VI
ALLEGED TRACES OF THE “TEN TRIBES” IN EXILE
To supplement Part II, Chapter XVII, at the end of § 10, [p. 372].
In 2 Kings 15:29 it is said that Tiglath-pileser [IV] captured certain cities in Galilee, and carried their inhabitants captive to Assyria. In 2 Kings 17:6 it is said that when Samaria was destroyed by the Assyrian king [Sargon, in 722 B. C.], Israelites were carried captive to Halah and Gozan, which were situated on the Khabur River in Mesopotamia.
Two groups of cuneiform tablets, one in the museum at Berlin, the other in the British Museum, are thought to confirm these statements by the evidence they give that Hebrews who reverenced Jehovah were living in that region.[632] The evidence consists chiefly of a divine name A-u, employed as a component part of proper names just as Jo- and Jeho-, abbreviations of the name of Jehovah, are employed in Hebrew proper names in the Old Testament. Indeed, A-u is the form that Jo- or Jeho- would take, if expressed in Assyrian characters.
The names in question occur in a series of documents which record the transfer of slaves. If the men in question were Hebrews they would seem to have been interested in the business of buying and selling slaves. The documents are much alike. It will suffice to translate one of them:
1. Seal of Atarkhasis,
2. son of Aushezib,
3. the Kannuean,
4. owner of the slave-girl. A transfer