(26) Stirred up (or woke) the spirit.--So 2Chronicles 21:16, and Ezra 1:1; Ezra 1:5. For the thought, Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1-13.

Pul king of Assyria, and . . . Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria.--No trace of P-l as distinct from Tiglath-pileser has been found in the Assyrian monuments, which, it must be remembered, are contemporary. In 2Kings 15:19 we read that, "Pul king of Assyria came against the land," in the reign of Menahem, who recognised the Assyrian monarch as his suzerain, and paid a tribute of 1,000 talents of silver. Now Tiglath-pileser II. actually claims to have received tribute of Menahem (Menahimmu). P-l appears to have been the original name of Tiglath-pileser, which, upon his accession to the throne of Assyria (745 B.C.), he discarded for that of the great king who had ruled the country four centuries before his time. The name P-l has been identified by Dr. Schrader with the Porus of Ptolemy's Canon, Por being the Persian pronunciation of P-l. The Syriac here omits "P-l king of Assyria." The LXX. (Vat.) has ?????, and the Arabic Balaq. Perhaps the chronicler meant to indicate the identity of P-l and Tiglath: "The spirit of Pul and (= that is) the spirit of Tiglath, and he carried them away."

And he carried them away.--Tiglath-pileser is meant. (See 2Kings 15:29 : "In the days of Pekah king of Israel, came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah . . . and Gilead, and Galilee . . . and carried them captive to Assyria.") From the Assyrian records we learn that (circ. 734?732 B.C.) Tiglath-pileser received the homage of Ahaz (Yahu-haci, Jeho-ahaz), king of Judah, slew Rezin (Racunni) of Damascus, and reduced Pekah (Paqah£), king of Samaria, to vassalage. This supplements the Biblical account. Gilead, in 2Kings 15:29, represents the trans-Jordanic tribes. (See 1Chronicles 5:10; 1Chronicles 5:16 above.) The transportation of entire populations was a common practice with the Assyrian kings. Assurbanipal (Sardanapalus) removed the men of Karbit from the mountains east of Assyria, and settled them in Egypt.

Brought them unto Halah, and Habor . . .--The same localities are mentioned (2Kings 17:6) as those to which Shalmaneser IV., or rather his successor Sargon, transported the other tribes of the northern kingdom (circ. 721 B.C.). There is nothing unlikely in the statement of either text. Sargon might have thought fit to strengthen the Israelite settlements in Northern Assyria by sending thither the new bodies of compulsory colonists. It is arbitrary to suppose that two different events have been confounded by the sacred annalists.

Halah.--See Note on 2Kings 17:6.

Habor.--Probably a district of North Assyria, not far from Halah, named after the river Hab?r which rises near the upper Zab and falls into the Tigris.

Hara.--Kings, l.c., "cities of Media." Hara here is perhaps an Aramaic name for the Median high lands, but more probably the reading is a relic of "the mountains of Media" [h?re M?dai); comp.the LXX. at 2Kings 17:6. The Syriac here has "cities of Media;" the LXX. omits the word.

The river Gozan.--Rather, the river of Gozan. Shalmaneser mentions the country Guzana in Mesopotamia, the Greek Gauzanitis. An Assyrian list connects it with Nacibina (Nisibis). The "river of Gozan" is the Habur.

Verse 26. - Pul and Tilgath-pilneser. These two were chosen ministers of God's will, if not ministers of himself. We can identify the date of this punishment which befell the transgressing Israelites east of the Jordan. The visit of the former, in the reign of Menahem (2 Kings 15:15-20), may be interpreted and might have operated as a lesson and a warning. He was bought off with a thousand talents of silver. It seems to be said with significance," So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land." It was in the reign of Pekah, the usurping successor of Menahem's son Pekahiah, that the completer punishment fell, and Tilgath-pilneser effected the captivity spoken of here and in 2 Kings 15:27-29. The name Pul cannot, it would appear, be a pure Assyrian name, and there is reason to think it may be identified with Vul-lush (grandson of the Shalmaneser who warred with Benhadad, etc.), a name found on Assyrian monuments, and belonging to a king who reigned at Calah, B.C. 8004750 (see art. "Pul," Smith's 'Bible Dictionary'). Tilqath-pilneser (see notes on ver. 6) was probably the founder of the lower dynasty of Assyria, and first king of the new empire. His first invasion was one chiefly of Israel and Samaria (2 Kings 15:29; Isaiah 9:1). His second was of a much more significant character. Called in to aid Judah under Ahaz against Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Syria in alliance, he both conquered these latter and brought into vassalage Judah itself (2 Kings 15:37; 2 Kings 16:9, 10; 2 Chronicles 28:6-8; Isaiah 9:1). Halah; Habor Hara; Gozan. This enumeration exceeds that of 2 Kings 17:6 by the addition of Hara, important as helping with consistent witness to the antiquity of the region described. Halah (not the "Calah" of Genesis 10:11) is believed to be identifiable with Chalcitis, its verbal resemblance to which comes out a little more evidently in its Hebrew form (חֲלַח). A trace of it possibly remains in the name of a hill, Gla, on the Khabour, i.q. Habor of this passage, an important tributary of the Euphrates, and not the "Chebar" of Ezekiel. This name Khabour is found in an Assyrian inscription dating upwards of eight centuries before Christ. The mention of Habor in 2 Kings 17:6 and 2 Kings 18:11 is, in the Authorized Version, made to convey the impression of a place "by" the "river of Gozan," instead of being, what the Hebrew says, "the river of Gozan." Here, on the other hand, Gozan is, in the Authorized Version, incorrectly translated as a river itself, instead of the region of a river. It is, according to the testimony of Layard ('Nineveh and Babylon,' pp. 270-312), a remarkably fertile tract, being the Gauzanitis of Ptolemy, and substantially the Mygdonia of Polybius and Strabo. Hara; חָרָה, with little doubt, the same as חָרָן, Haran, or Charran (Genesis 11:31), the ancient adopted home of Abraham, in Padan-aram, in Mesopotamia, on the Belik, a small tributary of the Euphrates. It is the Greek Carrhae of Strabo and Polybius. These four names purport to give us, probably in brief, the information that those of the Captivity here alluded to were divided - some to settle at Halab on one river, some in Hara on another, and the rest in the district called Gauzanitis. The region called Halah and that called Gau-zanitis, however, were both watered by the Khabour, and therefore the insertion of the name Haran where it is inserted occasions some difficulty.

5:1-26 Genealogies. - This chapter gives some account of the two tribes and a half seated on the east side of Jordan. They were made captives by the king of Assyria, because they had forsaken the Lord. Only two things are here recorded concerning these tribes. 1. They all shared in a victory. Happy is that people who live in harmony together, who assist each other against the common enemies of their souls, trusting in the Lord, and calling upon him. 2. They shared in captivity. They would have the best land, not considering that it lay most exposed. The desire of earthly objects draws to a distance from God's ordinances, and prepares men for destruction.And the God of Israel,.... The Targum is,"the word of the God of Israel:"

stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria: in the times of Menahem king of Israel:

and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser; in the times of Pekah king of Israel, to invade the land, and make war in it:

and he carried them away: not the former, but the latter:

even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh; these entirely together, with some other parts of the land, see 2 Kings 15:29.

and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan; to the very same places where afterwards Salmaneser carried the ten tribes, or what remained of them, see 2 Kings 17:6.

unto this day; the times of Ezra, the writer of this book, after the tribe of Judah returned from the captivity of Babylon; but the ten tribes remained where they were carried, and have not returned even to this day.