An Historical Perspective for the Book of Mormon ~ Assyria and the Fall of Israel

About 740 B.C.E., there arose a new bully on the block.  For two hundred years, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had warred between themselves and with other countries in the area, such as Syria and Egypt.  But nothing could have prepared them for the reign of terror known as the Assyrian Empire.

The Assyrians were bloodthirsty and cruel beyond anything anyone had seen before.  Wall carvings that have been unearthed by archaeologists show them gouging out eyes and skinning their captives alive.  They were one of the first kingdoms to use terror as a weapon as they boasted about their cruelty.  They left carvings of their terror on walls, rocks, and tablets to inspire fear in other.  Nations crumbled at the very mention of the name.  It was to the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh that the Prophet Jonah was sent to preach repentance.  It is little wonder that he tried to run away to the very ends of the earth!

The Assyrians swept down on the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  We read in the Old Testament, Second Kings 15:29 the following account:

In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.

Twenty-two years later, the final exportation of the northern tribes of Israel was completed when Sargon II captured the capital city of Samaria.  The tribes were carried northward, never to be seen again as a cohesive group.  Because of this, they are commonly referred to as the Lost Ten Tribes.  The Bible tells us that they were utterly destroyed as a people because they had strayed to the worship of idols rather than the One God of Israel.  Again, we read in Second Kings:

Against him [Hosea, last King of Israel] came up Shalmaneser  king of Assyria; and Hosea became his servant. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hosea [722 B.C.E.] the king of Assyria [Sargon II] took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria (2 Kings 17:3, 6.)

And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria . . . 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)

The Southern Kingdom of Judah was also besieged by Assyria right up to the gates of Jerusalem itself, but because they were ruled by a righteous king, Hezekiah, and the people did worship Jehovah God, they were saved by a miracle when God visited the camp of the Assyrians and killed them all. Historians still speculate as to what kind of plague could have wiped out an army of thousands in a single night.  You will notice on the map above that Judah was not conquered, but allowed to stay in their lands, although they paid tribute to Assyria.

The Book of Kings seems to indicate that all of the Northern tribes were taken captive by Assyria, but the Book of Chronicles suggests that some were left in the land.  Hezekiah reached out to the remnants left in the hill country by inviting them to partake of the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem.  We read in Second Chronicles, 30:1, the following account:

And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD, the God of Israel.

Some came.  Most returned to their homes after destroying sites where their pagan idols had been worshipped.  These intermarried with other people transported into the area by the Assyrians and became the Samaritans referred to in the New Testament. 

But a few families from the lineage of Ephraim and Manasseh stayed in Judah.  On Friday, we will meet one such man, although he himself didn't know that he was not a Jew. 

 

Text copyright June 2013 Gebara Education

 

Picture of Assyrians from www.dreamstime.com

Map of Assyian Empire from www.livius.org

Picture of people of Hezekiah's day destroying idols from www.souljournaler.blogspot.com