Chronicles, the North, and the Samarians

Ralph W. Klein

January 25, 2014

This essay started with my doubts about the historicity of Hezekiah’s Passover, recently

defended in a Yale dissertation, Hezekiah in History and Tradition, by Robb Andrew Young. It

ended up with a confirmation of those doubts, but, more importantly, a renewed understanding of

what happened in the Northern Kingdom after the Assyrian invasion and a renewed empathy

with the varied Judean authors who struggled to understand their northern neighbors, as a nation

and as a religious people. See the 2013 publication Jews and Samaritans by Gary N. Knoppers.

Let’s start with Hezekiah’s centralized Passover in 2 Chr 30:1-27. Scholars have long

puzzled about this event, primarily because the book of Kings says not a word about it, in

contrast with Josiah’s centralized Passover in 2 Kgs 23:21-23, which is included and

considerably expanded in 2 Chr 35:1-19. The text dealing with Josiah’s Passover in Kings

assures us that no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel,

even during all the days of kings of Israel and the kings of Judah (2 Kgs 23:22). Wouldn’t that

rule out a centralized Passover held a century earlier by Hezekiah? And is not this ascription of a

Passover to Hezekiah an attempt to raise the stature of Hezekiah to that of Josiah? In general, the

account of Hezekiah in Chronicles is longer than that of any of the other kings, except for David

and Solomon, the kings of the United Monarchy. In the Chronicler’s view, Ahaz was the worst

of the southern kings and his son Hezekiah was the best.

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It is unlikely that Hezekiah held a centralized Passover since this is first mandated in

Deut 16:1-8, part of the law code that was discovered and probably written during the reign of

Josiah. Deuteronomy 16 is also the first law that united the observance of Passover and the

observance of Unleavened Bread, another innovation that is attributed anachronistically to

Hezekiah. Chronicles also insists that Hezekiah’s Passover took place in Hezekiah’s first year,

but strangely on the fourteenth day of the second month. That would be impossible if the

Northern Kingdom fell during the sixth year of Hezekiah according to 2 Kgs 18:9-10

Robb Andrew Young attempted to discount the arguments against the historicity of

Hezekiah’s Passover, unpersuasively in my opinion, but his chief argument for historicity is the

claim that the Chronicler in the fourth century had a source about Hezekiah’s Passover that had

taken place four centuries earlier, and that was unknown, or at least unused, by the author of 2

Kings. Even if Hezekiah’s centralized Passover never took place, as I believe, the account of this

Passover tells us much about the Chronicler’s theological agenda and offers an important

window into Judean attitudes toward the people and the religion of those who lived in the area of

the Northern Kingdom after its demise, who came to be known many centuries later as

Samaritans.

The Reign of Hezekiah in Kings and Chronicles1

Introduction 2 Kgs 18:1-3 2 Chr 29:1-2Cultic reforms in Judah 2 Kgs 18:4 ____Incomparability of Hezekiah 2 Kgs 18:5-6 ____Rebellion vs. Assyria 2 Kgs 18:7 ____Defeat of the Philistines 2 Kgs 18:8 ____Samaria falls; Exile of North Israel 2 Kgs 18:9-12 ____Temple repair and purification 2 Chr 29:3-19 Sacrifices at conclusion of temple purification 2 Chr 29:20-36

1 This list of chapters is adapted from Gary N. Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans: The Origins and History of their Early Relations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 83.

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Summons to the Passover 2 Chr 30:1-9Mixed response in North and South 2 Chr 30:10-12Cultic reforms in Jerusalem 2 Chr 30:13-14Passover 2 Chr 30:15-20Unleavened Bread 2 Chr 30:21-23Feast extended for a second week 2 Chr 30:24-27Cultic reform in Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh 2 Chr 31:1Priestly and Levitical activities 2 Chr 31:2-21Public buildings 2 Chr 32:1-8Sennacherib’s invasion 2 Kgs 18:13-19:37 2 Chr 32:9-23Hezekiah’s Illness 2 Kgs 20:1-11 2 Chr 32:24Hezekiah humbles himself 2 Chr 32:25-26Hezekiah’s wealth and honor 2 Chr 32:27-30Visit of Babylonian delegation 2 Kgs 20:12-19 2 Chr 32:31Death of Hezekiah 2 Kgs 20:20-21 2 Chr 32:32-33

It can be seen in these eighteen items that Kings and Chronicles go quite separate ways in

recounting the reign of Hezekiah. That is, 2 Kgs 18:4-12 and 2 Chr 29:3-32:8 are completely

divergent. According to 2 Kings 18, the only reforms that Hezekiah undertook were in Judah (v.

4), and the lengthy account of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29-32:8 does not cite a single verse from

Kings and is loaded with vocabulary and themes loved by the Chronicler. In 2 Chr 32:9-23, the

Chronicler condensed the account of Sennacherib’s invasion from 2 Kings 18-19, leaving out

significantly 2 Kgs 18:14-16, which have Hezekiah confessing his sins against the king of

Assyria, who demanded from him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

According to these verses in Kings Hezekiah gave to the king of Assyria all the silver that was

found in the house of Yahweh and stripped the precious metal off the doors of the temple and

gave it to the Assyrian king.

In contrast, according to 2 Chr 29 Hezekiah undertook purification or reform of the

temple in the first year of his reign, indeed on the first day of the first month. By the sixteenth

day of that month the work of purification was complete (2 Chr 29:17). Hezekiah then invited

both north and south to a celebration of Passover that took place in the second month on the

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fourteenth day of the month. (2 Chr 30:2, 15). This unparalleled dating of Passover—everywhere

else it was held in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month—was dictated by the first

sixteen days of the first month of Hezekiah’s reign being occupied by purification efforts. In

addition, the Chronicler adds: “They could not keep it at its proper time because the priests had

not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem” (2

Chr 30:3). The Chronicler may have dared to delay the celebration of Passover because of the so-

called law of the Second Passover allowed by Moses in Num 9:10-11: “10 Speak to the Israelites,

saying: Anyone of you or your descendants who is unclean through touching a corpse, or is away

on a journey, shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh. 11 In the second month on the fourteenth

day, at twilight, they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.’ It

should be noted that the second Passover in Numbers was for individuals and not the entire

community, and the Passover in Chronicles was not a second Passover but the sole Passover.

The Chronicler idealizes Hezekiah; he is a second David and a second Solomon.

Hezekiah issued a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that the people

should come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover (v. 5). These geographical limits hark back to the

description of the realm of Solomon in 1 Kgs 4:25. Not only did Hezekiah hold Passover and

Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem, but he extended the observance for an additional week (2 Chr

30:23), just as Solomon had done at the dedication of the temple (2 Chr 7:8-9). Hezekiah issued

a promise of divine mercy to those he invited to the festival in Jerusalem, v. 9, just as Solomon

had done at the dedication of the temple (2 Chr 6:24-25, 36-39). Both Hezekiah and Solomon

prayed for the people and their prayers were answered (2 Chr 6; 7:1-3, 12; 30:18-19, 25). Joy and

praise mark the cultic celebrations of Hezekiah and Solomon (2 Chr 5:11-13; 7:1-3; 30:21-24),

and in both cases an extraordinary number of animals were sacrificed. Hezekiah and his officials

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had generously contributed 19,000 animals (2 Chr 30: 24 check) while Solomon sacrificed

22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep at the dedication of the temple (2 Chr 7:5). Josiah and his

officials contributed 41,400 animals at his Passover (2 Chr 35:7-9). Hezekiah is indeed a second

Solomon.

