3G

3G

The same Danites built the city of Fatho at the foot of the Wall of God where many natural caves lay. The Danites delved deep with pick and spade to reap precious stones and much gold.

King Sargon laid siege Samaria and recaptured the capital city. Twenty-seven thousand two hundred and ninety people dwelling in the midst of the city and in the land all about were carried off captive. And Sargon chose fifty of the best chariots for himself and distributed the rest among his army. Then Sargon appointed a general over the remaining people of the land of Samaria and collected the taxes of Hoshea their former and final king.

And Asrael of the B'nei Elohim, a servant of God Most High, was sent among the captives of the tribe of Ashur to find five righteous men who never prostituted themselves to the idols of the Edomites. These men were Ziphion and Ebed and Zuar and Akkub and Shubael.

Ziphion knew his wife, and begat Abdiel and Shobal and Ithran. And Ebed knew his wife, and begat Nabal and Gera and Baladan. And Zuar knew his wife, and he begat Bimhal and Hodoviah and Seled. And Akkub knew his wife, and he begeat Shaul and Zabiel and Noadiah. And Shubael knew his wife, and he begat Jeduthun and Mallothi and Saruch.

The same Ashurites settled at the midpoint of the river Nanki where it tumbled over a series of cataracts that would dash any cargo-carrying rafts to splinters. They portaged the goods to new rafts made from the same logs sent individually down sluices to below the falls.

By order of the Assyrian king the people of the tribes of Dan, Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Reuben, and half of Manasseh were relocated to lands far to the east. The planning for the move took longer than the march and the execution was without flaw.

None marched under the lash, and many even went willingly. The children of Israel were a lettered people, even to the boys among them, and the Assyrians had need of them in the governance of their empire. The exiles built new homes in locations chosen such that when the time came for their sons to find wives it was more likely they would find a foreign man's daughter rather than a daughter of their fellow exiles. None were compelled to intermarry, yet many of them did.

Twelve years later Sargon completed the conquest of Samaria. The remaining people of Manesseh and all of Ephraim were exiled to Medea.