The Second Book of Kings
Chapter Nineteen.


2-Kings. Chapter 19.
Hezekiah, the Destruction of Sennacherib and the Ten Tribes.
Contents:
Brit-Am Summary of Isaiah chapter 37.
2-Kings 19:1-37.
"Like the wolf on the fold" by Lord Byron. Poem and Recording to Download.
Josephus, Antiquities, Book 10, chapter 1.
The Liberation of the Israelites in Exile?
(a) The Deliverance Described by Isaiah.
(b) Assyrians and Cimmerians.
(c) A. G. K. Kristensen and the Cimmerians.

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Brit-Am Summary of Isaiah chapter 37.
Chapter 19 of 2-Kings repeats the events in Isaiah chapter 37.
Here is the Brit-Am Summary to that chapter.

Isaiah Chapter 37:
When King Hezekiah hears what has happened he mourns, fasts, and prays (37:1). A deputation from the King goes to the Prophet Isaiah who tells them to take a message back saying, Fear Not for the King of Assyria will hear a rumor and return to his own land (37:6-7). This is what happens. Sennacherib indeed hears reports of Tirhakah King of Cush (translated as Ethiopia) coming against him (37:9) so he made to move against him. The Assyrians leave but Rabshakeh (2-Kings 19:9) sends a dire threat to Hezekiah that they will still carry out their evil designs (37:10-13). Hezekiah receives the letter, goes into the Temple, and prays before the God of Israel to save the people of Jerusalem (37:15-20). Isaiah the son of Amoz sends a message to Hezekiah in the name of the God of Israel (37:21). Sennacherib had blasphemed against the God of Zion and Jerusalem, the Holy One of Israel (37:23). The Assyrians will not succeed but will be turned back in disaster (37:24-28). The attack on Judah is the same as an attack on the Almighty (37:29). All hatred of the Jews is War against God. The small number of survivors from Judah will produce a large population in a relatively short time (37:31). Despite everything, We could have been much bigger and greater than we are. We still can rectify the situation if we wish. Even if Judah is not worthy at some stage or other God will intervene of behalf of Jerusalem and in memory of David (37:35). The Assyrians then returned to the siege of Jerusalem. The angel of God went forth at night and slew 185,000 Assyrians (37:36).
Isaiah  Chapter 38: Sennacherib went back to Nineveh where he was assassinated by two of his sons who then fled to Ararat (
Urartu translated as "Armenia" in the KJ, 2-Kings 19:37, Isaiah 37:38).




2-Kings 19:1-37.
Below are the verses from 2-Kings ch 19.
For commentary please go to what we wrote on Isaiah chapter 37.
http://www.britam.org/isaiah/Isaiah36to40.html#37

[2-Kings 19:1] And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

[2-Kings 19:2] Then he sent
Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.

[2-Kings 19:3] And they said to him, "Thus says Hezekiah: 'This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth.

[2-Kings 19:4] It may be that the LORD your God will hear all the words of the
Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"

[2-Kings 19:5] So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

[2-Kings 19:6] And Isaiah said to them, "Thus you shall say to your master, 'Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.

[2-Kings 19:7] Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.'"

  
[2-Kings 19:8] Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish.

[2-Kings 19:9] And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "Look, he has come out to make war with you." So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,

[2-Kings 19:10] "Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: 'Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'

[2-Kings 19:11] Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered?

[2-Kings 19:12] Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed,
Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?

[2-Kings 19:13] Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?'"

[2-Kings 19:14] And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.

[2-Kings 19:15] Then Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said: 'O LORD God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

[2-Kings 19:16] Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.

[2-Kings 19:17] Truly, LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands,

[2-Kings 19:18] and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.

[2-Kings 19:19] Now therefore, O LORD our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD God, You alone."
  
[2-Kings 19:20] Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, "Thus says the LORD God of Israel: 'Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.'

[2-Kings 19:21] This is the word which the LORD has spoken concerning him:
      'The virgin, the daughter of Zion,
      Has despised you, laughed you to scorn;
      The daughter of Jerusalem
      Has shaken her head behind your back!

[2-Kings 19:22] Whom have you reproached and blasphemed?
      Against whom have you raised your voice,
      And lifted up your eyes on high?
      Against the Holy One of Israel.


 [2-Kings 19:23] By your messengers you have reproached the Lord,
      And said: 'By the multitude of my chariots
      I have come up to the height of the mountains,
      To the limits of Lebanon;
      I will cut down its tall cedars
      And its choice cypress trees;
      I will enter the extremity of its borders,
      To its fruitful forest.

