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plantings of a vineyard *," by this conquest of it, though it was by a much later one. The Scriptures expressly say, that, after the carrying away captive the children of Israel into Assyria, the men that were brought from the countries of the East before enumerated to supply their places, "possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof."+ Josephus calls them all Cutheans, "because," says he, "they were brought out of the country called Cutha, which is a country of Persia, and there is a river of the same name in it; and that is the name," he adds, "by which they have been called to this time," though he acknowledges in the same place, that they were composed of five different nations. He confirms, however, the fact of their supplying the place of the Israelites led away into captivity, and of their dwelling in Samaria, and following the idolatrous worship of their former gods, though Israelitish priests had been sent back from among the captives in Assyria to teach them the knowledge of the true God. §

* Micah, i. 6.

+ 2 Kings, xvii. 24.

See an able dissertation on the geographical positions of the towns to which these captives were carried, and the nations who replaced them, in Major Rennell's Illustrations of the geography of Herodotus.

§ Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. ix. c. 14. s. 3.; and 2 Kings, xvii. 24 to 31.

In the time of Ezra, or subsequent to the return of the Israelites from their captivity, these foreigners were still dwelling there; these are they who were enumerated as the Dinaites, the Afharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites, the Elamites, and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnapper brought over and set in the cities of Samaria. These are they who wrote the letter to Artaxerxes, the king of Persia, telling him, that the Jews whom he had set free from their captivity had already gone up to Jerusalem, and were rebuilding the walls of this rebellious and bad city; they advised the king to search the book of records of his father, wherein he would find that this was a rebellious city, and hurtful unto kings and provinces, and that they had moved sedition within the same of old time, for which cause the city was destroyed; and after telling the king Artaxerxes it was because they still had their maintenance from his palace, that they could not see him thus dishonoured, they assure him that if this city were to be rebuilt, and the walls thereof set up again, he would not only be deprived of the toll, tribute, and custom, which this country now brought to his revenue, but that he would by this means, soon have no portion on this side the river, or west

of the Euphrates. The records were searched, the proofs of insurrection, rebellion, and sedition, were found, and the order of Artaxerxes put a stop to the building. *

Until this period, therefore, it was inhabited by this mixed race, and in the time of Amos, they are characterized as a luxurious people, by a figure that will be well understood by those who are conversant with the manners of the East. "Thus saith the Lord, As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwell in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus in a couch; and I will smite the winter-house, with the summerhouse, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord." Nothing could be more indicative of wealth and luxurious manners than these splendid mansions, suited to the different seasons, and the manner of their reposing in them; and as such a state is too generally acquired by laying heavy burdens on those who find them grievous to be borne, they are most appropri ately addressed in the opening of the next chapter. "Hear the word, ye kine of Bashan ‡,

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* Ezra, iv. 7-24. Amos, iii. 12. 15. One must have seen the luxuriant pastures among the hills and valleys of Gilead, on the other side of Jordan, to feel

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that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring and let us drink."

When Alexander the Great was occupied in the siege of Tyre, it is said, that all the cities of that part of Syria called Palestine, were surrendered peaceably into his hands, excepting Gaza. * On quitting Syria for Egypt, the Macedonian king left Andromachus in the government of the country; but during his visit to the Temple of Jupiter Hammon in Libya, or, as others have it, after the taking of Tyre and Gaza, these Samaritans, from their constant enmity to the Jews, and jealousy of the superior privileges granted to them by Alexander, put Andromachus to a cruel death. †

The news reaching Alexander in Egypt, of the Samaritans having burnt Andromachus alive, he hastened to avenge this barbarous act upon so perfidious a race. ‡ These were, indeed,

the full force of this expression, and to understand what is meant in other places by "the fat bulls of Bashan," who rioted at large in all the abundance which the most fertilelands could bestow.

* Arrian. Exped. Alex. 1. ii. c. 25.

Andromachum iis regionibus præposuit, quem Samaritani, perpetui Judæorum hostes, paulo post atrociter necaverunt. Freinshemii Supp. in Quint. Curt. l.ii. c. 11.

Oneravit hunc dolorem nuncius mortis Andromachi, quem præficeret Syriæ; vivum Samaritæ cremaverunt. Ad cujus

either all executed, or swept away, and such of them as escaped, established themselves in Shechem as their capital, while Alexander banished even those Samaritans who had served in his army ever since the siege of Tyre, as far as into the Thebais, or Upper Egypt, to guard that country.

Samaria was now peopled by a new race, though still foreigners; and while the remains of the mixed nations that had supplied the place of the Israelites from the east were dispersed thus abroad, their successors were an almost equally mixed people from the west, composed of Macedonians, and others who served in the army of Alexander, while part of the adjoining lands were given to the Jews. t

Hyrcanus, the first of the Jewish high priests who had ventured to shake off the Syrian yoke, was the next who came as an enemy against the city of Samaria : this was not for religious

interitum vindicandum, quanta maxima celeritate potuit, contendit, advenientique sunt traditi tanti sceleris auctores. Quint. Curt. 1. iv. c. 8.

* Joseph. Ant. Jud. 1. xi. c. 8. s. 6.

† Anc. Univ. Hist. vol. viii. p. 544.

The first of the Ptolemies, surnamed Lagus, who was the friend and companion of Alexander, in his conquest of Asia, and who, after his death, became king of Egypt, Libya, and part of Arabia, is said to have laid waste Samaria, when he

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