselves molten images, two calves, and made an Asherah pole, and bowed down to all the host of heavens, and worshipped Baal,
17. and they made their sons and daughters pass through the fire, practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in Adonai’s eyes, to provoke Him.
18. So Adonai became very angry with Israel, and banished them from His presence. There was none left but the tribe of Judah alone.
19. Even Judah did not keep the mitzvot of Adonai their God, but followed the customs which Israel had practiced.
20. So Adonai spurned all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.
21. When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drew Israel away from following Adonai and made them commit a great sin.
22. The men of Israel kept walking in all the sins that Jeroboam committed. They did not turn away from them,
23. until Adonai banished Israel from His presence, as He spoke by the hand of all His servants the prophets. So Israel has been exiled from their own land to Assyria to this day.
24. Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the men of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and settled in its cities.
25. When they first began dwelling there, they did not fear Adonai—so Adonai sent lions among them, which killed some of them.