As in the earlier case, the biblical narrative provides a similar account: the
king of Assyria deported the people of Samaria, settled them in Assyria, and
brought others “in place of the Israelites” ( 2 Kings 17 : 6 , 23 – 24 ). Soon, they
were assimilated. Thus, the three major campaigns against Israel were fol-
lowed by two significant deportations, the first under Tiglath-pileser III and the
second under Sargon II. However, it is quite evident that the Assyrians did not
totally depopulate Israel. Thousands, possibly tens of thousands, of people
were deported in each episode, but by no means was the entire Israelite
population “carried away.” Scholars estimate that the population of the entire
area of Palestine at the time was about 400 , 000 people, the majority of them
resident in the kingdom of Israel.^12 The overall demographic impact of these
specific deportations alone was thus not massive, even if we take the numbers
quoted in the Assyrian inscriptions as accurate. The fact that, after the destruc-
tion of Israel, three other Assyrian kings—Sennacherib (r. 705 – 681 ), Esarhad-
don (r. 681 – 669 ), and Ashurbanipal (r. 669 – 627 )—also deported people from
Palestine, albeit in much smaller numbers, is surely one factor contributing to
the sense that the devastation was more complete than it was. Whatever their
numeric scope, it is clear that the psychological effect of the deportations was
long lasting. As one scholar puts it, “One thing is certain: the impact of these
two kings’ policies was felt for many generations to come.”^13
Biblical authors were very familiar with this form of forced migration. It
had repeatedly changed the demographic makeup of the region. Not only were
there deportationsfromPalestine. There were also forced migrationstothe
land. Famously, the biblical narrative tells us that, after the final destruction of
Samaria, the Assyrian king “brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah,
and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in
the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed
Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof” ( 2 Kings 17 : 24 ). The account has an
Assyrian equivalent, presented as Sargon’s own narration, which recounts the
acculturation of divergent groups within the newly conquered Assyrian terri-
tory: “The people of the four [quarters], of foreign tongue and divergent speech,
inhabitants of mountain and plain, all whom the Light of the gods, the lord of
all, shepherded, whom I had carried off with my powerful scepter by the
command of Assyria, my lord—I made them of one mouth.”^14
The relentless Sargon also tells of another deportation to Palestine he
carried out, involving peoples from the most distant southern borders of the
empire: “I defeated [the tribes of] Thamud, Ibadidi, Marsimani, and Hayapa,
the far-off Arabs, who are dwelling in the desert.... I removed [them] and in
Samaria I caused them to dwell.” Moreover, in 716 , Sargon is known to have
brought another group of people “from the countries of the east.”^15 Additional
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