Let us build with you: this they spake not sincerely, as appears from their disposition and designs discovered in the following history; but that by this conjunction with them they might pry into their counsels, and thereby get an opportunity to find some matter or pretences of accusation against them. We seek your God, as ye do; for so they did, though in a mongrel way: see 2 Kings 17:26, &c. Esar-haddon king of Assur; son of Sennacherib, and after him king of Assyria, 2 Kings 19:37; who brought or sent these persons hither, either,
1. In the days of Salmaneser, who lived and reigned in Assyria but eight years before Esar-haddon's reign; and so Esar-haddon might be one of his most eminent commanders, and the man by whom that colony was sent. Or,
2. In the reign of Esar-haddon, who sent this second colony to supply and strengthen the first.