The overarching explanation of Israel’s exile is that the Israelites sinned against God, despite the numerous acts of mercy Yahweh gave them. Specifically, the sins Israel committed were within the spiritual realm. First, the nation began to worships other gods. One way they enacted this false worship was through idolatry, like the golden calves Jeroboam established at the cult centers in Dan and Bethel. A consequence of this pagan practice was as “they followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless” (2 Kings 7:15). Additionally, the nation created false idols in the forms of sacred stones and Asherah poles, which they set up “on every high hill and under every spreading tree;” therefore, the audience can conclude that this implied there was a stiff amount of these false idols (2 Kings 7:10). Second, Israel followed the practices of the Canaanites, who were in the land before them and who God explicitly told the Israelites rebuke their practices in His Law. For instance, the Israelites burned incense in high places like the Canaanites did and they worshiped Baal (2 Kings 7:11, 2 Kings 7:16) Finally, the nation of Israel committed other despicable actions like sacrificing their children in fires, “[practicing] divination and [seeking] omens and [selling] themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Kings 7:17).