144: REV. J. E. H. THOMSON, M.A., D.D., ON 



repentant (xxxi, 18) : " I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning 

 himself Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised. . . . (19) 

 Surely after I was turned I repented,' " and the Divine answer, 

 " Is Ephraim my dear son ? Is he a pleasant child ? " Such 

 language implies that the Ephraimite Tribes were still to a great 

 extent occupying their own land, and had recently suffered 

 severe chastisement, such as would have been implied in the 

 deportation of the cream of the inhabitants ; and that they 

 were now repentant. 



Further, there is the evidence of Josephus. Notwithstanding 

 that he had said (Ant. IX, xiv, 1) that Shalmaneser " transplanted 

 all the people into Media and Persia. . . . And when he 

 had removed these people out of their land, he transplanted other 

 nations from a place called Cuthah," he says (X, iv, 5) : " Josiah 

 went also to all the Israelites who had escaped captivity and 

 slavery under the Ass}Tians, and persuaded them to desist from 

 their impious practices. . . . When he had thus purified 

 aU the country, he called the people to Jerusalem, and there 

 celebrated the Passover." His evidence is all the more valuable 

 that all through his history Josephus manifests an animus 

 against the Samaritans, always calling them Cuthaeans. 



The evidence from the monuments supports our contention. 

 Sargon, who conquered Samaria, says that he deported " 27,290 

 persons /fom the inhabitants," implying that he left some. He 

 further says that he appointed a deputy and required from the 

 inhabitants the same tribute as formerly — a deputy would not 

 be appointed over empty fields, or tribute exacted from a waste. 

 Even after the slaughter incident to their successive invasions 

 the Assyrians had left a remnant. Reference might further be 

 made to the physical difficulties connected with the removal 

 overland of a population of not less than half a million a distance 

 of approximately six hundred miles ; and then deporting colonists 

 over a similar space to supply their place. It would be enough 

 for the purposes of the Assyrian Government that all the men 

 of wealth or influence, all the prophets, all the priests, all the 

 scribes, should be removed. 



It is to be noted that when Zerubbabel refuses the help of the 

 Samaritans in building the Temple, he does not do so because 

 they are not Israelites, but on the ground alone that only to the 

 Jews was the permission granted to rebuild the Jerusalem shrine. 



For these reasons we assume the claim of the Samaritans to 

 be genuine Israelites to be valid. 



