Sargon II

Sargon II Came and Finished the Destruction of Samaria

Sargon II wasted no time in finishing the job that Shalmaneser started. At the end of 722 BC after a three year siege, Samaria fell. According to the annals of Sargon II he deported 27,290 Israelites over to the territory of Persia (II Kings 17:6) and placed other people from around his empire into the area of Samaria to populate the area. The prophet Amos wrote some powerful words in his lamentation over Israel:

"Fallen is the Virgin of Israel"

Amos 5:1-2 - 1 - Hear ye this word which I take up against you, [even] a lamentation, O house of Israel. 2 - The virgin of Israel is fallen; she shall no more rise: she is forsaken upon her land; [there is] none to raise her up.

Sargon II was considered a Biblical myth throughout modern history until the archaeological excavations of the French scholar, Paul Emile Botta. Botta unearthed Sargon�s mighty palace at Dur Sharrukin (Khorsabad), just north of Nineveh near the Tigris river. This remarkable discovery had inscriptions on palace walls which proved many events in history and those mentioned in the Bible.

One of the 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."

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."