World English Bible · Under Assyria
2 Kings 17
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In the twelfth year of king of Judah, the son of Elah began to reign in over Israel for nine years. He did that which was evil in sight, yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. Shalmaneser king of came up against him; and became his servant, and brought him tribute. The king of discovered a conspiracy in ; for he had sent to So king of , and offered no tribute to the king of , as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of seized him, and bound him in prison. Then the king of came up throughout all the land, went up to , and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of the king of took and carried Israel away to , and placed them in , and on the , the river of , and in the cities of the . It was so because the had against their , who brought them up out of the land of from under the hand of king of , and had feared other gods, and walked in the of the nations whom cast out from before the , and of the kings of Israel, which they made. The secretly did things that were not right against their ; and they built for themselves in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fortified city; and they set up for themselves pillars and on every high hill and ; and there they in all the , as the nations whom before them did; and they did things to provoke to ; and they idols, of which had said to them, "You shall not do this thing." Yet testified to Israel and to Judah, by every and every seer, saying, "Turn from your evil ways, and keep my and , according to all which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants ." Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck like the neck of their fathers who didn't in their . They rejected his and his that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed , and became , and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom had commanded them that they should not do like them. They abandoned all of their , and made for themselves, even two calves, and made an , and of , and . They caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the , used and enchantments, and sold themselves to do that which was evil in sight, to provoke him to . Therefore was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight. There was none left but the tribe of Judah only. Also Judah didn't keep of their , but walked in the of Israel which they made. rejected all the of Israel, afflicted them, and them into the hands of raiders, until he had cast them out of his sight. For he tore Israel from house; and they made the son of king; and drove Israel from following , and made them a great . The walked in all the of which he did; they didn't depart from them until removed Israel out of his sight, as he said by all his servants . So Israel was out of their own land to to this day. The king of brought people from , from , from , and from and , and placed them in the cities of instead of the ; and they and lived in its cities. So it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they didn't . Therefore sent lions among them, which killed some of them. Therefore they spoke to the king of , saying, " which you have and placed in the cities of don't know of the of the land. Therefore he has sent lions among them; and behold, they kill them, because they don't know of the of the land." Then the king of commanded, saying, "Carry there one of the priests whom you brought from there; and let him go and there, and let him teach them of the of the land." So one of the priests whom they had from came and lived in , and taught them how they should . However every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the which the had made, every nation in their cities in which they lived. The men of made , and the men of Cuth made , and the men of made , and the Avvites made and ; and the Sepharvites burned their children in the to and , the gods of . So they feared , and also made from among themselves priests of the for themselves, who for them in the houses of the . They feared , and also their own gods, after the ways of the nations from among whom they had been . To this day they do what they did before. They don't , and they do not follow the , or the ordinances, or , or the which commanded the children of , whom he named Israel; with whom had made a and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor them, nor to them; but you shall , who brought you up out of the land of with great and with an outstretched arm, and you shall bow yourselves to him, and you shall to him. The and the ordinances, and and the which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do more. You shall not fear other gods. You shall not forget that I have made with you. You shall not fear other gods. But you shall your , and he will you out of the hand of all your ." However they didn't listen, but they did what they did before. So these nations feared , and also their engraved . Their children did likewise, and so did their children's children. They do as their fathers did to this day.
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The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.