The Northern Kingdom of Israel Is Steamrolled by the Assyrians

The northern kingdom of Israel gets steamrolled by the Assyrians, many of them flee south as refugees. They are incorporated into Judah, with whom they've already had a lot of cultural interchange. And so, there you have a people who are having to deal with defeat within the context of Judah where there is still an active yalwism at work. The idea that somehow the patron gods judgment became this really crucial fulcrum point in a distinctive way to Judah because of its shared situation with the north.