2 Kings 17:24-29

New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised

Assyria Resettles Samaria

²⁴ The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria in place of the people of Israel; they took possession of Samaria, and settled in its cities. ²⁵ When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. ²⁶ So the king of Assyria was told, ‘The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the law of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them; they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the god of the land.’ ²⁷ Then the king of Assyria commanded, ‘Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there; let him^[a] go and live there, and teach them the law of the god of the land.’ ²⁸ So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel; he taught them how they should worship the Lord.

²⁹ But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived;