Samaria was private property at this time, having no settlement upon it until nearly fifty years after the division of the kingdom, when it was bought by Omri, king of Israel, from Shemer, and, after him, named Samaria.
2. There is a great chronological difficulty in adjusting the reigns of the kings of Judah and of Israel.
It arises, in some degree, from the fact that the number of months is omitted in the statements of the years during which the reigns continued, for the whole number of years only is given. Moreover the statements are not always clear in relation to the epoch from which the number given is to be counted. But more recently collateral history, both Egyptian and Assyrian, has supplied certain data whereby considerable aid has been furnished in the settlement of some of the difficulties.
Under the supposition that the commonly accepted chronology is correct and that the division of the kingdom, at the death of Solomon, took place B. C. 975, the kingdom of Israel lasted 253 years and the kingdom of Judah 387 years, that is from B. C. 975 to B. C. 722 for Israel and from B. C. 975 to B. C. 588 for Judah.
3. The captivity of Israel took place B. C. 722, at the taking of Samaria by Sargon, the general of Shalmaneser. In the book of Kings we have the account of the attack of Shalmaneser upon Samaria, 2 Kings 17:6; 18:10. In the last passage, the phrase “they took it” appears to refer to the fact that both Shalmaneser and Sargon laid siege to Samaria, for although the former began the siege, he died suddenly before the city was taken, and Sargon, who had seized upon the throne of Assyria, immediately returned and completed the siege.
Sargon’s own account of the siege and of the captivity remarkably agrees with the statement in the book of Kings. These facts are derived from the Assyrian tablets.
4. In regard to this king of Assyria, Sargon by name, the verse in Isaiah 20:1 was for twenty-five centuries the only known evidence of his existence. It was not until recently, when the mound which covered his palace was excavated, that the name came to view. It was then discovered that he was one of the greatest kings of Assyria, and his history was recorded upon the large alabaster slabs which lined a part of his palace.
Judah was carried into captivity B. C. 588. The whole number of rulers, from Rehoboam the first king to Zedekiah the last, inclusive of both, was 20, of which number there was one queen, Athaliah, who reigned six years.
5. The line of descent of the Messiahpassed through Judah and through all its kings except the last (Zedekiah), and the third and fourth from the last, namely, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. The kings of Israel were none of them in this line. It was for this reason that the tribe of Judah was the most important and prominent of all the tribes.
6. The captivity of Judah took place under Nebuchadnezzar, called also Nebuchadrezzar, Ezek. 29:19. This king succeeded to the throne of Babylon B. C. 604. His father was the first king of Babylon after the fall of Nineveh and death of its king Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greek historians.