Bible Strands
2 Kings 17:6
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried away the Israelites to Assyria, where he settled them in Halah, in Gozan by the Habor River, and in the cities of the Medes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records the conclusion of a three-year siege against Samaria during the final regnal year of Hoshea, marking the decisive military end of the northern kingdom.
The words — לָכַד (la.Khad) translates literally as "he captured," denoting the decisive seizure of the city. בִּ/שְנַת (bi/sh.Nat) paired with הַ/תְּשִיעִית (ha./te.shi.'It) precisely anchors the event to the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign.
The thread — The deportation to Halah, Gozan, and the cities of the Medes fulfills the scattering warning in Deuteronomy 28:64 and aligns with the Assyrian exile recorded in 1 Chronicles 5:26. The fall of Samaria executes the judgment pronounced in Hosea 13:16.
Why it lands — The verse demands the reader acknowledge the concrete historical outcome of covenant rebellion and the reliable execution of divine warning.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Hosea 13:16 Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
- Deuteronomy 28:64 Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
- 1 Chronicles 5:26 So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (that is, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria) to take the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile. And he brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river of Gozan, where they remain to this day.
- Leviticus 26:32 And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.
- Deuteronomy 28:36 The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone.
- Deuteronomy 29:27 Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book.
- 2 Kings 18:10 And at the end of three years, the Assyrians captured it. So Samaria was captured in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.
- Isaiah 13:17 Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold.
- Isaiah 21:2 A dire vision is declared to me: “The traitor still betrays, and the destroyer still destroys. Go up, O Elam! Lay siege, O Media! I will put an end to all her groaning.”
- Amos 5:27 Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.