2 Kings 17
1 In the twelft yeere of Ahaz King of Iudah began Hoshea the sonne of Elah to reigne in Samaria ouer Israel, and reigned nine yeeres.
Elah’s son Hoshea began to rule Israel after King Ahaz had ruled Judah for twelve years. Hoshea ruled in Samaria for nine years.
2 And he did euill in the sight of the Lord, but not as the Kinges of Israel, that were before him.
He did many things that Yahweh considered to be evil, but he did not do as many evil things as the previous kings of Israel had done.
3 And Shalmaneser king of Asshur came vp against him, and Hoshea became his seruant, and gaue him presents.
[The army of] King Shalmaneser of Assyria attacked and defeated [the army of] King Hoshea. As a result, the Israelis were forced to pay a lot of tribute/taxes to Assyria each year.
4 And the King of Asshur founde treason in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So King of Egypt, and brought no present vnto the King of Asshur, as he had done yeerely: therfore the king of Asshur shut him vp, and put him in prison.
But several years later, Hoshea secretly planned to rebel against the rulers of Assyria. He sent messengers to So/Osorkon, the king of Egypt, [asking if his army could help the Israelis fight against the army of Assyria]. Hoshea also stopped paying the tribute/taxes that he had been paying to Assyria every year. But the king of Assyria found out about those things, so he told his officers to put Hoshea in prison.
5 Then the king of Asshur came vp throughout all the lande, and went against Samaria, and besieged it three yeere.
Then he [brought the army of] Assyria to Israel, and they attacked everywhere in that land. His army surrounded Samaria [city] for three years.
6 In the ninth yeere of Hoshea, the King of Asshur tooke Samaria, and caryed Israel away vnto Asshur, and put them in Halah, and in Habor by the riuer of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Finally, after King Hoshea had been ruling Israel for nine years, the army of Assyria [MTY] [forcefully entered] the city [and] captured [the people]. They took the Israeli people to Assyria and forced some of them to live in Halah [town]. They forced others to live near the Habor River in Gozan district. They forced others to live in the towns where the Mede people-group lived.
7 For when the children of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them out of the land of Egypt, from vnder ye hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and feared other gods,
Those things happened because the Israeli people had sinned against Yahweh their God. He had rescued their [ancestors] from the power [MTY] of the king of Egypt and brought them [safely] out of Egypt, but later they began to worship other gods.
8 And walked according to the facions of the Heathen, whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel, and after the maners of the Kings of Israel, which they vsed,
They imitated the things that the heathen/pagan people-groups did. Those were the groups that Yahweh had expelled as the Israelis occupied their land. The Israeli people also did the evil things that the kings of Israel (introduced/showed to them).
9 And the children of Israel had done secretly things that were not vpright before the Lord their God, and throughout all their cities had built hie places, both from the tower of the watch, to the defensed citie,
The Israeli people also secretly did many things that were not pleasing to Yahweh their God. They built shrines [to worship idols] in all their cities, including small towns and big cities with walls around them.
10 And had made them images and groues vpon euery hie hill, and vnder euery greene tree,
They set up stone pillars [to honor gods], and poles [to worship the goddess] Asherah at the top of every high hill and under every [big] tree.
11 And there burnt incense in all the hie places, as did the heathen, whom the Lord had taken away before them, and wrought wicked things to anger the Lord,
The Israelis burned incense in every place where they worshiped those gods, just like the people-groups who lived there previously had done—the groups that Yahweh had expelled from the land. The Israelis did many wicked things that caused Yahweh to become angry.
12 And serued idoles: whereof the Lord had sayd vnto them, Ye shall do no such thing,
Yahweh warned them many times that they should not worship idols, but they did it anyway.
13 Notwithstanding the Lord testified to Israel, and to Iudah by all the Prophets, and by all the Seers, saying, Turne from your euill wayes, and keepe my commandements and my statutes, according to all the Lawe, which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my seruants the Prophets.
