Israel on Assyrian Monuments
The following information is taken from appendix 4 in, "The Story Of Celto-Saxon Israel", but without the many valuable illustrations found in the book. This excellent resource with over 170 maps, charts, and illustrations, is considered the best study available on the subject of the European connection with the lost House of Israel. It may be purchased from our web bookshop at www.migrations.info
The Records Of The Assyrian Kings
Assyria began to rise to military power as early as the
period of the Tel-el-Amarna letters (1400 B.C.). At that time her rulers
had become rivals of Babylon. But the fighting Assyrian kings met many
a rebuff, and the age of their actual world-empire scarcely begins until
we come to King Shalmaneser III, who ruled from 858-824 B.C. Shalmaneser
was not, like the earlier Assyrian kings, a mere marauder, a ravager
of other lands. He was a statesman, an organizer, who tried to retain
permanent hold of the regions he had conquered, and to restore them to
prosperity under his control. Shalmaneser III is also the first Assyrian
king of whom we know definitely that he came in contact with the kings
of Bible story, the Hebrew rulers of Judah and Samaria, and the Aramaic
kings of Damascus.
Shalmaneser asserts his victory over all these western kings; but when
we allow for the boastful tone of Assyrian inscriptions it seems probable
that they fairly held their own against him. The consolidation and extension
of his power were mainly in his own valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates.
Several of Shalmaneser’s inscriptions have come down to us, the most
noted being the one here given and known as ‘the Black Obelisk’ inscription.
It is engraved on an obelisk of black marble, about five feet high, which
was set up in his capital. On all four sides of the obelisk there are
sculptured figures of vassals bringing tribute, among them being the
tribute of ‘Jehu of Israel,’ of Bible fame.
…Next come the longer and still more boastful inscriptions of Sargon
II (721-705 B.C.) and his son Sennacherib (705-681 B.C.). Both of these
grim and furious destroyers ravaged the surrounding lands with a cruelty
and a bre3adth of successful destruction previously unknown even to Assyrian
annals. Again and again Sargon II records of a captured city, ‘its king
I flayed’ or ‘its warriors I set up on stakes.’ It was in Sargon’s reign
that the kingdom of Israel was finally destroyed, though the Jewish history
rightly attributes the final attack to his predecessor, Shalmaneser V,
who began the campaign but died before completing it. Thus the actual
destruction of Samaria, the capital of Israel, was accomplished by Sargon,
and it was he who dragged the ‘ten tribes’ of the Hebrews away to Assyria
as his captives and so utterly dispersed them that we know them only
as the ‘ten lost tribes.’ Sargon in his inscription describes this capture
of Samaria, its rebellion, and its second capture.
Sennacherib also tells of warring in Palestine, and boasts of his success
against Hezekiah, King of Judah. He makes no mention of the story which
the Bible tells of his losing an army by pestilence; but then the Assyrian
kings never mention their defeats. We know that their campaigns were
sometimes failures; but we have to read between the lines of their boasting
to discover these. Sennacherib admits quite plainly that he did not conquer
Jerusalem, but only held its king besieged ‘like a caged bird,’ and then
abandoned the attack, for some reason which he did not care, in his pompous
record, to admit.
The Black Obelisk Of Shalmaneser III
The Epigraphs Accompanying the Sculptures
“The Tribute of ‘Su’a, of the country of the Guzanians: silver, gold,
lead, articles of bronze, scepters for the King’s hand, horses, and camels
with double backs: I received.
The tribute of Jehu, of the land of Omri, silver, gold, bowls of gold,
vessels of gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of gold, lead, scepters for
the King’s hand, and staves: I received.
The tribute of the country of Muzri: camels with double backs, an ox
of the river ‘Saceya, horses, wild asses, elephants, and apes: I received.
The tribute of Marduk-pal-itstsar, of the country of the ‘Sukhians: silver,
gold, pitchers of gold, tusks of the wild bull, staves, antimony, garments
of many colors, and linen: I received.
The tribute of Garparunda, of the country of the Patinians: silver, gold,
lead, bronze, gums, articles of bronze, tusks of wild bulls, and ebony:
I received.”
