Assyria Resettles Samaria

^24 (A)Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, ^(B)Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities.

³⁴ Where are the gods of ^(A)Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and ^(B)Ivah? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

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

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

Sending Out the Twelve^(A)

⁵ These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: ^(B)“Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of ^(C)the Samaritans.

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

¹⁹ Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, have they delivered ^(A)Samaria from my hand?

² they came to Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we seek your God as you do; and we have sacrificed to Him ^(A)since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” ³ But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the fathers’ houses of Israel said to them, ^(B)“You may do nothing with us to build a ^[a]house for our God; but we alone will build to the Lord God of Israel, as ^(C)King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.” ⁴ Then ^(D)the people of the land tried to discourage the people of Judah. They troubled them in building, ⁵ and hired counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of ^(E)Darius king of Persia.

Rebuilding of Jerusalem Opposed

⁶ In the reign of Ahasuerus, in the beginning of his reign, they wrote an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.

⁷ In the days of ^(F)Artaxerxes also, ^[b]Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabel, and the rest of their companions wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia; and the letter was written in ^(G)Aramaic script, and translated into the Aramaic language. ^8 [c]Rehum the commander and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to King Artaxerxes in this fashion: