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66-537: The first Paleo-Hebrew inscription identified in modern times was the Royal Steward inscription ( KAI 191), found in 1870, and then referred to as "two large ancient Hebrew inscriptions in Phoenician letters". Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions are known today, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The earliest known examples of Paleo-Hebrew writing date to the 10th century BCE . Like

132-481: A bowl on the other. The find is attributed to the mid-10th century BCE. The so-called Ophel inscription is of a similar age, but difficult to interpret, and may be classified as either Proto-Canaanite or as Paleo-Hebrew. The Gezer calendar is of uncertain date, but may also still date to the 10th century BCE. The script on the Zayit Stone and Gezer Calendar are an earlier form than the classical Paleo-Hebrew of

198-619: A fifth (about 40,000) of the population of the Kingdom of Israel were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II . Many members of these northern tribes also fled south to the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem seems to have expanded in size five-fold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water Siloam to be provided by King Hezekiah . In their book The Bible Unearthed , Israeli authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman estimate that only

264-516: A fifth (about 40,000) of the population of the northern Kingdom of Israel were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II . No known non-Biblical record exists of the Assyrians having exiled people from four of the tribes of Israel: Dan , Asher , Issachar , Zebulun . Descriptions of the deportation of people from Reuben , Gad , Manasseh , Ephraim and Naphtali indicate that only

330-567: A kingdom in the first half of 9th century BCE, with its capital at Tirzah first, and next at the city of Samaria since 880 BCE. The existence of this Israelite state in the north is documented in 9th century BCE inscriptions. The earliest mention is from the Kurkh stela of c. 853 BCE, when Shalmaneser III mentions "Ahab the Israelite", plus the denominative for "land", and his ten thousand troops. This kingdom would have included parts of

396-535: A portion of these tribes were deported, and the places to which they were deported are known locations given in the accounts. The deported communities are mentioned as still existing at the time of the composition of the Books of Kings and Chronicles and did not disappear by assimilation. 2 Chronicles 30:1–18 explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by the Assyrians, in particular people of Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun, and how members of

462-458: A royal steward who was admonished for building a conspicuous tomb. It was found by Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau , about a decade prior to the Siloam inscription , making it the first ancient Hebrew inscription found in modern times. Clermont-Ganneau wrote about three decades later: "I may observe, by the way, that the discovery of these two texts was made long before that of the inscription in

528-521: Is an important Proto-Hebrew inscription found in the village of Silwan outside Jerusalem in 1870. After passing through various hands, the inscription was purchased by the British Museum in 1871. The inscription is broken at the point where the tomb's owner would have been named, but biblical scholars have conjectured a connection to Shebna , on the basis of a verse in the Bible mentioning

594-568: Is found on an ostracon excavated at Mesad Hashavyahu , containing a petition for redress of grievances (an appeal by a field worker to the fortress's governor regarding the confiscation of his cloak, which the writer considers to have been unjust). After the Babylonian capture of Judea, when most of the nobles were taken into exile, the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet continued to be used by the people who remained. One example of such writings are

660-697: Is intended for the representation of, apart from the Phoenician alphabet , text in Palaeo-Hebrew, Archaic Phoenician, Early Aramaic, Late Phoenician cursive, Phoenician papyri, Siloam Hebrew, Hebrew seals, Ammonite , Moabite , and Punic . ʾ b g d h w z ḥ ṭ y k l m n s ʿ p ṣ q r š t Royal Steward inscription The Royal Steward Inscription , known as KAI 191,

726-532: Is one of the most universally accepted archaeological sites from the biblical period. In around 840 BCE, the Mesha Stele records the victory of Moab (in today's Jordan ), under King Mesha , over Israel, King Omri and his son Ahab . Archaeological finds, ancient Near Eastern texts, and the biblical record testify that in the time of the Omrides , Israel ruled in the mountainous Galilee , at Hazor in

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792-617: The Arad ostraca dating to the 6th-century BCE, the hundreds of 8th to 6th-century Hebrew seals from various sites, and the Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus scroll discovered near Tel Qumran . The most developed cursive script is found on the 18 Lachish ostraca , letters sent by an officer to the governor of Lachish just before the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE. A slightly earlier ( circa 620 BCE) but similar script

