And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon
Which was at this time under the dominion of the king of Assyria; though in a little time after this it revolted, and had a king of its own, ( 2 Kings 20:12 ) , this king of Assyria was either Shalmaneser, who carried Israel captive, or it may be rather his son Esarhaddon, see ( Ezra 4:2 ) ,
and from Cuthah;
which, according to Josephus F11, was a city in Persia, where was a river of the same name; but it was rather a place in Erech, in the country of Babylon, (See Gill on Genesis 10:10),
and from Ava;
the same with Ivah, ( Isaiah 37:13 ) , where perhaps a colony of the Avim had settled, ( Deuteronomy 2:23 )
and from Hamath;
a city of Syria, which lay on the northern borders of the land of Canaan, ( Numbers 34:8 )
and from Sepharvaim;
thought by some to be the Sippara of Ptolemy, or the Sippareni of Abydenus, in Mesopotamia; though Vitringa takes it to be a city in Syro-Phoenicia, (See Gill on Isaiah 36:19),
and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of
Israel;
not in Samaria, which was now destroyed, according to the prophecy in ( Micah 1:6 ) as Abarbinel and other Jewish writers note:
and they possessed Samaria;
as an inheritance; sowed it with corn, and planted vineyards there:
and dwelt in the cities thereof;
in the several parts of the kingdom.