Essential Histories 067 - Ancient Israel at War 853 586 BC

Dr BRAD E KELLE is Associate

Professor of Biblical Literature at

Point Loma Nazarene University.

He previously was Assistant

Professor of the Old Testament

at Colorado Christian University.

He specializes in Israelite and

]udean history and the Old

Testament prophetic literature.

Over the last three years he has

chaired the Society of Biblical

Literature's consultation on

'Warfare in Ancient Israel'.

He has also written and had

published many articles and

books on Ancient Israel and

the Hebrew Bible. He lives in

San Diego.

PROFESSOR ROBERT O'NEILL,

AO D.PHIL. (Oxon), Hon D.

Litt. (ANU), FASSA, Fr Hist S,

is the Series Editor of the

Essential Histories. His wealth

of knowledge and expertise

shapes the series content

and provides up-to-the-minute

research and theory. Born in

Australia in 1936 , he served

in the Australian army (1955-68)

and has held a number of eminent

positions in history circles,

including the Chichele

Professorship of the History

of War at All Souls College,

University of Oxford, 1987-2001,

and the Chairmanship of the

Board of the Imperial War

Museum and the Council of the

International Institute for Strategic

Studies, London. He is the author

of many books, including works

on the German Army and the

Nazi party, and the Korean

and Vietnam wars. Based in

Australia since his retirement

from Oxford, he is the Chairman

of the Council of the Australian

Strategic Policy Institute.

Essential Histories

Ancient Israel at War853-586 Be

Essential Histories

Ancient Israel at War853-586 Be

Brad E Kelle

First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Osprey Publishing,

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Contents

Introduction 7

Chronology I2

Background to war

The rise of the I<ingdoms 14

Warring sides

The politics of religion, commerce, and war 20

Outbreak

The emergence of domination and resistance 27

The fighting

In the maelstrom of empires 34

Portrait of a soldier

Pel<ah, son of Remaliah: rebel, officer; I<ing 60

The world around war

The effects of conflict 64

Portraits of civilians

Three faces of Israel and Judah 70

How the war ended

Judah as a Babylonian province 75

Conclusion and consequences

Forging identities (586-539 Be) 81

Further reading 89

Endnotes 92

Index 94

Introduction

Among the powers

In the mid-9th century BC, the ancientkingdoms of Israel and Judah - existing inthe territories now referred to as "the HolyLand," Israel, or Palestine - were two ofseveral small kingdoms subsumed underan Assyrian Empire, ruled from the banksof the Euphrates River. By the latter partof the 8th century, Assyria had destroyed theKingdom of Israel. Little more than a centurylater, the Kingdom of Judah suffered asimilar fate at the hands of the Babylonians.Although Judah would later regain anidentity, the events of this ancient timeshaped a wealth of literature and continueto influence modern thinking about theso-called "Middle East."

This book examines the major militaryconflicts of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah

from their earliest recorded encounterwith the Assyrians in 853 BC, to the finaldestruction of Jerusalem by the Babyloniansin 586 BC. These wars can provide insightsinto the political developments that shapedthe broader history of the Ancient Near East,and the social realities that shaped the livesof ordinary people in these ancient kingdoms.

Within the broader political history ofthe Ancient Near East, this period first sawthe dominance of the Neo-Assyrian Empire.This empire emerged in earnest around 900,and extended its dominance westward tothe Mediterranean Sea by the mid-870s.

A copy of a seal inscribed with the phrase, "Belonging

to Shema' servant of Jeroboam," which dates from

the 8th century Be at Megiddo. "Jeroboam" here was

probably Jeroboam II, King of Israel in the first half of the

8th century Seals were used to affix personal identification

to correspondence. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)

8 Essential Histories • Ancient Israel at War 853-586 Be

For the next two centuries, as Assyria'sfortunes waxed and waned, the Empiremaintained various vassal states and annexedprovinces throughout the Ancient Near East.By 605, however, a weakened Assyria gaveway to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Withthe help of other groups like the Medes,the Babylonians assumed control of virtuallyall territories from the Euphrates River tothe Mediterranean Sea south of Anatolia(modern Turkey) and north of Egypt. Thisdominance would last for nearly a centuryuntil the Babylonian Empire itself gave wayto the Medes and Persians in 539.

