You will say to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’ and to those who are in dark dungeons, ‘Emerge.’ They will graze beside the roads; on all the slopes they will find pasture.

So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel. He taught them how to worship the Lord.

They were worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their own gods in accordance with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.

Genealogical records were kept for all Israel; they are recorded in the Scroll of the Kings of Israel.The people of Judah were carried away to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.

For he will die in the country where they took him as a captive. He will never see this land again.”

Now some of the officers of the Judean army and their troops had been hiding in the countryside. They heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam to govern the country. They also heard that he had been put in charge over the men, women, and children from the poorer classes of the land who had not been carried off into exile in Babylon.