¹In the twelfth year of Ahaz the king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah reigned in Samaria over Israel for nine years.

²He did what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, only not like the kings of Israel who were before him.

³Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him, and Hoshea became a slave to him and paid him tribute.

⁴The king of Assyria found a conspiracy in Hoshea, who had sent messengers to So king of Egypt and had not brought up tribute to the king of Assyria as year after year; so the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in the prison house.

⁵The king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and came up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.

⁶In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took Israel into exile to Assyria, and made them dwell in Halah and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of Media.

⁷This came about because the children of Israel sinned against Yahweh their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and they feared other gods.

⁸They walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh dispossessed from the face of the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they made.

⁹And the children of Israel secretly did words that were not right against Yahweh their God, and built for themselves high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city.

¹⁰And they set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every leafy tree.

¹¹There they made sacrifices smoke on all the high places, like the nations whom Yahweh took into exile from their face, and they did evil words to provoke Yahweh to anger.

¹²They served the idols, about which Yahweh had said to them, "You must not do this word."

¹³And Yahweh warned Israel and Judah by the hand of all the prophets, every seer, saying, "Return from your evil ways and keep my commandments, my statutes, according to all the instruction that I commanded your fathers and that I sent to you by the hand of my slaves the prophets."

¹⁴And they did not listen, and stiffened their neck like the neck of their fathers, who did not believe in Yahweh their God.

¹⁵They rejected his statutes and his covenant, which he cut with their fathers, and his testimonies, with which he warned them; and they walked after the emptiness and became empty, and after the nations around them, concerning whom Yahweh had commanded them not to do like them.

¹⁶They forsook all the commandments of Yahweh their God, and made for themselves a molten image, two calves, and made an Asherah pole, and bowed down to all the host of the skies, and served the Baal.

¹⁷They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and divined divinations, and observed signs, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the eyes of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger.

¹⁸Yahweh was very angry with Israel and removed them from his face; no one was left except the tribe of Judah alone.

¹⁹Judah also did not keep the commandments of Yahweh their God, and they walked in the statutes of Israel, which they made.

²⁰And Yahweh rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he threw them from his face.

²¹For Israel tore away from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; and Jeroboam drove away Israel from following Yahweh and made them sin a great sin.

²²And the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam, which he made; they did not turn aside from it.

²³Until Yahweh removed Israel from his face, just as he had spoken by the hand of all his slaves the prophets; and Israel went into exile from its ground to Assyria, until this day.

²⁴And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, from Cuthah, from Avva, from Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelled in its cities.

²⁵And it happened at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear Yahweh, so Yahweh sent the lions among them, and they were killing among them.

²⁶They said to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations whom you took into exile and made dwell in the cities of Samaria do not know the manner of the God of the land, so he has sent the lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the manner of the God of the land."

²⁷And the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Take there one of the priests whom you took into exile from there, and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land."

²⁸And one of the priests whom they had taken into exile from Samaria came and dwelled in Beth-el, and he was teaching them how they should fear Yahweh.

²⁹And each nation was making its own gods, and they placed them in the house of the high places that the Samaritans had made, each nation in their cities where they were dwelling there.

³⁰And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuthah made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima.

³¹And the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites were burning their sons in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

³²And they were fearing Yahweh, and they appointed for themselves priests of the high places from among themselves, who were making offerings for them in the house of the high places.

³³They were fearing Yahweh, and they were serving their own gods, according to the custom of the nations whom they had taken into exile from there.

³⁴Until this day they are doing according to the former customs. They are not fearing Yahweh, and they are not doing according to their statutes, or according to what is prescribed for them, or according to the instruction and the commandment that Yahweh commanded the children of Jacob, to whom he gave the name Israel.

³⁵And Yahweh cut a covenant with them and commanded them, saying: You must not fear another God; and you must not bow down to them, and you must not serve them, and you must not sacrifice to them.

³⁶But Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, with great strength and with an arm stretched out — him you will fear, and to him you will bow down, and to him you will sacrifice.

³⁷And the statutes and the ordinances and the instruction and the commandment that he wrote for you, you must take care to do all the days; and you must not fear other gods.

³⁸And the covenant that I cut with you, you must not forget; and you must not fear another God.

³⁹But Yahweh your God you will fear, and he will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.

⁴⁰And they did not listen, but they were doing according to their former manner.

⁴¹These nations were fearing Yahweh, and they were serving their idols; also their children, and the children of their children — just as their fathers did, they are doing to this day.