In this desolate condition the country remained till about the year B.C. 677, when Esarhaddon during the invasion of Judah perceived the impolicy of leaving it thus exposed, and resolved to garrison it with foreigners. Accordingly he gathered men _from Babylon_, and _from Cuthah_, and _from Ava_, and _from Hamath_, and _from Sepharvaim_ (2 K. xvii. 24; comp. Ezra iv. 2, 9, 10), and entrusting them to an officer of high rank, _the great and noble Asnapper_, had them conveyed to the country formerly occupied by the Ten Tribes, and there settled them. These _strangers_ (comp. Lk. xvii. 18) from the further East[176] were of course idolaters, and worshipped various deities, and knowing not the God of the land provoked Him by their heathenish rites to send lions among them, _which slew some of them_ (2 K. xvii. 25). In their distress they applied to the king of Assyria, who sent one of the captive priests to instruct them _how they should fear the Lord_. Under his teaching they added the acknowledgment of Jehovah as the God of the land, to their ancient idolatries, and in course of time detached themselves more and more from heathen customs, and adopted a sort of worship of Jehovah. Refused permission, on the return from the Captivity, to participate in the rebuilding of the Temple, they became the open enemies of the Jews, and erected a rival temple on Mount Gerizim[177], where they continued to worship till it was destroyed by John Hyrcanus, B.C. 130. After this they built another temple at Shechem, and there, under its modern name of _Nablûs_, they have a settlement, consisting of about 200 persons, at the present hour. Gradually detaching themselves from their ancient idolatries, the Samaritans adopted the Mosaic religion, but received as Scripture only the Pentateuch, rejecting every other book in the Jewish Canon. They celebrated the Passover (and celebrate it even now), on Mount Gerizim, and even after their temple had fallen, directed their worship towards that mountain. Holding the doctrine of the coming of the Messiah (Jn. iv. 25), whom they called _Hashah_, “the Converter[178],” their conceptions of His functions and character were derived chiefly from the original promise of a Saviour (Gen. iii. 15), the Shiloh or Peace-maker predicted by Jacob (Gen. xlix. 10), and the Prophet promised to the Israelites like unto Moses (Num. xxiv. 17; Deut. xviii. 15), and they mainly expected that He would _teach all things_ (Jn. iv. 25), and restore the glory of the holy Law on Mount Gerizim[179]. The feud between the Jews and Samaritans, engendered by the refusal of the former to permit their participation in the rebuilding of the Temple, ripened into a mutual hostility of the most bitter description.