2 Kings 17:24

Of those nations which were brought to inhabit Samaria, how they were plagued with lions. The mixed character of their religion (Not in Chronicles)

24. the king of Assyria broughtmen from Babylon These would most likely be the leaders of the colony as coming from the capital of the empire.

and from Cuthah It is not certain what district is intended by this name. Some have thought that the country should be identified with that between the Euphrates and the Tigris, where a town Cuthais mentioned by early geographers and from which neighbourhood others of these colonists came. Others think -Cuthæans" is another form of -Cossæans", who were a tribe dwelling in the hills between Persia and Media, northward of the river Choaspes. The latter appears the more probable conjecture, but it remains only a conjecture.

and from Ava R.V. Avva. This is without doubt the same place as Ivah(R.V. Ivvah) of 2 Kings 18:34 below. The place is not clearly identified, but opinions incline to make it the same as Ahava, which stood where the modern Hitdoes, on the Euphrates at some distance to the N.W. of Babylon.

and from Hamath This was the well-known Syrian city on the Orontes, which we read of as recovered by Jeroboam II. (2 Kings 14:28, where see note) but which the Assyrians soon afterwards reconquered (2 Kings 18:34), and seem now to have brought some of its population southward to Samaria.

and from Sepharvaim This place is mentioned also in 2 Kings 18:34 among cities which had been reduced to subjection by the Assyrians (cf. also 2 Kings 19:13 and Isaiah 37:13). It is identified with the famous town of Sipparaon the Euphrates, a little distance above Babylon. The LXX. writes the name Σεπφαρουαὶμ, which form favours this identification.

instead of the children of Israel We are not from these words to suppose that all the Israelites were taken away. We know that in the later captivity of Judah, Jerusalem was never wholly left of its old inhabitants. We read in 2 Chronicles 34:9, in the days of Josiah, that there was still -a remnant of Israel", and these must be taken to be the people left behind when their fellow-countrymen were for the most part carried away.