 [2-Kings 19:24] I have dug and drunk strange water,
      And with the soles of my feet I have dried up
      All the brooks of defense.'"

[2-Kings 19:25] "Did you not hear long ago
      How I made it,
      From ancient times that I formed it?
      Now I have brought it to pass,
      That you should be
      For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.


[2-Kings 19:27]  "But I know your dwelling place,
      Your going out and your coming in,
      And your rage against Me.

[2-Kings 19:28]  Because your rage against Me and your tumult
      Have come up to My ears,
      Therefore I will put My hook in your nose
      And My bridle in your lips,
      And I will turn you back
      By the way which you came.

[2-Kings 19:29]  "This shall be a sign to you:
      You shall eat this year such as grows of itself,
      And in the second year what springs from the same;
      Also in the third year sow and reap,
      Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them.

[2-Kings 19:30]  And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah
      Shall again take root downward,
      And bear fruit upward.


[2-Kings 19:31]  For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant,
      And those who escape from Mount Zion.
      The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."

[2-Kings 19:32]  "Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria:
     'He shall not come into this city,
      Nor shoot an arrow there,
      Nor come before it with shield,
      Nor build a siege mound against it.

[2-Kings 19:33]  By the way that he came,
      By the same shall he return;
      And he shall not come into this city,"
      Says the LORD.

[2-Kings 19:34]  "For I will defend this city, to save it
      For My own sake and for My servant David's sake."
  
[2-Kings 19:35]  And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the LORD went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses, all dead.

[2-Kings 19:36]  So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.

[2-Kings 19:37]  Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.




"Like the wolf on the fold" by Lord Byron.
From: Brother Gilbert Bloomer
RE: 2 Kings 18: Sennacherib versus Judah.
 Dear
Yair,
Here is "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron and Isaac Nathan from the Hebrew melodies of 1815.
cheers Brother Gilbert

Download to hear:
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/douglass/music/Sennacharib.mp3
Due to the music being different from that which is popular in our time it may be a little difficult to
follow the words at first. It is therefore recommended that one listen to it while reading the verses of Lord Byron below.

The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and
strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances
unlifted, the trumpets unblown.

And the widows of
Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile,
unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

Note: first published as "The Destruction of Sennacherib"
Authorship by George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824) , "The Destruction of Sennacherib", from Hebrew Melodies, no. 18, published 1815.




Josephus, Antiquities, Book 10, chapter 1.
4. About the same time also the king of Assyria wrote an epistle to Hezekiah, in which he said he was a foolish man, in supposing that he should escape from being his servant, since he had already brought under many and great nations; and he threatened, that when he took him, he would utterly destroy him, unless he now opened the gates, and willingly received his army into Jerusalem. When he read this epistle, he despised it, on account of the trust that be had in God; but he rolled up the epistle, and laid it up within the temple. And as he made his further prayers to God for the city, and for the preservation of all the people, the prophet Isaiah said that God had heard his prayer, and that he should not be besieged at this time by the king of Assyria that for the future he might be secure of not being at all disturbed by him; and that the people might go on peaceably, and without fear, with their husbandry and other affairs. But after a little while the king of Assyria, when he had failed of his treacherous designs against the Egyptians, returned home without success, on the following occasion: He spent a long time in the siege of Pelusium; and when the banks that he had raised over against the walls were of a great height, and when he was ready to make an immediate assault upon them, but heard that Tirhaka, king of the Ethiopians, was coming and bringing great forces to aid the Egyptians, and was resolved to march through the desert, and so to fall directly upon the Assyrians, this king Sennacherib was disturbed at the news, and, as I said before, left Pelusium, and returned back without success. Now concerning this Sennacherib, Herodotus also says, in the second book of his histories, how "this king came against the Egyptian king, who was the priest of Vulcan; and that as he was besieging Pelusium, he broke up the siege on the following occasion: This Egyptian priest prayed to God, and God heard his prayer, and sent a judgment upon the Arabian king." But in this Herodotus was mistaken, when he called this king not king of the Assyrians, but of the Arabians; for he saith that "a multitude of mice gnawed to pieces in one night both the bows and the rest of the armor of the Assyrians, and that it was on that account that the king, when he had no bows left, drew off his army from Pelusium." And Herodotus does indeed give us this history; nay, and Berosus, who wrote of the affairs of Chaldea, makes mention of this king Sennacherib, and that he ruled over the Assyrians, and that he made an expedition against all Asia and Egypt; and says thus:

5. "Now when Sennacherib was returning from his Egyptian war to Jerusalem, he found his army under Rabshakeh his general in danger [by a plague], for God had sent a pestilential distemper upon his army; and on the very first night of the siege, a hundred fourscore and five thousand, with their captains and generals, were destroyed. So the king was in a great dread and in a terrible agony at this calamity; and being in great fear for his whole army, he fled with the rest of his forces to his own kingdom, and to his city Nineveh; and when he had abode there a little while, he was treacherously assaulted, and died by the hands of his elder sons, Adrammelech and Seraser, and was slain in his own temple, which was called Araske. Now these sons of his were driven away on account of the murder of their father by the citizens, and went into Armenia, while Assarachoddas took the kingdom of Sennacherib." And this proved to be the conclusion of this Assyrian expedition against the people of Jerusalem.




The Liberation of the Israelites in Exile?
(a) The Deliverance Described by Isaiah.
The Commentary MeAm Loaz on Isaiah 9:2 quotes a source saying that after the Assyrian King Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem and had his army destroyed by a miracle the Lost Ten Tribes who already in exile were released from bondage.

[Isaiah 9: 2] The people who walked in darkness
      Have seen a great light;
      Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
      Upon them a light has shined.

The rest of Isaiah chapter nine is also worth considering in this light.

They who put their faith in entities other than God will be disappointed and will end up cursing the other entities (Isaiah 8:21).
 
Isaiah Chapter 9: There will be no gloom for Israel at the Time of Redemption. In Former Times (do not look for strict time sequences in Prophecy) they were exiled beginning with the Lands of Zebulon and Naphtali, after that even more severely by Way of the Sea, Across the Jordan, the Highlands of the Nations (9:11). In their place of Darkness and Exile the Ten Tribes suddenly achieved freedom (9:2). They multiplied greatly and threw off the yoke of their oppressor and one of their offshoots became the Nation of Khazars (9:3-4).
Israel will be mighty warriors (9:5) under a Great Leader who will from Childhood be destined to lead with Divine Inspiration (9:6). His rule of justice and righteousness will last forever. He will sit on the Throne of David (9:7).
Isaiah returns to speak of the coming disaster upon Samaria: This is the way of Prophecy, a constant flitting back and forth between time and events with the past merging into the future and the future suddenly describing the past. Ephraim will attribute his disaster to natural causes that can be rectified (9:9-10). This attitude causes God to set still more adversaries against them,
Aram (Syrians) in the east and Philistines in the West (9:12). They remained obstinate so God will cut them off in one day (9:14). Their leaders and false prophets have mislead them (9:15-16). They are all bad including those who themselves are victimized and vulnerable and will be burnt up (9:17-18).
Manasseh is against Ephraim, Ephraim is against Manasseh, and they both gang up together against Judah and this is not the end of it (9:21).





Assyrian Empire


(b) Assyrians and Cimmerians.
Returning to the Assyrians and Sennacherib:
Sennacherib had been Crown prince during the reign of his father Sargon.
Sargon had sent Sennacherib to deal with or oversee a group of Cimmerians in the Province of Uishish (Gamir) of Mannae.
Ptolemy placed the city of Gomara in this region. Gomara later became known as "Sakkiz" and was the capital of the Scythians.
The Scythians first emerged from the Cimmerians.
M.N. van Loon wished to emphasize this point:
 "It should be made clear from the start that the terms `Cimmerian' and `Scythian' were interchangeable: in Akkadian the name Iskuzai (Asguzai) occurs only exceptionally. Gimirrai (Gamir) was the normal designation for `Cimmerians' as well as `Scythians' in Akkadian."