858-534: The Baal cycle discovered at Ugarit ). The reference in Hosea 10 to Israel's "divided heart" may refer to these two cultic observances, although alternatively it may refer to hesitation between looking to Assyria and Egypt for support. The Jewish Bible also states that Ahab allowed the cult worship of Baal to become acceptable of the kingdom. His wife Jezebel was the daughter of the Phoenician king of Tyre and

924-487: The Book of Isaiah ( Isaiah 22:15–16 ), the royal steward appointed by King Hezekiah was called Shebna and he was admonished for building himself too grandiose a tomb . Although the name of the royal steward is broken at the point where the official is named, it has been conjectured on the basis of the biblical verse that this monumental inscription originates from the tomb of Shebna. Clermont-Ganneau speculated in 1899 that

990-669: The Hasmonean coinage , as well as the coins of the First Jewish–Roman War and Bar Kokhba's revolt , bears Paleo-Hebrew legends. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet fell completely out of use among Jews only after 135 CE. The paleo-Hebrew alphabet continued to be used by the Samaritans and over time developed into the Samaritan alphabet . The Samaritans have continued to use the script for writing both Hebrew and Aramaic texts until

1056-635: The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) unearthed a 2,600-year-old seal impression, while conducting excavations at the City of David, containing Paleo-Hebrew script, and which is thought to have belonged to a certain "Nathan-Melech," an official in King Josiah 's court. Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew characters were never standardised and are found in numerous variant shapes. A general tendency of more cursive writing can be observed over

1122-589: The Moabite language (rather than generic Northwest Semitic ) are visible in the Mesha Stele inscription, commissioned around 840 BCE by King Mesha of Moab. Similarly, the Tel Dan Stele , dated approximately 810 BCE, is written in Old Aramaic , dating from a period when Dan had already fallen into the orbit of Damascus. The oldest inscriptions identifiable as Biblical Hebrew have long been limited to

1188-662: The Omride dynasty , whose political centre was the city of Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible , the territory of the Twelve Tribes of Israel was once amalgamated under a Kingdom of Israel and Judah , which was ruled by the House of Saul and then by the House of David . However, upon the death of Solomon , who was the son and successor of David , there was discontent over his son and successor Rehoboam , whose reign

1254-547: The Phoenician alphabet , it is a slight regional variant and an immediate continuation of the Proto-Canaanite script , which was used throughout Canaan in the Late Bronze Age . Phoenician , Hebrew , and all of their sister Canaanite languages were largely indistinguishable dialects before that time. The Paleo-Hebrew script is an abjad of 22 consonantal letters, exactly as the other Canaanite scripts from

1320-554: The Samaritan script . After the fall of the Persian Empire, Jews used both scripts before settling on the Assyrian form. The Paleo-Hebrew script evolved by developing numerous cursive features, the lapidary features of the Phoenician alphabet being ever less pronounced with the passage of time. The aversion of the lapidary script may indicate that the custom of erecting stelae by the kings and offering votive inscriptions to

1386-521: The Samaritans . The Assyrians, as part of their historic deportation policy , also settled other conquered foreign populations in the territory of Israel. According to Israel Finkelstein , Shoshenq I 's campaign in the second half of the 10th century BCE collapsed the early polity of Gibeon in central highlands, and made possible the beginning of the Northern Kingdom, with its capital at Shechem , around 931 BCE. Israel consolidated as

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1452-635: The Torah among the Dead Sea Scrolls , dated to the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE: manuscripts 4Q12, 6Q1: Genesis. 4Q22: Exodus. 1Q3, 2Q5, 4Q11, 4Q45, 4Q46, 6Q2, and the Leviticus scroll ( 11QpaleoLev ). In some Qumran documents, the tetragrammaton name of the Israelite deity, YHWH , is written in Paleo-Hebrew while the rest of the text is rendered in the adopted Aramaic square script that became today's normative Jewish Hebrew script. The vast majority of