Among these empires, many smallerkingdoms played significant roles in regionaland imperial politics. Egypt exerted influenceat various times throughout the region.Smaller kingdoms like Phoenicia, Philistia,Ammon, Moab, Edom, Israel, and Judahalso vied for power with one other andin relation to the empires. The Kingdomof Aram-Damascus, which was located tothe northeast of Israel, particularly achieveddominance around the Jordan River - evendominance over Israel and Judah from 841to 805 - but was ultimately destroyed byAssyria around 732.

Six major periods of military conflict forIsrael and Judah occurred in the context ofthese empires and kingdoms:

1) In 853, Israel participated in a coalitionled by Aram-Damascus, which opposedthe Assyrians at the battle of Qarqar;

2) 843-805 was a period of sustainedconflict among Israel, Judah, andAram-Damascus as a result of the riseof Aram-Damascus during a periodof Assyrian weakness;

3) From 734 to 731, war broke outbetween Israel and Judah whenIsrael entered into an alliance withAram-Damascus and attempted tocapture Jerusalem from Judah;

4) 730-720 witnessed Israel's sustainedengagement in various rebellionsagainst Assyria;

5) After the destruction of the Kingdomof Israel, the years 714-701 includedtwo major conflicts in which Judah

attempted to throw off Assyriandomination;

6) 597-586 witnessed two conflictsin which Judah rebelled againstthe newly formed BabylonianEmpire and ultimately fell victimto provincialization.

The Bible and Israel's history

For the history of ancient Israel and Judah,the historian is in the unique position ofhaving a widely read document that claimsto present the story of these two kingdomsin a comprehensive way. That documentis what Jews call the "Bible" and Christianscall the "Hebrew Bible" or "Old Testament"portion of their scripture, which alsocontains the "New Testament." The existenceof the Bible, however, presents the historianwith a dilemma. On the one hand, othernon-biblical or "extra-biblical" sourcesexist that are not as comprehensive, butare more contemporary with the eventsunder consideration. On the other hand,the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (HB/OT)is more comprehensive, but the questionof its historical accuracy is complicated.

With regard to the extra-biblical sources,the Israelites' participation in the battle ofQarqar in 853 is the first mention of Israel inthe records of the Assyrian Empire. There areno clear Assyrian, Babylonian, or Egyptiantexts that give detailed evidence for Israeland Judah during the earlier periods of theirpresumed existence (e.g. 13th-10th centuriesBe). After 853, however, there are largenumbers of textual and archeologicalsources, yet they offer only a small amountof straightforward, particularly first-handmaterial concerning Israel and Judah.Archeologists have discovered, for example,some texts from ancient Israel itself thatdate from the 9th to the 6th centuries Be.

These are not in the form of royal annalsor king-lists, but rather tend to be local andoccas'ional documents, like ostraca (inscribedpotsherds) and seals, or Hebrew inscriptionsand letters, like records of economic

The portion of the Babylonian Chronicle, a historical annal

from the reign of Nebuchadrezzar II, which records the

capture of Jerusalem in 597 Be. (British Museum, London)

transactions. Textual sources fromneighboring cultures are more numerous,especially the surviving collections of royalinscriptions from Assyria, Babylonia, andEgypt. Assyrian royal annals and "EponymChronicles" (or" limmu-lists"), compositionsthat give chronological accounts of theachievements of various Assyrian kings,provide some specific references to rulersand events in Israel and Judah, as does avariety of local correspondence.

