"therefore the Lord sent lions among them," it should simply be, "and the Lord sent lions amongst

them." Nor should the attribution of things to God be always pressed in its strictly literal sense.

Sometimes it is even an Oriental mode of expression. Comp. 2 Chronicles 35:21.

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

*** The wife of the god Merodach, and with him, next to Bel and Beltis, a favorite object of

As the god of Cuth, "Nergal" is mentioned, and this is confirmed by the Assyrian inscriptions.

Nergal seems to have been the lion-god represented by the colossal winged lions at the entrance to

the palaces.* Concerning "Ashima," the deity of Hamath, and Nibhaz and Tartak, the gods of the

Avites, we possess not any definite information. On the other hand, "Adrammelech" ["Adar is

king"] and Anammelech ["Anu is king"], the gods of Sepharvaim, represent well-known Assyrian

deities. Adar (originally A -tar) means "father of decision."**

* Comp. Schrader, u.s., p. 283.