In the ninth year of Hoshĕa, the sovereign of Ashshur captured Shomeron and exiled Yisra’ĕl to Ashshur, and settled them in Ḥalaḥ and Ḥaḇor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And now, if it seems good to the sovereign, let a search be made in the sovereign’s treasure-house, which is there in Baḇel, whether it is so that a decree was made by Sovereign Koresh to build this House of Elah at Yerushalayim, and let the sovereign send us his decision concerning this.