With regard to the biblical material, theHB/OT contains two overlapping accountsof Israelite and Judean history in the Assyrianand Babylonian periods: 1 Kings 16 to2 Kings 23, and 2 Chronicles 17-35. Theformer is generally considered to be partof a larger work called the "DeuteronomisticHistory," which includes the biblical booksof Joshua through to 2 Kings. A first versionof this composition may have its origins inthe 8th or 7th century BC, but the biblicalversion clearly results from various additionsand editing in later centuries. The Chronicles'account apparently stems from the

Introduction 9

4th century BC, with even later revisions.Both compilations indicate that they drawupon earlier sources such as "the Book ofthe Annals of the Kings of Israel/Judah,"lsources that have not yet been discovered.

As a result of the prominence of thesebiblical texts, most of the research onIsraelite and Judean history has takenplace within the field of study knownas "modern biblical criticism." Such studycan be significantly different in both itsassumptions and practices from the kindsof scripture reading done in modernsynagogues and churches. In this field,the HB/OT is not viewed as a unified,coherent, and inerrant divine authority,but is recognized as being a compilationof historically conditioned writings, whichwere constructed over long periods of time,contain multiple genres and literaryconventions, and reflect the ideologiesand contexts of their writers. Especially sincethe 1970s, historians have increasingly takennote of the literary and ideological natureof the biblical texts, namely that the Bible,like all ancient sources, contains artisticconventions, class and gender biases,and ideological programs. Additionally, themajority of the biblical narratives appear tohave been written in the centuries after 586,a period long removed from the events theydescribe. Research in the last two decades hasalso frequently shown that many of the pastarcheological "proofs" used to support theBible's basic story are inadequate.

In light of these developments, historianstoday often conclude that non-biblical textsand artefacts are the most useful, since theyare more contemporary with the events theydescribe, and that the HB/OT must be usedcautiously and only in conjunction withother sources. While the biblical texts maycontain ancient oral traditions that shouldnot be discounted, many historians draw adistinction between the historical peoplesof Israel and Judah, who actually inhabitedparts of the land of modern Israel andPalestine during the Iron Age, and thebiblical "Israel," a literary entity whosestory exists only in the pages of the Bible.


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Introduction I I

The western wall ("wailing wall") of the temple mount inJerusalem is a central place of Jewish prayer. It was oncethought to be the remains of part of Solomon's templebuilt in the 10th century BC, but is more likely a portionof the later temple built by Herod the Great (37-4 BC).

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Thus, the Bible's usefulness forreconstructing the history of Israeland Judah remains debated. Should wereconstruct major conflicts from Israel'spast without using the Bible? Should we givepriority to non-biblical data but use the Bibleas a secondary source? Or should we acceptthe biblical accounts as historical unless theyare directly falsified? This study of Israel'swars takes the position that a middle groundcourse is best: all available sources, meageror contested though they may be, shouldbe taken into account, yet each should beweighed equally, without automatically

privileging or distrusting either the biblicalstory or non-biblical data. In the end, boththe biblical and Ancient Near Eastern textsare literary constructions with theologicaland ideological agendas, which are oftenpropagandistic and selective. Even thoughthe Bible tells a detailed story, historiansmust still make choices concerning howto weigh different pieces of evidence on acase-by-case basis. Any conclusion based ononly one source, even if it is the Bible, mustremain tentative. This approach means thatthe historian should explain how he or sheviews each source used in light of its genre,purposes, origins, context, and connectionwith other sources. Such a combination ofsources, complex though it may be, is thewindow into the conflicts and life of Israeland Judah among the powers of the 9th tothe 6th centuries Be.

Chronology

The HB/OT, particularly 1 and 2 Kings,preserves a comprehensive chronologyof kings and events in Israel and Judah. Yetthese texts are a controversial chronologicalsource, as the figures given cannot be sortedout coherently. The Bible has merged thedata from the two distinct kingdoms, andthe texts contain two different systems ofkeeping chronology. One system gives thetotal years of a king's reign: "[Ahaz] reigned16 years in Jerusalem."2 The other systemsynchronizes kings of Israel and Judah:"In the 17th year of Pekah son of Remaliah[of Israel], King Ahaz son of Jotham began toreign."3 Though intertwined, these systemsdo not align, nor do the biblical bookscontain identical names for all the kings.Efforts to unravel the biblical chronologyhave considered the possibilities thatdifferent sources used by the biblicalwriters may have employed differentcalendar systems, that co-regencies mayhave existed, that other manuscripts (nolonger surviving) may preserve the originalfigures, and that theological perspectivesmay have distorted the data.

