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.
26. Then they spoke to the king of Assyria saying, “The nations that you deported and resettled in the towns of Samaria do not know the requirement of the God of the land. Therefore He has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them because they don’t know the requirement of the God of the land.”
27. Then the king of Assyria commanded saying, “Send there one of the kohanim whom you have exiled from there. Let them go and live there and teach them the requirement of the God of the land.”
28. So one of the kohanim that had been deported from Samaria came and lived in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Adonai.
29. However, every nation kept making its own gods, and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made—every nation in their cities where they settled.
30. So the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the people of Cuth made Nergal, the people of Hamath made Ashima,
31. the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32. So they feared Adonai, while they also appointed for themselves from among themselves priests of the shrines, who officiated for them in the shrines of the high places.