Chapter Seventeen

1-6. The fall of the kingdom of Israel and the captivity of its inhabitants to Assyria. 7-23. The internal causes of the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. 24-41. New settlers in the territory of the former kingdom of Israel.

2 Kings 17:1. In the twelfth year of Ahaz, king of Judah, Hoshea, son of Elah, began to reign in Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2 Kings 17:2. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. The date of the accession of the last Israelite king Hoshea, “in the 12th year of Ahaz, king of Judah” (v. 1) is confirmed by (2 Kgs 18:9), where the 4th and 6th years of the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah, son of Ahaz (Ahaz reigned 16 years), are equated with the 7th and 9th years of the reign of Hoshea of Israel. On the other hand, the date (2 Kgs 15:30), according to which Hoshea began to reign in the 20th year of Jotham, the father of Ahaz, must be recognized as completely erroneous both because Jotham reigned only 16 years (2 Kgs 15:33), and even more—by the clear evidence that Pekah, the predecessor of Hoshea, was already warring not with Jotham but with his son Ahaz (2 Kgs 16:5 and following; Isa 7:1 and following), consequently the murderer and successor Hoshea could in no way be co-regent with Ahaz’s father Jotham; an error in the letter-numerical designation of chronological dates, in the general opinion of scholars of the Old Testament text, is quite possible. It was remarked above (in the commentaries to 2 Kgs 15:30) that the slaying of Pekah defeated by Tiglath-Pileser and the elevation of Hoshea to the throne was, probably, the work of the Assyrian-inclined party at the Israelite court. The accession of Hoshea, as was seen, should be dated to 733 B.C. In the character of Hoshea’s reign the sacred writer notes a peculiarity: “he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him” (v. 2, cf. (2 Kgs 3:2)). What consisted the lesser degree of wickedness of Hoshea, of course, in regard to religious worship, is not stated in the text. According to the rabbis (Seder Olam, ch. XXII), Hoshea did not allow building new golden calves in Bethel, after the earlier ones had been taken captive by the Assyrians (Hos 10:6; compare, however, with professor Brodovich, “The Book of the Prophet Hoshea,” p. 352), and also did not prevent his subjects from going to worship the Lord in Jerusalem, for instance, when Hezekiah invited the Israelites to Jerusalem for the Passover festival (2 Chr 30:1-11). But if this supposition has some probability, nevertheless, one cannot think (as Thenius believes) that Hoshea entirely abolished the worship of the calves, since this would destroy the long-standing barrier between the two Hebrew kingdoms, about which the biblical text could not have been silent; in reality, this worship probably survived even the kingdom of Israel itself (see P. Krasin, State Worship of the Israelite (Ten-Tribe) Kingdom, pp. 227-229). It is rather possible to think that Hoshea proved to be an opponent of pure paganism that spread in Israel under his immediate predecessors. One way or another, the sacred writer in the sources (“Chronicles of the Kings of Israel”) found data that prompted him to present Hoshea in a more favorable light than his predecessors.

