Lives of Scripture

Shalmaneser V ruled Assyria for about five years (c. 727-722 BC) and appears in Scripture as the king who ended the northern kingdom of Israel. King Hoshea of Israel had submitted to him and paid tribute, but then conspired with the king of Egypt (So) and withheld payment. When Shalmaneser discovered the betrayal, he seized Hoshea and imprisoned him, then invaded the land and besieged Samaria, Israel's capital, for three years (2 Kings 17:3-5). The city finally fell -- Assyrian records credit the capture to Shalmaneser's successor Sargon II, who took the throne around the time Samaria fell, so it may be that Shalmaneser began the siege and died before its conclusion. Assyria then deported the population of Israel to Halah, Habor, the river Gozan, and the cities of the Medes, and resettled the land with foreign peoples, mixing Israel's identity permanently among the nations (2 Kings 17:6, 24). 2 Kings pauses its narrative here for a lengthy theological verdict: this catastrophe came not from Assyria's strength but because Israel had persistently sinned against the LORD, worshiped idols, ignored repeated prophetic warnings, and "walked in the customs of the nations" (17:7-23). Isaiah likewise names Shalmaneser's Assyria as the instrument, however unwitting, of God's judgment on His unfaithful people (Isaiah 10:5-12).