Thus, in order to get even a general senseof the chronology for the kingdoms of Israeland Judah, non-biblical sources from Assyriaand Babylonia must be used with the Bible.These sources record natural events likeeclipses, which allow them to be datedmore precisely, and are less schematic andtheological than the HB/OT's chronologies.Still, despite mentions of Israelite and Judeankings in some of these sources, and mentionsof Assyrian and Babylonian kings in theHB/OT, no effort has arrived at an agreedchronology, and proposals can vary asmuch as a decade for the dates of a particularevent. One can offer relatively secure datesfor some particular periods, but not acomprehensive chronology.

909 Adad-nirari II founds the Neo-AssyrianEmpire

875 Ashurnasirpal II collects tribute fromcities in Syria-Palestine

853 Ahab of Israel and coalition partnersbattle Shalmaneser III at Qarqar; Ahabdies shortly after

849-845 Continued coalition battleswith Shalmaneser III

843 Hazael usurps throne inAram-Damascus and beginshostilities with Israel

841 Jehu seizes throne in Israel and paystribute to Shalmaneser III

838-805 Assyria in decline;Hazael dominates Israel andsurrounding kingdoms

810 Adad-nirari III leads Assyrianresurgence to the west

805-803 Israel throws off Aram-Damascus;Adad-nirari III captures Damascus;Joash of Israel pays tribute to Assyria

802 Joash ends Amaziah of Judah's bid forindependence from Israel

788-750 Period of restoration andprosperity in Israel and Judah

773 Shalmaneser IV recaptures Damascus773-745 Internal revolts in Assyria and loss

of Assyrian presence in the west750 Rezin becomes king in Aram-Damascus

and invades Israelite territory; Pekahemerges as pro-Aramean rival claimantin Israel

747-730 Piankhy of Ethiopia occupiesEgyptian Delta

745 Tiglath-pileser III takes Assyrian throneand begins westward campaigns

740-738 Menahem of Israel pays tributeto Tiglath-pileser III

734 Pekah seizes throne in Israel and joinsan anti-Assyrian coalition led by Rezin

734-733 Rezin and Pekah besiege Ahazin Jerusalem

733 Ahaz of Judah pays tribute toTiglath-pileser III

733-731 Tiglath-pileser III defeats Rezin andallies and annexes territories in Galileeand Transjordan; Hoshea overthrowsPekah in Israel

731 Hoshea sends tribute to Tiglath-pileser III730 Accession of Osorkon IV in Egypt729 Tiglath-pileser III captures Babylon728-727 Renewed rebellion in west;

Tiglath-pileser III dies on campaign;Hoshea rebels then submits toShalmaneser V of Assyria

727-725 Israel joins rebellion led by Tyreand appeals for help to "King So" ofEgypt; Shalmaneser V provincializesSamaria and besieges Tyre

724-722 Israel joins renewed westernrebellion; Shalmaneser V besiegesSamaria for three years and captures it

722-721 Rebellion across Empire atShalmaneser V's death

720 Sargon II suppresses revolt led byYaubi'di of Hamath, recaptures Samaria,and exiles around 30,000 people; Assyriaopens trade with the Egyptian Delta

715 Judean troops fight alongside Assyriansin Urartu

715 Shabako of Ethiopia invades EgyptianDelta and reverses relationswith Assyria

714 Merodach-baladan of Babylon sendsemissaries to Judah

714-711 Judah joins anti-Assyrian rebellionled by Yamani of Ashdod; Sargon IIreclaims Babylon, provincializes Ashdod,and destroys some Judean territory

