Hoshea became the last king of Israel and reigned for 9 years doing evil in the eyes of the Lord. He had been the vassal of Assyria but he rebelled and entered into an alliance with Egypt. Faced by this situation the King of Assyria besieged Israel's capital city of Samaria for 3 years! Therefore King Shalmaneser of Assyria imprisoned Hoshea and in the 9th year of Hoshea's reign, in approximately 722 BC, Samaria was captured and the Israelites were deported to exile in Assyria.
The text goes on to say that all this happened as punishment for Israel's idolatry, paganism, child sacrifice and stiff-neckedness leaving God's warning messages through the prophets unheeded.
Then the King of Assyria replaced the Israelites bringing people from Babylon, Kuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria. These immigrants took over Samaria and lived in its towns. The immigrants did not worship the Lord so God sent lions to kill them. Thus the King of Assyria sent for an Israelite priest to teach the settlers the ways of the Lord. Nevertheless this was only partially successful and a syncretistic mixture ensued including polytheistic paganism and child sacrifice which implanted a Samaritan sub-culture which long remained at loggerheads with orthodox Judaism.
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