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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>2 Kings 17 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/2_kings/17.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/2_kings/17-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</a> > 2 Kings 17</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../2_kings/16.htm" title="2 Kings 16">◄</a> 2 Kings 17 <a href="../2_kings/18.htm" title="2 Kings 18">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/2_kings/17.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">Hoshea Reigns in Israel</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>And he did what was evil in the sight of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it.</p> <p class="heading">The Fall of Israel</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he carried the Israelites away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.</p> <p class="heading">Exile Because of Idolatry</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>and walked in the customs of the nations whom the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> drove out before the people of Israel, and in the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>And the people of Israel did secretly against the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> their God things that were not right. They built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>They set up for themselves pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>and there they made offerings on all the high places, as the nations did whom the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> carried away before them. And they did wicked things, provoking the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> to anger, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>and they served idols, of which the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> had said to them, “You shall not do this.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>Yet the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets.”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>But they would not listen, but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> their God. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> had commanded them that they should not do like them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>And they abandoned all the commandments of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> their God, and made for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire">a</a></sup></span> and used divination and omens and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, provoking him to anger. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>Therefore the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah only.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>Judah also did not keep the commandments of the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>And the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> rejected all the descendants of Israel and afflicted them and gave them into the hand of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>When he had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel from following the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> and made them commit great sin. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>The people of Israel walked in all the sins that Jeroboam did. They did not depart from them, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>until the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.</p> <p class="heading">Assyria Resettles Samaria</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they did not fear the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>. Therefore the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> sent lions among them, which killed some of them. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>So the king of Assyria was told, “The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>Then the king of Assyria commanded, “Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there, and let him<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew them">b</a></sup></span> go and dwell there and teach them the law of the god of the land.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>They also feared the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> and appointed from among themselves all sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>So they feared the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span>To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-35.htm"><b>35</b></a></span>The <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> made a covenant with them and commanded them, “You shall not fear other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-36.htm"><b>36</b></a></span>but you shall fear the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span>, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and with an outstretched arm. You shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you shall sacrifice. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-37.htm"><b>37</b></a></span>And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-38.htm"><b>38</b></a></span>and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-39.htm"><b>39</b></a></span>but you shall fear the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-40.htm"><b>40</b></a></span>However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_kings/17-41.htm"><b>41</b></a></span>So these nations feared the <span class="divine-name">Lord</span> and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children’s children—as their fathers did, so they do to this day.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">17</span> Or <i>made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">27</span> Syriac, Vulgate; Hebrew <i>them</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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