When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent men to invite him to the assembly. They made him king of all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to David’s dynasty.
The king of Assyria found Hoshea to be a traitor. (Hoshea had sent messengers to King Dais of Egypt and had stopped making annual payments to the king of Assyria.) So the king of Assyria arrested him and put him in prison.
The cry from my dear people comes from a distant land: “Isn’t the Lord in Zion? Isn’t Zion’s king still there?” They make me furious with their idols, with their foreign gods.
The person the Lord anointed ⌞as king⌟, who is the breath of our life, was caught in their pits. We had thought that we would live in our king’s shadow among the nations.”
In the same way, the Israelites will wait a long time without kings or officials, without sacrifices or sacred stones, and without ephods or family idols.
“They chose their own kings, kings I didn’t approve. They chose their own princes, princes I didn’t know. They chose to make idols with their own silver and gold. Because of this, they will be destroyed.