- Reading I 2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15a, 18 Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, occupied the whole landand attacked Samaria, which he besieged for three years.In the ninth year of Hoshea, king of Israelthe king of Assyria took Samaria,and deported the children of Israel to Assyria,setting them in Halah, at the Habor, a river of Gozan,and the cities of the Medes.This came about because the children of Israel sinned against the LORD,their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt,from under the domination of Pharaoh, king of Egypt,and because they venerated other gods.They followed the rites of the nationswhom the […]