12 Oct. Israel falls and the Israelites are led to Assyria
“Hoshea son of Elah became king over Israel during Ahaz’s twelfth year as king of Judah. Hoshea ruled in Samaria for nine years. He did what the LORD said was wrong, but he was not as bad as the kings of Israel who had ruled before him.”
“Shalmaneser king of Assyria came to attack Hoshea. Hoshea had been Shalmaneser’s servant and had made the payments to Shalmaneser that he had demanded.”
“But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea had made plans against him by sending messengers to So, the king of Egypt. Hoshea had also stopped giving Shalmaneser the payments, which he had paid every year in the past. For that, the king put Hoshea in prison.”
“Then the king of Assyria came and attacked all the land of Israel. He surrounded Samaria and attacked it for three years. He defeated Samaria in the ninth year Hoshea was king, and he took the Israelites away to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the cities of the Medes.”
“All these things happened because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God… They lived like the nations the LORD had forced out of the land ahead of them. They lived as their evil kings had shown them, secretly sinning against the LORD their God.”
“They built places to worship gods, from the watchtower to the fortified city. They put up stone pillars to gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree… The Israelites did wicked things that made the LORD angry. They served idols when the LORD had said, ‘You must not do this.’”
“The LORD used every prophet and seer to warn Israel and Judah… But the people would not listen. They were stubborn, just as their ancestors had been who did not believe in the LORD their God…”
“They always chose to do what the LORD said was wrong, which made him angry. Because he was very angry with the people of Israel, he removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left.”
(2 Kings 17:1-18)
During the chaos of Tiglath-Pileser’s onslaught on Israel (as depicted on a series of bas-relief panels in the British Museum in London), Pekah, one of the rival kings of Israel, was deposed by Hoshea in 732BC.
At the end of the following year, Menahem, the other rival king, died, leaving Hoshea as the sole king of Israel. For six years (731-725BC), Hoshea paid tribute as a vassal king to Shalmaneser V, the new King of Assyria (see 2 Kings 17:1-2).
Hoshea then conspired against Assyria by forging a treaty with Egypt. Shalmaneser seized Hoshea and early in 724BC laid siege to Samaria for nearly three years.
Eventually, Samaria and the whole northern kingdom of Israel fell in 722BC, the year of Shalmaneser’s death (see 2 Kings 17:3-6).
The Israelites were led into exile in Assyria by the new king, Sargon II, in 720BC. They were taken to Halah, Gozan (on the River Habor) and to the towns of Media, between Susa and Ecbatana (see 2 Kings 17:6-23).
The Israelites' downfall occurred after they had turned away from the LORD for many years, had worshipped worthless idols, and had even sacrificed their own sons and daughters to pagan gods.
The photo shows Assyrian soldiers attacking a town with archers and a wheeled battering ram (on a relief at the British Museum).
You can read more about the Assyrians @ https://thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/32-the-divided-kingdom-amp-journey-into-exile/tiglath-pileser-of-assyria-invades-israel-/