In Hoshea’s ninth year, the king of Assyria took Samaria, deported the Israelites to Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and at the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
The fortress shall vanish from Ephraim and dominion from Damascus; The remnant of Aram shall become like the glory of the Israelites— oracle of the Lord of hosts.
From the end of the earth we hear songs: “Splendor to the Just One!” But I said, “I am wasted, wasted away. Woe is me! The traitors betray; with treachery have the traitors betrayed!
Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion a pair of sheep’s legs or the tip of an ear, So shall the Israelites escape, those who dwell in Samaria, With the corner of a couch or a piece of a cot.
The Lord shall inspire them with terror when he makes all the gods of earth waste away; Then the distant shores of the nations, each from its own place, shall bow down to him.