Fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel

Biblical Text and Content

The event is recorded in 2 Kings 17, and the same account appears again in 18:9–12. Hoshea, the last king of the northern kingdom, had been paying tribute to Assyria but stopped and sent messengers to So, king of Egypt. In response, Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, came up and besieged Samaria for three years. Samaria fell in the ninth year of Hoshea, and the king of Assyria "carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (2 Kings 17:5–6). Assyria then settled people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim in the cities of Samaria (17:24).

Background

The northern kingdom, which arose from the division of the kingdom after Solomon, maintained the golden calf altars that Jeroboam had set up at Bethel and Dan. As Assyria expanded its power in the eighth century BC, the northern kingdom steadily lost territory; even before the fall of Samaria, inhabitants of the region of Galilee had already been carried off (15:29). Scholars debate, in light of the Assyrian records, whether the king who actually captured Samaria was Shalmaneser V or his successor, Sargon II. Many date the fall to 722 or 721 BC, though scholarly views vary.

Significance in Scripture as a Whole

2 Kings 17:7–23 attributes the fall not to political causes but to matters of faith. Israel served other gods, worshiped Baal and Asherah, ignored the warnings of the prophets, and did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam. Earlier, Amos and Hosea had warned of this judgment. The southern kingdom of Judah should have taken the event as a lesson, but it too eventually underwent the Babylonian exile.

As the settlers mingled with the remaining population, the worship of the LORD was practiced alongside the worship of the various peoples' own gods (17:33). This is commonly cited as the origin of the Samaritans of the New Testament era, although the Samaritans have traditionally regarded themselves as descendants of the tribes of Israel. The book of Hosea, meanwhile, promises restoration beyond judgment, and Paul applied Hosea's words about calling "my people, which were not my people" to God's calling of the Gentiles (Romans 9:25–26).

Interpretation and Debate

• The "Lost Ten Tribes": The idea that the northern tribes disappeared entirely is not stated directly in the biblical text. On the contrary, in 2 Chronicles 30 Hezekiah invites those who remained in the north to the Passover, and Luke 2:36 identifies Anna as belonging to the tribe of Asher. Claims that a particular people is descended from the ten tribes are later traditions or hypotheses.
• Israel's Future Restoration: Dispensationalism tends to read promises of restoration, such as the prophecy of the two sticks in Ezekiel 37, as referring to the future restoration of national Israel. Covenant theology often reads them in connection with the restoration of the church accomplished in Christ.