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he advised to free them; and they, being persuaded, released the captives. But Ahaz asked the king of the Assyrians to be his ally against the Syrians and the Israelites. And he came and both ravaged the country of the Syrians and took Damascus and killed Rezon, and overrunning the country of the Israelites, he led away very many captives. And Ahaz as a reward for these things gave to Tiglath-pileser both the royal treasures and whatever was laid up in the temple. And he was impious to such a degree as not only to worship the gods of the foreigners, but also to shut up the temple and to plunder its votive offerings. Having lived thus he died, having lived thirty-six years, and having reigned sixteen, leaving the kingdom to Hezekiah his son. And it happened also that the king of the Israelites died then through the conspiracy of Hoshea. And he too was wicked; wherefore also when Shalmaneser, the king of the Assyrians, campaigned against him, he was enslaved to him, being ordered to pay tribute annually. But Hezekiah, being pious and just, having assembled the priests and Levites, commanded them to open the temple and to sacrifice as was their law, and he ordered the people to prefer nothing to the honor of God. He sent, moreover, also throughout all the country, summoning everyone to celebrate the feast of unleavened bread, which had not been celebrated for a long time on account of the lawlessness of the rulers. And he urged the Israelites to worship their ancestral God according to the ancient custom. But they were not persuaded, but even killed the prophets who urged the same things. But some, being persuaded, were brought over to piety and ran together to Jerusalem for 1.164 the worship of God. And king Hezekiah with the leaders of the people, having gone to the temple, offered costly sacrifices through the priests, and distributed to the people many animals for feasting, and commanded the priests to go out into the country and to purify it. Then he started a war against the foreigners and took their cities. And Hoshea, the king of the Israelites, called So, the king of Egypt, into an alliance against the Assyrians. Shalmaneser, learning this, was enraged; and for three years he besieged Samaria, and he captured the city and destroyed the kingdom, and having taken the people captive, he moved them to his own country, and Hoshea himself, the king of the Israelites. And he made other nations migrate from their own country, from a certain place called Cuthah, and resettled them in Samaria and its land. Therefore the ten tribes of the Israelites were carried away nine hundred and forty-seven years after they had left Egypt and departed, and two hundred and forty years and seven months after they had left Rehoboam and had chosen for themselves Jeroboam as king. But those who had been moved to Samaria, called Cuthites from the place where they had formerly lived in Persia, being five nations, again worshipped their own gods. As, then, the fourth book of Kings says, God stirred up lions and they destroyed many of them; but as Josephus relates, a plague befell them. And learning that the evils were coming upon them by the wrath of God, they asked their king to send them priests from the Israelites, that they might initiate them into the religion of the Hebrews; when this 1.165 happened, the destruction ceased. And they are called Cuthites by the Hebrews, but by the Greeks Samaritans. And in the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Jerusalem, Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came against Judea and took all the cities of the two tribes. And Hezekiah, fearing for Jerusalem, sends to him, promising to give whatever tribute he might impose. And Sennacherib demanded three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold, and he provided sworn assurances that he would certainly withdraw, if he received these things. But having received them, he himself set out against the Egyptians and Ethiopians, but left his chief general Rabshakeh with two other generals and a heavy force to sack Jerusalem. but they before the walls

