5 Then the Assyrian king attacked the whole country, including besieging Shomron (Samaria) for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign, the Assyrian king captured Shomron. He exiled the Israelis to Assyria and settled them in Halah, and in Havor along the Gozan River, and in the cities of the Medes.

7 That happened because the Israelis had sinned against their God Yahweh who had rescued them from King Far-oh in Egypt. They had sinned by worshipping other gods 8 and imitating the customs of the people groups who Yahweh had driven out of the country ahead of them. They had also followed their kings in doing evil things. 9 The Israelis had done things secretly that their God Yahweh had said weren’t right, and they’d built hilltop shrines everywhere from the largest fortified cities to the smallest towns. 10 They had also erected stone pillars to honour gods and Asherah pole on every high hill and under every large tree,[ref] 11 and they had burnt incense there on all those hilltops just like the people groups that Yahweh had driven off the land ahead of them—doing those evil things had made Yahweh angry. 12 They had served idols even when Yahweh had forbidden them from doing that.

13 So Yahweh had warned Israel and Yehudah by the proclamations of all of his prophets who said, “Turn from your evil ways and obey my commands and statutes, following all of the instructions that I gave your ancestors and which I delivered to you through my servants, the prophets.” 14 However, they hadn’t listened and had hardened their attitudes just like their ancestors who wouldn’t put their trust in their God Yahweh. 15 They rejected his statutes and the agreement that he made with their ancestors, and the warning that he gave them. They chose to worship lifeless objects, and they became hollow and empty themselves, just like the people of the surrounding countries which Yahweh had commanded them not to imitate. 16 They disobeyed the instructions given to them by their God Yahweh by molding two metal calves for themselves and making an Asherah pole. Then they bowed down and worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, and they served Baal.[ref] 17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters, and used fortune-tellers and witchcraft—making themselves slaves to evil by doing what Yahweh had forbidden, and so making him angry.[ref] 18 So that’s why Yahweh had become very angry at the northern kingdom of Israel and caused them to be removed from the land. Only the southern kingdom of Yehudah remained, 19 but even they didn’t obey the commands of their God Yahweh, but copied much of the bad behaviour of the northern kingdom. 20 So Yahweh rejected all the Israelis and he caused them to suffer, including being plundered by enemy armies, until he banished them from his presence.

21 Firstly he’d torn the northern kingdom out from the leadership of David’s descendants and they’d made Nebat’s son Yarave’am king. Then Yarave’am had driven them away from following Yahweh, and had induced them into serious sin. 22 So the Israelis had followed Yarave’am into sin and then didn’t turn away from it, 23 and finally Yahweh had removed the people of the northern kingdom of Israel from his presence just like he’d warned he would through the messages of his servants, the prophets. So the people were deported to Assyria where they remain to this day.