Halah

About Halah

Halah was one of the locations where the Assyrians resettled the Israelites after the conquest of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) in 722 BC. It is mentioned three times in the Old Testament, always in the context of the Assyrian exile.

In 2Ki.17.6, it is recorded that the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, settling them in Halah and other places. This event is also described in 2Ki.18.11, emphasizing that the Israelites were deported because they had sinned against the Lord.

The third reference to Halah is in 1Ch.5.26, which states that the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria (Tiglath-Pileser III) and the spirit of Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, who took the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh into exile, bringing them to Halah and other locations.

The exact location of Halah is uncertain, but it is generally believed to have been in the region of the Khabur River in northern Mesopotamia (modern-day Syria or Iraq). This area was under Assyrian control during the time of the Israelite exile.

The Bible does not provide any further information about Halah or the lives of the exiled Israelites there. However, the repeated mentions of Halah in the context of the Assyrian exile underscore the significance of this event in Israel's history and serve as a reminder of the consequences of disobedience to God.

Description from STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, lightly reformatted. This is background reference material, not Scripture and not a FaithGraph editorial claim.