“In the Ninth Year of Hoshea the King of Assyria Took Samaria, and Carried Israel Away into Assyria”
2 Kings 17:1–6
1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Dr. Ellis T. Rasmussen wrote:
“Hoshea, the last king of the northern ten tribes of Israel, conspired against King Pekah and slew him in the twentieth year of King Jotham of Judah; but Hoshea began reigning years later, in the twelfth year of the reign of Jotham’s son Ahaz [see 2 Kgs. 15:30; 17:1]. The account concedes that the evil he did was not as bad as the evil done by the kings before him. He paid Assyria tribute as three kings before him had done, but like Pekah before him, he could not keep Assyria appeased. When he tried to get Egypt’s help against Assyria, Shalmaneser of Assyria imprisoned him and besieged the capital city, Samaria, for three years. Finally Shalmaneser took the city and sent thousands of Israelites into slavery in the areas listed. Thus they became ‘the lost ten tribes of Israel’ (2 Kgs. 17:6b-c).”
(A Latter-day Saint Commentary on the Old Testament [1993], 315.)
