Verse 15
15. fruitful—referring to the meaning of "Ephraim," from a Hebrew root, "to be fruitful" (Genesis 41:52). It was long the most numerous and flourishing of the tribes (Genesis 41:52- :).
wind of the Lord—that is, sent by the Lord (compare Genesis 41:52- :), who has His instruments of punishment always ready. The Assyrian, Shalmaneser, c., is meant (Jeremiah 4:11 Jeremiah 18:17; Ezekiel 19:12).
from the wilderness—that is, the desert part of Syria (Ezekiel 19:12- :), the route from Assyria into Israel.
he—the Assyrian invader. Shalmaneser began the siege of Samaria in 723 B.C. Its close was in 721 B.C., the first year of Sargon, who seems to have usurped the throne of Assyria while Shalmaneser was at the siege of Samaria. Hence, while 2 Kings 17:6 states, "the king of Assyria took Samaria," 2 Kings 17:6- : says, "at the end of three years they took it." In Sargon's magnificent palace at Khorsabad, inscriptions mention the number—27,280—of Israelites carried captive from Samaria and other places of Israel by the founder of the palace [G. V. SMITH].
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