A Transplanted People: Ancient Northern Israelites

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

    The attack of King Sargon II of Assyria on the Northern 10 tribes of Israelites-721 BCE

It was the practice in ancient days of getting rid of an undesirable population and exchanging them with  one with better possibilities.  So was the thinking of the Assyrians in 721 BCE.  They had attacked the northern 10 tribes of the Israelite empire and had taken the young and virile population away who could bear up on the trek back to Assyria.  They most likely left the older population who were past the age of child bearing and who would never hold up on such a distance.   Then they brought deportees from other conquered territories to Samaria to take their place. Excavations at Tel Hadid, near Lod in Israel, have unearthed material remains that contribute to our understanding of these transformative years.    So for almost 200 years, Samaria was populated by foreigners exported by the Assyrians.                       

                               743 BCE Urartu: Since the beginning of history the Anatolian Peninsula has been the home of ancient civilizations .Hittites, Urartus, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Seljukides and Ottomans left precious remains in recent Turkey. Ancient waterworks are distributed all over the Anatolian Peninsula making it and neighbouring countries an open-air museum with respect to.water history.  

    They could have been the neighboring kingdoms like Urartu and Elam who were often making incursions into Assyrian territory, a professional army was also required for national defense.  That would be good reason to rid themselves of this people and exchange them for the Israelites.  Elam was an ancient state east of Babylonia, the modern Khuzistan:  capital : Susa, the Shushan of the book of Esther.  The Elamites, as several other non-Semitic peoples, are classed by the Bible as children of Shem.  They had been defeated by Abraham.    Urartu was an early first millennium BC kingdom located in the Armenian highlands. Thanks to its animosity with Assyria, it had a militaristic society and is thought to be the first kingdom to convert from bronze to iron weaponry leading Assyria to quickly follow suit.  The Palestinians of Samaria could be the descendants of such people.                                                         

The Northern tribes had broken away from Judea and Benjamin by virtue of geography;  they were further away from Jerusalem, their center of religious affairs.  Israel was more into business, making money, dealing with other countries than the south was.  They became competitors with the south, creating their own religious center and using some of the Cohens in their tribes to officiate in these new centers.

 It was Assyria's King Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria and its capture in 721 BCE by Sargon, his successor who were the kidnappers of the Israelites.                                                                            

Sargon seized the throne on the death of Shalmaneser III during the siege of Samaria (northern Israel)  which he brought to a successful conclusion, exiling many of the people.  In 720 BCE, the next year,  he defeated a military alliances which included the remnants of the Israelites of Samaria. He was assassinated and was succeeded by Sennacherib.    

The House of Shalmaneser had fought against an alliance of Damascus, Hamath, and Israel headed by King Ahab of Israel, son of Omri (876-853 BCE) husband of Jezebel, daughter of the king of Sidon.  It was she who had introduced the worship of Baal into Israel, a real no no.  The Shalmaneser kings were against other peoples at Karkar in Syria in 854 and 853 BCE earlier, but had returned home unsuccessful.  Shalmaneser tried again later and this time ravaged the territory of Hamatha, and on his own testimony, received tribute from King Jehu of Israel (842-814 BCE). 

                                        Jehu being anointed as King of Israel 

It was Jehu who killed the royal family including the queen-mother , Jezebel as well as the priests of Baal.  

                                                   

    (the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser shows Jehu paying tribute)

However, he was unsuccessful in his wars with Aram (Syria) and paid tribute to Shalmanaeser III of Assyria to get his protection.  On repelling the Assyrian threat, Hazael of Aram (Syria) deprived Jehu of much of his territory.  The dynasty of Jehu continued to reign for the next 100 years.  

 The next Shalmaneser IV reigned from 728 to 722 BCE and fought against Sidon, Tyre, and Acre. 

 King Hoshea,(732-724 BCE) last king of Israel, revolted against Shalmaneser but fell into his hands. He had become king with Assyrian help, too. His kingdom had been a small one, confined to the surroundings of Mt. Ephraim.  Finally he had reached the boiling point with Assyria and had rebelled and was then put in prison by Shalmaneser who then besieged and captured Samaria.   

 Shalmaneser V died during the siege of Samaria.   

Hosea, a prophet of Israel in 726 BCE threw off the yoke of Israel's exile but comforted it with visions of restoration after the people's repentance.  The way he saw their defection from southern Israel and their more serious observances of the Mosaic law was compared to a wife's marital unfaithfulness.                                 

 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon of the land of Shinar, also known as the Kasdim (Chaldees) was the next king and conquered Judah.  

Babylon was the land that Abraham and his father, Terah, had left.  They had been living in Ur of the Chaldees, a little south of Babylon.  This king had inherited the Assyrian Empire, and from 605 to 562 BCE had conquered all the lands from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah.   In 597 BCE, after Judah revolted, he dispatched contingents which captured Jerusalem, replaced the young king Jehoiachin with his own nominee, Zedekiah, and exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon. They would return in 586 BCE.   

The Judeans of Babylon were able to remain in contact with the Judeans of Jerusalem and even supplied some of their leaders such as Hillel.   Babylonia had overwhelmed this remaining Judean population with their large army.                 

                        King Cyrus II who died in 529 BCE

The Israelites would return to Jerusalem in 538 BCE, in fact sent back by the king Cyrus of Persia, who overran the Babylonian empire, which included Judah  and rebuilt their Temple which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed.  The total years of exile were about 70 years.  The Judeans were so grateful that they thought of Cyrus as a Divine agent. 

                                           

    There had been Israelites who were not exiled that had remained in Judah.  They had been under the rule of Gedaliah.  The story of Gedaliah represents a major turning point in our nation’s history.   If we dig a bit deeper, we may discover another very well known story lurking just beneath the surface, that carries a critical and much needed message for our day and age.  Gedalia had been the appointed governor of Judah by the Babylonians and was of a noble Jewish family.                                          

He had set up his office in Mizpah but soon was murdered by the commander, Ishmael ben Nethaniah and his followers who were apparently planning a revolt against Babylon in concert with the neighboring powers.  After the murder, Gedaliah's supporters fled to Egypt.  Ishmael was a military officer and now murderer, so he fled to Baalis, king of the Ammonites, who had for political reasons incited him to kill Gedaliah.  After the murder, Ishmael endeavored to take the remnants of the Jewish community to Ammon, but was prevented by Jonathan ben Kareah. (Jer . 40-1).  Before him, as the representative of the government, appeared the Israelitish generals Ishmael b. Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan, the sons of Kareah, and others.

A fast is held on the day after his assassination which destroyed any hope of holding their particular Jewish community together in Judah after the Babylonian conquest.  

The deportees taken to Mesopotamia (Babylon) were mostly peasants and craftsmen.  They had kept their religious identity.  When they returned, they were met by descendants of their own past people plus newcomers not familiar with their ways at all.  However, 70 years had past.  

Resource:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13552578/

https://www.worldhistory.org/Assyrian_Warfare/

https://www.alephbeta.org/playlist/hidden-meaning-behind-tzom-gedaliah

https://www.thetorah.com/article/assyrian-deportation-and-resettlement-the-story-of-samaria