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The House of Israel

Were Millions Just Assimilated? were taken into captivity. Despite his failed attempt to
destroy the Kingdom of Judah and deport all the Jews,
he nevertheless reports taking 200,150 Jewish
Most historians assert that the Ten Tribes in captivity
intermarried with other peoples with whom they came captives.
into contact, thereby being "swallowed up" by those
peoples. To support this opinion, many argue that the "Though the figure of 200,150 captives and the razing
population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was not of 46 walled cities [in Judah] has been contested...later
large enough to maintain its separate identity in captiv- scholarship has increasingly accepted the possible
ity -- that its population was rather small and subject to authenticity of the numbers...Sennacherib successfully
easy assimilation. But what was the actual number of captured the fortified towns of Judah (2 Kings 18:13;
people deported to Assyria? How many people are we 2 Chr. 32:1), exacted a spectacular tribute (2 Kings
really talking about? 18:14-16), and failed to capture Jerusalem though he
walled up Hezekiah 'like a caged bird'" ("Hezekiah,"
Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 3, p. 192). "Hezekiah's
At the time of the Exodus (c. 1446 B.C.) there were
about three million Israelites. Clarke's Commentary revolt in 705 BC, crushed by Sennacherib 4 years
and numerous others both offer this estimate based later, reduced Judah to a shadow of its former self, at
upon the biblical figure of "about six hundred thou- least two-thirds of the population perished or being
sand men on foot [who could fight], besides children" carried away captive, and a large portion of its terri-
(Ex. 12:37). So it is possible, from able-bodied tory being lost" ("Judah," Illustrated Bible Dictionary,
"men of war" figures, to accurately estimate total pt. 2, p. 825). If about 200,000 men constituted two-
population -- including women, children and eld- thirds of Judah, Judah must have had over 300,000 men
erly men. -- meaning there were a few million Jews. And Israel
would have been even bigger!
About 456 years later (c. 990 B.C.), King David took a
military census. Halley's Bible Handbook says, "The Professor Salo Baron, acclaimed by the London Daily
census showed a population of about a million and a Express as the world's greatest authority on Jewish
half of fighting men, exclusive of Levi and Benjamin (I history, says that, prior to Israel's Assyrian captivity,
Chr. 21:5); or a total population of, probably, about "there were not less than FOUR HUNDRED SET-
SIX TO EIGHT MILLION" (23rd ed. p. 188). In fact, TLEMENTS classified as towns" (Social and Relig-
Israel and Judah may have had a combined population ious History of the Jews, vol. 1, p. 72).
of about eight to fifteen million at the time of David's
census -- the early part of the tenth century B.C. The Interestingly, "Tiglath-pileser boasts that he destroyed
Ten Tribes alone must have contained at least five at this time five hundred and ninety-one cities [!],
to ten million people! Israel's final captivity oc- whose inhabitants were carried away with all their pos-
curred approximately 270 years afterward, in 721 B.C. sessions to Assyria" ("Tiglath-pileser," Unger's Bible
Is it logical to suggest that they had decreased to less Dictionary, p. 1,094). We must remember that those
than 100,000 by that time? No, that's ludicrous! There nearly 600 cities were all located in the northern part
must still have been millions of Israelites at the of the Northern Kingdom and in the region across the
time of their deportation, probably close to the Jordan -- away from the main concentration of the
same figures given for David's time. northern tribes! Thus, Israel, in the eighth century B.C.,
was an extremely populous nation!
All historical accounts are unanimous in showing that
the Northern Kingdom of Israel was far more populous When we put all the facts together, it is clear that the
than the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Yet, there are population of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, at
some who would foolishly conclude that the Assyrians the time of its captivity, was probably at least five
took far more captives from Judah than from Israel. to ten million! What happened to those teeming mil-
Assyrian Emperor Sennacherib invaded Judah in 701 lions after they went into captivity? Were they assimi-
B.C., 20 years after the northern Ten Tribes of Israel
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