The Lord God is to be obeyed. Humanity’s first sin was an act of disobedience to God (Ge.3:1-ff). The result…Adam & Eve were cast out, away from their garden home and God’s Presence (Ge.3:22-24).
Anciently, the nation of Israel was the people Christ loved above all other peoples. Moses said of them rhetorically in De.4:5-8, “What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God? What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law?” None other! Christ was their God YHVH, their Rock, 1Co.10:4. (see the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.) Christ their Passover (1Co.5:7) ‘passed over’ Egypt and freed the Israelites from bondage. Years after the exodus, as Israel (then consisting of 13 tribes) was entering the Promised Land, the people were given God’s conditions which they must obey to remain in their new home-Land.
De.28:1-2 “If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, the Lord will set you above all the nations of the earth. Blessings will come upon you, if you obey the Lord.” Blessings were promised to Israel for obedience. v.15-16 “But if you will not obey the Lord your God, then all these curses shall come upon you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed in the country.” Many curses for disobedience follow. v.32-33 “Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people you do not know. And you shall be oppressed and crushed.” Captivity! v.36 “The Lord will bring you to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known. Exile! v.49 “The Lord will bring against you a nation from afar.” Invasion! v.63-64 “You shall be torn from the Land you are entering to possess. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples.” If Israel disobeyed Christ their God, they would be cast out of the Holy Land.
After the death of King Solomon, in the 900s BC Christ divided the united nation of Israel into two (1Ki.12). The northern kingdom retained the name Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah, the Jews. (In 2Ki.16:5-6, the Jews/Judah were actually fighting against an alliance of Israel and Syria!)
The northern kingdom of Israel disobeyed Christ! The prophet Hosea lived in Israel, and prophesied to them circa (c) 755–725 BC. The northern kingdom was also known as Ephráim (son of the patriarch Joseph), and Samaria (the capital city, located in the area of Israel allotted to Ephraim’s descendants), and the Ten Tribes. Ho.5:3, 9 “Ephraim has played the harlot. Israel has defiled itself. Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I will declare what is sure.” God would bring upon Israel the curses of De.28! Ho.11:1-6 “When Israel was a youth I loved him, out of Egypt I have called My son. They kept sacrificing to Báal and burning incense to idols. Assyria will be their king. The sword will whirl against their cities, and consume them.” When Hosea prophesied, their captivity to Assyria was imminent! Ho.13:16 “Samaria will be held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God.” Christ the Lord proceeded to cast out Israel from the Land.
Between c 734 and c 669 BC, in four periods of invasion the Assyrians removed the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel (and took many cities of Judah the southern kingdom). Later c 610 BC, Christ told Jeremiah to write to Judah, Je.7:15b “I have cast out all your brothers of Ephraim.” Most of the northern kingdom of Israel didn’t return to the Land! (1st century AD Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 11:5:2 “The ten tribes are beyond [east of] Euphrates until now, an immense multitude.”)
Is.7:8 is a significant prophecy. “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered.” Isaiah prophesied the removal of Israel would be complete in 65 years. It happened between c 734 and c 669 BC. Targum of Isaiah 7:8 “At the end of 65 years, the kingdom of the house of Israel shall cease.” Adam Clarke Commentary “It was 65 years to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Israel by Esarháddon, who carried away the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by Tíglath-Piléser and Shalmanéser.” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia “It appears certain there were various episodes of deportation and repopulation connected to the Northern Kingdom.”
The Assyrian invasions and subsequent exile of most in the ten tribes took place during the time of Israel’s last four kings. Menahém, Pekahiáh (no invasion during his two-year reign, 2Ki.15:23-24), Pékah, Hoshéa. Hoshea would be their final king. The northern kingdom of Israel would cease being a nation. Ho.1:4 “The Lord said, ‘I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.”
Following are the four main invasions and four deportations in the prophesied 65-year period:
Deportation #1: The first period of invasion and first deportation of Israelites occurred near the time of Isaiah’s prophecy. The progressive captivity of Israel began with King Tiglath Pileser III (an assumed name) of Assyria, who ruled from c 745–727 BC. He was a great military leader and conquered much of the known world. His birth name was Pulu or Pul. 2Ki.15:19 “Pul, king of Assyria, came against the Land, and Menahem gave him 1,000 talents of silver.” In Pul’s invasion, he exacted tribute from King Menahem of Israel. Pekah (after Pekahiah) then succeeded Menahem as king in Israel.
