1
Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel during Ahaz's twelfth year as king of Judah. Hoshea ruled in Samaria nine years.
2
He did what the Lord said was wrong, but he was not as bad as the kings of Israel who had ruled before him.
3
Shalmaneser king of Assyria came to attack Hoshea. Hoshea had been Shalmaneser's servant and had made the payments to Shalmaneser that he had demanded.
4
But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea had made plans against him by sending messengers to So, the king of Egypt. Hoshea had also stopped giving Shalmaneser the payments, which he had paid every year in the past. For that, the king put Hoshea in prison.
5
Then the king of Assyria came and attacked all the land of Israel. He surrounded Samaria and attacked it for three years.
6
He defeated Samaria in the ninth year Hoshea was king, and he took the Israelites away to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
7
All these things happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God. He had brought them out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of the king of Egypt, but the Israelites had honored other gods.
8
They lived like the nations the Lord had forced out of the land ahead of them. They lived as their evil kings had shown them,
9
secretly sinning against the Lord their God. They built places to worship gods in all their cities, from the watchtower to the strong, walled city.
10
They put up stone pillars to gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree.
11
The Israelites burned incense everywhere gods were worshiped, just as the nations who lived there before them had done, whom the Lord had forced out of the land. The Israelites did wicked things that made the Lord angry.