2 Kgs 17:7-9 : 7 This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods.
8 They followed the practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the Israelites, as well as the practices of the kings of Israel that they themselves had introduced.
9 The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. They built high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city.
10 They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every leafy tree.
11 There, on all the high places, they burned incense as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger.
12 They served idols, about which the Lord had said to them, 'You shall not do this thing.'
13 Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and seers, saying, 'Turn back from your evil ways and keep My commandments and statutes according to the entire law I commanded your fathers to follow, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.'
14 But they would not listen. Instead, they hardened their necks like their fathers who did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 They despised His statutes, His covenant that He made with their fathers, and His warnings He gave them. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They imitated the nations around them, though the Lord had commanded them not to do so.
16 They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God. They made for themselves two cast idols in the form of calves, made an Asherah pole, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire, practiced divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.
18 So the Lord became very angry with Israel and removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left.
19 But even Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God. They followed the practices of Israel as the Israelites had done.
20 Therefore the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and handed them over to plunderers until He had cast them out of His presence.