2 Kings 17:6

In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria,..... 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

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.

This is added to distinguish this place from the former, which was either in Assyria, or in the mountainous and less inhabited parts of Media. Hither he carried them, partly to replenish his own country; and partly because these places were at so great a distance from Canaan, that this would cut off all hopes and thoughts of returning to their own country.

2 Kings 17:6 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.Ver. 6. And carried Israel away into Assyria.] Whither Tiglathpileser had before carried five of the tribes. And this was the end of the Israelitish kingdom, after it had stood two hundred and fifty-four years; the time being now come of which the prophet Isaiah had spoken, saying, Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be wasted, so that he shall not be a people. This time began, say the Hebrews, in the twenty-fifth year of Uzziah, when their carrying away captive was first threatened by Amos. And placed them in Halah and in Habor.] Which are in Media and Persia, saith Josephus; among the Colchians and Iberians, saith Scaliger; the Tartarians, saith Genebrard, where certain places are known still by the names of Dan, Nephthalim, and Zebulon, &c. The name also of Tartars, alias Tatari or Totari, is supposed by some to come from the Hebrew word Tothar, which signifieth a residue or remnant. Iudicium sit penes lectorem.

(6) In the ninth year of Hosheathe king of Assyria took Samaria.—Comp. Hosea 10:5 seq.; Micah 1:6; Isaiah 28:1-4. In the great inscription published by Botta, Sargon says: “The city of Samaria I assaulted, I took; 27,280 men dwelling in the midst thereof I carried off; 50 chariots among them I set apart (for myself), and the rest of their wealth I let (my soldiers) take; my prefect over them I appointed, and the tribute of the former king upon them I laid.” Placed them.—Literally, made them dwell. LXX., In Halah.—This place appears to be identical with Halahhu, a name occurring in an Assyrian geographical list between Arrabha (Arrapachitis) and Ratsappa (Rezeph). It probably lay in Mesopotamia, like Rezeph and Gozan. (See Note on 1 Chronicles 5:26.) In Habor by the river of Gozan.—Rather, on Habor the river of Gozan.The cities of the Medes.- The LXX. seems to have read “mountains of the Medes.” (Comp. Notes on 1 Chronicles 5:26, where “Hara and the river of Gozan” is probably the result of an inadvertent transposition of “The river of Gozan and Hara.”)

Verse 6. Took Samaria] According to the prophets Hosea, Hosea 13:16, and Micah, Micah 1:6. 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.

6. in Halah] Most likely this is the district which Ptolemy calls Χαλκιτις. It lies directly north from Thapsacus between Anthemusia and Gauzonitis. and in Habor] Habor is the river still known as the Khabour, which flows through Gauzonitis, and empties itself into the Euphrates at Circesium. Hence ‘on Habor, the river of Gozan’, would be a better rendering of the Hebrew. For we do not know of a place called Habor. by [R.V. on] the river] There is no preposition in the original, it is therefore better to take ‘the river of Gozan’ as in apposition with Habor.

The king of Assyria took Samaria - i. e., from the Assyrian inscriptions, not Shalmaneser but Sargon, who claims to have captured the city in the first year of his reign (721 B.C.).

6. The king of Assyria took Samaria — From the context we most naturally infer that this Assyrian king was no other than Shalmaneser, mentioned in 2 Kings 17:3, but the Assyrian inscriptions show