UST 2 KI Chapter 17

◄ 2 KI 17 ► ║ ═ ©

17 Hoshea son of Elah began to rule Israel after Ahaz had ruled Judah for 12 years. Hoshea ruled in Samaria for 9 years. 2 He did many things that Yahweh had told the Israelites were evil. However, he did not do as many evil things as the previous kings of Israel had done. 3 King Shalmaneser of Assyria led his army to attack and defeat the army of King Hoshea. Hoshea became a vassal of Shalmaneser, who forced the Israelites to pay him tribute each year. 4 Then Hoshea secretly plotted to rebel against the king of Assyria. He sent messengers to King So of Egypt, asking if his army would help the Israelites become free from Assyrian control. Hoshea also stopped paying tribute to Assyria each year. But the king of Assyria discovered what Hoshea was doing, so he invaded and conquered Israel and put Hoshea in prison. 5 King Shalmaneser led his army to invade Israel. They conquered the other important cities and towns in the kingdom, and then they besieged the city of Samaria. The Israelites were able to resist for three years, 6 but finally the army of Assyria defeated them and conquered the city. This happened after King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for nine years. The Assyrians took the Israelites as captives to Assyria. They made them live in the city of Halah, near the Habor River in the region of Gozan, and in cities in the kingdom of Media, which the Assyrians had conquered.

7 This happened because the Israelite people sinned against Yahweh their God. Even though he had rescued their ancestors from Egypt, where they were slaves to Pharaoh, they began to worship other gods. 8 They imitated the things that the people groups around them did. Those were the people groups that Yahweh had forced to leave the land so that the Israelites could settle there. The people of Israel also did the same evil things that most of their kings did. 9 The Israelite people pretended they were worshiping Yahweh their God even as they did things he had forbidden. They built shrines for idols on the hills around their cities. No matter how many or few people lived in a place, they would build a shrine for it. 10 They set up stone pillars to honor false gods and poles to worship the goddess Asherah. They set them up on the tops of many hills and under many big trees. 11 The Israelites burned incense in the places where they worshiped those false gods. That was what the people groups had done that Yahweh forced to leave so that the Israelites could live in the land. The Israelites did many wicked things that made Yahweh angry. 12 They worshiped idols, even though Yahweh had specifically commanded them not to do that. 13 Yahweh frequently sent his prophets and seers to warn the people of Israel and the people of Judah. The message that Yahweh spoke through them was, “Stop doing all the evil things you have been doing! Instead, obey all the laws that I gave to your ancestors and that my prophets are now telling you to obey.” 14 But the Israelite people did not do what the prophets told them to do. They were stubborn, just as their ancestors had been. Their ancestors had not truly believed in Yahweh their God. 15 Yahweh had given them laws to obey. He had made a covenant with their ancestors. Yahweh sent prophets to warn them to stop disobeying him. But they disregarded all those things. Instead, they worshiped worthless idols, and as a result, they became worthless themselves. Yahweh had commanded them not to do the things that the people groups did that lived near them. But they disobeyed his command. 16 The Israelite people completely disobeyed the commands that Yahweh had given them. They made two metal images of calves and worshiped them. They set up poles to worship the goddess Asherah, and they also worshiped the false god Baal. They bowed down to the sun, the moon, and stars. 17 They also burned their own sons and daughters as sacrifices to false gods. They practiced sorcery and fortune telling. They continually chose to do things that Yahweh had told them were evil. That made Yahweh very angry. 18 And because Yahweh was so angry with the Israelite people, he allowed their enemies to take them away from their country. Only the people of the tribe of Judah remained in the land.

19 But even the people of Judah did not obey the commands of Yahweh their God. Instead, they did the same evil things that the people of the northern kingdom of Israel were doing. 20 So Yahweh rejected the people of Israel and of Judah. He punished them by allowing others to make them suffer. Raiders came into their land and took away their valuable possessions. Finally, the armies of other nations defeated them and carried them away from their land as prisoners. 21 Earlier, Yahweh had led ten of the Israelite tribes to reject David’s descendants as their kings. Instead, those tribes chose Jeroboam son of Nebat to be their king. But Jeroboam led the people of Israel to stop worshiping Yahweh and to worship idols instead. He led them to commit serious sins. 22 The Israelite people continued to do the sinful things that Jeroboam had done. They did not stop doing those sinful things. 23 So Yahweh finally allowed a foreign army to conquer the Israelites and remove them from their land. That was just what he had told his prophets to warn them would happen. The Assyrians took the Israelite people to their own land, and they are still there.

24 To replace the Israelites, the king of Assyria ordered his soldiers to bring in groups of people from the cities of Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim. What had been the northern kingdom of Israel was now their land, and those people settled in its cities. 25 But when those people first arrived in Israel, they did not worship Yahweh. So Yahweh allowed lions to attack them, and the lions killed some of them. 26 Some officials of the king of Assyria found out about this and told him, “The people who have settled in the cities of Samaria do not know how to worship the God whom people should worship if they live in that land. So that God is allowing lions to attack them and kill them because they are not worshiping him properly.”

27 So the king of Assyria commanded his officers, “Get one of the priests whom you brought here from that place. Tell him to move back there and teach the people who are now living there how to worship the God of that land properly.” 28 So the officers sent back one of the Israelite priests. That priest went to live in the city of Bethel. From there he taught the people who had settled in the land how to worship Yahweh properly. 29 But the people of each of those nations also made idols to represent their own gods. They put them in the shrines that the Israelites had built on the tops of hills. Each group of people put idols representing their gods in the shrines near the cities where they lived. 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 from Avva made idols to represent their gods Nibhaz and Tartak. The people from Sepharvaim sacrificed their own children by burning them up on altars as offerings to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech 32 Those people worshiped Yahweh, but they also appointed men from their own groups to be priests at the hilltop shrines. Those priests offered sacrifices in the shrines to foreign gods. 33 So they worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped their own gods, just as the people living in their home countries did.

34 The people who live in that area still act the way the first settlers did. Yahweh gave Jacob the new name Israel, and he gave his descendants laws to obey. But those people do not obey those laws. So they do not really worship Yahweh. 35 Yahweh had made a covenant with the Israelites. He had commanded them, “Do not revere other gods or bow down to them to honor them. Do not worship them or offer sacrifices to them. 36 I, Yahweh, rescued you from slavery in Egypt by my very great power. So I am the only God you are to revere. I am the one to whom you must bow down to honor. I am the one to whom you must offer sacrifices. 37 You must always carefully obey all of the laws that I told Moses to write down for you. You must not revere other gods. 38 You must never forget the covenant that I made with you. You must not revere other gods. 39 I, Yahweh, am the only God you are to revere. If you do that, I will prevent any enemy from conquering you.” 40 But the people who live in what was the kingdom of Israel do not carefully obey Yahweh’s law. Instead, they still act the way the first settlers did. 41 Each generation of these people has acted in the same way. They worship Yahweh, but they also worship idols that represent their gods. That was what their ancestors did, and that is what they still do.

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UST 2 KI Chapter 17

UST 2 KI Chapter 17