Pul lessened the chances of revolts against Assyrian rule by forcing deportations of peoples across his empire. He continued his attacks. 2Ki.15:29 “In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria came and took…Hazór, Gileád and Galilee, all the land of Naphtalí; and carried them captive to Assyria.” 1Ch.5:26 “The God of Israel incited Pul, king of Assyria, even Tiglath Pileser. He carried them away into exile; namely Reuben [v.6], Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasséh.” Those 2 ½ Israelite tribes east of the Jordan River plus the tribe of Naphtali were deported initially, c 734 BC. These weren’t reunited later with Judah. (ref 2Ch.29:1-3, 30:1-12, 18 this later letter from King Hezekiah of Judah went to other tribes not taken by Tiglath Pileser III in the first deportation.)
Deportation #2: Progressive captivity continued during the reigns of the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser V (727–722 BC) and Sargón II (722–705 BC). Hoshea was king in Israel (730–721 BC). 2Ki.17:1-7 “Shalmaneser king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, so the king of Assyria bound him in prison. He then invaded the whole Land and besieged Samaria 3 years. In the 9th year of Hoshea he captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Haláh and Habór on the River of Gozán, and in the cities of the Medes.” v.23 “The Lord removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their Land to Assyria until this day.” This Assyrian invasion led to the second deportation. The accepted date is 721 BC.
Josephus op. cit. 9:14:1 “Shalmaneser, king of Assyria besieged Samaria three years, quite demolished the government of the Israelites, and translated all the people into Média and Persia.” Shalmaneser V began the attack, but died toward the end of the siege. Most of the remaining tribes of Samaria were removed by Shalmaneser before he died. His successor Sargon completed this in 721 BC.
Sargon II (Is.20:1) recorded his campaign on the palace walls at Dur-Shárrukin (Khorsabad). “In my first year of reign, the people of Samaria to the number of 27,290 I carried away. Fifty chariots for my royal equipment I selected. The city I rebuilt. I made it greater than it was before. People of the lands I had conquered I settled therein. My official I placed over them as governor.” Sargon called his rebuilt city Samarina. Assyrian records say they took captive the “House of Omrí”. (Omri had been Israel’s king c 875 BC, ref 1Ki.16:23-24.) The kingdom/government of Israel ceased to exist as such.
The 6 ½ tribes of Ephraim, Zebulún, Ashér, Issachár, Dan, Simeón, half of Manasseh (west of the Jordan), those not previously removed by Pul, were now also gone from the Land. The Land of Samaria became an Assyrian province with an Assyrian governor. 2Ki.17:24 “The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cutháh, Avvá, Hamáth, Sepharváim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.” The Land area of the ten tribes of Israel was repopulated with non-Israelites.
Some Bible historians think Sargon II didn’t remove all remaining peasants from northern Israel. Over the years, any remaining peasants from the northern tribes became assimilated into the foreign peoples Assyria conquered and resettled in Samaria. The (new) inhabitants of northern Israel became known as Samaritans. The remaining southern kingdom consisted of Judah (some from Simeon lived in Judah), Benjamin, Levi.
The foreigners Assyria placed in the Land were a mongrel people who held various pagan beliefs. 2Ki.17:25-34 Assyria returned a captive (apostate) Israelite “priest” to the Land of Samaria to teach the new residents about God. The result was mongrel religion which mixed corrupt pagan practices and superstitions with God’s ways. e.g. 2Ch.34:6-7 many of the imported foreigners continued in their idolatry. Je.41:5 these residents even gashed their own bodies (forbidden in Le.19:28 & De.14:1).
