Study Desk

Yet the ^(C1)LORD warned Israel and Judah ^(F1)(C2)through all His prophets and ^(C3)every seer, saying, "^(C4)Turn back from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes in accordance with all the Law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you ^(F1)through My servants the prophets."

However, they did not listen, but ^(C1)stiffened their neck ^(F1)like their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.

^(C1)They rejected His statutes and ^(C2)His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His warnings which He ^(F1)gave them. And ^(C3)they followed ^(F2)idols and ^(C4)became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the ^(C5)LORD had commanded them not to do as they did.

And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves cast metal images: ^(C1)two calves. And they ^(C2)made an ^(F1)Asherah, and ^(C3)worshiped all the heavenly ^(F2)lights, and ^(C4)served Baal.

Then ^(C1)they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and they ^(C2)practiced divination and interpreting omens, and ^(C3)gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him.

So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He ^(C1)removed them from His ^(F1)sight; ^(C2)no one was left except the tribe of Judah.

^(C1)Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God either, but they ^(F1)(C2)followed the ^(F2)customs ^(F3)which Israel had ^(F4)introduced.

So the LORD rejected all the ^(F1)descendants of Israel and afflicted them and ^(C1)handed them over to plunderers, until He had cast them ^(F2)out of His sight.

When ^(C1)He had torn Israel from the house of David, ^(C2)they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then ^(C3)Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and misled them into a great sin.

And the sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he committed; they did not desist from them

^(C1)until the LORD removed Israel from His sight, ^(C2)just as He had spoken through all His servants the prophets. ^(C1)So Israel went into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.

^(C1)Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, ^(F1)(C2)Avva, ^(C3)Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

And at the beginning of their living there, they ^(C1)did not fear the LORD; therefore the LORD sent lions among them that were killing some of them.

So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations whom you have taken into exile and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land; so He has sent lions among them, and behold, they are killing them because they do not know the custom of the God of the land."