710 Cyprus and King Midas of Phrygiasubmit to Assyria

705 Sargon II dies on battlefield inAnatolia; rebellion throughout Empire

705-701 Hezekiah of Judah leads a westernrebellion including Ekron, Sidon,and Ashkelon

701 Sennacherib of Assyria defeatsEgyptians led by Taharqa at Eltekeh,captures 46 Judean towns, exiles200,150 people, and besiegesJerusalem; Hezekiah capitulates butremains in power

Chronology 13

673 Taharqa repels Assyrian kingEsarhaddon's invasion of Egypt

671 Esarhaddon defeats Taharqa andcaptures Memphis

669-668 Esarhaddon dies on arenewed campaign againstTaharqa; Ashurbanipal continuesthe campaign; Judah contributestroops to Ashurbanipal

664 Ashurbanipal defeats the Ethiopiansand captures Thebes

652-648 Rebellion in Babylon led byAshurbanipal's brother

643-642 Widespread western revoltagainst Ashurbanipal

641-610 Josiah rules in Judah; Assyria indecline; Pharaoh Psammetichus Idominates Syria-Palestine

626 Nabopolassar frees Babylonfrom Assyria and foundsNeo-Babylonian dynasty

614 Medes capture Ashur and alignwith Babylonians

612 Babylonians and Medes destroyNineveh

610 Pharaoh Necho II aids Assyria againstBabylonians at Haran and kills Josiahat Megiddo

609 Babylonians and Medes defeat Egyptiansand Assyrians at Haran; Necho II makesJehoiakim king in Judah

605 Babylonians defeat Egyptians atCarchemish; Nebuchadrezzar claimsthrone of Babylon; Judah becomesBabylonian vassal

601-600 Necho II halts Nebuchadrezzar'sinvasion of Egypt and moves intoGaza; Jehoiakim withholds tributefrom Babylon

597 Nebuchadrezzar captures Jerusalemand enthrones Zedekiah

595-4 Elam leads rebellion in east592-591 Pharaoh Psammetichus II visits

Judah and Phoenicia; Zedekiahwithholds tribute from Babylon

588-587 Nebuchadrezzar besiegesJerusalem and repels army of PharaohApries (Hophra)

586 Babylonians destroy Jerusalem andits temple

Background to war

The rise of the I<ingdoms

The centuries of conflict covered in thisvolume saw ancient Israel and Judah engagedwith allies and enemies from four primaryareas - Assyria, Aram-Damascus, Babylonia,and Egypt - in a territory now called theAncient Near East or Fertile Crescent.This area stretched from the Persian Gulf,up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, below theZagros mountains, to the eastern coast of theMediterranean Sea, down to the Gulf of Aqaba,and over Gaza to the Nile River. It was a highlyactive trade route, whose communicationavenues and political activities fostered thegrowth of kingdoms and empires.

The kingdoms that arose in Assyria andBabylonia became the major empires thatdominated the Ancient Near East after themid-9th century BC, and engulfed smallerkingdoms like Israel and Judah in themaelstrom of their activities. Each of the fourprimary areas had, however, a long history ofdevelopment, which stretched back to around2000 BC and formed the background for the

sequence of conflicts relevant to the presentstudy. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah,apparently emerging around 1200 to 1000,were relatively late in their development.While the precise time and dynamics oftheir emergence remain difficult to establish,direct Israelite and Judean engagement withkingdoms from these primary areas began inthe mid-9th century.

The kingdoms to the eastand south

Between about 2000 BC and the outbreakof conflicts around 850, the history of theAncient Near East was characterized by the

The great Egyptian pyramids at Giza from the Fourth

Dynasty (c.2600 Be). These pyramids had already been

standing for nearly a millennium and a half by the time

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continual shifting of the center of powerbetween Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt,with smaller powers such as the Arameans(in Syria), the Hittites (in Anatolia),and Urartu (in eastern Asia Minor)arising occasionally. Out of this matrixof ascendancy and decline, the Kingdomof Assyria eventually arose as the dominantforce in the Ancient Near East.

