And so did he in the cities of Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Simeon, even unto Naphtali,.... Which though they belonged to the ten tribes, yet these being carried captive by the king of Assyria, they that were left became subject to the kings of Judah,
with their mattocks round about; or hammers or mauls, as Kimchi, or pick axes, such sort of instruments as were used in demolishing altars and images: the Targum is,
"in the house of their desolation;''
and so other versions, "in their desolate places" x, which were become such, the inhabitants being carried captive, and few left behind.
x בתרבתיהם "in desolatis locis suis, [vel] eorum", Montanus, Tigurine version, Rambachius.