2 Kings 17:3. Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 2 Kings 17:4. But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent envoys to So, king of Egypt, and did not deliver tribute to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year. So the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison. Set up as king with the knowledge of Tiglath-Pileser and, of course, with the obligation to pay tribute to the Assyrian king, Hoshea apparently decided to take advantage of the change of throne in Assyria that occurred in 727: Tiglath-Pileser III was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV (Assyrian Sulmanu-asir), who reigned, according to the so-called “list of eponyms,” from 727 to 722 B.C. From Assyrian documents about Shalmaneser IV we know only that in the last 3 years of his reign he undertook conquering campaigns to the west (the exact name of the countries toward which these campaigns were directed is unknown, as the tablets in these places proved to be damaged). With this one may compare the testimony cited by Josephus (Jewish Antiquities 9:14, 2) of the Phoenician historian Menander, that the Assyrian king Shalmaneser first undertook war against all of Phoenicia, then made peace, and then after some time besieged Tyre for five years (perhaps this siege is prophesied about in (Isa 23)). Comparing these non-biblical testimonies with (2 Kgs 17:3-6), some scholars (Ewald and others) suppose that Hoshea’s refusal to pay tribute to Shalmaneser is connected with a coalition of Western Asian states, including Phoenicia with Tyre at the head, with the support of Egypt against Assyrian dominion; however, other researchers (Knobel, Schopoade, Smith) date the formation of the mentioned coalition and the siege of Tyre (according to Menander and Josephus) to a later period—to the reign of Sennacherib in Assyria and several years after the fall of Samaria and the Israelite kingdom. Not insisting on the first supposition, we must, however, say that the fact itself of Hoshea’s deviation from vassalic tribute to Assyria and appeal for help to Egypt closely reminds us of the supposed coalition against Assyria. The name of the Egyptian king to whom Hoshea sent gifts hoping for his help (v. 4), in Hebrew So or in another reading Sebe; the latter is close to Ζεβεχος of Manetho; Vulgate: Sua; LXX: σιγωρ; Slavonic-Russian: “Sigor.” According to the most common supposition, this is the name Shabako, Egyptian Shabaka, the first pharaoh of the XXV dynasty of Egypt (according to Manetho, reigning 12 years: 728-717 B.C.). Many inhabitants of the Israelite kingdom fled to Egypt seeking protection (Isa 11:11). Thus, as when the Israelite kingdom first separated from the Judean one the future Israelite king Jeroboam I sought and found refuge in Egypt (1 Kgs 11:40), so at its end the Israelite kingdom sought support in the same Egypt; but this time in vain: Shabako did not decide on this occasion to enter into a struggle with the universal conqueror for the sake of the kingdom of Israel (only later in 720, when Sargon suppressed in 720 an uprising of Syrian states and began to threaten Egyptian possessions, Shabako fought with him at Gaza and was defeated). The kingdom of Israel was left to itself, and immediately appearing within its limits was Shalmaneser, who apparently as the first thing punished his treacherous vassal, the Israelite king Hoshea, imprisoned him and, perhaps, sent him to Assyria (in 2 Kgs 18:10 Hoshea appears, however, reigning until the very fall of the Israelite kingdom and its capital), and then besieged Samaria.

2 Kings 17:5. And the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three years he besieged it. The unassailable natural position of Samaria and the firm fortification of this city (cf. the remark on 1 Kgs 16:24) made it possible for this capital of the Israelite kingdom to hold out for about 3 years (incomplete, according to 2 Kgs 18:9-10—the siege began in the 7th year of Hoshea’s reign, ended in the 9th year); namely, according to the general opinion in biblical scholarship, from 724 to 722 B.C.