Yahweh frequently sent his prophets and (seers/those who saw visions from Yahweh) to warn the people of Israel and the people of Judah. The message that Yahweh gave them was, “Turn away from all your evil behavior. Obey my commands and my laws, the laws that I told your ancestors [to obey] and which I told the prophets who served me to tell to you [again].”
14 Neuerthelesse they would not obey, but hardened their neckes, like to the neckes of their fathers, that did not beleeue in the Lord their God.
But the Israeli people would not pay attention. They were stubborn [IDM] just like their ancestors were. Just like their ancestors did, they refused to believe in Yahweh their God.
15 And they refused his statutes and his couenant, that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies (wherewith he witnessed vnto them) and they followed vanitie, and became vaine, and followed the heathen that were round about them: concerning whome the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
They rejected Yahweh’s laws and the agreement that he had made with their ancestors. They ignored Yahweh’s warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and as a result they themselves became worthless. Although Yahweh had commanded them not to imitate the evil behavior of the people-groups that lived near them, they disobeyed that command.
16 Finally they left all the commandements of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, euen two calues, and made a groue, and worshipped all the hoste of heauen, and serued Baal.
The Israeli people disobeyed all of Yahweh’s commands. They made two metal calves [to worship]. They set up two poles [to worship the goddess] Asherah, and they worshiped [the god] Baal, and the sun, the moon, and the stars.
17 And they made their sonnes and their daughters passe thorowe the fire, and vsed witchcraft and inchantments, yea, solde them selues to doe euill in the sight of the Lord, to anger him.
They also burned their own sons and daughters to be sacrifices [to those gods]. They went to fortune-tellers and they practiced sorcery. They continually chose [MET] to do [all kinds of] evil things that caused Yahweh to become angry.
18 Therefore the Lord was exceeding wroth with Israel, and put them out of his sight, and none was left but the tribe of Iudah onely.
So, because Yahweh was very angry with the Israeli people, he allowed [their enemies] to take them away [from their country]. Only the people of the tribe of Judah were left [in the land].
19 Yet Iudah kept not the commandements of the Lord their God, but walked according to the facion of Israel, which they vsed.
But even the people of Judah did not obey the commands of Yahweh their God. They imitated the evil customs that the Israelis had introduced.
20 Therefore the Lord cast off all the seede of Israel, and afflicted them, and deliuered them into the handes of spoylers, vntill he had cast them out of his sight.
So Yahweh rejected all the people of Israel and of Judah. He punished them by allowing the armies of other nations to defeat them [and take them away]. He got rid of all of them.
21 For he cut off Israel from the house of Dauid, and they made Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat King: and Ieroboam drewe Israel away from following the Lord, and made them sinne a great sinne.
Earlier, when Yahweh allowed the people of Israel to separate/break away from the area [MTY] that King David [had estabished], they chose Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, to be their king. Then Jeroboam enticed the people of Israel to stop worshiping Yahweh [and to worship idols instead]. He led them to commit great sins.
22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sinnes of Ieroboam, which he did, and departed not therefrom,
And the Israeli people continued to do the evil things that Jeroboam introduced. They did not turn away from those sins,
23 Vntill the Lord put Israel away out of his sight, as he had said by all his seruants the Prophets, and caryed Israel away out of their land to Asshur vnto this day.
until finally Yahweh got rid of them. That was just what his prophets had warned would happen. The Israeli people were taken away to the land of Assyria, and they still remain there.
24 And the King of Asshur brought folke from Babel, and from Cuthah, and from Aua, and from Hamath, and from Sepharuaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria in steade of the children of Israel: so they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
The king of Assyria [ordered his soldiers to] take [groups of] people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim [cities] to [the] Samaria [region], and to resettle them in the towns there, to take the place of the Israelis [who lived there previously]. Those people took control over [the whole] Samaria [region] and lived in the towns there.
25 And at the beginning of their dwelling there, they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slewe them.
But those people [who came from other countries] did not worship Yahweh when they first arrived in Samaria. So Yahweh sent lions to kill some of them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the King of Asshur, saying, The nations which thou hast remoued, and placed in the cities of Samaria, knowe not the maner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they knowe not the maner of the God of the land.