In preparation for his Passover, Hezekiah sent runners who went out through all Israel

and Judah and called the people to return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so

that Yahweh might turn again to the remnant of those who had escaped from the hand of the

kings of Assyria (2 Chr 30:6). The Chronicler presupposes that those who are left as a remnant in

the former northern Kingdom are in fact Israelites, both ethnically and religiously. As

archaeology has shown, by the time the Chronicler was writing in the fourth century, a Yahwistic

temple had already been built on Mt. Gerizim in the fifth century. The Chronicler presupposes

that the northerners would know about the centralization laws in Deuteronomy although he

assumes that the central sanctuary was in Jerusalem and not on Mt. Gerizim. Hezekiah’s

generous invitation was at first met with laughter and mockery in Ephraim, Manasseh, and

Zebulun (2 Chr 30:10) even if the author of Chronicles did not think that the invitation to the

north was inappropriate. In any case, there were a few from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun, who

humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem (2 Chr 30:11). The response from Judah was of

course even better: they were united and exuberant (2 Chr 30:12). The Chronicler presupposes a

similar type of community organization in south and north. He mentions the assembly of Judah

and all the assembly that came from Israel, in addition to those resident aliens who came from

the land of Israel (2 Chr 30:25).

Once the Passover was completed, Hezekiah’s reform efforts continued: “Now when all

this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke down the

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pillars, hewed down the sacred poles, and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout

all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all.

Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, all to their individual properties” (2 Chr

31:1). This reform is led by the people, by all Israel who were present. That reform actions could

take place in the north, after the defeat by the Assyrians, tells us much about what the Chronicler

thought of the ethnic and religious conditions in the north in the late eighth century.

While in the world of the text Hezekiah’s Passover took place in the eighth century, the

historical setting for the author of Chronicles is in the fourth century, at the earliest. The

Chronicler apparently thought that the most unfortunate turn of events, that is, the fall of the

Northern Kingdom, was an opportunity for the people of the north to renew their relationship

with Yahweh. Chronicles’ address privileges native Israelites in the north, but he stresses that

Yahweh may respond to Israel’s repentance by returning their kinfolk to the land: “For when you

return to Yahweh, your kinsmen and your children will find mercy before their captors to return

to his land, for gracious and merciful is Yahweh your God, and he will not turn his face from you

if you return to him” (2 Chr 30:9).

Chronicles does not portray an empty (northern) land, inhabited by foreigners. Gary

Knoppers believes that Chronicles posits a partial, unidirectional deportation, and not a total

bidirectional deportation, in contrast to 2 Kgs 17:24:33a. Knoppers concludes: “The king

[Hezekiah] who espouses the most conciliatory view toward the survivors of the Assyrian

catastrophe is none other than the king who is arguably the most celebrated in Judahite

history….If Judah’s best king went out of his way to unify all elements of his people, he set an

example for others to follow. The constructive Hezekian approach, all the while upholding the

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centrality of Jerusalem’s institutions, sets a positive precedent for Judeans to consider in dealing

with the northern Israelites of their own time.”2

The Chronicler’s Account of Josiah

In his account of Josiah, the Chronicler also portrays positive possibilities for the citizens of the

north, a century after the Assyrian defeat of Samaria. A reader of Kings might be shocked that

Josiah waited until his 18th year to carry out reforms since there was no king like Josiah who

turned to Yahweh with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might according to all the

law of Moses (2 Kgs 23:25). In Chronicles, already in Josiah’s eighth year, when he was only

sixteen, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David (2 Chr 34:3). By his twelfth year, when

he was only twenty, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and

the carved and the cast images (2 Chr 34:3). So he began to act like a reformer six to ten years

earlier in Chronicles than he did in Kings, as soon as he had reached his maturity. In my mind,

the less said about the historicity of these early dates the better. In Chronicles Josiah’s reforms of

the north took place before finding of the book of the law: “6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim,

and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around, 7 he broke down the altars, beat the

sacred poles and the images into powder, and demolished all the incense altars throughout all the

land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem. (2Chr 34:6-7). According to Chronicles, the

religion of the north was purifiable as legitimate Yahwism long after the Assyrian takeover, and

therefore presumably purifiable, also in the fourth century. Again, in the words of the Chronicler:

“Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of

Israel, and made all who were in Israel worship Yahweh their God. All his days they did not turn

away from following Yahweh the God of their ancestors” (2Chr 34:33).

2 Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans, 92.

