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PUBLIC DOMAIN, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

ASSYRIAN ASSAULT. In the mid-eighth century BCE, the powerful and prosperous Northern Kingdom of Israel was on a collision course with the westward expansion of Assyria. King Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 745–727), depicted in this wall relief from his Central Palace at Nimrud in northern Iraq, forced Israel and other Levantine states to pay tribute in exchange for peace. However, he ultimately attacked the Philistine cities Ashkelon and Gaza and destroyed Gezer, a border town between Israel and Judah. It was then only a matter of time before the mighty Assyrian Empire turned its full wrath against the Northern Kingdom, bringing an end to the “ten lost tribes” of Israel, as remembered in later biblical and prophetic tradition.