The cuneiform inscriptions and the Old Testament - The Search For ...

SECOND BOOK OF KINGS XVIII. 9
words should be connected together thus : n"lj;ii;jn, and this
form should be taken as the partic. Nif. of the verb ^V^V
(of which we have also the form ''j;^W in Is. XIX. 14)
= "the thoroughly depraved (city)", standing at the same
time in apposition to Sepharvaim, which was probably
so called "because it had once been subjugated by Assyria,
but had revolted". This would, according to Hoffmann,
dispose of every difficulty. Such an error would, however, 3'>5
belong in this case to a rather early date, since even the
LXX, in their day, with their rendering ]4va xal ji^a
(just as in XIX. 13), evidently combined the characters
in the same way as the Masoretes did. We must bear
in mind too that in chap. XVII. 31 the W^^V (LXX
Evaioi), i. e. the inhabitants of Avva (see note on the
passage), are mentioned, exactly as in the present verse,
along with the Sepharvites. In that passage, however, it
is absolutely impossible to suppose that there was an ap-
positional D''')X/1i;j, There must at all events have existed
a place riJJt;. Hence for J/^n also the only assumption that
remains possible is to regard it as the name of a locality.
n!'l'15P Sepharvaim. According to 2 Kings XVII. 24
Sargon deported the inhabitants of this place to Samaria.
This was obviously connected with an insurrection which
the Sepharvites had attempted— probably in union with
the Babylonians— against the Assyrians, in other words
with an alliance concluded between the Babylonians and
Sepharvites against the Assyrians, just at the commence-
ment of Sargon's reign. In the inscriptions of Sargon
there is no express mention of his conquest of Sipar and
the deportation of its inhabitants ; only we can clearly
infer from the Khorsabad inscriptions that at any rate in
the time subsequent to the capture of Babylon (710— 9)