Then those people sent a message to the king of Assyria. They wrote, “We people who have resettled in the towns in Samaria do not know how to worship the God [that the Israelis worshiped] in this land. So he has sent lions among us to kill us, because we have not worshiped him correctly.”
27 Then the King of Asshur commanded, saying, Carie thither one of the Priestes whome ye brought thence, and let him goe and dwell there, and teache them the maner of the God of the countrey.
[When] the king of Assyria [read this letter, he] commanded [his officers], “You brought many priests here from Samaria. Send one of them back there. Tell him to teach the people who are now living there how to worship correctly the God whom the Israelis worshiped in that land.”
28 So one of the Priestes, which they had caryed from Samaria, came and dwelt in Beth-el, and taught them how they shoulde feare the Lord.
So [the officers did that]. They sent one of the Israeli priests back to Samaria. That priest went to live in Bethel [city], and he taught the people there how to worship Yahweh.
29 Howbeit euery nation made their gods, and put them in the houses of the hie places, which the Samaritanes had made, euery nation in their cities, wherein they dwelt.
But the people [who returned from Babylon and started to live in Samaria and] continued to make their own idols. They placed them in the shrines that the Israelis had built there. The people of each people-group made idols in the cities in which they were living.
30 For the men of Babel made Succoth-Benoth: and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
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.
31 And the Auims made Nibhaz, and Tartak: and the Sepharuims burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech, and Anammelech the gods of Sepharuaim.
The people of Avva made idols to represent their gods Nibhaz and Tartak. The people from Sepharvaim sacrificed their own children. They completely burned them [in pits where hot fires were kept burning, ] as offerings to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech.
32 Thus they feared the Lord, and appoynted out Priestes out of them selues for the hie places, who prepared for them sacrifices in the houses of the hie places.
But those people also worshiped Yahweh, and they appointed from among their own groups many people to be priests at the shrines on the tops of the hills, in order that those priests could offer sacrifices for them there.
33 They feared the Lord, but serued their gods after the maner of the nations whome they caryed thence.
So they revered Yahweh, but they also worshiped their own gods, just as the people living in the countries from which they had been taken to Samaria did.
34 Vnto this day they doe after the olde maner: they neyther feare God, neyther doe after their ordinances, nor after their customes, nor after the Lawe, nor after the commandement, which the Lord commanded the children of Iaakob, whom he named Israel,
They still keep their old customs. They really do not worship Yahweh, and they do not obey all the laws and commands that Yahweh gave to the descendants of Jacob, to whom he gave the new name Israel.
35 And with whom the Lord had made a couenant, and charged them, saying, Feare none other gods, nor bowe your selues to them, nor serue them, nor sacrifice to them:
Yahweh had previously made an agreement with their ancestors, commanding them not to worship other gods or bow down to honor them or do other things to please them or offer sacrifices to them.
36 But feare the Lord which brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power, and a stretched out arme: him feare ye, and worshippe him, and sacrifice to him.
He had said to them, “You must have an awesome respect for me, Yahweh, the one who brought you out of Egypt with my very great power [DOU]. I am the one whom you must bow down to honor, and I am the one to whom you must offer sacrifices.
37 Also keepe ye diligently the statutes and the ordinances, and the Lawe, and the commandement, which he wrote for you, that ye do them continually, and feare not other gods.
You must always obey the laws and commands that I [told Moses to] write for you. You must not worship other gods.
38 And forget not the couenant that I haue made with you, neither feare ye other gods,
And you must not forget the agreement that I made with your ancestors. You must not revere other gods.
39 But feare the Lord your God, and he will deliuer you out of the handes of all your enemies.
Instead, you must revere me, Yahweh, your God. If you do that, I will rescue you from the power [MTY] of all your enemies.”
40 Howbeit they obeyed not, but did after their olde custome.
But the people [from those foreign nations] would not heed what Yahweh said. Instead, they continued to adhere to their old customs.
41 So these nations feared the Lord, and serued their images also: so did their children, and their childrens children: as did their fathers, so do they vnto this day.
So, they worshiped Yahweh, but they also worshiped their idols. And their descendants still do the same thing.
