May 13, 2013 – 2 Kings 17

http://ldolphin.org/kings.html

The dates on the website don’t exactly mesh with what is in the scriptures.  It has Ahaz and Hoshea starting their reigns at the same time, but verse one says in the 12^th year of Ahaz Hoshea starts.  We also see the end of Israel and the beginning of their exile.  Basically, Assyria comes in and takes over and removes all the people to somewhere else.  I don’t really know much about life of the exile.  Not to my knowledge was it anything like a concentration camp of WWII.  In Tobit, the exile (and I think that is an exile story) they appear to be living normal lives, just not in their homeland.  I guess you don’t get much of a story from the common man exile.  I am sure it wasn’t the best circumstance, but for the everyday folks, it might not have been so bad.  Makes you wonder about something like that happening now.