1. By the words “the captivity” is generally meant the final captivity of Judah, which was the last of a series of captivities both of Israel and of Judah. As a knowledge of these captivities is not only important in the study of Jewish history, but has a bearing upon the authenticity of the Scripture, they should all be carefully distinguished. We therefore give a full list as follows.
THE VARIOUS CAPTIVITIES.
2. The first captivity, B. C. about 733, was that of the tribes east of the Jordan, by a king of Assyria bearing two names in Scripture, which were formerly supposed to be the names of two distinct kings.But a recently discovered list of Babylonian kings shows that the two names are those of the same king, and therefore the reading of the verse, 1 Chron. 5:26, is correct in which the two names of this king, namely, Pul and Tilgath-pilneser, are spoken of as in the singular number.
Pul seized the throne B. C. 745, and died 727.[97] The dates in our marginal references (2 Kin. 15:19) are too early. This king carried away “the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah and Habor and Hara and to the river Gozan,” 1 Chron. 5:26; see also 2 Kings 15:29.
HALAH, HABOR, HARA, THE RIVER GOZAN.
3. Halah is probably identified with a mound now called Gla, on the river Khabour, which is a tributary to the Euphrates. It is about 430 miles northeast of Jerusalem and 330 northeast of Babylon.
Habor was probably on the river Khabour, but its site has not been identified.
Hara is about 100 miles northwest of Gla and is supposed to be the same as Haran, to which Terah and Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees. It is situated upon the river Belik, which runs southward about seventy miles and then joins the Euphrates.
The river Gozan was probably the same as the Khabour, as the province of Gozan, through whichit ran, seems to be identified with the Gauzanitis of Ptolemy. Its mouth is about 100 miles east of that of the river Belik, which also empties into the Euphrates. After the Khabour no other river is tributary to the Euphrates for 500 miles of its course. The mouth of the Khabour is 300 miles northwest of Babylon.
4. The second captivity, B. C. 721. Twenty years afterward, at the siege of Samaria, the Assyrian king Sargon carried off a larger and more important number. This king gives an account of this siege, in remarkable corroboration of the Scripture history, and states that he “carried off 27,280 of its citizens.” Nevertheless a large number remained in the region around and many fled who returned afterward, 2 Kings 17:6.