All this is for the wickedness of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the wickedness of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the loftiness of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
For certainly, the word will arrived, which he predicted by the word of the Lord, against the altar, which is in Bethel, and against all the shrines of the high places, which are in the cities of Samaria."
And he bought the mount of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver. And he built upon it, and he called the name of the city that he had built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the mount.
Now in the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of his father David. And in the twelfth year after he had begun to reign, he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the sacred groves, and the idols, and the graven images.
And in his sight, they destroyed the altars of the Baals, and they demolished the idols which had been set upon them. And then he cut down the sacred groves and crushed the graven images. And he scattered the fragments upon the tombs of those who had been accustomed to immolate to them.
Your own malice will reprove you, and your own apostasy will rebuke you! But know and perceive this: it is an evil and bitter thing for you to forsake the Lord your God, and to be without my fear within you, says the Lord, the God of hosts.
And in the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen the likeness of adulterers and the path of falsehood. And they have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that each one would not convert from his malice. They have all become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants have become like Gomorrah."
Hear, O earth! Behold, I will lead evils over this people, as the fruits of their own thoughts. For they have not listened to my words, and they have cast aside my law.
And your older sister is Samaria, she and her daughters are those who live to your left. But your younger sister, who lives to your right, is Sodom and her daughters.
When I was willing to heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the malice of Samaria, for they had been manufacturing lies. And the thief steals from inside, the robber from outside.
Woe to you who have been wealthy in Zion, and to you who have confidence in the mountain of Samaria: aristocrats, heads of the people, who advance with a retinue into the house of Israel.
And the heights of the idol will be demolished, and the sanctuaries of Israel will be desolate. And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
They swear by the offense of Samaria, and they say, "As your God lives, Dan," and "The way of Beer-sheba lives." And they will fall, and they will not rise up any more.
A tumult of four-horse chariots has stupefied the inhabitants of Lachish. The beginning has been sin for the daughter of Zion, because in you have been found the evil deeds of Israel.