entered a long turbulent period. It became at first a vassal of the expanding
empire, but soon lost a number of its territories to direct Assyrian rule. In a
subsequent offensive, Tiglath-pileser’s successor, Shalmaneser V (r. 727 – 722 ),
apparently besieged Israel’s capital, Samaria, but as he died shortly thereafter,
the campaign retreated. While the biblical narrative tells of mass deportations
following Shalmaneser’s campaign ( 2 Kings 17 : 1 – 6 ), it is not clear whether
there actually were any.^6 The third and final blow came in 720 , when Shalma-
neser’s successor, Sargon II, captured the city and brought the end of the
kingdom.^7
In the wake of his 733 – 732 campaign, which destroyed the kingdom of
Aram Damascus (house of Haza’el) and annexed parts of Israel, Tiglath-pileser
III wrote, “I carried off [to] Assyria the land of Bit Humria [Israel]... [its]
auxiliary [army]... all its people, [I killed] Pekah, their king, and I installed
Hoshea [as king] over them. I received from them 10 talents of gold, X talents
of silver, [with their property] and [I car]ried them [to Assyria].”^8
Israel barely survived these attacks and saw its rival northern neighbor and
onetime ally in the wars against the Assyrians, Aram Damascus, annexed and
entirely swallowed up by the empire. In 2 Kings 16 : 10 , we learn that the
Aramean king, Rezin, the last king of the house of Haza’el, was executed and
Damascus’s people deported to a place known as “Kir.”^9 In the same Assyrian
inscription, Tiglath-pileser comments on the event, boasting, “I annexed to
Assyria the en[tire] wide land of [Bit Hazai]li.”^10
Sargon II, the Assyrian king who completed the destruction of Israel, was
equally boastful about his triumphs. Fortunately, the inscriptions detailing his
success are better preserved than those of his predecessor. Another inscription
discussing Sargon’s war against Samaria tells a fuller story than the one offered
above:
[The inhabitants of Sa]merina, who agreed [and plotted] with a king
[hostile to] me, not to endure servitude and not to bring tribute to
Assyria and who did battle, I fought against them with the power of
the great gods, my lords.
I counted as spoil 27 , 280 people, together with their chariots, and
gods, in which they trusted.
I formed a unit with 200 of [their] chariots for my royal force.
I settled the rest of them in the midst of Assyria.
I repopulated Samerina more than before.
I brought into it people from countries conquered by my hands.
I appointed my commissioner as governor over them.
And I counted them as Assyrians.^11