Cimmerians, Scythians and the “Lost” Tribes of Israel–Part One
Were the Cimmerians named for King Omri of ancient Israel? Did the Scythians get their name from Isaac? Are the Cimmerians and Scythians to be identified with the lost ten tribes of the house of Israel? Will the descendants of these ancient peoples play a role in future world events? Typically some historians attempt to identify the ancient Israelites in later histories by claiming that the name “Omri” is the etymological beginning for the Indo-European Cimmerians and that the name “Isaac” is the etymological beginning for the ancient Scythians. But can this be done? Given that these etymological connections are questionable we find that some people attempt to sure up these claims with certain premises—using the concepts of proximity and timeliness—to propose that the seemingly sudden appearances of the ancient Cimmerians and Scythians in Asia Turkey and Central Asia are directly related to the deportations of the ancient northern ten tribes of Israel. But this raises doubt. So let’s examine this issue of identifying the Cimmerians and Scythians with the people of ancient Israel by first reviewing ancient Israel’s history in the time of Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria. Now Tiglath-pileser III executed two known military campaigns into the northern kingdom of Israel during the reigns of King Menahem of Israel and his rival ruler in the area of Gilead, King Pekah of Israel. And during these campaigns Tiglath-pileser III exacted a burdensome tribute on King Menahem (of Samaria) while annexing a large area of the northern kingdom of Israel into the Assyrian Empire. (Tiglath-pileser III was also known by the title of “Pul” in Scripture, which was a Babylonian throne name.) Then within a relatively few years King Pekah was killed and replaced by King Hoshea at Samaria, while more Israelite captives continued to be taken from throughout the land of Israel. And so we read in Scripture that “in the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria. And Hoshea the son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah” (II Kgs. 15:29-30). (See also I Chron. 5:26 regarding the tribes of Manasseh, Reuben and Gad.) This of course significantly reduced the northern ten-tribed house of Israel to a relatively small area surrounding the city of Samaria. And we find this confirmed in part by what was recorded in the Assyrian inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III, which show that the land of Naphtali became a province of the Assyrian Empire: “on the border of Bit-Humria (house of Omri, Israel)… the wide land of Naphtali, in its entirety, I brought within the border of Assyria. My official I set over them as governor…” (Luckenbill, Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia). (Translations of ancient inscriptions are subject in part to the interpretive understanding of the translator.) Interestingly, according to this translation, the land of Naphtali appears to be “on the border” of the land of Omri, and the land of Naphtali was also considered to be “within the border of Assyria.” Consequently only a central portion of the northern ten tribes remained as a vassal state of the Assyrians, which is noted in one of the few remaining inscriptions accorded to Tiglath-pileser III that states: “the country of the house of Omri [bit-humri]… and all its people [and their possessions], I carried away into Assyria. Pekah their king they had over thrown; Hoshea as king over them I placed…” (Bruce, Israel and the Nations). We see from this inscription that Hoshea was made King of Israel, and it also mentions the land of “bit-humri,” which is a reference to the general area of Samaria ruled by Hoshea. Now historically Shalmaneser V began a siege of Samaria near the end of Hoshea’s reign, which resulted in the end of the Israelite line of kings and the beginning of successive deportations of the Samarian-Israelites. With the additional result being that many of these deportees were then placed under the jurisdiction of various cities within the Assyrian Empire during the reign of Shalmaneser’s immediate successor Sargon II. And so we read that “in the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (II Kgs. 17:6). Thus we find that the fall of Samaria is accorded to Sargon II, with an inscription regarding this siege being preserved in the Display Inscriptions of Khorsabad that states: “I besieged and conquered Samaria, led away as booty 27,290 inhabitants of it. I formed from among them a contingent of 50 chariots and made the remaining inhabitants assume their social positions. I installed over them an officer of mine and imposed upon them the tribute of the former king” (Pfeiffer, Old Testament History). Let’s notice some important points regarding this inscription. It is apparent that Sargon II conscripted some of the Israelite charioteers into his own army, in case we should wonder where some of the people of Israel went to after the fall of Samaria. And not only that, some Israelites remained in the region to pay tribute while many others were taken as captives from Samaria. However the number of deportees noted in this inscription is strikingly small—only a relatively few thousand people respective to Israel’s expected population at that time. Which becomes important to consider when we realize that after being deported to and divided among several different cities within the Assyrian Empire the Samarian-Israelites were greatly diminished and essentially powerless, remaining so for many years. Also—importantly—these inscriptions confirm that Samaria was a city associated with the bit-humri in the land of Israel. Who then were the bit-humri of Samaria? We need to understand that