[409] See my _Minor Prophets_, 6-97.
[410] Not as in A.V., "Habor, _by_ the river of Gozan."
[411] 2 Kings xvii. 6. The LXX. has "rivers" and "mountains": ἐν Ἀλαὲ καὶ ἐν Ἀβὼρ ποταμοῖς Γωζὰν καὶ ὅρη Μήδων. The river is not Ezekiel's Chebar. These deportations _en masse_ of a whole population, with their women and children, their waggons and flocks, are depicted on Sargon's series of tablets in his splendid palace at Khorsabad.
[412] Ezra iv. 10. "The great and noble Asnapper" of the passage is either some Assyrian general, or a confusion of the name Assurbanipal.
[413] 2 Kings xvii. 9. Heb., "covered"; A.V. and R.V., "did secretly," rather "perfidiously"; LXX., ἠμφιέσαντο λόγους ἀδίκους κατὰ κύριον; Vulg., _Et offenderunt verbis non rectis dominum suum_.
[414] Star-worship is not mentioned in the Book of the Covenant (Exod. xx.-xxiii.) or the oldest sections of the Mosaic Law. It is first forbidden in Deut. iv. 19, xvii. 3, when contact with Syrians and Assyrians made it known (comp. Job xxxi. 26-28; Jer. viii. 2, xix. 13; Zeph. i. 5). The language of 2 Kings vii.-xxiii. frequently reflects the prohibitions of Deuteronomy (see Deut. xii. 2, 30, 31, iv. 19, v. 7, 8, xvi. 21, xviii. 10, xxxi. 16, etc.)
[415] In 2 Kings xvii. 11, for "they did wicked things," the LXX. has κοινωνοὺς (_i.e._, _qedeshîm_) ἐχάραξαν καὶ ἑταιρίδας (_qedeshôth_); _i.e._, they had depraved _hieroduli_ of both sexes. Comp. Hos. iv. 14; Gen. xxxviii. 21 (where the allusion is to one of the votaries of Asherah).
[416] Bishop Lightfoot, _Sermons_, p. 267.
[417] "La quale Religione se ne Principi della Republica Christiana si fusse mantenuta, secondo che dal dottore d'essa ne fu ordinato, sarebbero gli State e le Republiche Christiane più unite e più felici assai ch' elle non sono" (_Discorsi_, i. 12).
[418] 2 Kings xvii. 24. Comp. xviii. 34. Hence the later Jews comprehensively called the Samaritans Cuthites. Comp. 2 Kings xix. 13; Isa. xxxvii. 13.
[419] Heliopolis, Ptolemy, v. 18, § 7; Isa. xxxvi. 19. Here, according to the Chaldæan legends, Xisuthrus buried his tablets about the Creation, etc.
[420] From Ezra iv. 2 some infer that the main immigrants were introduced by Esarhaddon, who did not succeed till B.C. 681. He claims to have colonised Syria.
[421] So we see from 2 Kings xix. 13, which applies to the reign of Hezekiah.
[422] See Appendix, "The Golden Calves."
[423] He uses the agency of "the great and noble Asnapper" (Ezra iv. 10) for the deportation (see Botta, 145; Layard, _Nin. and Bab._, i. 148; Dr. Hincks, _Jour. of Sacr. Lit._, October 1858), unless Asnapper be a confusion for Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus).
[424] Hos. iii. 4.
[425] See Jer. xlix. 19, l. 44; Prov. xxii. 13, etc.
[426] Lit., "Daughter-huts" (Selden, _De Dis Syr._, ii. 7), but probably a transliteration. Zarpanit--"She who gives seed"--was Aphrodite Pandemos (Mylitta--Herod., i. 199). The Rabbis--who only guess--say she represented "the Clucking Hen"--_i.e._, the Pleiades. There does not seem to be any connection between Succoth and "Sakkuth," the various reading in Amos v. 26, which seems to be the Assyrian Moloch.
[427] Said to be worshipped under the form of a cock.
[428] LXX., Ἐβλαζέρ. Jarchi says these deities were worshipped under base animal forms--but it is more than doubtful.
[429] The Rabbis, from Exod. xxiii. 13; Josh. xxiii. 7, thought they were bound to give scornful nicknames to heathen deities. Hence such changes as Kir-Heres for Kir-Cheres, Beelzebub for Beelzebul, Bethaven for Bethel, Bosheth for Baal, etc.
[430] Not as in A.V., "of the lowest of them," but "of all classes." Comp. 1 Kings xii. 31.
[431] In 2 Kings xvii. 31-38 we again find repeated references to Deuteronomy (iv. 23, v. 32, x. 20, etc.).
[432] Ezra iv. 1. The actual word "Samaritans" occurs only once in the Old Testament, in 2 Kings xvii. 29.