417
[Whiston sect. 1] [sect. 277] WHEN Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, had it told him, that [Hoshea]
the king of Israel had sent privately to So, the king of Egypt, desiring
his assistance against him, he was very angry, and made an expedition against
Samaria, in the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he was not
admitted [into the city] by the king, 418
he besieged Samaria three years, and took it by force in the ninth year
of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh year of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem,
and quite demolished the government of the Israelites, and transplanted
all the people into Media and Persia among whom he took king Hoshea alive;
and when he had removed these people out of this their land he transplanted
other nations out of Cuthah, a place so called, (for there is [still] a
river of that name in Persia,) into Samaria, and into the country of the
Israelites. So the ten tribes of the Israelites were removed out of Judea
nine hundred and forty-seven years after their forefathers were come out
of the land of Egypt, and possessed themselves of the country, but eight
hundred years after Joshua had been their leader, and, as I have already
observed, two hundred and forty years, seven months, and seven days after
they had revolted from Rehoboam, the grandson of David, and had given the
kingdom to Jeroboam. And such a conclusion overtook the Israelites, when
they had transgressed the laws, and would not hearken to the prophets,
who foretold that this calamity would come upon them, if they would not
leave off their evil doings. What gave birth to these evil doings, was
that sedition which they raised against Rehoboam, the grandson of David,
when they set up Jeroboam his servant to be their king, when, by sinning
against God, and bringing them to imitate his bad example, made God to
be their enemy, while Jeroboam underwent that punishment which he justly
deserved.
[Whiston sect. 2] [sect. 283] And now the king of Assyria invaded all Syria and Phoenicia in a
hostile manner. The name of this king is also set down in the archives
of Tyre, for he made an expedition against Tyre in the reign of Eluleus;
and Menander attests to it, who, when he wrote his Chronology, and translated
the archives of Tyre into the Greek language, gives us the following history:
"One whose name was Eluleus reigned thirty-six years; this king, upon the
revolt of the Citteans, sailed to them, and reduced them again to a submission.
Against these did the king of Assyria send an army, and in a hostile manner
overrun all Phoenicia, but soon made peace with them all, and returned
back; but Sidon, and Ace, and Palsetyrus revolted; and many other cities
there were which delivered themselves up to the king of Assyria. Accordingly,
when the Tyrians would not submit to him, the king returned, and fell upon
them again, while the Phoenicians had furnished him with threescore ships,
and eight hundred men to row them; and when the Tyrians had come upon them
in twelve ships, and the enemy's ships were dispersed, they took five hundred
men prisoners, and the reputation of all the citizens of Tyre was thereby
increased; but the king of Assyria returned, and placed guards at their
rivers and aqueducts, who should hinder the Tyrians from drawing water.
This continued for five years; and still the Tyrians bore the siege, and
drank of the water they had out of the wells they dug." And this is
what is written in the Tyrian archives concerning Shalmaneser, the king
of Assyria.
[Whiston sect. 3] [sect. 288] But now the Cutheans, who removed into Samaria, (for that is the
name they have been called by to this time, because they were brought out
of the country called Cuthah, which is a country of Persia, and there is
a river of the same name in it,) each of them, according to their nations,
which were in number five, brought their own gods into Samaria, and by
worshipping them, as was the custom of their own countries, they provoked
Almighty God to be angry and displeased at them, for a plague seized upon
them, by which they were destroyed; and when they found no cure for their
miseries, they learned by the oracle that they ought to worship Almighty
God, as the method for their deliverance. So they sent ambassadors to the
king of Assyria, and desired him to send them some of those priests of
the Israelites whom he had taken captive. And when he thereupon sent them,
and the people were by them taught the laws, and the holy worship of God,
they worshipped him in a respectful manner, and the plague ceased immediately;
and indeed they continue to make use of the very same customs to this very
time, and are called in the Hebrew tongue Cutlans, but in the Greek tongue
Samaritans. And when they see the Jews in prosperity, they pretend that
they are changed, and allied to them, and call them kinsmen, as though
they were derived from Joseph, and had by that means an original alliance
with them; but when they see them falling into a low condition, they say
they are no way related to them, and that the Jews have no right to expect
any kindness or marks of kindred from them, but they declare that they
are sojourners, that come from other countries. But of these we shall have
a more seasonable opportunity to discourse hereafter.
Book 10 Book X
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-TWO YEARS
AND A HALF.
FROM THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES TO THE FIRST YEAR
OF CYRUS.
Ch. 1