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The Assyrian Empire

2 Kings 15–19 · Israel is carried away and Judah besieged

    The Assyrian EmpireExpansion and the fall of Israel · c. 900–605 BC. The three stages follow the Assyrian royal annals as they are usually read: the kingdom Adad-nirari II left about 900 BC, between the Tigris and the Zab; what Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V held by 722 — Arpad, Damascus in 732 (2 Kings 16:9), Galilee and Gilead in 733 (2 Kings 15:29), Samaria in 722 (2 Kings 17:5-6), and the kingship of Babylon in 729; and what Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal added by 663 — the Philistine plain after Ashdod fell in 711 (Isaiah 20:1), the Sinai road, and as much of Egypt as Assyria governed. The washes stop where control stopped rather than where a raid reached: Ashurbanipal sacked Thebes, the No-Amon of Nahum 3:8, in 663, and it lies south of this frame. Judah is tinted because it was never made a province — Hezekiah paid Sennacherib and the siege of 701 was lifted (2 Kings 18:14, 19:35-36) — and it is named in the key rather than on the plate, the word being twice the width of the kingdom at this scale. Moab, Ammon, Edom and Tyre paid tribute on the same terms but are left untinted, since the plate follows Judah. Israel has no color of its own for the opposite reason: after 722 its land was Assyrian provinces and its people were settled in Halah, on the Habor, in Gozan and in the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6) — Halah has never been located. Qarqar, on the Orontes in 853, comes from the Kurkh Monolith and not from Scripture: it is the first time Israel appears in an Assyrian record, with Ahab in the coalition. Nineveh fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 612 (Nahum 1-3), Harran, the last Assyrian capital, in 610, and at Carchemish in 605 Babylon destroyed the Egyptian army that had marched to save what was left (Jeremiah 46:2) — the same march that cost Josiah his life at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29). Shushan is Susa and Achmetha is Ecbatana (Ezra 6:2). Eltekeh, where Sennacherib met the Egyptian and Kushite force of Tirhakah in 701 (2 Kings 19:9), and Megiddo and Gaza with it, are left off for room. Mt Ararat TIGRIS NILE HEBRUS EUPHRATES TAURUS NILE DELTA PONTIC MTS SYRIAN DESERT ZAGROS ASSYRIA BABYLONIA ISRAEL EGYPT URARTU ELAM MEDIA ARABIA CILICIA THE GREAT SEA THE PERSIAN GULF THE RED SEA Memphis · 671 BC Lachish · 701 BC Jerusalem · 701 BC Samaria · 722 BC Qarqar · 853 BC Damascus · 732 BC Carchemish · 605 BC Harran · 610 BC Nineveh · 612 BC Babylon · 689 BC Shushan · 646 BC Calah Asshur Arbela Gozan Tarsus Arpad Hamath Riblah Sidon Tyre Hazor Ashdod Zoan On Ur Achmetha Tushpa Assyria c. 900 BCAdded by 722 BCAdded by 663 BCJudahUrartuElamBattle · yearRoyal cityOther townHighlandIsrael annexed 722 BC 1000100200300MILES

    The Assyrian Empire

    Expansion and the fall of Israel · c. 900–605 BC

    The three stages follow the Assyrian royal annals as they are usually read: the kingdom Adad-nirari II left about 900 BC, between the Tigris and the Zab; what Tiglath-pileser III and Shalmaneser V held by 722 — Arpad, Damascus in 732 (2 Kings 16:9), Galilee and Gilead in 733 (2 Kings 15:29), Samaria in 722 (2 Kings 17:5-6), and the kingship of Babylon in 729; and what Sargon II, Sennacherib, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal added by 663 — the Philistine plain after Ashdod fell in 711 (Isaiah 20:1), the Sinai road, and as much of Egypt as Assyria governed. The washes stop where control stopped rather than where a raid reached: Ashurbanipal sacked Thebes, the No-Amon of Nahum 3:8, in 663, and it lies south of this frame. Judah is tinted because it was never made a province — Hezekiah paid Sennacherib and the siege of 701 was lifted (2 Kings 18:14, 19:35-36) — and it is named in the key rather than on the plate, the word being twice the width of the kingdom at this scale. Moab, Ammon, Edom and Tyre paid tribute on the same terms but are left untinted, since the plate follows Judah. Israel has no color of its own for the opposite reason: after 722 its land was Assyrian provinces and its people were settled in Halah, on the Habor, in Gozan and in the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6) — Halah has never been located. Qarqar, on the Orontes in 853, comes from the Kurkh Monolith and not from Scripture: it is the first time Israel appears in an Assyrian record, with Ahab in the coalition. Nineveh fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 612 (Nahum 1-3), Harran, the last Assyrian capital, in 610, and at Carchemish in 605 Babylon destroyed the Egyptian army that had marched to save what was left (Jeremiah 46:2) — the same march that cost Josiah his life at Megiddo (2 Kings 23:29). Shushan is Susa and Achmetha is Ecbatana (Ezra 6:2). Eltekeh, where Sennacherib met the Egyptian and Kushite force of Tirhakah in 701 (2 Kings 19:9), and Megiddo and Gaza with it, are left off for room.

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