2 Kings 17:6. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Shalmaneser was not fated to end the siege of Samaria and the conquest of the Israelite kingdom: in 722 he died (perhaps by violent death: his successor started a new dynasty), and his work in the same year of 722 was completed by his successor on the Assyrian throne Sargon (cf. Isa 20:1), Assyrian Sarrukin, who reigned from 722 to 705; in the biblical tradition the predecessor, having conducted the siege of Samaria so long, naturally overshadowed the actual conqueror of Samaria who resettled part of the Israelite population within the limits of Assyria. In his triumphal inscription (see Schrader, Keilinschr. und Alt. Test. 2, s. 271 ft.) Sargon recounts that he plundered the city (Samaria) and took captive and resettled in Assyria 27,280 of its inhabitants. Of course, this is a small figure compared to the whole mass of the Israelite population. One must suppose, however, that such mass resettlements of Israelites, begun earlier by Tiglath-Pileser with regard to the northern parts of the Israelite kingdom (2 Kgs 15:29), were conducted by Sargon (perhaps also by Shalmaneser) several times, so that the land, although not completely depopulated, was extremely thinned out in population: the political and even national existence of the Israelite kingdom ceased. The fall of Samaria and all the kingdom of Israel were an exact fulfillment of the terrible prophecies (Hos 5:9; Isa 28:1-4 and others). The separate existence of the Israelite kingdom from the Judean kingdom lasted about 2.5 centuries (according to the usual view, 257 years: from 980 to 722; according to Josephus, “Jewish Antiquities,” 9:14, 1, 240 years 7 months 7 days; according to I. Spasskii, “An Investigation of Biblical Chronology,” pp. 125-243 years). From the points to which masses of Israelite prisoners were resettled by the Assyrians only some of the most densely populated were named, obviously: Halah, Habor, Gozan, cities of the Medes (v. 6) Halah (LXX: ῾Αλαε, Vulgate: Hala). The LXX consider Halah a river (ποταμοῖς Τωοσάν), but according to cuneiform documents it is a region to the north of Nineveh and to the south of Lake Van, known to the Greeks by the name Χολκίτις (cf. Schrader, op. cit. s. 275 ff.). Habor—the Χαβῶρας of the Greeks, a river which empties into the Euphrates, flows from the mountain Maznya near the city of Nisibia; its chief tributary is the Migdonius; it empties into the Euphrates at Circesium, now the Khabur, Gozan (cf. 2 Kgs 19:12; Isa 37:12). Eusebius and blessed Jerome mistakenly took (Onomasticon, 66) it for a river, but in fact it is a region that probably lay between the rivers Habor and Saokos (Ξαοκόρας), called Tansanitis by Ptolemy, Gutanu in cuneiform inscriptions, near Nisibia (between the Tigris and Euphrates), now Katan (see Orthodox Palestine Collection, issue 37, pp. 152-153; professor Gulyaev, p. 345). Cities of the Medes. LXX: ὅρη Μήδων, Slavonic: “in the regions of Media,” among which were, for instance, those mentioned in the book of Tobit (Tob 1:14 and others). Rages of Media, apparently, form the north-eastern boundary of the territory of settlement of the captive Israelites. But they undoubtedly scattered quickly to other countries as well, not excluding even European ones (Isa 11:11). Thus was fulfilled over half of the chosen people of God the terrible word of God through the lawgiver (Lev 26:38). Attempts to find traces of the scattered 10 tribes of Israel are almost as numerous and as fruitless as quests for the location of paradise; there is no country where learned curiosity or interest has not placed them (cf., for example, the article by Mr. Kolechitsky on this subject in the “Stranger” for 1901).

2 Kings 17:7. Now this occurred because the children of Israel sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and feared other gods; 2 Kings 17:8. and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the children of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel, as they did. 2 Kings 17:9. And the children of Israel did things secretly against the Lord their God which were not right, and they built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortified city; 2 Kings 17:10. and they set up pillars and Asherahs on every high hill and under every green tree; 2 Kings 17:11. and there they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before them, and did evil things provoking the Lord; 2 Kings 17:12. and they served the idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this.”; 2 Kings 17:13. Then the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all his prophets and all his seers, saying, “Turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes, in accordance with all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets. 2 Kings 17:14. Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the necks of their fathers, who believed not in the Lord their God; 2 Kings 17:15. and despised his statutes and his covenant that he had made with their fathers, and his warnings which he gave them. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves, and went after the nations which surrounded them, though the Lord had commanded them, “Do not do as they do. 2 Kings 17:16. They cast away all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made for themselves cast images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal; 2 Kings 17:17. and made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him. 2 Kings 17:18. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah alone. 2 Kings 17:19. Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked according to the customs of Israel as they did. 2 Kings 17:20. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, and afflicted them, and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he had cast them out of his sight. 2 Kings 17:21. For when Israel was torn away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. And Jeroboam drove Israel away from the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. 2 Kings 17:22. The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did. They did not depart from them, 2 Kings 17:23. until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had spoken by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was taken into captivity out of their own land to Assyria, where they are to this day. Before concluding the history of the northern Israelite kingdom, the sacred writer casts a retrospective glance over the whole history of that kingdom, examines it from a religious-pragmatic point of view, gives a philosophy of all this history—discusses the causes of the destruction of the people and kingdom of Israel. The primary cause of this destruction—the sin of Israel against the Lord, who had been beneficent to Israel from the moment of his deliverance from Egypt (v. 7; cf. Exod 19:4-6; Hos 13:4-6); the sacred writer defines more particularly: 1) as idolatry (vv. 8-12), including here the worship of calves (vv. 16-21); 2) as extreme hardening of the people’s heart to the pronouncements and warnings of the prophets of God (vv. 13-14, 23); 3) as deep moral corruption and depravity of the people (vv. 15-17), a vivid portrayal of which we find also in the contemporaneous prophets, for instance, in the prophet Hoshea (Hos 4:2).

