Chapter Three
STAGES OF THE EXILE
The Exile of the northern tribes to different parts of the Assyrian Empire was in stages. Before the exile of “Samaria” (2-Kings 17;6) meaning Manasseh, Ephraim, and Zebulon, the Tribes to the north (Dan, Asher, Issachar, and Naphtali) had been taken away by the Assyrian monarch who “carried them captive to Assyria” (2-Kings 15; 29). Likewise, the tribes east of the Jordan (Reuben, Gad, and half Menasseh) had been carried “unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan” (1-Chronicles 5;26).
The place of exile nominated as “Assyria” refers to the province by that name which encompassed most of Mesopotamia and extended into the Zagros Mountains in the east, while in the west it reached unto the shores of the Black Sea. Halah, Habor, the River Gozan, and many of the cities of the Medes were within the confines of “Assyria” or close to its fringes. “Hara” was much further to the east in the region straddling the borders of present day Iran and Afghanistan.
The exile of all Israel from the northern Galilee is recorded in an inscription of Tiglathpileser who boasts of exiling all of “Bit Khumria” (the Assyrian name for Northern Israel) except for a small remnant which he left around the city of Samaria which city was then the capital and had been built by King Omri. “Bit Khumria” was the name which the Assyrians gave to northern Israel presumably in remembrance of King Omri (“Khumri” in Assyrian) whose son Achab had once fought and defeated the Assyrian forces. Previously the area of Israel and Syria had been referred to in Akkadian inscriptions as “The Land of Amurru”.
Tiglathpileser (745-727 BCE) was followed by Shalmaneser (727-722) and he by Sargon (722-705) and then came Sennacherib (705-681). All of these kings participated in the exile and resettlement of Israelites. After the eastern Tribes and the northern ones had all been exiled, there remained only a rump state centered around the city of Samaria in the south and these too were to be exiled.
“And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel, unto Assyria, and put them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
“Because they obeyed not the voice of The LORD their God, but transgressed his covenant, and all that Moses the servant of The LORD commanded, and would not hear them, nor do them” (2-Kings 18;11- 12).
Completeness of the Exile
An Assyrian inscription recalls the taking of Samaria and the exile of its inhabitants. This inscription says that the king of Assyria took to himself more than 27,000 people and the rest he removed to Assyria. The inscription may be understood to mean NOT (as is commonly claimed) that Sargon took only 27,000 plus people from Samaria into captivity BUT rather that Sargon took ca. 27,000 people for his own (military) purposes and the remainder of the people he settled in Assyria.
The people of Samaria were besieged and exiled after all the rest of their brethren had already been taken away en masse. Part of the exiles of Samaria were taken overseas, as we have noted, and in this they were following in the path of their brother Israelites who had been transported before them. The rest of the exiles of Samaria were taken to the north.
After the exile of Samaria, the Bible says that, “there was none left but the tribe of Judah only” (2-Kings 17:18). The Talmud and Midrashim also speak of the Lost Ten Tribes having all been exiled. One Midrash suggests that one in eight remained. There exist hints that a small percentage of the northern tribes stayed behind and became assimilated amongst the Jews of Judah. Archaeologists have discovered a neighborhood in Jerusalem which apparently was settled by refugees from Northern Israel. These newcomers show the strong influence of Egyptian and foreign culture and for a while appear to have practiced cremation which is forbidden by Jewish Law. Also Levites and other religious refugees had began to drift southward long before the Assyrian invasion. Nevertheless, SINCE NOTHING REALLY SIGNIFICANT REMAINED OF THEM THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY MUST HAVE GONE INTO EXILE AS THE BIBLE SAYS THEY DID!!
Archaeological excavations also prove the completeness of deportation. For the period after the Assyrian conquest of Israel there is a gap in archaeological finds everywhere with accompanying traces of burning and destruction. For some time afterwards there is no real new settlement and when organized habitation does begin it is small and impoverished, at least at first and nowhere can it be ascribed to the previous Israelite dwellers.
In addition to the exile of the northern Israelites, Sennacherib boasted of having conquered cities in Judah and deported more than 200,000 people. This event is spoken of in Midrashim and other sources of Jewish tradition even though it is merely hinted at in the Bible:
“Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them” (2-Kings 18:13).
The Prophet Isaiah had predicted that after all the Assyrian exiles of northern Israel and Judah were completed only one in ten of the original population would remain and these apparently would be those in Judah who would later endure an additional exile of their own:
“If there yet remain a tenth in it, it also shall be consumed” (Isaiah 6:13).
The Jews who remained in Judah were destined to be exiled to Babylon and from there to return under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah. Those Jews who had been taken into exile previously by Sennacherib remained unheard of. They joined their brothers from the Ten Tribes and became assimilated with them. Even so, in Biblical terms the Lost Ten tribes are referred to as “Israel”, or as “Samaria”, or “Joseph” or “Ephraim”. The Jews are recalled as “Judah”, “Jerusalem”, or “Zion”. Judah is distinct from the Lost Ten tribes who had gone away and were not to return until the End Times. In the census lists of Ezra and Nehemiah only people from the Tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi are recalled. All the others had been exiled by the Assyrians and their identity hidden.
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