2 Kings 17:28–34

²⁸So one of the priests they had deported came and lived in Bethel,^aa and he began to teach them how they should fear the Lord.

²⁹But the people of each nation were still making their own gods in the cities where they lived and putting them in the shrines of the high places that the people of Samaria had made.^{ab 30}The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire^ac to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. ³²They feared the Lord, but they also made from their ranks priests for the high places, who were working for them at the shrines of the high places.^{ad 33}They feared the Lord, but they also worshiped their own gods^ae according to the practice of the nations from which they had been deported.

³⁴They are still observing the former practices to this day. None of them fear the Lord or observe the statutes and ordinances, the law and commandments that the Lord had commanded the descendants of Jacob, whom he had given the name Israel.^af