dwelt in it I carried away” (2 Kings 17:6) into Assyria. Thus after a
duration of two hundred and fifty-three years the kingdom of the ten tribes
came to an end. They were scattered throughout the East. (See
CAPTIVITY.)
“Judah held its ground against Assyria for yet one hundred and
twenty-three years, and became the rallying-point of the dispersed of
every tribe, and eventually gave its name to the whole race. Those of the
people who in the last struggle escaped into the territories of Judah or
other neighbouring countries naturally looked to Judah as the head and
home of their race. And when Judah itself was carried off to Babylon,
many of the exiled Israelites joined them from Assyria, and swelled that
immense population which made Babylonia a second Palestine.”
After the deportation of the ten tribes, the deserted land was colonized by
various eastern tribes, whom the king of Assyria sent thither (Ezra 4:2, 10;
2 Kings 17:24-29). (See KINGS.)
In contrast with the kingdom of Judah is that of Israel. (1.) “There was no
fixed capital and no religious centre. (2.) The army was often
insubordinate. (3.) The succession was constantly interrupted, so that out
of nineteen kings there were no less than nine dynasties, each ushered in
by a revolution. (4.) The authorized priests left the kingdom in a body, and
the priesthood established by Jeroboam had no divine sanction and no
promise; it was corrupt at its very source.” (Maclean’s O. T. Hist.)
- ISSACHAR hired (Genesis 30:18). “God hath given me,” said Leah, “my
hire (Hebrews sekhari)...and she called his name Issachar.” He was Jacob’s
ninth son, and was born in Padan-aram (comp. 28:2). He had four sons at
the going down into Egypt (46:13; Numbers 26:23, 25).
Issachar, Tribe of, during the journey through the wilderness, along with
Judah and Zebulun (Numbers 2:5), marched on the east of the tabernacle.
This tribe contained 54,400 fighting men when the census was taken at
Sinai. After the entrance into the Promised Land, this tribe was one of the
six which stood on Gerizim during the ceremony of the blessing and
cursing (Deuteronomy 27:12). The allotment of Issachar is described in
Joshua 19:17-23. It included the plain of Esdraelon (=Jezreel), which was
and still is the richest portion of Palestine (Deuteronomy 33:18, 19; 1
Chronicles 12:40).