Editing Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) (section)

====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.]]