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Dispersion. But
neither Israel nor Judah learned from this and many other experiences
that followed. Israel sinned greatly and so God responded by allowing
Assyria to invade Israel or Samaria and carry them away.
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Then
the king of Assyria invaded the whole land and went up to
Samaria and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of
Hosea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel
away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and
Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Now this came about, because the sons of Israel had sinned
against the LORD their God . . . and they had feared other
gods (NASB)
2 Kings 17:5-7 |
The Assyrians took them captive, deported them, and mixed them with
other captives to break down their national loyalty. This encouraged
the Israelites to inter-marry and blur family lines of birth. Later
God removed Judah because they continued sinning and did not repent.
They were taken away into Babylon.
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And
he did evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that
Jehoiakim had done. For through the anger of the LORD this
came about in Jerusalem and Judah until He cast them out
from His presence. (NASB)
2 Kings 24:19-20
Now
it came about in the ninth year of his reign, on the tenth
day of the tenth month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, camped against
it, and built a siege wall all around it . . . Then the king
of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah
in the land of Hamath. So Judah was led away into exile from
its land. (NASB) 2 Kings 25:1, 21 |
Return
of Judah and Benjamin. So Israel went into Assyrian captivity
and Judah into Babylonian captivity. Seventy years later God moved
the heart of King Cyrus of Persia to allow the Jews who were living
in Babylon to return to the city of Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1-5), and God
stirred the Jews to move back.
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Then
the heads of fathers’ households of Judah and Benjamin
and the priests and the Levites arose, even everyone whose
spirit God had stirred to go up and rebuild the house of
the LORD which is in Jerusalem. (NASB)
Ezra 1:5 |
From this verse it appears that God returned only a portion of the
tribe of Levi, and most of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin back
to the Promised Land. At the time of Christ, the northern region
of the Promised Land was called Samaria. The Samaritans and the "Jews" from
Judah were at odds with each other. Israel
was again dispersed in A.D. 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem
because Jesus was not recognized as the Messiah (Luke 19:43-44). |
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