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The Northern Israelites a century after the fall of Samaria were major contributors to the

repair of the Jerusalem temple: “9 They came to the high priest Hilkiah and delivered the money

that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had

collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and

Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (2Chr 34:9). According to 2 Kgs 22:4 the

contributions come generically from “the people.”

According to Chronicles no Passover like Josiah’s had been kept since the days of the

prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah….by

all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem (2 Chr 35:18). All

Judah and Israel were present. The Chronicler knows of no major influx of imperially sponsored

settlers from other lands into the vacated former northern kingdom. He does not stigmatize the

northern residents as the descendants of foreign settlers or some kind of mongrel race.3 Members

of both Judah and Samaria embraced the principles of one God, one people, and one sanctuary

from Deuteronomy, but differed only about where such unity was to be observed. This debate

over where the central sanctuary should be was an inner-Israelite debate.

If the Israelites remained Israelite during the course of the United Monarchy, the Divided

Monarchy, and over a century when there was only a Judean monarchy at the time of Josiah, it is

unlikely that they had somehow become non-Israelite in the sixth and fifth centuries. Chronicles

was probably more effective in shaping opinions among its support group in Jerusalem than it

was in changing the opinions of the elite in Samaria. The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, written

near or after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586, predicted restoration programs in which all the

tribes would be reunified and re-centered in the land. We should also remind ourselves that the

3 Cite page in Knoppers.

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books of Chronicles themselves begin with genealogies of all4 the twelve tribes in 1 Chronicles

1-8. All Israel for the Chronicler meant all Israel.

The Chronicler has Josiah institutionalize the centralized Passover that had begun in his

thinking with Hezekiah. Josiah’s Passover was done on the right day, the fourteenth day of the

first month, and not the fourteenth day of the second month. And it was done in the right way.

Note especially the role of the Levites, which resulted from Josiah’s mandate. No Passover like

this had been held since the days of Samuel the prophet. The Chronicler may be suggesting that

the role of the Levites in sacrificing the Passover lamb goes back to pre monarchical times. What

made Josiah’s Passover the right way was the way the Passover lamb was prepared for eating.

Here the Chronicler faced tension in his sources and attempted to resolve that tension. According

to Exod 12:8-9 the lamb was to be eaten roasted over the fire. None of it was to be eaten raw or

boiled in water. But in Deut 16:7 the Passover was to be eaten “cooked,” or as the Hebrew

would indicate boiled. Richard Nelson, 207, argues that Deuteronomy has the Passover lamb

cooked in a container, a sacrificial boiling, as in 1 Sam 2:13-15, the sacrifices carried out by Eli’s

sons: “When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come, while the meat was

boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14 and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or

caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself”. (1Sam 2:13-14).

The Chronicler resolved this tension by having it “cooked” or “boiled” in fire (2 Chr 35:13, thus

harmonizing the tradition. Similarly, the LXX in Deut 16:7 says “you shall boil and you shall

roast,” which as Lundbom notes, 510-511 does not make sense.

Chronicles attitude toward the North Contrasted with 2 Kings 17

The first six verses of 2 Kings 17 report the reign of Hoshea, the last king in the Northern

Kingdom, and the end of the Northern Kingdom. Hoshea had revolted, in collusion with an

4 Note exceptions.

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unknown king of Egypt, and his reign ended, presumably several years before the capture of

Samaria itself. After capturing Samaria, the king of Assyria deported the Israelites to various

Mesopotamian cities: Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

This is followed in 2 Kings 17 by a Deuteronomistic sermon on the fall of the North, blaming its

demise on the worship of other gods and various other sins, including high places, standing

stones, and Asherim. The Israelites, according to this indictment, also rejected all the prophetic

admonitions and they followed the cultic innovations of Jeroboam I, with its two golden caves,

etc.

What interests us in this discussion, however, is the ethnic and religious makeup of the

northerners after 722. We begin with 2 Kgs 17:24-34a.

