Israel is Deported

The Kingdom of Israel was Removed to the Land of Persia

As previously mentioned, the Assyrians besieged Samaria for 3 years and finally it fell, Israel was doomed. The Assyrians under Sargon II hauled them away into captivity (722 BC).

One of the Assyrian inscriptions reads:

"At the beginning of my rule, in the very first year I reigned�I set siege to and conquered Samaria�I carried away into captivity 27,290 persons who lived there; I took fifty fine chariots for my royal equipment."

Other recovered records reveal that Sargon II actually rebuilt Samaria later on and made it even greater than before, calling it Samarina. When the Assyrians conquered a city they would bring in their own people to settle there, thus there would be sort of a "mixed population." Governors were placed over the people of the new province, and tribute and taxes were "imposed upon them as upon the Assyrians."

The Bible records similar facts: 2 Kings 17:3-6 which states that the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried the people "away into Assyria" and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and "in the cities of the Medes."

2 Kings 17:24 relates how those who had been led away into captivity were replaced by Syrians and various peoples who were uprooted from their distant homeland and "herded" in from as far away as Babylon and Cuthah.

The Bible records the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians:

2 Kings 17:22-23 - "For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they departed not from them; Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day. years."