Assyria Resettles Samaria

^24 (A)And the king of Assyria brought people from ^(B)Babylon, Cuthah, ^(C)Avva, ^(D)Hamath, and ^(E)Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the people of Israel. And they took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

^34 (A)Where are the gods of ^(B)Hamath and ^(C)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena, and ^(D)Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

^13 (A)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

³⁰ The men of ^(A)Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, ³¹ and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites ^(B)burned their children in the fire to ^(C)Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of ^(D)Sepharvaim.

Jesus Sends Out the Twelve Apostles

^5 (A)These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of ^(B)the Samaritans,

^13 (A)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”

^19 (A)Where are the gods of ^(B)Hamath and ^(C)Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? ^(D)Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

² they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever ^(A)since the days of ^(B)Esarhaddon king of Assyria ^(C)who brought us here.” ³ But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, ^(D)“You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(E)as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”

⁴ Then ^(F)the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build ⁵ and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

⁶ And in the reign of ^(G)Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

The Letter to King Artaxerxes

⁷ In the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam and ^(H)Mithredath and Tabeel and the rest of their associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written ^(I)in Aramaic and translated.^{[a] 8} Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king as follows: ⁹ Rehum the commander, Shimshai the scribe, and the rest of their associates, the ^(J)judges, the ^(K)governors, the officials, the Persians, the men of Erech, the Babylonians, the men of Susa, that is, the ^(L)Elamites, ¹⁰ and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble ^(M)Osnappar deported and settled in the cities of Samaria and in the rest of the province Beyond the River.