Hello friends! The following is evidence of King Hoshea, who was the last king of Israel before it was captured by the Assyrians.
King Hoshea did not do what was right in The Sight Of The Lord and became a prisoner as a result along with Israel, due to their rebelliousness (Credit given at the bottom of the article :D)
2 Kings 17
17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel that were before him.
3 Against him came up Shalmaneser king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
4 And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
7 For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
8 And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.
9 And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the Lord their God, and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city.
10 And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:
11 And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the Lord carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger:
12 For they served idols, whereof the Lord had said unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.
13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
14 Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.
15 And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.
16 And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
19 Also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
20 And the Lord rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.
21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drave Israel from following the Lord, and made them sin a great sin.
22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them;
23 Until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.
24 And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not the Lord: therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them.
26 Wherefore they spake to the king of Assyria, saying, The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence; and let them go and dwell there, and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord.
29 Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt.
30 And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the Lord, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the Lord, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.
34 Unto this day they do after the former manners: they fear not the Lord, neither do they after their statutes, or after their ordinances, or after the law and commandment which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel;
35 With whom the Lord had made a covenant, and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them:
36 But the Lord, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
37 And the statutes, and the ordinances, and the law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
39 But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 Howbeit they did not hearken, but they did after their former manner.
41 So these nations feared the Lord, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
Praise The Lord JESUS CHRIST!!!
Praise The Lord JESUS CHRIST!!!
"Belonging to Abdi servant of Hoshea."
Israel's King Hoshea's Name Found on an Ancient Seal
Remember your memorized Old Testament dates? 722 B.C. come to mind? The ... Captivity . . . of . . . Israel by the . . . Assyrians? OK who was Northern Israel's last king? Hoshea! He reigned circa 731 to 722 B.C. when his nation fell. You can read about that in 2 Kings 17, and it took place during the times of Isaiah, Hosea, and Micah, who also speak of northern Israel's sin and captivity.
2700 Years Later
Recently a seal, used to stamp official documents, came to auction at Sotheby's in New York. In the "Antiquities and Islamic Works of Art," it was dated to the ninth to seventh centuries B.C. It was also there misidentified as Phoenician and estimated to bring $1200 to $1800 at auction. The pictures in the catalog were clear enough to bring more, for it was actually purchased for $80,000 in December 1993. Shlomo Moussaieff, an Israeli collector from London, had purchased it.
What did he get? The royal seal of King Hoshea's servant Abdi' whose longer name was probably Obadiah (not the prophet). In this case "servant" would be like "minister" in many governments, or "secretary of . . ." in the U.S. This seal is from that 732-722 B.C. time period. It would be used to establish something as official from the king or his servant by pressing their seal into soft clay or wax. This would leave an official impression, similar in purpose as a notary's stamp does for us today.
The seal was described by Andre Lemaire in the Biblical Archaeology Review: "The seal is translucent and brown carnelian or rather orange chalcedony according to an expert gemologist scaraboid in shape [like a scarab beetle spw] and perforated from top to bottom so that it might eventually be work around the neck on a string or mounted. It is one inch high, slightly over one-half inch wide and one-third inch thick" (November/December 1995, 49). There is a picture of a man walking, with his face at a profile. He is wearing a long kilt, and a short wig, and holds a scepter identified as a papyrus scepter. There are a few Egyptian-style marks, popular on many things in antiquity; notably a winged-sun where the name would normally have been. Perhaps this was especially used to curry favor with the Egyptians when Israel was trying to avoid becoming a vessel to Assyria (see 2 Kings 17:4 and Hos. 7:11).
The wording, which identifies it as relating to Bible times is on both sides of the man. It reads: L'BDY `BD HWSH', "Belonging to Abdi servant of Hoshea." The style of lettering is Old Hebrew (paleo-Hebrew) and matches this period of time, as it can be compared with other inscriptions, such as the Siloam tunnel inscription in the time of Judah's king Hezekiah. In addition to God's providence, it was probably this tunnel that saved Jerusalem from Assyrian capture at the same time of Israel's fall (see 2 Kings 18: 17, 27, 31; 19:23-24; 20:20).
A couple of other archaeological points. One, though the seal did have one at auction, the new owner also obtained a housing for seals, and it is believed that this may be the very housing box for the Abdi' seal. It was a 2-inch wide gold mounting that would hold the seal when in use. Both seal and housing are pictured on the cover of BAR.
Secondly, Lemaire wrote of other seals in the article. One from the eighth century B.C., and was made of amethyst, and the owner's name was Habli. This Habli-seal has enough points comparison to make Lemaire think both seals were made in the very same workshop, and possibly even by the same artist. Lemaire suggested it was a shop in Samaria.
Ultimately, Samaria which had become the capital of northern Israel fell to the Assyrians. Many were taken away to other lands. People from other lands were moved to Israel. Those left in the land became known as the Samaritans, and would become enemies to Judah and the Jews, even to the time of Jesus. And though history can bring us this "remnant" from the past, the Lord would pre-serve his remnant from "all Israel" such as Paul was in Christ (see Rom. 11:1-5).
Guardian of Truth XL: 6 p. 21
March 21, 1996
No comments:
Post a Comment