The Assyrians called the Cimmerians "Gimirri" which equates the Biblical Gomer.
These were the Gimirri who were in the employ of Sargon and helped him subdue most of the Land of Urartu.
Mannae was on the border of Assyria and Urartu and the Cimmerians had been settled there.
Sennacherib had been sent to report on the movements of the Cimmerians and to oversee the subjugation of Urartu. His father Sargon was killed (705 BCE?) by what may have been another group (?) of Cimmerians in Cilicia to the southwest.
Sennacherib then became King. Sennacherib, defeated the Cimmerians in Elam in the east and drove another portion of them into Phrygia  in the west. The Cimmerians conquered Phrygia (695 BCE?). Those Cimmerians who did not go into Phrygia remained along the boundaries of the Assyrian Empire. By the end of his reign Sennacherib had lost ground to the Cimmerians in Urartu and Mannae.
Sennacherib spent his early years subduing the east, then turned westward and towards the south in the direction of Judah and Egypt. After some years of campaigning in the region his army was destroyed before the walls of Jerusdalem. Sennacherib then returned to Assyria where he was assassinated by two of his sons who then fled to Armenia (i.e. Urartu).
Sennacherib was succeeded by Essarhaddon in whose time the Cimmerians in Mannae (where Sennacherib had first been in charge of them) were described as being in a state of rebellion. They were referred to as "Outcasts" without loyalty to god or man. Essarhaddon the Assyrian defeated the Cimmerians in Tabal (just north of Cilicia) in ca.679 driving still more of them westward toward Phrygia and Lydia. At the same time other Cimmerians formed a unit in Esarhaddon's army.

The Prophet Amos had predicted that the Israelites would be exiled to Mannae.
"Hear, this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, who say to their husbands, Bring, and let us drink.
"...he will take you away in big ships and your posterity in fishing boats.
"Each woman will be carried straight out through the breaches and cast out beyond the mountains of
Mannae" (Amos 4:1-3).

The expression "cast out beyond the mountains of Mannae" in Hebrew is "Harmonah" but the Targum Yehonatan translates it as referring to the Mountains of Mannae and such a rendering from the Hebrew is possible. It also fits in  with other information on the subject.




(c) A. G. K. Kristensen and the Cimmerians.
A.K.G. Kristensen ("Who were the Cimmerians, and where did they come from?", translated from the Danish by Jorgen Laessoe) brings apparently irrefutable proof that the Cimmerians upon their first appearance in Mannae were indeed serving in the Assyrian forces under Sennacherib. A.K.G. Kristensen also proves that the Cimmerians were first settled in areas that could be considered "Cities of the Medes" and she states her belief (along with evidence) that the Cimmerians were in effect re-settled Israelites!

 A. K. G. KRISTENSEN identifies the Cimmerians upon their first appearance in Mannae as in Assyrian employ and in effect Israelite settlers who had been exiled and re-settled by Assyria.
The presentation of Kristiansen includes the following points:
 
1. Assyrian reports: A series of Assyrian tablets have been found from the time of Sargon-ii (721-705) referring to the Cimmerians and their country Gamir. They are military intelligence reports to King Sargon concerning campaigns in Urartu. These show that the Cimmerians were settled (Kristensen says) to the south and not to the north of Urartu.  This means that the Cimmerians were first found in a buffer zone between Urartu and Assyria. Mannae and Musasir were the neighbourhoods in which Cimmerians were first reported.
 
2. Where did the Cimmerians really come from? Kristensen advocates the rejection of previously held academic theories concerning Cimmerian origins. It has been supposed that the Cimmerians came from north of the Caucasus and were driven to the south by the Scythians. Kristensen quotes from researchers such as T.Sulimirski, M.Salvini, U.Cozzoli, and others who point out that the said identifications are groundless. There is no archaeological evidence for the Cimmerians (or the Scyths) ever having been north of the Caucasus prior to their first appearances in the Middle East. Nor is there anything in their culture (which in the case of the Scythians at least, was Near or Middle Eastern) relating them to that area.
 Kristensen quotes B.Oded to the effect that the Assyrians lacked manpower to fortify border position and used conscripts taken from the countries that they had conquered. She says that the Gimiri (Cimmerians) were such conscripts taken from the northern kingdom of Israel. This corresponds with other evidence.
 
3. Gamir (=Land of the Gimirri-Cimmerians) is first mentioned in a letter addressed to Sargon ii king of Assyria. The defeat of a king of Urartu in Gamir is reported.
 
4. The location of Gamir in Mannae: The Assyrian report said that GAMIR was separated from Urartu by the country of Guriana.    
          The King of Urartu had requested aid from Urzana the king of Musasir against the Cimmerians. Musasir was a semi-independent buffer state bordering Mannae between Assyria and Urartu. Reports concerning the Gamiri (i.e. the Cimmerians) are frequently concerned with the area of Mannae or its immediate vicinity and Kristensen places GAMIR of the Assyrian report at or near Mannae and in this her opinion is supported by others. In other words the Cimmerians defeated the king of Urartu in Gamir which formed part of Mannae and from there they proceeded to invade Urartu.       
 
