Other groups settled in Israel

24 The king of Assyria ordered his soldiers to take groups of people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim cities to the Samaria region, and to resettle them in the towns there, to take the place of the Israelis who lived there previously. Those people took control over the whole Samaria region and lived in the towns there. 25 But those people who came from other countries did not worship Yahweh when they first arrived in Samaria. So Yahweh sent lions to kill some of them. 26 Then those people sent a message to the king of Assyria. They wrote, “We people who have resettled in the towns in Samaria do not know how to worship the God that the Israelis worshiped in this land. So he has sent lions among us to kill us, because we have not worshiped him correctly.”

27 When the king of Assyria read this letter, he commanded his officers, “You brought many priests here from Samaria. Send one of them back there. Tell him to teach the people who are now living there how to worship correctly the God whom the Israelis worshiped in that land.” 28 So the officers did that. They sent one of the Israeli priests back to Samaria. That priest went to live in Bethel city, and he taught the people there how to worship Yahweh.

29 But the people who returned from Babylon and started to live in Samaria and continued to make their own idols. They placed them in the shrines that the Israelis had built there. The people of each people-group made idols in the cities in which they were living. 30 The people from Babylon made idols to represent their god Succoth-Benoth. The people from Cuthah made idols to represent their god Nergal. The people from Hamath made idols to represent their god Ashima. 31 The people of Avva made idols to represent their gods Nibhaz and Tartak. The people from Sepharvaim sacrificed their own children. They completely burned them in pits where hot fires were kept burning, as offerings to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. 32 But those people also worshiped Yahweh, and they appointed from among their own groups many people to be priests at the shrines on the tops of the hills, in order that those priests could offer sacrifices for them there.

33 So they revered Yahweh, but they also worshiped their own gods, just as the people living in the countries from which they had been taken to Samaria did. 34 They still keep their old customs. They really do not worship Yahweh, and they do not obey all the laws and commands that Yahweh gave to the descendants of Jacob, to whom he gave the new name Israel. 35 Yahweh had previously made an agreement with their ancestors, commanding them not to worship other gods or bow down to honor them or do other things to please them or offer sacrifices to them. 36 He had said to them, “You must have an awesome respect for me, Yahweh, the one who brought you out of Egypt with my very great power [DOU]. I am the one whom you must bow down to honor, and I am the one to whom you must offer sacrifices. 37 You must always obey the laws and commands that I told Moses to write for you. You must not worship other gods. 38 And you must not forget the agreement that I made with your ancestors. You must not revere other gods. 39 Instead, you must revere me, Yahweh, your God. If you do that, I will rescue you from the power [MTY] of all your enemies.”

40 But the people from those foreign nations would not heed what Yahweh said. Instead, they continued to adhere to their old customs. 41 So, they worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped their idols. And their descendants still do the same thing.