[End of Inscription]
Note to the Black Obelisk inscription: The House of Israel was not called “Israel” by the Assyrians, but instead, “Khumri,” meaning the “House of Omri.” Here we see the Israelite King Jehu identified by the Assyrians as from “the land of Omri,” or Khumri. For additional information, see pages 70-72 of this book for a discussion of the ‘Cymri’.
Inscription Of Sargon II In His Palace At Khorsabad
Palace of Sargon, the great King, the powerful King, King of the Legions,
King of Assyria, Viceroy of the gods at Babylon, King of the Sumers and
of the Akkads, favorite of the great gods…
I besieged and occupied the town of Samaria, and took 27,280 of its inhabitants
captive. I took from them 50 chariots, but left them the rest of their
belongings. I placed my lieutenants over them; I renewed the obligation
imposed upon them by one of the Kings who preceded me…
Jaubid of Hamath, a smith, was not the legitimate master of the throne;
he was an infidel and an impious man, and he had coveted the royalty
of Hamath. He incited the towns of Arpad, Simyra, Damascus, and Samaria
to rise against me, took his precautions with each of them, and prepared
for battle. I counted all the troops of the god Ashur; in the town of
Karkar, which had declared itself for the rebel, I besieged him and his
warriors, I occupied Karkar and reduced it to ashes. I took him, himself,
and had him flayed, and I killed the chief of the rioters in each town,
and reduced them to a heap of ruins. I recruited my forces with 200 chariots
and 600 horsemen from among the inhabitants of the country of Hamath
and added them to my empire.”
Inscription Of Sennacherib
In the course of my campaign Beth-Dagon, Joppa, Benebarqua,
Azuru, the cities of Tsidqa, which had not quickly thrown themselves
at my feet, I besieged, I took, I carried away their spoil. The governors,
chiefs, and people of Ekron who had cast Padi, their king according to
Assyrian right and oath, into iron chains, and had, in hostile manner,
given him to Hezekiah of Judah – he shut him up in prison – feared in
their hearts. The kings of Egypt called forth the archers, chariots,
and horses of the king of Melukhkhi, a force without number, and came
to their help; before the city of Eltekeh they arranged their battle
array, appealing to their weapons. With the help of Ashur, my lord, I
fought with them and accomplished their defeat. The chief of the chariots
of the king of Melukhkhi my hands took alive in the fight. Eltekeh and
Temnath I besieged, I took, and carried away their spoil.
To the city of Ekron I went; the governors and princes, who had committed
a transgression, I killed and bound their corpses on poles around the
city. The inhabitants of the city who had committed sin and evil I counted
as spoil; to the rest of them who had committed no sin and wrong, who
had no guilt, I spoke peace. Padi, their King, I brought forth from the
city of Jerusalem; upon the throne of lordship over them I placed him.
The tribute of my lordship I laid upon him. But Hezekiah, of Judah, who
had not submitted to my yoke, I besieged 46 of his strong cities, fortresses,
and small cities of their environs, without number, and by casting down
the walls and advancing the engines, by an assault of the light-armed
soldiers, by breaches, by striking, and by axes I took them; 200,150
men, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen,
and sheep without number I brought out from them, I counted them as spoil.
Hezekiah himself I shut up like a caged bird in Jerusalem, his royal
city; the walls I fortified against him, and whosoever came out of the
gates of the city I turned back. His cities, which I had plundered, I
divided from his land and gave them to Mitinti, King of Ashdod, to Padi,
King do Ekron, and to Tsil-Bal, King of Gaza, and thus diminished his
territory. To the former tribute, paid yearly, I added the tribute of
alliance of my lordship, and laid that upon him. Hezekiah himself was
overwhelmed by the fear of the brightness of my lordship; the Arabians
and his other faith warriors whom, as a defense for Jerusalem, his royal
city, he had brought in, fell into fear. With 30 talents of gold and
800 talents of silver, precious stones, gukhli daggassi, large lapis
lazuli, couches of ivory, thrones of ivory, ivory, usu wood, boxwood
of every kind, a heavy treasure, and his daughters, his women of the
palace, the young men and young women, to Nineveh, the city of my lordship,
I caused to be brought after me, and he sent his ambassadors to give
tribute and to pay homage.”