2 Kings 17:24. And the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria, and dwelt in its cities. According to the custom of all conquerors of antiquity, the Assyrian king, in the opinion of some relying upon (Ezra 4:2), Esarhaddon or Asarhaddon, son of Sennacherib (2 Kgs 19:37), who ruled, according to Assyrian data, from 681 to 668, brought people displaced from Israel from various cities and provinces of Assyria to resettle them instead. One must suppose that this resettlement occurred more than once according to (Ezra 4:2); part of the new population of Samaria arrived here already under Asarhaddon—this third successor of Shalmaneser. But the beginning of this colonization of the depopulated country most likely belongs to the first period after the Assyrian captivity, that is, to the reign of Sargon. The geographical position of the regions mentioned in v. 24 of the Assyrian kingdom, except for Babylon and Hamath, is not entirely reliably known. Babylon is here understood, probably, in the sense of the entire region (as in Ps 135:1), not the city only. Cuthah (LXX: Χοοθα, Vulgate: Cutha, Slavonic: Khupha, in cuneiform: Kutu)—according to Josephus (“Jewish Antiquities,” 9:14, 3), lies in Persia (τὸ Χονθαίων ᾿έθνος, οἴ πρότερον ενδοτέρω τῆς περσιδος καὶ τὴς Μηδίας ῆσαν). Now identified either with the north-eastern part of Khuzistan (ancient Susia), or with better justification to Cuthah or Tell Ibrahim to the north-east of Babylon, in Babylonian Iraq near the Nahr-Malka (Onomasticon, 972, Palestine Collection, issue 37, p. 326). Apparently, the colonists from Cuthah constituted the predominant number in the mass of colonists: by the name Cuthim, Cutheans, the Hebrew tradition called the Samaritans, who were formed from the mixing of the Israelites who remained in the country with Assyrian colonists, and this name became fully common in Rabbinical and Talmudic literature (Josephus says: “in Hebrew they are called Cuthim (Cutheans), but in Greek they are called Samaritans”). Avva (perhaps identical with “Ivva,” 2 Kgs 18:34); LXX: Αίά, Vulgate: Avah, Slavonic: “Aia,” identified with the river Agava or Auy, (Ezra 8:15); and compared with the present Hito tributary of the Euphrates, to the east of Damascus (Onomasticon, 39). In favor of the position of Avva-Ivva in Syria speak the comparison with Hamath (cf. 1 Kgs 8:65; 2 Kgs 14:25); a Syrian city on the Orontes. Likewise in Syria probably lay the city of Sepharvaim (cf. 2 Kgs 18:34; Isa 36:19); LXX: Ξετιφαροναιμ, Vulgate: Sepharvaim, Slavonic: “Sepharvaim”), perhaps conquered by Shalmaneser IV (according to the Babylonian chronicle—Sabarain). About all these resettlements into the depopulated Israelite country of Assyrian colonists there are apt records in the inscriptions of Sargon (Schrader, Keilinschrift und A.T. 2 A. s. 276 ff). The newly-settled from different regions of Syria and Mesopotamia inhabitants of the former Israelite kingdom, apparently spoke one and the same Aramaic dialect, very close at that time to Hebrew (2 Kgs 18:26), and therefore could easily and quickly assimilate both with one another and with the Israelites. The center of the colonies was Samaria and the whole surrounding region.

