<P> The Assyrian captivity (or the Assyrian exile) is the period in the history of Ancient Israel and Judah during which several thousand Israelites of ancient Samaria were resettled as captives by Assyria . The Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian monarchs, Tiglath - Pileser III (Pul) and Shalmaneser V . The later Assyrian rulers Sargon II and his son and successor, Sennacherib, were responsible for finishing the twenty - year demise of Israel's northern ten - tribe kingdom, although they did not overtake the Southern Kingdom . Jerusalem was besieged, but not taken . The tribes forcibly resettled by Assyria later became known as the Ten Lost Tribes . </P> <P> The captivities began in approximately 740 BCE (or 733 / 2 BCE according to other sources). </P> <P> And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day . (1 Chronicles 5: 26) </P>

When was the southern kingdom of israel taken captive