The reason that the Israelis were defeated

7 Those things happened because the Israeli people had sinned against Yahweh their God. He had rescued their ancestors from the power [MTY] of the king of Egypt and brought them safely out of Egypt, but later they began to worship other gods. 8 They imitated the things that the heathen/pagan people-groups did. Those were the groups that Yahweh had expelled as the Israelis occupied their land. The Israeli people also did the evil things that the kings of Israel ◄introduced/showed to them►. 9 The Israeli people also secretly did many things that were not pleasing to Yahweh their God. They built shrines to worship idols in all their cities, including small towns and big cities with walls around them. 10 They set up stone pillars to honor gods, and poles to worship the goddess Asherah at the top of every high hill and under every big tree. 11 The Israelis burned incense in every place where they worshiped those gods, just like the people-groups who lived there previously had done—the groups that Yahweh had expelled from the land. The Israelis did many wicked things that caused Yahweh to become angry. 12 Yahweh warned them many times that they should not worship idols, but they did it anyway. 13 Yahweh frequently sent his prophets and ◄seers/those who saw visions from Yahweh► to warn the people of Israel and the people of Judah. The message that Yahweh gave them was, “Turn away from all your evil behavior. Obey my commands and my laws, the laws that I told your ancestors to obey and which I told the prophets who served me to tell to you again.”

14 But the Israeli people would not pay attention. They were stubborn [IDM] just like their ancestors were. Just like their ancestors did, they refused to believe in Yahweh their God. 15 They rejected Yahweh’s laws and the agreement that he had made with their ancestors. They ignored Yahweh’s warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and as a result they themselves became worthless. Although Yahweh had commanded them not to imitate the evil behavior of the people-groups that lived near them, they disobeyed that command.

16 The Israeli people disobeyed all of Yahweh’s commands. They made two metal calves to worship. They set up two poles to worship the goddess Asherah, and they worshiped the god Baal, and the sun, the moon, and the stars. 17 They also burned their own sons and daughters to be sacrifices to those gods. They went to fortune-tellers and they practiced sorcery. They continually chose [MET] to do all kinds of evil things that caused Yahweh to become angry.

18 So, because Yahweh was very angry with the Israeli people, he allowed their enemies to take them away from their country. Only the people of the tribe of Judah were left in the land. 19 But even the people of Judah did not obey the commands of Yahweh their God. They imitated the evil customs that the Israelis had introduced. 20 So Yahweh rejected all the people of Israel and of Judah. He punished them by allowing the armies of other nations to defeat them and take them away. He got rid of all of them.

21 Earlier, when Yahweh allowed the people of Israel to separate/break away from the area [MTY] that King David had estabished, they chose Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, to be their king. Then Jeroboam enticed the people of Israel to stop worshiping Yahweh and to worship idols instead. He led them to commit great sins. 22 And the Israeli people continued to do the evil things that Jeroboam introduced. They did not turn away from those sins, 23 until finally Yahweh got rid of them. That was just what his prophets had warned would happen. The Israeli people were taken away to the land of Assyria, and they still remain there.