The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 285

the Maeorites pointed the word as Nio, Sok seems to have been a revelntion at Nineveh, or So). The Aseyrians knew the king as The reign of Shalmaneser came to an end, Sibakhi, and contended with him under and Sargon sea.te<l himself npon the throne. Sargon. Hoshca now sent an embassy to There have been commentators on Kings this mono.roh'e court, requesting hie alliance (Keil, Bahr) who ha.ve snpposed that and hie support against the great Asiatic Shnlmo.neser and Sargon were the same power by which the existence of all the person, and have even claimed that the petty states of Western Asia. was thref\tened. ABByrian inscriptions support their view. Shalmaneser was at the time endeavouring But the fa.et is otherwise. Nothing is more to capture Tyre, and Hoshea might reason- certain than that, according t'l them, Sargon ably fear that, when Tyre was taken, his succeeded Shalmaneser IV. in B.o. 722 by own turn would come. It is not clear how a revolution, and we.a the head of a new Shabo.k received Hoshea's overtures; bot dyne.sty. He claims in hie o.nna.ls, among we may, perhaps, assume thf\t it was with his earliest acts, the siege and capture of favour, since otherwise Hoshea would Samaria. (' Eponym Canon,' p. 125). It is scarcely have ventured to withhold his remarkable that Scripture, while in no way tribute, ns he seems to have done. Jt must connecting him with the capture, never have been in reliance on "the strength of distinctly assigns it to Shalmaneser. Here Egypt" that he ventured to brave the anger we are only told that "the King of Assyria" of Assyria. And brought no present-or, took it. In eh. xviii. 9, 10, where we are ,ent no tribute-to the King of Assyria, aa distinctly told that Shalmaneser "came up he had done year by year: therefore the against Samaria, and besieged it," the Jling of Assyria shut him up, and bound captnre is expressed by the phrase, "they him in prison. The ultimate result is took it," not "he took it." Perhaps neither mentioned at once, before the steps by king was present in person at the siege, or, which it was accomplished are related. at any rate, at its termination. The city Sho.lmaneser did not •• summon Hoshea may have been taken by an Assyrian general, before his presenct1 to listen to his explana- while Sho.lma.neeer and Sargon were con- tions,'' and then, " as soon as he ea.me, take tending for the crown. In that case, the him prisoner, put him in chains, and im- oaptnre might be assigned to either. Sargon prison him" (as Ewald thinks), but simply certainly claims it; Shalm1meser's annals declared war, invaded Hoehea's country, have been so mutilated by his successors that besieged him in his capital, and ultimately, we cannot tell whether he claimed it or not. when he surrendered, consigned him to a The city fell in B.O. 722 ; and the deporta- prison, as Nebuchadnezzar afterwards did tion of its inhabitants at once took place. Jehoiachin (eh. xxiv. 15; xxv. 27). Other- And oarried Israel a.way into Assyria. The wise Hoshea's reign would have come to an inscription of Sargon above refened to end in his sixth or seventh, and not in his mentions only the deportation, from the city ninth year. of So.maria. itself, of 27,290 peraons. No Ver. 5.-Then the King of Assyria- doubt a vust number of othera were carried rather, and tke King of .A.ssyria-oame up off from the smaller towns and from the throughout all the land-i.e. with an army country districts. Still, the country was not that spread itself o.t once over the whole land, left uninhabited, and Sargon BSsessed its that co.me to conquer, not merely to strike a tribute at the old mte (' Eponym Canon,' blow, and obto.iu submission, as on the former l. s. o. ). Nor was the oity of Samaria destroyed, occasion (see ver.3, and the comment)-and since we hear of it subsequently more than went up to Samaria, and besieged it three ouce in the Assyrian annllls. A.nrl placed years. From some time in Hoshea's seventh them in Ha.lab. " Ha.lab" (;,~~) hb8 been year (eh. xviii. 9) to some time in his ninth (eh. xviii. 10). According to the Hebrew supposed by some to be the old Assyrian mode of rtckoning, parts of years are city (Gen. x. 11) of Calah (n1;,:;,), which WBB, counted as years; and thw the siege need down to the time of Tiglath-pileser, the not have lBBtcd much over o. year, though it m!\in c11pito.l; but the difference of spelling may have been extended to nearly three is o.n objection, and the Assyria.us do uot years. In eithel' ea.so, there was ample seem to have enr tro.nsported subject- time for Bhabl\k to have brought up his populations to their ea.pit.a.ls. It is more- forces, had he been so minded: and his o¥er reasonable to suppose that Ha.lab, fa.ilure to do eo, or in o.ny way to succour Habor, Gozo.u, and Hara (1 Chron. v. 26) his ally, showed how little 1·elianco wae to were in the same neighbourhood. This last be placed on Egyptian promisee (comp. considero.tion poiuts to the " Cha.lei tie" of oh. xvi ii. 21 ), Ptolemy (v. 18) us the true "H,,ltlh," since Ver. G.-In the ninth year of Koshea it was in the immediate vicinitv of the the King of Assyria took Samaria. In Kho.hour, of Gsuzo.nitis, and of Haran. And B,o. 722, the ninth year of Hoshcfl, there in lla.bor by the river of Gozan. Thi& is 11 832 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [en. xm. l--41.