The ten tribe kingdom of Israel was subject to several invasions by the Assyrians, culminating in the capture of the capital Samaria in 722 B.C., which brought the kingdom to its end. The account of these invasions in 2 Kings several times records that the Assyrians took the Israelites into captivity to various parts of the Assyrian Empire (2 Kings 15:29; 17:6; 18:11).
A recent article in Biblical Archaeology Review1 deals with the archaeological evidence for this carrying into captivity, which is of two types. The first is the more well known: the Assyrian kings recorded the fact. 2 Kings records: “In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-bethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria” (2 Kings 15:29). There are a number of references in the Assyrian records to this invasion of northern Israel, which seems to have taken place in 732 B.C., and in them it is recorded that 13,520 Israelites were taken captive and carried off to Assyria.
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Author: Tony Benson
Keywords: Assyria, Assyrians, Assyrians capture Samaria, Fall of the northern kingdom, Fall of the ten tribes, Samaria's fall, Sargon, Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria
Bible reference(s): 2 Kings 15:29, 2 Kings 17:6, 2 Kings 18:10-11
Source: “Evidence for the Israelites in Assyria,” The Testimony, Vol. 74, No. 878, February 2004, pp. 66-7.
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