[as Assyrian cities]. I settled therein people of foreign lands, conquered by
me.”^19 The Assyrian record of the period is largely one of multitudes of people
deported and then resettled.
The paradigmatic biblical account illustrating the connection that the
Assyrians saw between deportation and imperial stability involves the siege
on Jerusalem in 701 , the culminating point of which, as recounted in 2 Kings,
is a dramatic speech delivered by Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s chief officer, to the
besieged Jerusalemites. Standing on a ramp facing the walls of Jerusalem, the
Assyrian official tries to persuade the besieged that resistance is futile and
explains the advantages of surrender:
[F]or thus saith the king of Assyria, [m]ake an agreement with me
by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his
own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the
waters of his cistern. Until I come and take you away to a land
like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and
vineyards, a land of olive oil and of honey, that ye may live, and
not die. ( 2 Kings 18 : 31 – 32 )
One should assume that this passage represents an idealized, heavily
edited version of the speech, if it was ever made. Nevertheless, even this
account makes clear that deportation was understood by the biblical authors
as inevitably yoked to Assyrian conquest as its signature byproduct. Deporta-
tions and relocations were also seen, or at least presented, as a way to further
the homogeneity of the empire by encouraging cultural change and interac-
tion. As Sargon claimed, after deporting the Samarians to Assyria, he “counted
them as Assyrians.” Similarly, he “made one mouth” of the people of many
languages whom he brought to Samaria. The success of these measures in
achieving the goal of cultural homogeneity is doubtful. The biblical narrative
discusses this precise point in the case of the people brought to Samaria by the
Assyrians after the deportation of the Israelites; these are the people who later
came to be known as the Samaritans, who feature so prominently in later
literature and in the Christian Gospels. Upon their arrival, each group initially
continued to practice its own religion “and did not pay homage to the Lord,”
the local deity. By the biblical account, this made the local god unhappy, “so the
Lord sent lions to them to prey on them.” Upon learning of this state of affairs,
the Assyrian king ordered “that one of the priests taken captive from Samaria
be sent back to live there and teach the people of the usage of the God of the
country.” The deportees to Samaria briefly learned how to pay homage to
the local deity, but eventually “each of the nations went on making its own
god” ( 2 Kings 24 – 33 ).