Chapter Four
FATE OF THE EXILES
The exiled Israelites were, along with exiles from other lands, taken to the north. They were brought to Assyria and to lands conquered by Assyria. They were replanted in previously unsettled areas or in regions devastated by warfare whose previous inhabitants had been either massacred or exiled elsewhere. In some cases they were also placed within Assyrian cities. On the whole they were resettled in groups drawn from single communities so that aspects of their previous tribal and family connexions remained. Many of the exiles were settled in border areas and meant to serve as buffers against the enemies of Assyria. The intention was to place these people in areas where they would be dependent on maintaining a niche in Assyria's defense for their own protection. They were supposed to man colonial outposts on a semi-military feudal type arrangement. Correspondence between Tiglathpileser and one of his officials near Tyre shows that the exiles were expected to serve in the Assyrian armies. Armored horsemen were first depicted by the Assyrians in the reign of Tiglathpileser-iii and they were shown as “Aramaeans” (i.e. Syrians or Israelites) using Assyrian equipment. The Israelites had been foremost horsemen and charioteers. King Solomon of Israel had kept “Forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand horsemen” (1-Kings 4:26).
Sargon besieged and took Samaria in Israel. In an inscription Sargon says, that he took 50 chariots and 27,000 plus people for his own (military) use and the rest he settled in Assyria. Later, a general in Sargon's forces was named “Hilkiyahu” which is a Hebrew name. In Nineveh (one of the Assyrian capitals) have been discovered lists of cavalry units from Israelite Samaria and other records of charioteers bearing Israelite names. Some of the most important positions in the armies of Sargon were held by Israelite exiles1.
Sennacherib recorded having exiled more than 200,000 people from Judah. The Bible mentions him having captured all of the unfenced cities in Judah (2-Kings 18:13) and Midrashim also speak of Sennacherib deporting vast numbers from Judah and Simeon. These exiles joined the deported Tribes of northern Israel and shared their destiny. Sennacherib had attacked Judah and exiled many of its people. He then intermittently besieged Jerusalem over a number of years but his army was stricken by an angel and 185,000 Assyrians died. Sennacherib returned to Nineveh where he was assassinated by two of his sons who fled to Ararat (Urartu) (2-Kings 19:37). The King James has “Armenia” instead of Ararat as the place the sons fled to and geographically Ararat was in the region of Armenia.
[Isaiah 9:2] THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT: THOSE WHO DWELT IN A LAND OF DEEP DARKNESS, ON THEM HAS LIGHT SHINED.
<<THE PEOPLE WHO WALKED IN DARKNESS>>: The Rabbinically-based commentary “MeAm Loaz” says that after the Assyrian King Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem and had his army destroyed by a miracle the Lost Ten Tribes who were already in exile were released from bondage.
One of the cities of Judah that had been captured by Sennacherib was Lachish on the border between Judah and Phillistia. Assyrian bas-relief illustrations show the siege of Lachish and its people being taken into exile. They also illustrate the peculiar uniforms of the Judaean soldiers defending Lachish. Former Judaean soldiers from Lachish, “were enlisted into the bodyguard of Sennacherib, where they were allowed to wear their own uniform”, i.e. they wore the same (or almost the same) uniform as when they fought for Judah and are therefore still recognizable. They comprised “presumably the earliest example in history of a Jewish regiment”2. After Sennacherib's death a revolt took place and the palace was burnt. The depicted face of King Sennacherib in the relief was virtually destroyed. Since the face of Sennacherib alone was mutilated in this way, the researcher R.D. Barnett suggests that the mutineers were Judaeans, one-time Jewish soldiers from Lachish and afterwards probably members of the former king's bodyguard.
The destiny and fate of the soldiers from Lachish is symptomatic on a small scale of what was to happen to the Northern Israelites on a larger one: Just as Judaeans from Lachish in their place of exile were made the bodyguard of the monarch and later revolted and burnt the palace, so too the Northern Israelites were to occupy an important position in the Assyrian forces which must have facilitated the eventual takeover (by Israelite Scythians) of the whole Assyrian Empire.
After Sennacherib (705-681 BCE) came Essarhaddon (681-669) and after him Assurbanipal (669- 663). Amongst those forming the bodyguard of Assurbanipal, is depicted a spearman uniformed like an Israelite or Syrian. During the reign of Assurbanipal the Israelite Scythians were destined to eventually take control of the Assyrian Empire. An Israelite presence in the Assyrian armed forces most likely would have been connected to this event and also the assumption of virtual independence by the exiled Israelites that led up to it.
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