Editing Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) (section)

=== Conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (732–720 BCE) ===
{{main|Assyrian captivity}}

[[File:Black Obelisk, Jewish delegation to Shalmaneser III.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|[[Jehu]]'s delegation to [[Shalmaneser III]], [[Black Obelisk]], 841–840 BCE.]]
In c. 732 BCE, King [[Pekah]] of Israel, while allied with [[Rezin]], king of [[Aram (biblical region)|Aram]], threatened [[Jerusalem]]. [[Ahaz]], [[King of Judah]], appealed to [[Tiglath-Pileser III]], the King of [[Assyria]], for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser,<ref>{{Bibleverse|2|Kings|16:7-9|NIV}}</ref> Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram<ref name="Grabbe">{{cite book |first=Lester L. |last=Grabbe |title=Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? |url=https://archive.org/details/ancientisraelwha00grab |url-access=limited |location=New York |publisher= T&T Clark |date=2007 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ancientisraelwha00grab/page/n154 134] |isbn=978-05-67-11012-1}}</ref> and the territories of the tribes of [[Tribe of Reuben|Reuben]], [[Tribe of Gad|Gad]] and [[Tribe of Manasseh|Manasseh]] in Gilead, including the desert outposts of [[Jetur]], [[Naphish]] and [[Nodab]]. People from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the [[Khabur (Euphrates)|Khabur River]] system, in [[Halah]], Habor, Hara and [[Tell Halaf|Gozan]] ({{Bibleverse|1 Chronicles|5:26}}). Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of [[Tribe of Naphtali|Naphtali]] and the city of [[Janohah|Janoah]] in [[Tribe of Ephraim|Ephraim]], and an Assyrian governor was placed over the region of Naphtali. According to {{Bibleverse|2 Kings|16:9}} and {{Bibleverse|2 Kings|15:29}}, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria.<ref>{{Bibleverse|2|Kings|16:9|NIV}} and {{Bibleverse-nb|2|Kings|15:29|NIV}}</ref>

[[File:Jehu-Obelisk-cropped.jpg|thumb|The tribute of Israel's king "[[Jehu]] of the people of the land of [[Omri]]" ({{langx|akk|𒅀𒌑𒀀 𒈥 𒄷𒌝𒊑𒄿}}), as depicted on the [[Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III]] from 841 to 840 BCE.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kuan|first1=Jeffrey Kah-Jin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zMOqCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA65|title=Neo-Assyrian Historical Inscriptions and Syria-Palestine: Israelite/Judean-Tyrian-Damascene Political and Commercial Relations in the Ninth-Eighth Centuries BCE|date=2016|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|isbn=978-1-4982-8143-0|pages=64–66|language=en}}</ref> This is "the only portrayal we have in [[Ancient Near East|ancient Near Eastern art]] of an Israelite or Judaean monarch."<ref name="AD">{{cite book|last1=Cohen|first1=Ada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uRKU0YXBWtgC&pg=PA127|title=Assyrian Reliefs from the Palace of Ashurnasirpal II: A Cultural Biography|last2=Kangas|first2=Steven E.|date=2010|publisher=UPNE|isbn=978-1-58465-817-7|page=127|language=en}}</ref>]]
The remainder of the northern kingdom of Israel continued to exist within the reduced territory as an independent kingdom until around 720 BCE, when it was again invaded by Assyria and more of the population was deported. Not all of Israel's populace was deported by the Assyrians. During the three-year siege of [[Samaria (ancient city)|Samaria]] in the territory of Ephraim by the Assyrians, [[Shalmaneser V]] died and was succeeded by [[Sargon II of Assyria|Sargon II]], who himself records the capture of that city thus: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away" into Assyria. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the northern kingdom came to an end. Some of the Israelite captives were resettled in the Khabur region, and the rest in the land of the [[Medes]], thus establishing Hebrew communities in [[Ecbatana]] and [[Rages]]. The [[Book of Tobit]] additionally records that Sargon had taken other captives from the northern kingdom to the Assyrian capital of [[Nineveh]], in particular Tobit from the town of Thisbe in Naphtali.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

The Hebrew Bible relates that the population of the Kingdom of Israel was exiled, becoming known as the [[Ten Lost Tribes]]. To the south, the [[Tribe of Judah]], the [[Tribe of Simeon]] (that was "absorbed" into Judah), the [[Tribe of Benjamin]] and the people of the [[Tribe of Levi]], who lived among them of the original [[Israelites|Israelite]] nation, remained in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Judah continued to exist as an independent state until 586 BCE, when it was conquered by the [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]].

====Samaritan tradition====
The tradition of the [[Samaritans|Samaritan people]] states that much of the population of the Kingdom of Israel remained in place after the [[Assyrian captivity]], including the Tribes of Naphtali, Manasseh, Benjamin and Levi – being the progenitors of the modern Samaritans. Many members of these northern tribes also fled south to the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem seems to have expanded in size five-fold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water [[Siloam]] to be provided by King [[Hezekiah]].<ref name=":2" />

====Recorded accounts====
[[File:Black Obelisk side 4 Jewish delegation.jpg|thumb|Part of the gift-bearing Israelite delegation of [[Jehu|King Jehu]], as depicted on the [[Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III]] (841–840 BCE)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Delitzsch|first1=Friedrich|url=https://archive.org/stream/babelbibl00deli/babelbibl00deli#page/78/mode/1up|title=Babel and Bible;|last2=McCormack|first2=Joseph|last3=Carruth|first3=William Herbert|last4=Robinson|first4=Lydia Gillingham|date=1906|publisher=Chicago, The Open court publishing company|page=78}}</ref>]]
In their book ''The Bible Unearthed'', Israeli authors [[Israel Finkelstein]] and [[Neil Asher Silberman]] estimate that only a fifth (about 40,000) of the population of the northern Kingdom of Israel were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under [[Tiglath-Pileser III]] and [[Sargon II]].<ref name="fink" /> No known non-Biblical record exists of the Assyrians having exiled people from four of the tribes of Israel: [[Tribe of Dan|Dan]], [[Tribe of Asher|Asher]], [[Tribe of Issachar|Issachar]], [[Tribe of Zebulun|Zebulun]]. Descriptions of the deportation of people from [[Tribe of Reuben|Reuben]], [[Tribe of Gad|Gad]], [[Tribe of Manasseh|Manasseh]], Ephraim and Naphtali indicate that only a portion of these tribes were deported, and the places to which they were deported are known locations given in the accounts. The deported communities are mentioned as still existing at the time of the composition of the [[Books of Kings]] and [[Book of Chronicles|Chronicles]] and did not disappear by assimilation. 2 Chronicles 30:1–18 explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by the Assyrians, in particular people of Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun, and how members of the latter three returned to worship at the [[Temple in Jerusalem]] during the reign of [[Hezekiah]].<ref>{{Bibleverse|2|Chronicles|30:1-18|NIV}}</ref>

[[File:Deportation of Jews by Assyrians.svg|right|thumb|Map of the [[Assyrian captivity]], showing the routes of the deported population of Israel after the kingdom was conquered by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]] in 720 BCE.]]