1518-530: The 13th to 12th centuries BCE, and earlier Proto-Sinaitic scripts. The earliest known inscription in the Paleo-Hebrew script is the Zayit Stone discovered on a wall at Tel Zayit , in the Beth Guvrin Valley in the lowlands of ancient Judea in 2005, about 50 km (31 mi) southwest of Jerusalem. The 22 letters were carved on one side of the 38 lb (17 kg) stone, which resembles

1584-454: The 6th-century BCE jar handles from Gibeon , on which the names of winegrowers are inscribed. Beginning from the 5th century BCE onward, the Aramaic language and script became an official means of communication. Paleo-Hebrew was still used by scribes and others. The Paleo-Hebrew script was retained for some time as an archaizing or conservative mode of writing. It is found in certain texts of

1650-474: The 7th century BCE. 𐤆𐤀𐤕 . . . . . . . 𐤉𐤄𐤅 𐤀𐤔𐤓 𐤏𐤋𐤄 𐤁𐤉𐤕. 𐤀𐤉[𐤍 𐤐𐤄] 𐤊𐤎𐤐. 𐤅[𐤆]𐤄𐤁 . 𐤀𐤌 . . . . . . . 𐤅𐤏𐤑𐤌𐤅[𐤕] 𐤀𐤌𐤕𐤄 𐤀[𐤕]𐤄. 𐤀𐤓𐤅𐤓 𐤄𐤀[𐤃𐤌] 𐤀𐤔𐤓 𐤉𐤐[𐤕𐤇] 𐤀[𐤕] 𐤆𐤀𐤕 ‎ The three words "אשר על הבית" gave rise to the English translation "royal steward", although this is not a literal translation – the three words literally mean simply "whom/which (is) over

1716-435: The 8th century BCE. In 2008, however, a potsherd (ostracon) bearing an inscription was excavated at Khirbet Qeiyafa which has since been interpreted as representing a recognizably Hebrew inscription dated to as early as the 10th century BCE. The argument identifying the text as Hebrew relies on the use of vocabulary. From the 8th century onward, Hebrew epigraphy becomes more common, showing the gradual spread of literacy among

1782-411: The 8th century and later; this early script is almost identical to the early Phoenician script on the 9th-century Ahiram sarcophagus inscription. By the 8th century, a number of regional characteristics begin to separate the script into a number of national alphabets, including the Israelite (Israel and Judah), Moabite (Moab and Ammon), Edomite, Phoenician and Old Aramaic scripts. Linguistic features of

1848-572: The British Museum one year after its discovery. Almost thirty years later, in 1899, he published a detailed description of the discovery. The limestone inscription was so severely damaged that it has not been possible to completely decipher the script. The writing is in Biblical Hebrew in the Phoenician or Paleo-Hebrew script – at the time of its discovery the script was referred to as "Phoenician letters" – and can be dated to

1914-578: The Exodus, whereas the Aramaic square script was brought from Assyria and introduced for writing Torah scrolls in the post-exilic period, while others believed that Paleo-Hebrew merely served as a stopgap in a time when the ostensibly original script (the Assyrian Script ) was lost. According to both opinions, Ezra the Scribe (c. 500 BCE) introduced, or reintroduced the Assyrian script to be used as

1980-629: The Israelite captives were resettled in the Khabur region, and the rest in the land of the Medes , thus establishing Hebrew communities in Ecbatana and Rages . The Book of Tobit additionally records that Sargon had taken other captives from the northern kingdom to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh , in particular Tobit from the town of Thisbe in Naphtali. The Hebrew Bible relates that the population of

2046-418: The Kingdom experienced a period of decline as a result of sectional rivalries and struggles for the throne. In c. 732 BCE, king Pekah of Israel, while allied with Rezin , king of Aram , threatened Jerusalem . Ahaz , king of Judah , appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III , the king of Assyria , for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram and

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2112-531: The Kingdom of Israel was exiled, becoming known as the Ten Lost Tribes . To the south, the Tribe of Judah , the Tribe of Simeon (that was "absorbed" into Judah), the Tribe of Benjamin and the people of the Tribe of Levi , who lived among them of the original Israelite nation, remained in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Judah continued to exist as an independent state until 586 BCE, when it