2Ki.18:9-12 is a recap. “In the 4th year of [Judah’s] King Hezekiah, which was the 7th year of Hoshea king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria besieged Samaria. At the end of 3 years they captured it [721 BC]; in the 6th year of Hezekiah and 9th year of Hoshea, Samaria was captured. The king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile, because they did not obey the Lord their God.” Some think Hezekiah was co-regent in Judah with his father Aház for 12 years…the exact regnal dates are hard to pinpoint. The northern kingdom of Israel was cast out because they continued to disobey Christ the Lord. Over all their years of existence, the southern kingdom of Judah had a few good kings, e.g. Hezekiah. But the northern kingdom of Israel had no good kings…they were all bad!
Deportation #3: Assyria’s third period of invasion of the holy Land was by King Sennacheríb (705–681 BC), who succeeded his father Sargon II. (Sargon may have been a son of Tiglath-Pileser III.) 2Ki.18:13 “In the 14th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria seized all the fortified cities of Judah.” This invasion of the southern Land is dated 702 BC. 1Ki.18:1-2 Hezekiah’s 29-year total regency was possibly c 727–698 BC. If there’d been an initial joint reign of Hezekiah with his father Ahaz within that time, then the 14th year of Hezekiah’s remaining sole reign is c 702 BC.
Assyrian (Akkádian) annals claim Sennacherib sacked 46 cities of Judah and captured 200,150 people! Mic.1:8-13 lists some of the cities. It may have been a dual campaign. A number of Jews were carried away into Assyria. 2Ki.19:14-34 but when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, it was spared due to Hezekiah’s prayers. v.35 “That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian camp.” v.36 “Sennacherib departed, and returned home to Nineveh.” He made Nineveh the capital of the empire, and it became the largest city in the world for 50 years. There is no known deportation of any cities of Samaria (in the north) during Sennacherib’s rule.
2Ki.19:37 “Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.” This is several years later. Esarhaddon succeeded his father Sennacherib, and ruled for 12 years from 681–669 BC.
Deportation #4: The fourth period of invasion and deportation was by King Esarhaddon, during the reign of Manasseh (c 698–643 BC) king of Judah. 2Ch.33:10-13 “The army of the king of Assyria captured Manasseh and took him to Babylon. And when he was in distress he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself. He was moved by his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.” Barnes Notes 2Ch.33:11 “Esarhaddon mentions Manasseh among his tributaries and from time to time, held his court at Babylon.”
In 680 BC, Esarhaddon rebuilt Babylon and resided there. He conquered Judah. King Manasseh of Judah (he wasn’t from the tribe of Manasseh) was Esarhaddon’s vassal and became one of his deportees. Manasseh then repented to God and was restored as vassal king in Jerusalem. Talmud scholar David Kimchí said Manasseh was carried to Babylon by the king of Assyria’s captains in the 22nd year of his reign. Circa 676 BC.
Around 140 years later, more than 40,000 Jews (Ezr.2:64) returned to the Land from exile. Ezr.1:5 & 2:1 “Judah and Benjamin and the priests…The people who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city.” Pulpit Commentary Ezr.2:1 “Jerusalem wasn’t the only site occupied by the people on their return. Many took up their abodes in the neighboring towns and villages, such as Jericho, Tekoah, Gibeon, Mizpah, etc.” In 538 BC, these Jews came back to the prior tribal areas of Judah and Benjamin.
In the 530s BC, descendants of the foreigners that Assyria had moved into the Land opposed the returning Jews’ new work of rebuilding the temple. Ezr.4:1-3 “The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord God. They said to Zerubbabél, ‘We have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon who brought us here.” The mixed foreign peoples now assimilated in the Land were suspicious of the Jews who just recently returned from Babylon. These local adversaries alleged they too worshiped the God of Israel, and demanded they be included in the rebuilding…v.10 “The people whom the great and noble Asnappár deported and resettled in the cities of Samaria and the rest.” Peoples previously imported into Samaria (Samaritans), Judah, and elsewhere. Asnappar’s identity is uncertain; most think he was either Esarhaddon’s crown prince Ashurbánipul or chief officer. Ashurbanipul may have finished the deporting done by his father.
Besides Israelites, Esarhaddon replaced others from “the rest” of the general area with easterners. Ernest Martin People That History Forgot, p.121 “Eastern peoples were brought by the Assyrians in the 7th century BC into the whole region we now call Syria, and not into Samaria alone.” James Pritchard Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p.290…After completely destroying Sidon, Esarhaddon said of the Sidonian king, “I drove to Assyria his teeming people which could not be numbered.”