2 Kings 17:25. And when they first dwelt there, they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them. 2 Kings 17:26. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which you have carried away, and have placed in the cities of Samaria, do not know the law of the God of that land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and now they are killing them, because they do not know the law of the God of that land. 2 Kings 17:27. So the king of Assyria commanded, saying: Send there one of the priests whom you carried away from there; let him go and live there, and let him teach them the law of the God of that land. 2 Kings 17:28. Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. The depopulated land met the new colonists unfavorably: it was filled with wild beasts, lions, which in the law of Moses appeared as a special token of God’s permitting (Lev 26:22; Exod 23:29). Thus, from their pagan point of view, namely in the conviction that each country has its own god (1 Kgs 20:23), the pagan colonists from Assyria understood this calamity, and in this thought they asked the Assyrian king to send them a teacher of the law of the God of the Israelite country (v. 26). The priest sent for this purpose by the Assyrian king (according to Josephus, several priests were sent) was, apparently, from the priests of the calf worship introduced by Jeroboam I, as shown by the fact that he settled in Bethel (v. 28), the center of that worship (1 Kgs 12:29); the worship of the Lord he taught the new inhabitants, of course, according to the book of the law.

2 Kings 17:29. Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. 2 Kings 17:30. And the men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, 2 Kings 17:31. and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. As in its ethnic composition the new population of the territory of the former Israelite kingdom presented a union of Hebrew and foreign elements, so also in religion, in the worship of the new population, there existed a duality: alongside the Lord (for a long time under the form of a calf—until the time of Josiah, 2 Kgs 23:15) the different tribes that entered into its composition each worshipped its own tribal god: the Babylonians—Succoth-benoth, the Cutheans—Nergal, the Hamathites—Ashima, the Avvites—Nibhaz and Tartak, while the Sepharvites practiced the burning of their own children (that is, a cult similar to Molech’s) to their gods Adrammelech and Anammelech. The character of the worship of each of these deities is little known. Translating literally succoth-benoth: “tents of daughters,” some (Selden, Münter, professor Gulyaev) saw in this name an indication of the worship of Babylonian Astarte, in which maidens sacrificed to her their virginity (last Jer 42-43). But the reading of the LXX: Σωκχώθ Βενίθ (Slavonic: “Sokkhof Venif”) gave Assyrologists (Jensen, Schrader) reason to see in the second component of the name the Assyrian banitu epithet of the same Babylonian Astarte or Ishtar (“Ishtar-banit” or “Zarpanit”). Still other Assyrologists consider this name an epithet of the god Merodach or Marduk and translate it “supreme judge of the universe” (cf. Onomasticon, 204). Nergal, according to some, means “swirling light” (from Hebrew ner—“light,” and galal—“to turn”); under this name, it is said, the Persians and some other peoples deified fire, which was constantly maintained in oil wells (professor Gulyaev, p. 350). According to Assyrologists (Fr. Delitzsch), Nergal (LXX: Εργελ, Vulgate: Nergel, Slavonic: “Gigel”), called in cuneiform inscriptions the god of Cuthah, was for the Assyrians the god of lions and was depicted in the form of a lion, and by his astronomical significance corresponded to Mars (Onomasticon, 748. Cf. in Palmov, Idolatry Among the Ancient Hebrews, 353-355); according to the rabbis, Nergal was revered in the form of a rooster. Of the Hamathite deity Ashima nothing is mentioned in cuneiform inscriptions; the name Ashima, LXX: Ασιμάθ, Vulgate: Asima, Slavonic: “Asimaph” (Onomasticon, 160); is compared with the Phoenician deity