Inhabitants of Erech (“Archevites,” KJ) were among those peoples transported to Samaria by Assyrian Emperor Asenappar.​—Ezr 4:9, 10.

At the time of the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem some of the non-Israelite inhabitants of the land referred to their having been brought to Samaria by “Esar-haddon the king of Assyria.” (Ezr 4:2) That the Assyrian transplantation of people to and from Samaria continued until his reign is viewed by some as a clue to the understanding of the period of “sixty-five years” mentioned at Isaiah 7:8 with regard to the desolation of Ephraim (with its capital at Samaria).