2 Peter Dubovsk´ y The fourth passage describes Shalmaneser’s campaign (2 Kgs 17). Shalmaneser (V) punished Hoshea’s rebellion and according to the Bible this Assyrian campaign marked the end of the Northern Kingdom. Its inhabitants were deported and new settlers were brought in to repopulate the devastated land (the second deportation). The fifth and the longest account of the Assyrian invasion (2 Kgs 18–20) describes Sennacherib’s campaign against Hezekiah. This Assyrian invasion started with the destruction of all the cities of Judah (2 Kgs 18,13), however, it ended in a fiasco when the angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in one night. Sennacherib then returned to Nineveh and was assassinated (2 Kgs 19,35-37). The sixth passage mentioning the Assyrians in 2 Kgs is a concise note placed at the end of the passage describing Hezekiah’s illness (2 Kgs 20,6). Isaiah predicts the liberation of Jerusalem from the hands of the Assyrian king. Chapter 21, describing the reign of Hezekiah’s successors Manasseh and Amon, does not mention the Assyrians at all. The last passage mentioning the Assyrians is 2 Kgs 23,29. A new power took the place of Assyria and the term rwva (Assyria) is used as an explanatory note providing the historical background to Josiah’s death. Following the progress of Assyrian expansion through the eyes of the biblical writers, we can clearly determine the beginning, the climax and the decline of Assyrian expansion: the beginning of Assyrian expansion can be associated with Tiglath-pileser’s first campaign against the Levant (743-738 B.C.) and its climax with Shalmaneser’s and Sennacherib’s campaigns (the last two decades of the 8th c. B.C.). According to the Bible Assyrian expansion comes to an abrupt end during Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah, and after Sennacherib’s death (681 B.C.) Assyria practically disappears from the political scene of the Levant. II. The territorial expansion of Assyria in extrabiblical sources Numerous Neo-Assyrian documents and excavations conducted in Israel allow a partial reconstruction of the events described in the previous paragraphs (2). (2) It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the problems of Assyrian campaigns or to present an exhaustive bibliography. For practical reasons I will present only an overall picture of Assyrian expansion and references to Assyrian sources will be limited to those in ARAB, unless otherwise required.