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συνεβούλευεν ἐλευθερῶσαι αὐτούς· οἱ δὲ πεισθέντες ἀφῆκαν τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους. Αχαζ δὲ τὸν ̓Ασσυρίων βασιλέα ἠξίου συμμαχῆσαι αὐτῷ κατὰ τῶν Σύρων καὶ τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν. ὁ δ' ηκε καὶ τήν τε χώραν τῶν Σύρων ἐπόρθησε καὶ τὴν ∆αμασκὸν ειλε καὶ τὸν ̔Ραασὼν ἀνεῖλε καὶ τὴν τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν χώραν καταδραμὼν πλείστους αἰχμαλώτους ἀπήγαγεν. ὁ δὲ Αχαζ ἀμοιβὴν ὑπὲρ τούτων τῷ Θαιγλαφαλασὰρ τούς τε βασιλικοὺς δέδωκε θησαυροὺς καὶ οσα τῷ ἱερῷ ἐναπέκειντο. εἰς τοσοῦτον δ' ἠσέβησεν ὡς μὴ μόνον τοὺς τῶν ἀλλοφύλων σέβειν θεούς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸν ναὸν ἀποκλεῖσαι καὶ συλῆσαι τὰ αὐτοῦ ἀναθήματα. ουτω δὲ βιοὺς ἐτελεύτησεν εξ καὶ τριάκοντα ζήσας ετη, βασιλεύσας δ' ἑξκαίδεκα, ̓Εζεκίᾳ τῷ υἱῷ τὴν βασιλείαν λιπών. συνέβη δὲ καὶ τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν βασιλέα τότε θανεῖν κατ' ἐπιβουλὴν ̓Ωσηέ. καὶ ουτος δὲ πονηρὸς ην· διὸ καὶ στρατεύσαντος κατ' αὐτοῦ τοῦ τῶν ̓Ασσυρίων βασιλέως Σαλμανασὰρ ἐδουλώθη αὐτῷ, φόρους τελεῖν ἐτησίως ἐπιταχθείς. ̓Εζεκίας δὲ εὐσεβὴς ων καὶ δίκαιος, ἐκκλησιάσας τοὺς ἱερεῖς καὶ Λευίτας ἀνοῖξαι τὸ ἱερὸν ἐνετείλατο καὶ θύειν ὡς νόμος αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὸν λαὸν μηδὲν τῆς τοῦ θείου τιμῆς ἐκέλευε προτιμᾶν. εστειλε μέντοι καὶ πρὸς πᾶσαν τὴν χώραν μετακαλούμενος απαντας τὴν τῶν ἀζύμων ἑορτὴν ἑορτάσοντας, ἐπὶ μακρὸν μὴ τελεσθεῖσαν διὰ τὰς τῶν κρατούντων παρανομίας. καὶ τοῖς ̓Ισραηλίταις προυτρέπετο τὸν πατρῷον σέβειν θεὸν κατὰ τὴν πάλαι συνήθειαν. οἱ δὲ οὐκ ἐπείσθησαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς προφήτας ταὐτὰ παραινοῦντας ἐφόνευσαν. τινὲς δὲ πεισθέντες μετηνέχθησαν εἰς εὐσέβειαν καὶ εἰς ̔Ιερουσαλὴμ συνέδραμον εἰς 1.164 προσκύνησιν τοῦ θεοῦ. καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς ̓Εζεκίας μετὰ τῶν ἡγεμόνων τοῦ λαοῦ ἀπελθὼν εἰς τὸ ἱερόν, εθυσε διὰ τῶν ἱερέων θυσίας πολυτελεῖς, καὶ τῷ λαῷ μετέδωκε ζῴων πρὸς εὐωχίαν πολλῶν, καὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ἐξελθεῖν εἰς τὴν χώραν καὶ ἁγνίσαι αὐτὴν ἐνετείλατο. ειτα κατὰ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων πόλεμον ηρε καὶ πόλεις ειλεν αὐτῶν. ̔Ο δὲ τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν βασιλεὺς ̓Ωσηὲ εἰς συμμαχίαν προσεκαλέσατο Σωβὰ τὸν βασιλέα Αἰγύπτου κατὰ τῶν ̓Ασσυρίων. ο γνοὺς Σαλμανασὰρ ὠργίσθη· καὶ ἐπὶ τρισὶν ετεσιν ἐπολιόρκησε τὴν Σαμάρειαν, καὶ κατέσχε τὴν πόλιν καὶ τὴν βασιλείαν ἠφάνισε, καὶ τὸν λαὸν αἰχμαλωτίσας μετῴκισεν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν χώραν, καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν βασιλέα τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν ̓Ωσηέ. καὶ μεταναστεύσας ἐκ τῆς οἰκείας χώρας ετερα εθνη ἀπό τινος τόπου Χούθου καλουμένου μετῴκισεν εἰς Σαμάρειαν καὶ εἰς τὴν χώραν αὐτῆς. μετήχθησαν ουν αἱ δέκα φυλαὶ τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν μετὰ ἐνακόσια τεσσαράκοντα ἑπτὰ ετη ἐξ οτου τὴν Αιγυπτον λιπόντες ἐξήλθοσαν, μετὰ δὲ διακόσια τεσσαράκοντα καὶ μῆνας ἑπτὰ ἐξ οτου καταλιπόντες τὸν ̔Ροβοὰμ ειλοντο ἑαυτοῖς εἰς βασιλέα τὸν ̔Ιεροβοάμ. οἱ δὲ μετοικισθέντες εἰς τὴν Σαμάρειαν, Χουθαῖοι καλούμενοι ἐκ τοῦ τόπου ἐν ῳ κατῴκουν τὸ πρὶν ἐν Περσίδι, πέντε οντες εθνη, τοὺς ἰδίους θεοὺς καὶ αυθις ἐθρήσκευον. ὡς μὲν ουν ἡ τετάρτη τῶν Βασιλειῶν λέγει, λέοντας ἐξήγειρεν ὁ θεὸς καὶ διέφθειρε πολλοὺς ἐξ αὐτῶν· ὡς δὲ ̓Ιώσηπος ἱστορεῖ, λοιμὸς αὐτοῖς ἐνέσκηψε. γνόντες δὲ κατ' ὀργὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπιέναι αὐτοῖς τὰ κακά, τοῦ σφετέρου βασιλέως ἐδέοντο ἱερεῖς στεῖλαι αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῶν ̓Ισραηλιτῶν, ιν' αὐτοὺς τὴν τῶν ̔Εβραίων θρησκείαν μυήσωσιν· ου 1.165 γενομένου ἐπαύσατο ἡ φθορά. καλοῦνται δὲ παρὰ μὲν τῶν ̔Εβραίων Χουθαῖοι, πρὸς δὲ τῶν ̔Ελλήνων Σαμαρεῖται. ̓Εν δὲ τῷ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῳ ετει τῆς βασιλείας ̓Εζεκίου τοῦ τῆς ̔Ιερουσαλὴμ βασιλέως ὁ τῶν ̓Ασσυρίων βασιλεύων Σεναχηρεὶμ ἐπῆλθε τῇ ̓Ιουδαίᾳ καὶ πάσας ειλε τὰς πόλεις τῶν δύο φυλῶν. δείσας δὲ ̓Εζεκίας περὶ τῇ ̔Ιερουσαλήμ, διαπέμπεται πρὸς αὐτὸν ὑπισχνούμενος διδόναι φόρον ον αν ἐπενέγκοι. Σεναχηρεὶμ δὲ τριακόσια μὲν ἀργύρου τάλαντα, χρυσοῦ δὲ τριάκοντα ῃτησε, καὶ πίστεις ἐνωμότους παρέσχεν η μὴν ἀναχωρήσειν, εἰ ταῦτα λάβοι. λαβὼν δὲ αὐτὸς μὲν ἐπ' Αἰγυπτίους ωρμησε καὶ Αἰθίοπας, τὸν δ' ἀρχιστράτηγον αὐτοῦ ̔Ραψάκην σὺν δυσὶ στρατηγοῖς ἑτέροις καὶ δυνάμει βαρείᾳ κατέλιπε τὴν ̔Ιερουσαλὴμ ἐκπορθήσοντας. οἱ δὲ πρὸ τῶν τειχῶν