2178-514: The Nimrud slab, which comments he went to "the Hatti and Amurru lands, Tyre, Sidon, the mat of Hu-um-ri "land of ʻOmri", Edom , Philistia , and Aram (not Judah)." The Tell al-Rimah stela of the same king introduces a third way of talking about the kingdom, as Samaria, in the phrase " Joash of Samaria ". The use of Omri's name to refer to the kingdom still survived, and was used by Sargon II in

2244-639: The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was gradually replaced by the use of the Imperial Aramaic alphabet . The letters of Imperial Aramaic were again given shapes characteristic for writing Hebrew during the Second Temple period , developing into the "square shape" of the Hebrew alphabet . The Samaritans , who remained in the Land of Israel, continued to use their variant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, called

2310-717: The Proto-Hebrew script without intermediate non-Israelite evolutionary stages. There is also some continued use of the old Hebrew script in Jewish religious contexts down to the 1st century BCE, notably in the Paleo-Hebrew Leviticus Scroll found in the Dead Sea Scrolls . The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets developed in the wake of the Bronze Age collapse , out of their immediate predecessor script Proto-Canaanite (Late Proto-Sinaitic ) during

2376-526: The alliance. However, the sons of Ahab were slaughtered by Jehu following his coup d'état around 840 BCE. After being defeated by Hazael , Israel began a period of progressive recovery following the campaigns against Aram-Damascus of Adad-nirari III . This ultimately led to a period of major territorial expansion under Jeroboam II , who extended the kingdom's possessions throughout the Northern Transjordan. Following Jeroboam II's death,

2442-474: The commandment to copy a Torah scroll directly from another, the script could not conceivably have been modified at any point. A different version of the debate in the Jerusalem Talmud refers to the circular shapes of the letters Ayin in Paleo-Hebrew and Samekh in square script on the stone tablets as miracles according to the respective sages arguing for one script or the other. This third opinion

2508-566: The deity was not widespread in Israel. Even the engraved inscriptions from the 8th century exhibit elements of the cursive style, such as the shading, which is a natural feature of pen-and-ink writing. Examples of such inscriptions include the Siloam inscription , numerous tomb inscriptions from Jerusalem , the Ketef Hinnom scrolls , a fragmentary Hebrew inscription on an ivory which was taken as war spoils (probably from Samaria ) to Nimrud ,

2574-624: The entrance to a home in Silwan , a village south of Jerusalem . Clermont-Ganneau first published the discovery in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestinian Exploration Fund , but with little detail: Hebrew inscription in Phoenician characters. This inscription, discovered by myself several months ago, is the only monumental text which goes back to the time of the kings of Judah. It belongs authentically, by

2640-406: The first half of the 10th century BCE. It controlled the areas of Samaria , Galilee and parts of Transjordan ; the former two regions underwent a period in which a large number of new settlements were established shortly after the kingdom came into existence. It had four capital cities in succession: Shiloh , Shechem , Tirzah , and the city of Samaria . In the 9th century BCE, it was ruled by

2706-569: The history of the Kingdom of Israel has been the Hebrew Bible, especially the Books of Kings and Chronicles . These books were written by authors in Jerusalem , the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. Being written in a rival kingdom, they were inspired by ideological and theological viewpoints that influence the narrative. Anachronisms, legends and literary forms also affect the story. Some of

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2772-561: The house", i.e. the one who oversees the house. Using parallels to biblical passages it has been variously translated "upon the house", "steward of the house" or "governor of the house". The "maidservant" is referred to by the Hebrew ‘amatah , equivalent to the term " handmaiden " used to refer to concubines at various points in the Torah . The royal steward or court chamberlain was a powerful figure in Ancient Judah . According to

2838-547: The latter three returned to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah . The religious climate of the Kingdom of Israel appears to have followed two major trends. The first was the worship of Yahweh ; the religion of ancient Israel is sometimes referred to by modern scholars as Yahwism . The Hebrew Bible , however, states that some of the northern Israelites also adored Baal (see 1 Kings 16:31 and

