Where the Samaritans came from, according to the Jews

Jotham’s son Ahaz was an evil king of Judah, so God sent the kings of Israel and Aram to fight against him and defeat him after God had promised they wouldn’t defeat him.¹ After God predicted Assyria would destroy Judah, Ahaz got the king of Assyria to instead help him attack Israel, by giving him all the gold and silver from the temple of God.

Hoshea, the next king of Israel, was an evil traitor. When the king of Assyria found that out, he took Hoshea prisoner and conquered his country, putting an end to the kingdom of Israel. The people of Israel were exiled to Assyria, becoming the Ten Lost Tribes. The king of Assyria sent foreign pagans to settle in the former land of Israel, becoming Samaritans.

How Hezekiah used the gift of success

Ahaz’s son Hezekiah was the most righteous king Judah ever had. So God made him successful at everything. Hezekiah successfully convinced God to let his people break God’s law by celebrating the Passover in any way they wanted.

He successfully rebelled against the king of Assyria, so God told the king of Assyria to destroy Judah. But righteous Hezekiah kept the king of Assyria from conquering Judah by giving him all the gold and silver from the temple of God (which his father had already given to the king of Assyria). After Hezekiah successfully convinced the king of Assyria not to conquer Judah, the king of Assyria continued to try to conquer Judah, as God had commanded him, until God got him killed.

Hezekiah got sick, and God sent a prophet to tell him that he would never recover. But Hezekiah successfully convinced the never-changing God to change his mind, and so he recovered anyway.

Men from Babylon came to visit Hezekiah, and he showed them all the treasure and stuff he owned. The prophet told Hezekiah that now that the Babylonians knew about all that treasure, they were going to steal it all some day. And they would kidnap and castrate some of Hezekiah’s descendants. Righteous Hezekiah said he didn’t mind that, since he wouldn’t be around when it happened.

Nebuchadnezzar makes the Jews go to Babylon

Hezekiah’s great-grandson Josiah was also the most righteous king Judah ever had. God didn’t want Josiah to have to live through the disaster that God was planning to punish righteous dead Hezekiah with. So he tricked the Egyptians into killing righteous Josiah, which they didn’t want to do.

Josiah was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz. But the king of Egypt captured him and replaced him with Jehoiakim, another son of Josiah. Then Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took over Egypt and took Jehoiakim prisoner. After Jehoiakim used the word of God as firewood, God sent a prophet to tell him that he would not have a successor. Jehoiakim was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin.

Nebuchadnezzar makes the Jews go to Babylon again

Jehoiachin’s reign ended when Nebuchadnezzar took him prisoner, conquered Judah, and stole all the gold from the temple of God (that Hezekiah had already given away to the king of Assyria). Most of the people of Judah were exiled to Babylon, becoming the Jews, but the poorest people were left behind.

Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah son of Josiah king of those remaining people. Zedekiah’s reign ended when Nebuchadnezzar took him prisoner and conquered his country, putting an end to the kingdom of Judah. The Babylonians broke down the city wall of Jerusalem, burned down the palace and the temple and the other important buildings, and stole all the gold and silver from the temple (again).

Most of the poor people remaining in Judah were then exiled to Babylon, but the poorest of the poor were left behind. A few months later, some of those people who had stayed behind got killed, and the rest fled to Egypt, where they all died.

The end.

The moral of the story

If you are righteous, you can do whatever you want, whether God likes it or not.

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