5. The role of Musasir: Kristensen analyses (in detail) the relevant texts and comes to the following conclusions: Around the time that Urartu invaded Gamir (i.e. the land of the Cimmerians) the Assyrian king Sargon had been to the east of Musasir (which bordered Mannae) waging war in Zikirtu.
Sargon claims that he "broke off his homeward march" and with an elite army group attacked Musasir which he took "without battle, sacked and placed under Assyrian sovereignty". Sargon took the war god Haldia into captivity and thus gained some kind of hold over Urartu. Sargon says he then invaded Urartu and Rusa king of Urartu apparently committed suicide.
 
6.  Parallel accounts of the Assyrian War against Urartu exist where the role played by "Cimmerians" in one account is the same as that of the "Assyrians" in the parallel version. In these cases the "CIMMERIANS" are paralleled by the "Assyrians" and may be identified with them since (claims Kristensen) the CIMMERIANS were serving as ASSYRIAN SOLDIERS!

7. An Assyrian account directed to the king of Assyria concerning the king of Urartu after his defeat  states,
 "The Urartian, since he went [to] Gamir [now?)] is very afraid of the lord my king".
-In other words, because of his defeat at Gamir (by the Cimmerians) the king of Urartu had come to fear the king of Assyria!
Sargon was to claim credit for having subdued Urartu but Kristensen shows that this would have been physically impoosible. Other Assyrian accounts indicate that the victory should be attributed to Cimmerians in Assyrian service and these should be accepted.
 
Kristensen claims that analysis of Cimmerian-locii show a certain concentration in areas later considered Median. The Bible (2-Kings 17) says that the exiled Israelites were re-settled in "Halah, Habor, the river Gozan, and the cities of the Medes". Thus, the positioning of Cimmerians and Israelite exiles overlaps.

Kristensen brings more evidence and also discusses contrary opinions.

There is additional proof that the Exiled Israelites (or part of them) were in Mannae:
"Gimir" of Mannae is in the region marked by Ptolemy as of the Sambatae in Mannae where Ptolemy recorded the city of "GOMARA"."Gomer" like "Gimir" is another form for Cimmerian! Gomara stood on the later site of Sakkiz (in Mannae) which was destined to become a Scythian centre. The Lost Ten Tribes were recorded as having been taken to the Mountains of Mannae (Yehonatan on Amos ch.4), and to the Sambatian River and to beyond the Sambation River. The Sambation was a name given to the Upper Zab River (and later to the Don River in southern Russia). The name SAMBATION is similar to that of the SAMBATAE whom Ptolemy recorded as dwelling on its bank in Mannae.
          The Apocryphal Book of Tobith ("Tobias" ca.200s BCE) relates that Israelite exiles from the Tribe of Nephtali were to be found in the geographical region ascribed by Ptolemy to the Cadussi and close to it. The Cadussi later moved northward into Scythia and may be identified with the Nephtalite Huns who  were also known as Kadussi (i.e.Cadussi) and came from the Israelite Tribe of Nephtali. They eventually migrated to Scandinavia. The Roman Geographer Pliny said that the Cadussi called themselves "GAELI" which ethnic name was later found amongst the Cimmerian derived inhabitants of the British Isles. Homer mentions Cimmerians in Britain.
         
More details and discussions of  these matters are to be found in our work:
Manasseh. Israelite Origins Of the Cimmerian Celts In Western Europe.
http://britam.org/Menasseh.html#Manasseh

We identify the Exiled Israelites from the Ten Tribes as the Cimmerians and Scythians or at the least as part of their federations.
This accords with the identification of Gomer (in Hosea chs. 1 & 2) as exiled Israelites who unite with and become identified as part of the Cimmerians and Scythians.

The opinion that the disaster endured by Sennacherib enabled the Lost Tribes in Exile to assert their independence fits our knowledge about the Cimmerians. Part of the Cimmerians however had already been independent and opposed to the Assyrians previously.    

Continued!
After the Death of Solomon:
The Divided Kingdom

The Divided Kingdom
Source of Map:
www.ebibleteacher.com/imagehtml/otmaps.html






 
2-Kings ch.18
2-Kings Contents
harp
2-Kings ch.20