Hoshea the Last King of Israel 1 UST Hoshea son of Elah began to rule Israel after Ahaz had ruled Judah for 12 years. Hoshea ruled in Samaria for 9 years. BSB BSB: In the twelfth year of the reign of Ahaz over Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel, and he reigned in Samaria nine years.
2 UST 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. BSB BSB: And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who preceded him.
3 UST 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. BSB BSB: Shalmaneser king of Assyria attacked him, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute.
4 UST 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. BSB BSB: But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.
Israel Carried Captive to Assyria 5 UST 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, BSB BSB: Then the king of Assyria invaded the whole land, marched up to Samaria, and besieged it for three years.
7 UST 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. BSB BSB: All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods
8 UST 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. BSB BSB: and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel.
9 UST 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. BSB BSB: The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities.
10 UST 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. BSB BSB: They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
11 UST 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. BSB BSB: They burned incense on all the high places like the nations that the LORD had driven out before them. They did wicked things, provoking the LORD to anger.
12 UST They worshiped idols, even though Yahweh had specifically commanded them not to do that. BSB BSB: They served idols, although the LORD had told them, “You shall not do this thing.”
13 UST 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.” BSB BSB: Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”
14 UST 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. BSB BSB: But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God.
15 UST 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. BSB BSB: They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.
16 UST 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. BSB BSB: They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal.
17 UST 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. BSB BSB: They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
18 UST 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. BSB BSB: So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained,
19 UST 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. BSB BSB: and even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced.
20 UST 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. BSB BSB: So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.
21 UST 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. BSB BSB: When the LORD had torn Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat king, and Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit a great sin.
22 UST The Israelite people continued to do the sinful things that Jeroboam had done. They did not stop doing those sinful things. BSB BSB: The Israelites persisted in all the sins that Jeroboam had committed and did not turn away from them.
23 UST 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. BSB BSB: Finally, the LORD removed Israel from His presence, as He had declared through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was exiled from their homeland into Assyria, where they are to this day.
Samaria Resettled 24 UST 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. BSB BSB: Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
25 UST 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. BSB BSB: Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
26 UST 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.” BSB BSB: So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The peoples that you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land. Because of this, He has sent lions among them, which are indeed killing them off.”
27 UST 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.” BSB BSB: Then the king of Assyria commanded: “Send back one of the priests you carried off from Samaria, and have him go back to live there and teach the requirements of the God of the land.”
28 UST 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. BSB BSB: Thus one of the priests they had carried away came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should worship the LORD.
29 UST 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. BSB BSB: Nevertheless, the people of each nation continued to make their own gods in the cities where they had settled, and they set them up in the shrines that the people of Samaria had made on the high places.
30 UST 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. BSB BSB: The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 UST 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 BSB BSB: the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 UST 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. BSB BSB: So the new residents worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed for themselves priests of all sorts to serve in the shrines of the high places.
33 UST So they worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped their own gods, just as the people living in their home countries did. BSB BSB: They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been carried away.
34 UST 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. BSB BSB: To this day they are still practicing their former customs. None of them worship the LORD or observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, whom He named Israel.
35 UST 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. BSB BSB: For the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites and commanded them, “Do not worship other gods or bow down to them; do not serve them or sacrifice to them.
36 UST 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. BSB BSB: Instead, worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him and offer sacrifices to Him.
37 UST You must always carefully obey all of the laws that I told Moses to write down for you. You must not revere other gods. BSB BSB: And you must always be careful to observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments He wrote for you. Do not worship other gods.
38 UST You must never forget the covenant that I made with you. You must not revere other gods. BSB BSB: Do not forget the covenant I have made with you. Do not worship other gods,
39 UST I, Yahweh, am the only God you are to revere. If you do that, I will prevent any enemy from conquering you.” BSB BSB: but worship the LORD your God, and He will deliver you from the hands of all your enemies.”
40 UST 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. BSB BSB: But they would not listen, and they persisted in their former customs.
41 UST 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. BSB BSB: So these nations worshiped the LORD but also served their idols, and to this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.