63. every costly thing, products of sea and dry land produced by their countries, royal treasures, horses, mules, harnesses ........ [I received.]
The record of this campaign, fragmentary as it is, shows how completely Tiglathpileser conquered the west. He accomplished the overthrow of Damascus, which his predecessors had been trying in vain to do for more than a hundred years. His invasion of northern Israel led to the overthrow of Pekah, and the deportation as captives to other parts of the empire of numerous Israelites. This confirms 2 Kings 15:29, 30. It was this conquest of Damascus and Israel that fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy given in 735 B. C. (Isa. 7:16). It was while Tiglathpileser was at Damascus, receiving the tribute, that Ahaz, whose full name was Jehoahaz, went to Damascus to carry his tribute,—an act which prevented the invasion of Judah by Assyria at this time. While Ahaz was in Damascus, he saw the altar of which a copy was made for the temple in Jerusalem (2 Kings 16:10, ff.). The list of kings from whom Tiglathpileser received tribute contains many Biblical names. Not only Israel and Judah, but the Philistine cities, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Damascus, Hamath, the Phœnician cities of Gebal and Arvad, Samal in the extreme north of Syria, Que in Cilicia, and Carchemish on the Euphrates, were all drawn into his net.
10. Sargon, 722-705 B. C.
Tiglathpileser IV was succeeded by Shalmaneser V, who ruled, as the eponym canon shows, from 727 to 722 B. C. On account of a rebellion of Hoshea, King of Israel, Shalmaneser overran his kingdom and besieged Samaria for three years, as recorded in 2 Kings 17:3-5. Before the city fell, however, Shalmaneser had passed away and Sargon, the founder of a new dynasty, was on the throne of Assyria. In Sargon’s first year Samaria fell into the hands of the Assyrian army; Sargon counted this as his own victory and tells of it in the following words:[518]
At the beginning of my reign, in my first year ...... Samaria I besieged, I captured. 27,290 people from its midst I carried captive. 50 chariots I took there as an addition to my royal force .......... I returned and made more than formerly to dwell. People from lands which my hands had captured I settled in the midst. My officers over them as governors I appointed. Tribute and taxes I imposed upon them after the Assyrian manner.
In another inscription the following summary account occurs:[519]
From the beginning of my reign to my 15th year, the defeat of Humbanigash, the Elamite, in the environs of Durilu I accomplished. Samaria I besieged, I captured; I carried captive 27,290 people who dwelt in it; 50 chariots I took from them, and permitted the rest to keep their possessions (?), and placed my governor over them and imposed on them the tribute of the former king.
These statements confirm 2 Kings 17:6 and 24, ff. In one respect they throw an interesting light upon the captivity of Israel. Only 27,290 people were transported at this time. True, Tiglath-pileser IV had previously transported the inhabitants of several towns of Galilee. (See 2 Kings 15:29, and his inscriptions translated above.) When we put together all those who were deported, however, they were but a fraction of the population. As Sargon distinctly says, the others remained there. They intermarried with the settlers whom he brought in and became the ancestors of the sect of Samaritans. The “ten lost tribes” were not “lost,” as is often popularly supposed to have been the case.
The first of the inscriptions quoted above contains also the following passage:[520]
In the second year of my reign Ilubidi, the Hamathite ...... collected his numerous troops at Qarqar. The oath [of Ashur he despised]. Arpad, Simirra, Damascus, Samaria, he made rebellious against me ..................... Sib’u, his Tartan, he summoned to his aid, and to give fight and battle came into my presence. In the name of Ashur, my lord, I accomplished his defeat. Sib’u fled like a shepherd whose sheep are stolen and escaped. Hanno I caught in my hand and took him bound unto my city Ashur. The city Raphia I devastated, destroyed, burned with fire. I took captive 9,033 people, together with their numerous possessions.