Charles Fensham The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah “We know from a cylinder of Esarhaddon that he conquered Sidon [c 677 BC?]…and it is most likely that northern Israel (Samaria) was also involved in the rebellion against the Assyrians.” A rebellion in the Land that had been inhabited by the northern tribes of Israel. Ezr.4:10 indicates further repopulation of Samaria…Ashurbanipul brought in more foreigners to become Samaritans.
Ashurbanipul (669–628 BC) succeeded Esarhaddon. Jnh.3:5-10 God had sent the prophet Jonah from the northern kingdom of Israel to warn Nineveh c 770 BC (prior to Tiglath Pileser III). The king and his people repented of wickedness. But it wasn’t lasting. After the death of Ashurbanipul, Nineveh was sacked in 612 BC…and never rebuilt (Nah.1:1, 9). The Assyrian empire existed from 911–609 BC.
Again, the Is.7:8 prophecy said the northern kingdom of Israel would be destroyed in 65 years. Gill Exposition “Israel entirely ceased to be a people when new colonies were introduced by Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib. This being exactly 65 years…Esarhaddon, after he had settled all his affairs in Syria, marched into Israel and there took captive all those who were the remains of the former captivity (excepting only some few), and carried them into Babylon and Assyria.” From Lifeway Explore the Bible Quarterly notes, “The 65 years of Ephraim probably refers to 670 BC, when the Bible records the last of the Israelites were exiled by Assyrian ruler Esarhaddon and foreigners were put into Israel/Samaria”. An amazing fulfillment! God fulfills His prophecies.
JFB Commentary Ezr.4:2 “On a large cylinder in the British Museum is inscribed a long and perfect copy of the annals of Esarhaddon, in which details are given of a large deportation of Israelites from Palestine, and a subsequent settlement of Babylonian colonists in their place.” The Esarhaddon Prism was mentioned by Colonel Rawlinson (1861 AD) the English explorer.
In Is.7:8, Isaiah prophesied to the southern kingdom of Judah about the shattering that would befall the northern kingdom of Israel in 65 years. v.9 the Lord continues with a warning to Judah. “If you will not believe, you surely will not be established.” Gill Exposition “If ye will not believe; the Targum adds, ‘the words of the prophet’, surely ye shall not be established, that is, in their own land.” If the Jews don’t believe the prophecies, including the destruction of brother Israel, then the Jews too won’t remain as a kingdom! v.17-25 Sennacherib subsequently invaded Judah and Deportation #3 occurred.
Then in 597 BC, King Nebuchadnézzar II began his exiling of Jews to Babylon. In 587-586 BC, he destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The southern kingdom of Judah ceased as a nation (2Ch.36:20, 2Ki.24:14-15, e.g.). God’s word through Isaiah was fulfilled!
Previously we read Je.7:15b, where Jeremiah wrote to Judah. To now quote the entire Je.7:15. “I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers of Ephraim”. Christ the Lord said He would cast out disobedient Judah, as He had disobedient Israel. That happened, as He said. (For events of the next period, see the topic “Temple of Zerubbabel”.)
And our belief that Christ loves us and died for our sins doesn’t give us Christians a get out of jail free card if we were to continue to disobey God and adamantly refuse to repent! Jesus said in Lk.6:46, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not the things that I say?” Christ requires the obedience of those who are His.
We began with God’s conditions & warnings to His people in De.28. Let’s conclude with De.30. v.1-2 “When all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart, then the Lord will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you.”
Yes, Christ is more than able to re-graft Israel (Ro.11:23), whom He loved! De.30:6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord with all your heart.” v.9-11 “Then the Lord will prosper you in the work of your hand and rejoice over you; if you obey the Lord your God.” Christ concluded in v.19, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.” (also see the topics “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter” and “Repentance from Sin”.)
We can learn from the sad lesson of ancient Israel’s history…and can choose a life of obedience to the Christ who died for us! Let’s us be among the blessed saints at the end of the Book who “Keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Re.14:12). We’ll be with Him forever! Jesus is Lord!
Bible Topic Exposition 