The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Kings — Section 291

MonMchies,' vol. II. p. 415). Those were deportn.tion. Tho Israelites were removed not nocessurily the first; nnd, on the whole, from So.maria, and p!anted partly in Gozan it is probo.blo thnt tho rcpeopli11g of the or Mygdonia, and partly in tho cities country begun eo.rlier. Hnmnth wo.s reduced recently taken from the Medes. Hamath by So.rgon in B.O. 720, ond punished severely. and Damascus were peopled with captives Its inho.bito.nts were carried off, o.ncl replaced from Armenia and other regions of the by Assyria.ns (' Eponym Co.non,' p. 127). north. A portion of the Tibareni were Probably some of them were o.t once settled carried captive to Assyria., and Assyrie.ns in Samaria.. The conquest of Bo.bylon by were established in the Tibarenian country. Sargon was not till later, It occurred in Vast numbers of the inhabitants of the B.o. 709, and was probably followed by the Zagros range were also transported to immediate deportation of some of it.a in- Assyria; Babylonians, Cuthreans, Sephnr- habitants to the same qunrter. And from vites, Arabians, a.nd others were placed in Cuthah. " Cutho.h," or "Cutha," was an Samaria; men from the extreme east (per- important Babylonian city, often mentioned haps Media.) in Asbdod. The Comukhe. in the Assyrian inscriptions (' Records of were removed from the extreme north to the Pa.st,' vol. i pp. 74, 75; vol. iii. -p. 35; Susiano., and Chaldreans were brought from vol. v. pp. 93, 94, 102). Its ruins exist at the extreme south to supply their places. the site now co.lied Ibrahim, about fifteen Everywhere Sargon 'changed the abodes• miles north-east of Babylon. Sargon must of his subjects, his aim being, as it would have become master of it when he put seem, to weaken the stronger races by down Merodo.ch-Balado.n a.nd assumed the dispersion, and to destroy the spirit of the sovereignty of Babylonia., in B.c. 709. Why weaker ones by severing at a blow all the the later Jews called the Samaritans " Cu- links which unite e. patriotic people to thmans," rather than Sepharvites, or Avites, the country it has long inhabited. The or Ho.mathites, it is impossible to determine. practice had not been unknown to previous Possibly the Cutliman settlers preponderated monarchs; but it had never been employed in numbers over the others. And from Ava. by any of them so generally or on so grand "Ava" (N1J1) is probably the same as the e. scale a.s it was by this king" (see Ivah (:'11)1) of eh. xviii. 34 a.nd xix. 13, and • Ancient Monarchies,' vol. ii p. 423). perhaps identical with the Aho.va (N1:'1N) Ver. 25.-And so it was at the beginning of Ezra (viii. 15, 21). The city intended of their dwelling there, that they feared is thought to be the "Is" of Herodotns not the Lord. They were ignorant, i.e., of (i. 179), and the modern Hit. Hit lies Jehovah, and paid him no religious regard. upon the Euphrates, about a. hundred and They brought with them their own forms thirty miles a.hove Babylon, in lat. 33° 45' of heathenism (see vers. 30, 31). Therefore nearly. It is famous for its bitumen springs. the Lord sent lions among them. Lions And from Ho.math (see the comment on are not now found in Palestine, nor indeed eh. xiv. 25). Hamath on the Orpntes was in any part of Syria, though they are conquered by Sargon in B.O, 720, two numerous in Mesopotamia.; bnt anciently years after his capture of Samaria(' Eponym they appear to have been tolerably commou Co.non,' pp. 126-128). Its rnde inhe.bitants in e.11 pa.rt.I of the Holy Land (see the were carried off, and Assyrians were placed comment on 1 Kings xiii. 24)- We may there. And from Sepharveim. It is generally gather from what is said here that, thongh allowed that " Sepha.rvaim " is " Sippo.re.," new settlers had been brought into the the duo.I form being accounted for by the country by the Assyrians, yet still there foot that Sippara was a double town, partly had been a co11Biderable deorea.se in the on the right and partly on the left bank of population, which had been favourable to o stream derived from the Euphrates. Hence the lions multiplying. The new settlers, P!iny speaks of it as "oppida Hippare- it is to be noted, were placed in the towns nornm" ('Hist.Nat.,' vi. 30). The exact site, (ver. 24); and it is probo.ble that many of at Abu-Habba, sixteen miles south-west of the country districts lay waste a.nd desolate. Buglido.d, has only recently been discovered Still, the writer views the great increase in ( see the ' Tro.nsactions of the Society of the number of the lions e.s e. Divine judg- Biblico.l Arohmology' for 1885, vol. viii. ment, which it may have been, though based pp. 172-176). And placed them in the upon e. natural circumstance. Whioh slew cities of Samaria inst&a.d of the ohildren of some of them. (For the great boldness of Israel : and they possessed Se.maria, and the Palestinia.n lion, see 1 Kings xiii. 24; dwelt in the oities thereof, 'frausple.nto.tion xx. 86; Prov. x.xii. 13; Isa. xxxi. 4; xxxviii. of nations, commenoed by Tiglath-pilaser, 13; Jer. v. 6, etc.) wo.s practised on a still largor soo.le by Ver. 26.-Wherefore they spake to the Sargon. The following summary will illus- King of Assyria., se.ying. The meaning trate this point : "In all his wars Sargon s,,ems to be, not tha.t the colonists ma.de largely employed the system of wholesale direct cow phi in t to the king, but tlie.t 110llle 11, KlNGS, r.  338 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE KINGS. [en. xvn. l-41,