Let us not overlook this fact: When Jehovah caused the kingdom of Israel to cease and let the surviving Israelites be deported to Assyria in 740 B.C.E., he did not cancel his marriage covenant with the whole nation of Israel.

After three years of siege by the Assyrians, Israel’s capital city Samaria fell in 740 B.C.E. The surviving Israelites were deported to the land of their captors. That kingdom of ten Israelite tribes was never restored in its God-given land. Who, then, could benefit from Jehovah’s disciplinary action? Only individuals from among the deported exiles in Assyria. They would reflect on matters. They would recall how good things had been when their forefathers served Jehovah as Heavenly Husband and God. Realizing now what was the better state of affairs, they would turn away from Baal worship and seek renewed covenant relationship with Jehovah.

11, 12. When was the opportunity offered to the Israelite exiles in Assyria to return to Jehovah’s worship at Jerusalem, and how did this come about?

¹¹ When was the opportunity offered for those Israelite exiles in Assyria to return unitedly to Jehovah’s worship at his appointed place? First in 537 B.C.E., under a new world power. How so? Well, about the year 632 B.C.E., Assyria’s capital Nineveh fell to the Babylonians, and the Babylonian World Power gained the topmost position. So Assyria’s provinces with their Israelite exiles became provinces of the Babylonian Empire. About twenty-five years later Jehovah’s penal judgment was executed upon the now renegade kingdom of Judah. Thus, in 607 B.C.E., he let Jerusalem and her temple of worship be destroyed. Thousands of surviving Jews were deported to Babylonia, to join the Israelite exiles in the erstwhile Assyrian provinces.

¹² In the seventieth year afterward, Jehovah saw that sufficient discipline had been administered to his wayward wifelike organization on earth. In his mercy Jehovah had raised up the foretold Cyrus the Persian to overthrow Babylon in 539 B.C.E. Shortly thereafter, in 537 B.C.E., Jehovah moved this Cyrus the Great to declare a release for repentant Israelites to return to their beloved homeland.