2 Kings 17:7-9

Lexham English Bible

⁷ Now this happened because the Israelites^[a] had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods. ⁸ They walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out from before the Israelites,^[b] which the kings of Israel had introduced. ⁹ The Israelites^[c] secretly did things which were not right, against Yahweh their God; they built high places for themselves in all their towns, from the watchtower up to the fortified city.