2904-741: The loss of one-fifth of the kingdom's population and is known as the Assyrian captivity , which gave rise to the notion of the Ten Lost Tribes . Some of these Israelites, however, managed to migrate to safety in neighbouring Judah, though the Judahites themselves would be conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire nearly two centuries later. Those who stayed behind in Samaria following the Assyrian conquest mainly concentrated themselves around Mount Gerizim and eventually came to be known as

2970-607: The lowlands (the Shephelah ), the Jezreel plain, lower Galilee and parts of the Transjordan. Ahab's forces were part of an anti-Assyrian coalition, implying that an urban elite ruled the kingdom, possessed a royal and state cult with large urban temples, and had scribes, mercenaries, and an administrative apparatus. In all this, it was similar to other recently-founded kingdoms of the time, such as Ammon and Moab . Samaria

3036-538: The name Israel is from an Egyptian inscription, the Merneptah Stele , dating from the Late Bronze Age (c. 1208 BCE); this gives little solid information, but indicates that the name of the later kingdom was borrowed rather than originating with the kingdom itself. According to the Hebrew Bible, for the first sixty years after the split, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over

3102-537: The northern kingdom, and there was perpetual war between them. For the following eighty years, there was no open war between them, as, for the most part, Judah had engaged in a military alliance with Aram-Damascus , opening a northern front against Israel. The conflict between Israel and Judah was temporarily settled when Jehoshaphat , King of Judah, allied himself with the reigning house of Israel, Ahab , through marriage. Later, Jehosophat's son and successor, Jehoram of Judah , married Ahab's daughter Athaliah , cementing

3168-582: The people of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah ; the oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible , although transmitted via the recension of the Second Temple period, are also dated to the 8th century BCE. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet was in common use in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah throughout the 8th and 7th centuries BCE. During the 6th century BCE, the time of the Babylonian exile ,

3234-474: The period of c. 800 BCE to 600 BCE. After 500 BCE, it is common to distinguish the script variants by names such as "Samaritan", "Aramaic", etc. There is no difference in "Paleo-Hebrew" vs. "Phoenician" letter shapes. The names are applied depending on the language of the inscription, or if that cannot be determined, of the coastal (Phoenician) vs. highland (Hebrew) association (c.f. the Zayit Stone abecedary). The Unicode block Phoenician (U+10900–U+1091F)

3300-550: The period. By the 5th century BCE, among Judeans the alphabet had been mostly replaced by the Aramaic alphabet as used officially by the Achaemenid Empire . The "Square" variant now known simply as the Hebrew alphabet evolved directly out of this by about the 3rd century BCE, although some letter shapes did not become standard until the 1st century . By contrast, the Samaritan script is an immediate continuation of

3366-453: The phrase "the whole house of Omri" in describing his conquest of the city of Samaria in 722 BCE. It is significant that the Assyrians never mention the Kingdom of Judah until the end of the 8th century, when it was an Assyrian vassal state : possibly they never had contact with it, or possibly they regarded it as a vassal of Israel/Samaria or Aram, or possibly the southern kingdom did not exist during this period. One traditional source for

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3432-515: The present day. A comparison of the earliest Samaritan inscriptions and the medieval and modern Samaritan manuscripts clearly indicates that the Samaritan script is a static script which was used mainly as a book hand . The Talmudic sages did not share a uniform stance on the subject of Paleo-Hebrew. Some stated that Paleo-Hebrew was the original script used by the Israelites at the time of

3498-408: The primary alphabet for the Hebrew language . The arguments given for both opinions are rooted in Jewish scripture and/or tradition. A third opinion in the Talmud states that the script never changed altogether. Rabbi Eleazar from Modiin, the sage who expressed this opinion, based his opinion on a scriptural verse, which makes reference to the shape of the letter vav . He argues further that, given

3564-435: The recorded events are believed to have occurred long after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. Biblical archaeology has both confirmed and challenged parts of the biblical account. According to the Hebrew Bible, there existed a United Kingdom of Israel (the United Monarchy ), ruled from Jerusalem by David and his son Solomon , after whose death Israel and Judah separated into two kingdoms. The first mention of

