A relief of Assyrian court officials.
Nevertheless, insurrection in Israel came soon after Tiglath-pileser was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser V (727–722 B.C.). Hoshea refused to pay the annual tribute to Assyria and by that act tested the new monarch’s power early in his reign. In 724 Shalmaneser marched on Israel (2 Kgs 17:3–6). Hoshea was taken captive, and the Assyrian armies moved up to surround the capital, placing Samaria under siege. Since Israel’s king was already imprisoned, it was expected that Samaria would fall quickly, but it stubbornly resisted from 724 to 722. Finally Samaria fell; the days of Israel as a sovereign nation were over, and many more captives were taken into exile. The Bible attributes Samaria’s capture to Shalmaneser V, but in his inscriptions Shalmaneser’s successor Sargon II (722–705) boasted of his conquest of the city and the removal of 27,290 captives. Evidently Shalmaneser began the siege, but his successor, Sargon, finally took Samaria and carried out the exile.
The exiles were transplanted to sparsely populated areas in the provinces of Halah, Gozan, and Media (2 Kgs 17:6), where apparently they were permitted to live fairly normal lives. The Assyrian records state that there were 27,290 captives, which was probably only a fraction of the Israelite population.
Assyrian documents dating from the end of the 8th to the 7th centuries B.C. are of particular significance, since they record what may be Israelite names. There are traces of Israelite captives and possibly exiles from Judah in the lists of personal names on an 8th-century B.C. Aramaic ostracon (potsherd) found at Calah on the Tigris River, then capital of Assyria. Included are common names in Israel such as Elisha, Haggai, Hananel, and Menahen. Various other Assyrian documents contain Hebrew names, but it is difficult to determine that they belong to documents contain Hebrew names, but it is difficult to determine that they belong to descendants of the Israelite captives.
Elwell, Walter A., and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker encyclopedia of the Bible 1988 : 732–733. Print.
Comments