2 Reyes 15:23-38

Usurpers and Invaders

2 Reyes 15:23

The dissolution of Israel proceeded rapidly, for nothing could avert the steady advance of the Assyrian. According to the usual policy of Eastern conquerors, the flower of the nation was sent beyond the Euphrates to people the thinly inhabited portions of the Assyrian empire; and when this process was completed, new settlers were brought from Assyria to occupy the depopulated land, 2 Reyes 17:24. The cuneiform inscriptions discovered at Nineveh contain remarkable corroborations of the Bible records. This was the first captivity, or exile, of Israel.

The ten tribes never returned to Palestine to any appreciable degree; but their terrible discipline became the enriching of the world. They planted synagogues on foreign soil, and disseminated in many lands the knowledge of Jehovah and their Scriptures. They were represented at Jerusalem by their descendants on the day of Pentecost; and the Apostle John counted their myriads among the redeemed, Apocalipsis 7:1.