In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Ver. 6. And carried Israel away into Assyria.] Whither Tiglathpileser had before carried five of the tribes. 1Ch 5:26 And this was the end of the Israelitish kingdom, after it had stood two hundred and fifty-four years; the time being now come of which the prophet Isaiah had spoken, saying, Within sixty-five years Ephraim shall be wasted, so that he shall not be a people. This time began, say the Hebrews, in the twenty-fifth year of Uzziah, when their carrying away captive was first threatened by Amos.
And placed them in Halah and in Habor.] Which are in Media and Persia, saith Josephus; among the Colchians and Iberians, saith Scaliger; the Tartarians, saith Genebrard, where certain places are known still by the names of Dan, Nephthalim, and Zebulon, &c. The name also of Tartars, alias Tatari or Totari, is supposed by some to come from the Hebrew word Tothar, which signifieth a residue or remnant. Iudicium sit penes lectorem.