²⁵ When they first settled there, they did not venerate the Lord, so he sent lions among them that killed some of them. ²⁶ A report reached the king of Assyria: “The nations you deported and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the proper worship of the god of the land, so he has sent lions among them that are killing them, since they do not know the law of the god of the land.” ²⁷ The king of Assyria gave the order, “Send back some of the priests you deported, to go there and settle, to teach them the proper worship of the god of the land.” ²⁸ So one of the priests who had been deported from Samaria returned and settled in Bethel, and began to teach them how to venerate the Lord.

²⁹ Thus each of these nations continued to make its own gods, setting them up in the shrines of the high places the Samarians had made: each nation in the cities in which they dwelt. ³⁰ The Babylonians made Sukkot-Benot;^[a] the people of Cuth made Nergal; those from Hamath made Ashima; ³¹ those from Avva made Nibhaz and Tartak; and those from Sepharvaim immolated their children by fire to their city gods, King Hadad and King Anu. ³² At the same time, they were venerating the Lord, appointing from their own number priests for the high places to officiate for them in the shrines on the high places. ³³ They were both venerating the Lord and serving their own gods. They followed the custom of the nations from among whom they had been deported.

³⁴ To this very day they continue to act according to their former customs, not venerating the Lord nor observing the statutes and regulations, the law and commandment, that the Lord enjoined on the descendants of Jacob, whom he had named Israel.^(A)