LEB(i)
5 So the king of Assyria went up in all the land, then he went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported Israel to Assyria. He placed them in Halah, in Habor, in the river regions of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 Now this happened because the ⌊Israelites⌋* had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods.
8 They walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out from before the ⌊Israelites⌋,* which the kings of Israel had introduced.
9 The ⌊Israelites⌋* secretly did things which were not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city.
10 They set up for themselves stone pillars and poles of Asherah worship on every high hill and under every green tree.
11 They burned incense there on all the high places, like the nations which Yahweh deported before them, and they did evil things to provoke Yahweh.