5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and
besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into
Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor bythe river of Gozan, and in the cities of the
Medes.
7 For soit was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had
brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had
feared other gods,
8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children
of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did secretly thosethings that werenot right against the LORD
their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to
the fenced city.
10 And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as didthe heathen whom the LORD
carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:
12 For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and byall the
seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments andmy statutes,
according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my
servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their
fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his
testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and
went after the heathen that wereround about them, concerningwhom the LORD had charged
them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images,
eventwo calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination
and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to
anger.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there
was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, but walked in the statutes of
Israel which they made.
20 And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the
hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king:
and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin.
22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not
from them;
23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the
prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
24 And the king of Assyria brought menfrom Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from
Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed themin the cities of Samaria instead of the children
of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And soit was at the beginning of their dwelling there, thatthey feared not the LORD:
therefore the LORD sent lions among them, which slew someof them.

26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed,
and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he
hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of
the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye
brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the
God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel,
and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29 Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put themin the houses of the high places
which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
30 And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men
of Hamath made Ashima,
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to
Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the
high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they
carried away from thence.
34 Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the LORD, neither do they after
their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the LORD
commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35 With whom the LORD had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other
gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched
out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
37 And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote
for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other
gods.
39 But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your
enemies.
40 Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and
their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
1 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, thatHezekiah the
son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.
2 Twenty and five years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty and nine
years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also wasAbi, the daughter of Zachariah.
3 And he did that which wasright in the sight of the LORD, according to all that David his
father did.
4 He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in
pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did
burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.
5 He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings
of Judah, nor anythat were before him.
6 For he clave to the LORD, anddeparted not from following him, but kept his commandments,
which the LORD commanded Moses.
7 And the LORD was with him; andhe prospered whithersoever he went forth: and he rebelled

against the king of Assyria, and served him not.
8 He smote the Philistines, evenunto Gaza, and the borders thereof, from the tower of the
watchmen to the fenced city.
9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which wasthe seventh year of
Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, thatShalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria,
and besieged it.
10 And at the end of three years they took it: evenin the sixth year of Hezekiah, that isthe
ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in
Habor bythe river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
12 Because they obeyed not the voice of the LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and
all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them.
13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against
all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
14 And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended;
return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed
unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15 And Hezekiah gave himall the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the
treasures of the king's house.
16 At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold fromthe doors of the temple of the LORD, and
fromthe pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17 And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king
Hezekiah with a great host against Jerusalem. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And
when they were come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which isin the
highway of the fuller's field.
18 And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah,
which wasover the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
19 And Rabshakeh said unto them, Speak ye now to Hezekiah, Thus saith the great king, the king
of Assyria, What confidence isthis wherein thou trustest?
20 Thou sayest, (but they are butvain words,) I havecounsel and strength for the war. Now on
whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?
21 Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, evenupon Egypt, on which if a
man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so isPharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust
on him.
22 But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: isnot that he, whose high places and
whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship
before this altar in Jerusalem?
23 Now therefore, I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver
thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them.
24 How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants,
and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?
25 Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me,
Go up against this land, and destroy it.
26 Then said Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah, unto Rabshakeh, Speak, I pray
thee, to thy servants in the Syrian language; for we understand it: and talk not with us in the
Jews' language in the ears of the people that areon the wall.
27 But Rabshakeh said unto them, Hath my master sent me to thy master, and to thee, to speak
these words? hath henot sent meto the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own
dung, and drink their own piss with you?