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בשׁנת8141 התשׁיעית8671 להושׁע1954 לכד3920 מלך4428 אשׁור804 את853 שׁמרון8111 ויגל1540 את853 ישׂראל3478 אשׁורה804 וישׁב3427 אתם853 בחלח2477 ובחבור2249 נהר5104 גוזן1470 וערי5892 מדי׃4074

2Ki 18:10,11 Ho 1:6,9; 13:16

Verse 6. Took Samaria] According to the prophets Hosea, Hosea xiii. 16, and Micah, Micah i. 6. He exercised great cruelties on this miserable city, ripping up the women with child, dashing young children against the stones, &c. &c.

Carried Israel away into Assyria] What were the places to which the unfortunate Israelites were carried, or where their successors are now situated, have given rise to innumerable conjectures, dissertations, discourses, &c. Some maintain that they are found on the coast of Guinea; others, in America; the Indian tribes being the descendants of those carried away by the Assyrians. In vol. i. of the Supplement to Sir Wm. Jones's works, we find a translation of the History of the Afghans, by Mr. H.

Vansittart; from which it appears that they derive their own descent from the Jews. On this history Sir Wm. Jones writes the following note:- "This account of the Afghans may lead to a very interesting discovery. We learn from Esdras, that the ten tribes, after a wandering journey, came to a country called Arsaret, where we may suppose they settled. Now the Afghans are said by the best Persian historians to be descended from the Jews; they have traditions among themselves of such a descent, and it is even asserted that their families are distinguished by the names of Jewish tribes; although, since their conversion to the Islam, they studiously conceal their origin. The Pushtoo, of which I have seen a dictionary, has a manifest resemblance to the Chaldaic; and a considerable district under their dominion is called Hazarek or Hazaret, which might easily have been changed into the word used by Esdras. I strongly recommend an inquiry into the literature and history of the Afghans." Every thing considered, I think it by far the most probable that the Afghans are the descendants of the Jews, who were led away captives by the Assyrian kings.

Thus ended the kingdom of Israel, after it had lasted two hundred and fifty-four years, from the death of Solomon and the schism of Jeroboam, till the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser, in the ninth year of Hoshea; after which the remains of the ten tribes were carried away beyond the river Euphrates.

The rest of this chapter is spent in vindicating the Divine providence and justice; showing the reason why God permitted such a desolation to fall on a people who had been so long his peculiar children.

Ver. 6. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria , etc.]. Which was the last year of his reign, and to be reckoned either from the time of his reigning in full power and authority, or from his first casting off the Assyrian yoke; (see Gill on “ 2 Kings 17:1”) and carried Israel away into Assyria ; not only the inhabitants of Samaria, but all the ten tribes inhabiting the several parts of the kingdom, for which Josephus is express f196 and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, by the river of Gozan ; some of them he placed here, which were in Assyria. Halah is the Calachena of Ptolemy, at the north of Assyria, and Habor is the mount Chobaras of the same; from which mountain, as you go to the Caspian sea, about midway, is the city Gauzania, the same with Gozan, which might give name to this river f197 . The Jews say f198 , this is the river Sambation, which runs so swiftly, that there is no passing except on the sabbath day; and which then the Jews cannot pass because of the profanation of the sabbath; and is the reason they give why the ten tribes are there detained; and Manasseh ben Israel fancies Habor to be Tabor, a province in Tartary, where some Jews are: and in the cities of the Medes ; others of them he placed there, under his jurisdiction, the same with Hara, ( 1 Chronicles 5:26), which with the Greeks is called Aria; and Herodotus says f200 , these Medes formerly were called by all Arii. It appears from hence that the kingdom of Media was now subject to the king of Assyria: some take Halach to be Colchi, and Habor to be Iberia, and Hara to be Armenia, and Gauzani to be Media, which all bounded the north of Assyria.

בשׁנת8141 התשׁיעית8671 להושׁע1954 לכד3920 מלך4428 אשׁור804 את853 שׁמרון8111 ויגל1540 את853 ישׂראל3478 אשׁורה804 וישׁב3427 אתם853 בחלח2477 ובחבור2249 נהר5104 גוזן1470 וערי5892 מדי׃4074