Page:Essays ethnological and linguistic.djvu/190

178 pellation of Jews, by which they had been known in the time of Hezekiah, and were known again in the time of our Saviour, would have been commonly adopted.

In accordance further with the assumption that hereafter all the tribes were to be amalgamated as one people, we find the records of the people after the subjugation of Samaria by the Assyrians, so far as they are specifically detailed, giving us incidental notices of other tribes besides those of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, both before the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and after their general return under Cyrus and his successors.

Of the numbers led away captive by the Assyrians we have no distinct accounts, but learn that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, "went up to Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (2 Kings, xvii. ver. 6). During the three years of siege, the country must have become exceedingly desolated, so that when Shalmaneser took away his captives, who were probably those taken in arms and the principal inhabitants, he found it advisable to bring men from Babylon and other localities, and place them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel. This however he may be supposed to have done for the purpose of giving the land a more tractable population, or for the purpose of restoring it from the ravages of famine and the other consequences of war and the sword, as much as to replace those taken away. From other parts of the sacred history it is clear that a large portion of the people of Israel were left behind, and therefore we must conclude that when it is said "Israel was carried away," it is to be understood in general terms of the principal persons, and not of the main body of the people.

Samaria, as above stated, was taken by Shalmaneser in the ninth year of Hoshea, which was the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah (2 Kings, xviii. ver. 10). It must have been after this event, and in apprehension of a like fate impending over Judah, that Hezekiah took counsel of his princes and all the congregation to keep a solemn passover (2 Chron. xxx. ver. 2). He then "sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to keep the passover." From this and the following verses it is apparent that a considerable portion of the people of Israel had been left behind by the Assyrians, and we may