When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they called him to a meeting and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah continued to follow the family of David.
But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea had made plans against him by sending messengers to So, the king of Egypt. Hoshea had also stopped giving Shalmaneser the payments, which he had paid every year in the past. For that, the king put Hoshea in prison.
Where are the idols you made for yourselves? Let them come and save you when you are in trouble! People of Judah, you have as many idols as you have towns!
Listen to the sound of my people. They cry from a faraway land: “Isn’t the Lord still in Jerusalem? Isn’t Jerusalem’s king still there?” But God says, “Why did the people make me angry by worshiping idols, useless foreign idols?”
They chose their own kings without asking my permission. They chose their own leaders, people I did not know. They made their silver and gold into idols, and for all this they will be destroyed.