ABSTRACT
The first King of Israel was Saul, who was anointed by the prophet Samuel. Saul though, was cast out for his disobedience and David was anointed king in his stead at Bethlehem. David was succeeded by his son Solomon, who was succeeded by his son Rehoboam. In the reign of King Rehoboam the ten tribes of Israel rebelled against the house of David, sundering the children of Israel into two kingdoms: Judah and Israel.1 The northern kingdom of Israel survived until the Assyrian conquest, when ‘the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes’. The Biblical story continues in the Apocrypha, which tells of how ‘Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away’ the ten tribes captive:
And he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over. For through that country [Arsareth] there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and a half ... Then dwelt they there until the latter time; and now when they shall begin to come, The Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again, that they may go through.2
