024
How many Israelites were deported when Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian empire in 720 B.C.E.?
062
Answer: 27,290
In the wake of the final conquest and destruction of Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel in 720 B.C.E., more than 27,000 Israelites, according to the annals of Sargon II, were forcibly removed from the land and resettled in various corners of the Assyrian empire. Both the Bible and Assyrian documents tell us that many of these Israelites—who later came to be identified with the legendary “Ten Lost Tribes”—were resettled in towns such as Halah and Gozan in the Assyrian heartland of northern Mesopotamia, while others were taken even farther afield into the Median highlands of northwest Iran.
Life for most of the Israelite deportees, who were forced into hard labor or working in the fields, was grueling and bleak. Assyrian records also show, however, that some managed to achieve positions of relative importance within Assyrian society, becoming soldiers, translators, bureaucrats and even priests. Eventually, many of these Israelites adopted Mesopotamian names and customs and fully assimilated into their new surroundings. As for the former northern kingdom, its territory was reorganized into the Assyrian provinces of Dor, Megiddo, Gilead and Samaria, and repopulated by the Assyrians with conquered peoples from Babylonia, Persia and Arabia.
How many Israelites were deported when Samaria and the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian empire in 720 B.C.E.?
062 Answer: 27,290
