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And rightly so, since all who are in sympathy with things Divine must by the spiritual
instinct of their new nature rise to the recognition of Him Who ruleth, and of Whose
government and purposes all events are the unbidden means, and all men the
unconscious, yet free, agents. But especially do we mark this realization of the eternal
Presence of the living God as the distinguishing characteristic of Old Testament teaching,
whose first and last utterance it is- "Jehovah reigneth."
But we have more than merely a general confirmation of the Biblical account. From the
Assyrian records we learn that in the first year after his accession Sargon vanquished
Merodach-Baladan of Babylon, and deported of the people to "Chatti," which is the
designation for Syro-Palestine, inclusive of Samaria. Again, the Biblical expression
"Babylon" includes besides the capital other cities of Babylon, and transportations from
some of them to "the land of Beth Omri," or Samaria, are expressly recorded.
According to the inscriptions, these took place not only in the first but in other years,
notably in the seventh after the accession of Sargon and the taking of Samaria. Among
the cities mentioned as furnishing colonists, "Cuthah," which has been re-discovered in
the modern Tell-Ibrahim, lay about fifteen miles north-east of Babylon. "Ava" has not yet
been identified. Sepharvaim, or "the twin Sipar" (Sipphara), so called because the city
was built on both banks of the Euphrates, has been recognized in the ruins of Abu-Habba,
about twenty miles north of Babylon, where the celebrated Temple of the Sun has been
laid bare. Lastly, Hamath is the well-known Syrian city which rebelled against Assyria
under a king Jahubi'd, who was vanquished in the battle of Karkar, when Hamath was
taken, and its people deported. The other cities mentioned in Scripture were conquered by
Sargon at a later period, in his final wars against Merodach-Baladan, in the twelfth and
thirteenth years after his accession (7I0, 709 B.C.).* Hence the transportation of their
inhabitants to Samaria must have been as many years after the taking of the capital of
Israel.
- Sargon dates his first year as "king of Babylon in 709."
As the sacred text informs us (2 Kings 17:25-33), the new colonists brought with them
the worship of their national deities. Among these, "Succoth-benoth" - mentioned as the
deity of "the men of Babylon" - is probably a corruption of the name of the well-
known Babylonian goddess, Zir-banit, "She who gives seed [posterity]."
- In the LXX. (...).
** Or perhaps a paraphrastic interpretation, with intention of similarity of sound in the
words used. Thus the Hebrew name means "tents of daughters;" the Assyrian Zir-banit,
"the giver of seed."
(^)