24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim,

and placed them in the cities of Samaria in place of the people of Israel; they took possession of

Samaria, and settled in its cities. 25 When they first settled there, they did not fear (reverence,

worship) Yahweh; therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So

the king of Assyria was told, "The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of

Samaria do not know the religious practices (+p#$m) of the god of the land; therefore he has

sent lions among them; they are killing them, because they do not know the religious practices

(+p#$m) of the god of the land." 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send there one of

the priests whom you carried away from there; let him go and live there, and teach them the

religious practices (+p#$m) of the god of the land." 28 So one of the priests whom they had

carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel; he taught them how they should fear

(reverence, worship) Yahweh.

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29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high

places that the people of Samaria had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived;

30 the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the people of Cuth made Nergal, the people of

Hamath made Ashima; 31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; the Sepharvites burned their

children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.

32 They also feared (reverenced, worshiped) Yahweh and appointed from among themselves all

sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high

places.

33 So they feared (reverenced, worshiped) Yahweh but they also served their own gods, after the

religious practices (+p#$mk) of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. 34

To this day they continue to carry out their former religious customs (Myn#$)rh

My+p#$mk).

This paragraph depicts total discontinuity in regard to ethnicity among the inhabitants of

North Israel, but in terms of religious practices substantial continuity. The foreign immigrants

adopted native religious customs. The inhabitants of North Israel have been drawn from various

sectors of the Assyrian empire. The land has been emptied of Israelites and filled with foreigners.

Knoppers notes that many Judahite kings allowed or even sponsored similar religious practices.

When Yahweh sends lions to attack the new inhabitants of Samaria, it shows that Yahweh has

not relinquished his claim to this territory. And an Israelite priest sent by the Assyrian king

teaches the strangers how to fear/reverence/worship Yahweh. Since the priest takes up residence

at Bethel, the religious practices of the immigrants replicate traditional northern Israelite

practices in many details. Jeroboam I associated his golden calves with Yahweh and the Exodus

although Deuteronomistic polemic associates Jeroboam’s cult with idolatry and the worship of

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other gods (1 Kgs 12:28; 14:10; 2 Kgs 10:29). Jeroboam was also charged with appointing

priests who were not descendants of Levi (1 Kgs 12:31). The charge that the immigrants fostered

high places also echoes the cult of Jeroboam. The foreign settlers revive the old-time religion of

northern Israel. Bethel continues as the main sanctuary. This paragraph does not follow the fate

of the Israelites who had been exiled. The immigrants, on the other hand, are non-Israelites

ethnically, but Israel-like religiously. The close comparability of preexilic Israelite religion with

postexilic Samarian religion belies the claim of a complete Israelite dislocation to Assyria.

Many, indeed probably most, of the old North Israelites must have remained. And only after the

foreigners learned to practice native Israelite religion did the attacks of the lions cease.

Syncretistic Yahwistic worship is better than no Yahwistic worship at all.

This leads to a second paragraph from another hand and a second point of view in 2 Kings 17:

34b They do not fear (reverence, worship) Yahweh and they do not follow the statutes or the

ordinances or the law/teaching (hrwt) or the commandment that Yahweh commanded the

children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 Yahweh had made a covenant with them and

commanded them, "You shall not worship other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or

sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall worship Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt

with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you

shall sacrifice. 37 The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment that he

wrote for you, you shall always be careful to observe. You shall not worship other gods; 38 you

shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods, 39 but

you shall fear (reverence, worship) Yahweh your God; he will deliver you out of the hand of all

your enemies." 40 They would not listen, however, but they continued to practice their former

custom.

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This second text5 assumes a connection between the residents of the former Northern

Kingdom and the descendants of Jacob, but disputes what was said in the first text about the

worship of Yahweh. These northerners did not truly worship Yahweh, but the author assumes

that they are responsible for keeping Yahweh’s covenant (vv. 34, 35, 37): you shall not forget the

covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods, 39 but you shall fear

(reverence, worship) Yahweh your God. This writer does not view the Samarians ethnically as

non-Israelites. Rather, they are descendants of Israel whom Yahweh brought out of Egypt. This

second writer views the ancestors of Samaria’s residents as descendants of Jacob in clear

contradiction to what the first writer said.

