Fall of Samaria

The Fall of Samaria (Date::721 BC according to Ussher, or 723-2 BC according to Thiele  ) took place in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea and the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah. It marked the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.

Background
Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom, built by King Omri nearly two hundred years before. Hoshea took the throne of Northern Israel after a nine-year interregnum following the death of Pekah. (The Thiele chronology does not reckon any such interregnum, but Ussher does.) For the first part of his reign, Hoshea sent tribute to Shalmaneser V of Assyria.

But then Hoshea sent messages to Pharaoh So of Egypt, and suspended payment of the tribute. This set the stage, and Shalmaneser prepared for war.

Siege
The siege of Samaria lasted for three years, and began with the almost immediate imprisonment of Hoshea by Shalmaneser. When the siege was over, Shalmaneser then brought in colonies of foreigners, as was common Assyrian policy in conquered lands: In this context, one must remember that these "priests" of the Northern Kingdom were not Levites.

This formed the basis for the extreme enmity between Jew and Samaritan that was still apparent in Jesus' day.

Extrabiblical Debate
Some scholars have disputed the notion that Shalmaneser (or, as they suppose, Sargon II) deported all of the people of the Northern Kingdom. They base their contention on a stela attributed to this Sargon, listing 27,290 captives. However, that number might have been an under-report by a later monarch hoping to diminish the accomplishments of Shalmaneser. Furthermore, Mackey in 2001 presented an analysis identifying Sargon as Sennacherib. Later monarchs were known to exaggerate their own importance and even to expropriate the achievements of their predecessors. Thus Shalmaneser's successor would appear to have a double motive for diminishing Shalmaneser's victory to enhance his own stature.