History · 6 · Jehu and Elisha
Israel's charioteers kept their name in exile
After Samaria fell, Assyria absorbed its famed chariot officers into the royal army. The Samarian unit was the only foreign one known by its own city name.
A kingdom can fall and its identity survive.
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Assyrian 'Horse Lists' show the Samarian battalion was larger than the others. Its pride in its origins suggests the Israelite identity the Omrides had built did not die with the kingdom.
Source: Why the Bible Began, pp. 97–98
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