=20.= _they were helped_] with Divine assistance; compare xv. 26. ²²For there fell many slain, because the war was of God. And they dwelt in their stead until the captivity. =22.= _was of God_] i.e. was prompted by God; compare 1 Samuel xv. 2, 3. =23, 24.= THE HALF TRIBE OF MANASSEH. ²³And the children of the half tribe of Manasseh dwelt in the land: they increased from Bashan unto Baal-hermon and Senir and mount Hermon. ²⁴And these were the heads of their fathers’ houses; even Epher, and Ishi, and Eliel, and Azriel, and Jeremiah, and Hodaviah, and Jahdiel, mighty men of valour, famous men, heads of their fathers’ houses. =23.= For the genealogy of Manasseh, see vii. 14 ff. _Baal-hermon_] In Judges iii. 3 a mount Baal-hermon is mentioned. Here probably a city is meant, possibly _Banias_, on the eastern slope of Hermon. _Senir_] an Amorite name for Mt Hermon or a peak of the range (Deuteronomy iii. 9). =25, 26.= THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TRANS-JORDANIC TRIBES. ²⁵And they trespassed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God destroyed before them. =25.= _they trespassed_] The Hebrew verb has a special reference to unlawful or idolatrous worship and also to the violation of a consecrated thing; compare Joshua xxii. 16, 20, 31. ²⁶And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river of Gozan, unto this day. =26.= _stirred up the spirit_] Compare 2 Chronicles xxi. 16, where see note; xxxvi. 22. _Pul ... and ... Tilgath-pilneser_] Both here and in 2 Kings xv. 19, 29 (_Pul ... Tiglath-pileser_) the two names are used as though two different persons were meant, but there is no doubt that _Pul_ is the earlier and _Tiglath-pileser_ the royal name of the same king; compare verse 6. _unto Halah_, etc.] In 2 Kings xv. 29 it is said only, _to Assyria_; in 2 Kings xvii. 6 it is said that the _Western_ tribes (“Samaria”) were carried away and placed _in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan and in the cities of the Medes_. _Halah_] probably a district of Mesopotamia, but it has not yet been convincingly identified. _Habor_] a river flowing into the Euphrates from the east, known to the Greeks as Χαβώρας or Ἀβόρρας. _and Hara_] No place of this name is known and the word is omitted in LXX. The reading may be corrupt for _and in the cities of the Medes_ (2 Kings xvii. 6, compare LXX.; xviii. 11). _the river of Gozan_] Gozan was a district of Mesopotamia. CHAPTER VI. =1‒81= (= v. 27‒vi. 66 according to the Hebrew division). GENEALOGIES AND SETTLEMENTS OF LEVI.