Bible Synapse
Nimrud Prism of Sargon II
Inscription · c. 706 BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Sargon II’s Nimrud Prism, Prisms D and E of Sargon II
See it on the map and timeline- Date
- c. 706 BC (the writing of the prism’s text)
- Found
- Nimrud (ancient Kalhu, biblical Calah), Iraq, 1952. Pieces of two copies were found in 1952 and 1953 by the British excavations at Nimrud. When the RINAP editor worked in the Iraq Museum in 1982 and 1998, only two of the pieces could be located, so most of the text is now read from the copies published in 1954.
- Now
- Iraq Museum, Baghdad (IM 67661, IM 67662)
- Passages
- 2 Kings 17:5–6, 2 Kings 17:24, 2 Kings 18:9–11
What it is
Fragments of two clay prisms with eight columns of Akkadian text, written for Sargon II of Assyria in about 706 BC. The text celebrates the building of his new capital, Dur-Sharrukin, and lists his campaigns out of their order in time. One passage tells how the people of Samaria made a pact with a king hostile to Assyria and refused tribute; Sargon says he defeated them, carried off 47,280 people (in the latest edition; older editions read 27,280) with their chariots and gods, took 200 chariots into his own army, rebuilt Samaria larger than before, settled people from other conquered lands there and put his own governor over them.
How it connects to the Bible
2 Kings 17 tells how the king of Assyria took Samaria, carried Israel away into Assyria, and brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Hamath and other places to live “in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel”. The prism describes the same two-way movement of peoples from the Assyrian side. Kings names Shalmaneser as the king who besieged the city (2 Kings 18:9), while Sargon claims the conquest for himself.
What scholars debate
Many historians think Shalmaneser V took Samaria in about 722 BC and that Sargon put down a further revolt there in 720 BC. Sargon’s other inscriptions give 27,280 or 27,290 captives; the figure on this prism was long read as 27,280, and the reading 47,280 is a later proposal.