A third point of view with regard to the north can be found in the account of Josiah’s

reform in 2 Kings 23:

15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused

Israel to sin-- he [Josiah] pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high

place, crushing it to dust; he also burned the sacred pole (Asherah). 16 As Josiah turned, he saw

the tombs there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them

on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God proclaimed,

when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival; he turned and looked up at the tomb of the man

of God who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, "What is that monument that I see?" The

people of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and

predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel." 18 He said, "Let him rest;

let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came

out of Samaria. 19 Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the

towns of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking Yahweh to anger; he did to them

5 On this division of the text, see Noth, 1943, 85-86; Nelson, 1981, 64-65.

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just as he had done at Bethel. 20 He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who

were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.

The third text addresses the issue of idolatrous and syncretistic worship in Samaria (see 2

Kgs 17:24-34a), but raises new questions about the ethnicity of Samaria’s population. Judah’s

great reformer decisively eradicates Jeroboam’s sins and fulfills the prophecies delivered against

the Bethel altar and the northern high places (1 Kgs 13:1-3, 32-34). The story of Josiah’s reforms

presupposes that he is dealing with his northern kin. The Bethel shrine and altar and the high

places are all Israelite in the 7th century, one hundred years after the fall of the north to Assyria.

He treats the northern priests as if they were rebellious Israelites, advocating the worship of other

gods. This account contradicts the viewpoint of 2 Kgs 17:24-34a that Samaria’s postexilic

residents were outsiders.

Conclusions

The issues of identity, religious practice, and national origins were ongoing issues in

Judahite circles. Despite all their differences, our three accounts admit some form of Yahwism

continued in the north. There was a northern forced migration, yet religious practices remained

relatively stable (2 Kgs 17:24-34a). The northerners were biological descendants of Jacob, but

they did not truly worship Yahweh (2 Kgs 17:34b-40). After 2 Kings 17 the narrative in Kings

follows only the history of Judah, but northern Israel remained an object of divine concern sine

Judah’s greatest reformer Josiah righted northern wrongs. Josiah’s reform in the north in 2 Kings

23 deals with Israelites.

There is considerable diversity of opinion regarding the north in these three passages.

Whatever the precise number of foreign settlers, most of them seem to have been integrated into

native society over the course of the generations. The numbers of northern Israelites remaining in

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the land far outnumbered the population of the resident Assyrians and Assyrian-sponsored

immigrants. A substantial number of Israelites gradually absorbed a minor foreign presence.

The religious conditions described in 2 Kgs 17:24-34a resemble the older form of

Israelite state religion observed for centuries before any foreigners arrived. This challenges the

blanket statements of dislocation in 2 Kgs 17:6, 18, 20, 23:

6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria; he carried the Israelites away

to Assyria. He placed them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the

Medes.

18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; none was

left but the tribe of Judah alone.

20 Yahweh rejected all the descendants of Israel; he punished them and gave them into the hand

of plunderers, until he had banished them from his presence.

23 until Yahweh removed Israel out of his sight, as he had foretold through all his servants the

prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.

The quick adoption of Jeroboam-like worship practices in 2 Kgs 17:24-34a shows that a

substantial portion of the inhabitants of the former Northern Kingdom remained. The second

account in 2 Kgs 17:34b-40 is far more critical of the religious practices, but readily concedes

that the people in the north of his day were ethnically Israelite. The writer who describes Josiah’s

reform in the north in 2 Kgs 23:15-20 presupposes that he was dealing with Israelites. His reform

is an inner-Israelite struggle.

How did books like Hosea make it into the Judahite canon? If the north was totally exiled, why

does the Judahite canon include the stories of Elijah and Elisha? Did all these writings come

south at the end of the eighth century? Or did the Bethel sanctuary serve for some time as a

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conduit of northern traditions to the south? (See Blenkinsopp 2003, 93-107 Judah and the

Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period). Communications between north and south continued

because Judahites and Israelites shared much in common. The transmission of literary traditions

from Samaria to Judah did not happen all at one time, but was an ongoing dynamic in the history

of relations between the two communities.

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