3630-410: The reign of King Hezekiah (715–687 BCE), describing it as a "highly conjectural suggestion". Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) The Kingdom of Israel ( Hebrew : מַמְלֶכֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל ‎ Mamleḵeṯ Yīśrāʾēl ), also called the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Samaria , was an Israelite kingdom that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age . Its beginnings date back to

3696-441: The south ( Judea ), ending Israelite political unity. While the existence of Israel and Judah as two independent kingdoms is not disputed, some historians and archaeologists reject the historicity of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah . Around 720 BCE, Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire . The records of Assyrian king Sargon II indicate that he deported 27,290 Israelites to Mesopotamia . This deportation resulted in

3762-454: The territories of the tribes of Reuben , Gad and Manasseh in Gilead including the desert outposts of Jetur , Naphish and Nodab . People from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system, in Halah , Habor, Hara and Gozan ( 1 Chronicles 5:26 ). Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim , and an Assyrian governor

3828-438: The tomb could be that of the Shebna mentioned in Isaiah, but described the idea as a "sanguine illusion". In the early 1950s, the idea was suggested again by Yigael Yadin , the Israeli Army Chief of the General Staff , who was later to become an archaeologist. Nahman Avigad assessed the proposal, based upon the similarity of the text to that of the Siloam inscription and the fact that biblical story of Shebna took place during

3894-442: The tunnel, and therefore, though people in general do not seem to recognise this fact, it was the first which enabled us to behold an authentic specimen of Hebrew monumental epigraphy of the period of the Kings of Judah." The text is considered to have a "remarkable" similarity to that of the Tabnit sarcophagus from Sidon . The inscribed lintel was found by French archaeologist , Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau in 1870 above

3960-408: The upper Jordan Valley , in large parts of Transjordan between the Wadi Mujib and the Yarmuk , and in the coastal Sharon plain . In Assyrian inscriptions, the Kingdom of Israel is referred to as the "House of ʻOmri ". The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III mentions Jehu , son of ʻOmri. The Neo-Assyrian emperor Adad-nirari III did an expedition into the Levant around 803 BCE mentioned in

4026-419: The very position which it occupies, to the history of Jerusalem. I cannot yet publicly point out its origin, in order not to interfere with the steps taken for its preservation. I will confine myself to saying that it has probably a religious signification, as is proved by the words beit and Baal , which are very distinctly to be read. Clermont-Ganneau arranged for the inscription to be purchased and removed by

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4092-464: Was accepted by some early Jewish scholars, and rejected by others, partially because it was permitted to write the Torah in Greek. Use of Proto-Hebrew in modern Israel is negligible, but it is found occasionally in nostalgic or pseudo-archaic examples, e.g. on the ₪1 coin ( 𐤉𐤄𐤃 ‎ "Judea") and in the logo of the Israeli town Nahariyah ( Deuteronomy 33 :24 𐤁𐤓𐤅𐤊 𐤌𐤁𐤍𐤉𐤌 𐤀𐤔𐤓 ‎ "Let Asher be blessed with children"). In 2019,

4158-431: Was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire . The tradition of the Samaritan people states that much of the population of the Kingdom of Israel remained in place after the Assyrian captivity , including the Tribes of Naphtali, Manasseh, Benjamin and Levi – being the progenitors of the modern Samaritans. In their book The Bible Unearthed , Israeli authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman estimate that only

4224-402: Was deported by the Assyrians. During the three-year siege of Samaria in the territory of Ephraim by the Assyrians, Shalmaneser V died and was succeeded by Sargon II , who himself records the capture of that city thus: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away" into Assyria. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the northern kingdom came to an end. Some of

4290-413: Was only accepted by the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin . The unpopularity of Rehoboam's reign among the rest of the Israelites , who sought Jeroboam as their monarch, resulted in Jeroboam's Revolt , which led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria), whereas the loyalists of Judah and Benjamin kept Rehoboam as their monarch and established the Kingdom of Judah in

4356-421: Was placed over the region of Naphtali. According to 2 Kings 16:9 and 2 Kings 15:29 , the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. The remainder of the northern kingdom of Israel continued to exist within the reduced territory as an independent kingdom until around 720 BCE, when it was again invaded by Assyria and more of the population was deported. Not all of Israel's populace

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