17:1-6
Hoshea, the son of Elah, became king of Israel. He was to be the last king of Israel, and like most of his predecessors “did evil in the eyes of the Lord”, but apparently wasn’t as bad as his immediate predecessor. He had paid tribute to Assyria, even so Assyria then attacked Hoshea. Hoshea had been seeking help from Egypt and stopped paying tribute to Assyria. Shalmaneser seized Hoshea and imprisoned him. In the ninth and last year of Hoshea's reign the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to \ssytis, settling them in Halah.
17:7-17
The text then states quite clearly that all this happened because Israel had sinned against the Lord. The same Lord who had rescued them from Egypt. We get a litany of the sins of Israel, relating mostly to their idol worship. They committed the very sins that the nations God had enabled them to drive out had committed, so they too would be driven out. They had been warned about this, but had not heeded the warnings. They did not trust in the Lord, instead they followed worthless idols, and so became worthless themselves. They followed the ways of the nations, churches today are foolish if they follow the ways of the world. This included sacrificing children in the fire.
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