In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria seized Samaria and exiled Israel to Assyria. He put them in Halah, in Habor by the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
“Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, there in Babylon, whether it is so, that a decree was made by Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem. May the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.”