After Samaria fell, the people of the northern kingdom did not simply scatter. Second Kings says the king of Assyria carried Israel away and placed them “in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” Halah is one of those places of exile. First Chronicles tells the same story from the side of the Reubenites, Gadites and half tribe of Manasseh, and says God stirred up the Assyrian king’s spirit. The name is only a place on a map of loss, but it marks where many Israelites were taken. Begin with 2 Kings 17:6.
3 verses
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:
And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
A district of Media to which captive Israelites were transported by the Assyrian kings (2 Kings 17:6; 18:11; 1 Chr. 5:26). It lay along the banks of the upper Khabur, from its source to its junction with the Jerujer. Probably the district called by Ptolemy Chalcitis.
William Smith, 1884
is probably a different place from the Calah of (Genesis 10:11) It may be identified with the Chalcitis of Ptolemy.