Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.
We seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar-haddon ... which brought us up hither. A very interesting explanation of this passage has been recently obtained from the Assyrian sculptures. On a large cylinder, deposited in the British Museum, there is inscribed a long and perfect copy of the annals of Esar-haddon, in which the details are given of a large deportation of Israelites from Palestine, and a consequent settlement of Babylonian colonists in their place. It is a striking confirmation of the statement made in this passage. The Assyrian monarchs, like the ancient and modern sovereigns of Egypt, employed their captives principally in hard labour on their public works about the capital. But sometimes, when circumstances required it, they were transported to conquered and depopulated regions, where, under the strict surveillance of Assyrian governors, they were settled, to maintain the provincial power of their masters.
Thus, while Sargon placed his Samaritan captives in Gauzanitis or Macedonia, and the "cities of the Medes" (2 Kings 18:11), Esar-haddon removed Babylonians, etc. (Ezra 4:9), to Samaria. Those Assyrian settlers intermarried with the remnant of Israelite women, and their descendants, a mongrel race, went under the name of Samaritans. Though originally idolaters, they were instructed in the knowledge of God, so that they could say, "We seek your God;" but they served Him in a superstitious way of their own (see the notes at 2 Kings 17:26-34; 2 Kings 17:41).
In further confirmation of the fact that the new colonists of Judea were introduced by Esar-haddon, it may be expedient to remind the reader that although the Kingdom of Israel had been greatly devastated by Shalmanezer, and a large deportation of the people had been made to the country of that conqueror, it was not wholly depopulated. The complete overthrow of the Israelite kingdom did not take place until Esar-haddon made invasion of Judea, carried Manasseh prisoner to Babylon, and made a conquest of the whole northern portion of Judea by those military followers from Babylon, Cutha, etc., whom, on returning to Assyria, he left behind to colonize the cities in Samaria formerly occupied by the children of Israel, (cf. 2 Kings 17:24, etc.)