Assyria & Northern Exile
741–587 BCE · 3 snapshots
Watch the boundaries of biblical-era polities shift across a draggable timeline. Click any place to see its affiliation in all 13 periods, scriptural references and archaeology notes.
Snapshots
Tiglath-Pileser III Annexes Aram and Galilee
733 BCE
Assyria annexes Aram and Damascus and seizes Galilee and Gilead; Israel becomes a vassal and Judah pays tribute.
- King of AssyriaTiglath-pileser III
- King of IsraelPekah and Hoshea
- King of JudahAhaz
- Scripture
- 2 Kgs 15:29; 16:7-9; Isa 7-8
- Archaeology & dating
- Iron Age IIB/III; Assyrian royal inscriptions and the site of Dan
Assyrian Provinces and Northern Kingdom Fall
721 BCE
After a three-year siege Samaria falls; the ten northern tribes are deported to Assyria and their land is reorganized as Assyrian provinces.
- King of AssyriaSargon II
- King of IsraelHoshea (last)
- Scripture
- 2 Kgs 17:1-6; 18:9-12
- Archaeology & dating
- Iron Age IIC; the destruction layer at Samaria and Assyrian provincial administration
Sennacherib's Campaign against Judah and the Deliverance of Jerusalem
702 BCE
Sennacherib takes the fortified cities of Judah and besieges Jerusalem; the Assyrian camp is struck in one night and the city is delivered.
- King of AssyriaSennacherib
- King of JudahHezekiah
- ProphetIsaiah
- Scripture
- 2 Kgs 18:13-19:37; Isa 36-37; 2 Chr 32
- Archaeology & dating
- Iron Age IIC; the Lachish reliefs, Hezekiah's Tunnel and Sennacherib's Prism
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Boundaries are schematic approximations, not survey-grade geography. This is a historical-geography study tool and takes no position on matters of faith.