The Third Assyrian Invasion by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria

Eighteen years later, in the year of 723 BCE, the House of Israel was again invaded for the third time, this time by the Assyrian forces ofShalmaneser. The capital city of Samaria was put under siege and the people were permanently exiled from the land of their inheritanceas prophesied by the Prophet Hosea fifty years prior.

This assault upon the Kingdom of Israel was disastrous. It terminated the Kingdom of Israel, an event that has not been reversed to thisday (2009). The causation was because King Hosea refused not only to pay tribute to Assyria, but had appealed to Egypt which had acatastrophic effect upon their international relationships. The primary causation was because King Hosea refused to heed and obey thecommands of the Lord.

King Jehu of Israel bowing down in Obeisance to Assyrian King Shalmaneser III – Black Obelisk, British Museum

II Kings 17:5-6; also II Kings 18:9-11 –“Then the king of Assyria came up  through out all the land, and went up toSamaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them inHalah and in Habor (by) the river ofGozan, and in the cities of the Medes."

II Kings 17:5-6; also II Kings 18:9-11 – “Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all theland, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and inHabor (by) the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes."

Sargon II of Assyria, the Commander in Chief, or the Tartan of Shalmaneser, confirmed that this siege and deportation occurred in 721 BCE when he left his memoirs on the wall of the palace of Sargon II at Nineveh which read:

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III of Assyria

Sargon II of Assyria – “In the beginning of my reign the city of Samaria I besieged, I took by thehelp of the god Shamash…the city of Samaria. Twenty-seven thousand two hundred and eightyof its inhabitants I carried away… I took them to Assyria and put into places people whom my hands had conquered.  I set my officers and governors over them, and laid on them a tribute ason the Assyrians. (Cited by Frederick Haberman, “Tracing our Ancestors”, pg. 123)

The Kingdom of Israel was completely destroyed forever.  Never again would she rise again as a governing state until the day of theMessiah.  At this time the prophet foretold that the House of Israel would return and be united with the House of Judah, and there theywould be ruled by one ruler; the Messiah, David, son of David, save maybe the tribe of Dan, for eternity. 

During these centuries, the House of Israel would be known by many different names. On the Behistun Rock, Darius the Great boasted on his inscriptions that he had taken the Nation of Israel.  He identified Israel as the Saks, or Saki that went into rebellion first against Assyria and later against Babylon. They were depicted bywearing the typical conical cap of the Goths or Scyths and one was called the nameof Sakunka. 

The Behistun Rock

The Saki were also known by the name of Manda, named after one of their chieftainsof which, according to Haberman, was ruled by Cyaxarses their king, and joined with the Babylonian king Nabopolaser, to destroy Nineveh in the year of 606 BCE.  Here, the last “Zar” of Assyria, Ashur-Etililani.  He perished in the “funeral pyre” of hiscourt in flames. At this moment of time, at Nineveh, the House of Israel began to fulfill of its prophetic destiny.

Jeremiah 51:20-21 – “You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: for with you I will break the nation in pieces; with you I will destroy kingdoms; with you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; with you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider.”

The Fourth Assyrian Invasion by King Sennacherib, son of Sargon II

After 721 BCE, Assyria once again invaded the land of Israel and Judah, for the fourth time in the year of702 BCE.  King Sennacherib, the son of King Sargon II, arrived into the land of Israel.  He swiftly swept over the outlying garrison towns of Judah, 46 in number, but was never able to take down Jerusalem.  It was not that Jerusalem was so formidable, but the God of Israel had a different plan.  A large part of thetowns and villages of Judah were destroyed and taken into captivity. 

King Sargon, the Sargon Vase and the Palace of Sargon

The city of Jerusalem was spared, not by military might or diplomacy, but by a massive bolide, withmillions of volts of electricity.  It shot out of the heavens and struck the camp of the Assyrians with all their military metallic helmets, shields, spears, and coats of mail that attracted this high voltage flux of energy from the heavens and grounded it through them into the earth. It annihilated and charred the entire Assyrian force lying asleep on the Judean hillsides. King Sennacherib was burned and scarred extensively and upon returning to Assyria was assassinated in his court by his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, who fled and Esar-Haddon his son reigned in his place.

II Kings 19:35 – “And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyriansone hundred and eighty five thousand, and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses – all dead.”