Some scholars have challenged the Bible's claim that the entire population
of the northern kingdom went into Assyrian captivity. Some think most of
the Israelites fled south and assimilated into the population of the kingdom
of Judah. What really happened? Let's examine the record.
The chain of events leading to Israel's fall and massive deportation
began with the Assyrian monarch Tiglath-pileser III. In three campaigns
he implemented what historians call the Galilean captivity (ca. 733-732
B.C.). He captured Damascus and established a military presence at the
border of Egypt. He deported into the upper Mesopotamian River valley large
segments of the Reubenite, Gaddite and Transjordan Manassite populations
(1 Chronicles 5:26) and Naphtali and cities in the territories of Issachar,
Zebulun and Asher (2 Kings 15:29).
The Assyrian monarch Shalmaneser V initiated and carried out most of
the climactic 724-722 B.C. campaign into the remainder of the northern
kingdom. Shalmaneser, however, "was deposed soon afterwards by another
king, Sargon II. This name, 'True King,' seems to betray the suspect nature
of Sargon's claim to the throne...Sargon II moved the Assyrian capital
to his own foundation of Khorsabad, built in imitation of Nimrud, and the
older city was neglected...Shalmaneser V...did not have time to commemorate
his achievements in stone, and it was his successor, Sargon II, who claimed
credit for the victory" (Julian Reade, Assyrian Sculpture, pp.
48, 65).
The landmark 19th-century discoveries of British archaeologist Austen
Henry Layard dispelled any doubts that the Assyrian kingdom was a formidable
force that ferociously dominated the ancient Near East off and on from
the ninth through the seventh centuries B.C. It is indisputable that the
Assyrians invaded and conquered the northern kingdom as part of that domination.