Eshmun (the 8th planet), the Persian Asuman, the Zendish Asmano, consequently is considered a planetary deity; on the other hand, following the rabbis, the emblem of Ashima is considered a goat, and the worship is considered to have similarity with the Egyptian Mendes and the Greek Pan (Palmov, 365-367). Nibhaz (LXX: ῾εβλασερ, Vulgate: Nebahaz, Slavonic: “Avlazer” (Onomasticon, 743))—the deity of the Avvites, is now compared either with the Egyptian Anubis (it is supposed, like the latter, that the idol had a dog’s head, as the rabbis said), or is regarded as an evil demon. A similar significance of an underworld evil deity apparently had Tartak. LXX: Θαρτάκ, Slavonic: “Farfak”; according to the rabbis, was depicted in the form of a donkey (Onomasticon, 507). Adrammelech and Anammelech (Onomasticon, 25)—solar deities. Adrammelech—an Akkadian deity, called in cuneiform monuments a terrible lord of fire, personified the destructive power of the sun. Anammelech—the beneficial; the second component “melech,” as well as the fiery worship of human sacrifice, reminds of Molech, a common Semitic deity (cf. in Palmov, 345-350).

2 Kings 17:32. So they feared the Lord, and made to themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. 2 Kings 17:33. They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations of whom they were carried away. 2 Kings 17:34. to this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after the statutes and the ordinances, and the law and the commandment, which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 2 Kings 17:35. And the Lord made a covenant with them, and charged them, saying, you shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them: 2 Kings 17:36. But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall you fear, and him shall you worship, and to him shall you do sacrifice. 2 Kings 17:37. And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do for evermore; and you shall not fear other gods: 2 Kings 17:38. And the covenant that I have made with you you shall not forget; neither shall you fear other gods; 2 Kings 17:39. But the Lord your God you shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. 2 Kings 17:40. Howbeit they hearkened not, but did after their former manner. 2 Kings 17:41. So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children and their children’s children: as did their fathers, so do they to this day. The mixed, or dual-faith, character of the religion of the Samaritans, remaining such even until the time of the sacred writer, that is, until the middle of the 6th century B.C., is described in detail, cf. blessed Theodoret, question 49. * * * According to Josephus (Jewish Antiquities, 9:13, 1), Hoshea, on the contrary, throughout the 9 years of his reign was distinguished by vile behavior in general and a contemptuous attitude toward the Eternal in particular. This Shalmaneser probably is meant by the name Shalman, Hebrew Shalmam, in the prophet Hoshea (Hos 10:14) “Shalman destroyed Bet-Arbel,” according to the most probable explanation of this passage. See in professor Brodovich, cited work, pp. 372-374. See the article by Ebersa “So” in Handworterbuch des biblischen Alterthums, by Ep. Riehm, vol. II (A, 2, 1894), p. 1528. On Shalmaneser and Sargon see the articles by Schrader in the same Handworterbuch d. biblischen Alterthums, Riehm’s, vol. II, pp. 1350-1351 and 1387-1392. The traveler Ker-Porter found on one of the hills between Babylon and Hamadan (probably the ancient Ecbatana) a sculpture depicting 10 captives, one of whose prominent figure treads with his foot. By supposition, this is Sargon and 10 Israelites, as representatives of the 10 tribes, headed by their king, trampled by Sargon. (Philippson, Jsraelit. Bibel II, p. 663). On Rages and Ecbatana see in professor N. M. Drozdov’s study of the origins of the Book of Tobit, Kyiv, 1901, pp. 131 et seq. Detailed and fully scientific information on the Samaritans in Russian can be read in the essays on them by professor V. P. Rybinsky, “Proceedings of the Kyiv Theological Academy,” 1895.