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In this desolate condition the country remained till about the year B.C.677, when Esarhaddon during the invasion of Judah perceived the impolicy of leaving it thus exposed, and resolved to garrison it with foreigners. Accordingly he gathered men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim (2 K. xvii.24; comp. Ezra iv. 2, 9,10), and entrusting them to an officer of high rank, the great and noble Asnapper, had them conveyed to the country formerly occupied by the Ten Tribes, and there settled them.

These strangers (comp. Lk. xvii.18) from the further East176 were of course idolaters, and worshipped various deities, and knowing not the God of the land provoked Him by their heathenish rites to send lions among them, which slew some of them (2 K. xvii.25). In their distress they applied to the king of Assyria, who sent one of the captive priests to instruct them how they should fear the Lord. Under his teaching they added the acknowledgment of Jehovah as the God of the land, to their ancient idolatries, and in course of time detached themselves more and more from heathen customs, and adopted a sort of worship of Jehovah.