In studying the religious history of the Jewish people, namely, the children of Israel, one never quite fully comprehends the rebellion of their ancestors, nor the severity and extent to which God punished them for their disobedience. The Babylonian captivity under Nebuchadnezzar is the most well known one to have occurred wherein the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah were taken away; but there were also two other ones which happened to those who lived in the territory of the ten tribes of Israel when they were taken captive to Assyria and Damascus, Syria.
I Kings 17: 13
Yet the Lord testified against Israel and Judah, by all His prophets, every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.”
18, 20, 23b
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah. And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He cast them from his sight. So Israel was carried away from their land to Assyria, “as it is to this day.”
II Kings 15: 29
In the days of Pekah King of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser (‘Pul;’ v. 19) King of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maachah, Janoch, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali; and he (1) carried them captive to Assyria.
17: 5-6; 18: 9-11, 18, 23b-24
Now the King of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the King of Assyria [‘Shalmeneser’] (2) took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River Gozam, and in the cities of the “Medes” [‘Iranians’]. Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel. And removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone [Cp. Ezra 4: 1a; ‘Judah and Benjamin??]. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day. Then the King of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath,, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of [‘in place of’] the children of Israel [Cp. Ezra 4: 9-10??]; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in their cities. NOTE: This perhaps explains the disdain that the Jews had for the Samaritans during Jesus’ day because they were neither Israelites nor the original inhabitants of the land, but rather, deportees from other foreign [‘Gentile’] nations.
24: 11, 14, 20
And Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon came against the city, as his servants were besieging it. Also he (3) carried into captivity all Jerusalem; All the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives [v. 16 says, “seven thousand”??], and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land. For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, that He finally [‘not permanently’??] cast them from His presence.
II Chronicles 28: 5a
Therefore the Lord God delivered him [‘King Ahaz;’ v. 1] into the hand of the King of Syria [‘who was he’??]. They defeated him, and (4) carried away a great multitude of them as captives, and brought them to Damascus.
Ezra 4: 1-2, 9-10
Now when the adversaries [‘enemies’] of Judah and Benjamin heard that the descendants of the captivity [‘Babylonian’] were building the temple of the Lord God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, ‘Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him since the days of Esarhaddon King of Assyria who brought us here. The Dinaites, Apharsathchites, Tarpelites, the people of Persia, Erech, Babylon, Shushan, Dehavites, Elamites, and the rest of the nations that noble ‘Osnapper’ settled in the cities of Samaria and the remainder beyond the River [‘Euphrates’]’ and so forth.
6: 21-22
Then the children of Israel who had returned from the captivity ate together with all who had separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the land in order to seek the Lord God of Israel. And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread seven days with joy; for the Lord made them joyful and turned the heart of the King of Assyria toward them (??), to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.
NOTE: The King of Assyria was not involved in this endeavor to rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, but rather it was Artaxerxes, King of Persia (Cp. Ezra 7: 1a).
Robert Randle
776 Commerce St. #B-11
Tacoma, WA 98402
March 24, 2009
pbks@hotmail.com