Assyria actually began to emerge around3000 BC as a conglomeration of variousindependent city-states located betweenthe Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the 2000s,the area coalesced into a unified entity, andby c.1800 Shamshi-Adad I had expandedAssyrian control into central Syria.Throughout the following centuries, the"Assyrian heartland" consisted of a trianglebordered by the Kurdish mountains, the TigrisRiver, and the Upper Zab River, with its chiefcities at Ashur, Calah, and Nineveh. Assyria'sefforts at expansion, however, would laterenlarge its territory to include a region thatstretched from the Persian Gulf in the southto the Zagros mountains in the east, andfrom the Kurdish mountains in the northto the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

Throughout its history, Assyria'sgeographical location made it particularlyvulnerable to enemies from the north andsouth. For instance, in the 18th century BC,

the Babylonians under Hammurabi movedup the Tigris and came to rule nearly thewhole of the Assyrian heartland. AfterHammurabi's reign, however, Babyloniaitself fell under the power of more distantkingdoms like the Kassites and Hittites.Around 1700 BC, Assyria entered a period ofweakness that would last for some 400 years,when its territory was brought under thedominance of the Kingdom of Mitanni,centered on the Habur River.

At this time, the center of power in theAncient Near East shifted back to Egypt. Forover 100 years, Egypt had been ruled by theHyksos, Semitic rulers from Asia. But around1550 BC, the Hyksos were expelled and anEgyptian dynasty led from Thebes establishedan empire that would dominate the westernpart of the Fertile Crescent, including the land

of Canaan or "Syria-Palestine," until around1200. This so-called "New Kingdom" tookshape under pharaohs like Thutmose III,Amenhotep, and Ramesses II, and saw theEgyptian annexation of territories from Nubiain Upper Egypt to cities in northern Canaan,even as far north as the Euphrates River. WhileAssyria and Babylonia sent diplomatic presentsto the Egyptian rulers, Egypt's major enemywas the Hittites from Anatolia. After yearsof battling one another to a stalemate, theEgyptians and Hittites entered into a treatyduring the time of Ramesses II and effectivelyshared domination of the Ancient Near East.

Throughout these years, the eastern powersof Assyria and Babylonia were only able togain strength for brief periods, and even thenhad to contend with nearby threats like thoseof Elam and Mitanni. One such momentoccurred with the emergence of the Assyrianking Ashur-uballit I (1363-1328). In the midstof Egypt's western domination, he was ableto control Babylonia and correspond withthe Egyptian pharaoh as an equal. Althoughthe years immediately following his reignwould see the loss of control over Babylonia,this first self-proclaimed "King of Assyria"began Assyria's westward expansiontoward the Mediterranean Sea, whichwould grow incrementally over the nextseveral centuries.

At the beginning of the so-called "Iron Age"(c.1200), the geo-political face of the AncientNear East shifted dramatically with the arrivalof the "Sea Peoples," sea-borne groups perhapsrelated to Mycenaean civilization, who enteredthe areas of Egypt and the Mediterraneancoast. This period also witnessed the collapseof the Egyptian and Hittite empires and theregression of Assyrian power. Control of Egyptsplintered among different dynasties rulingfrom different areas, and Assyria's hegemonyover Babylonia faltered under pressure fromneighboring regions.

During this period a group arose thatwould playa prominent role in the affairsof Israel, Judah, and the entire area ofSyria-Palestine over the next 500 years.The Arameans, a relatively non-unifiedgroup of Semitic people who lived in the

Background to war 17

One of the two present-day mounds at the site of the

ancient city of Nineveh, former capital of the Assyrian

Empire in the 7th century Be. (Time & Life Pictures/

Getty Images)

area of the middle Euphrates, Orontes River,and southern Syria, filled the vacuum leftby the collapse of the Hittite Kingdomin northern Syria. They made their firstappearance in Assyrian texts after 1200and would reappear with varying levelsof political and military power until theirultimate subjugation by the Assyrians c. 730.

Although the years between 1200 and900 are the most immediate backgroundpreceding ancient Israel's major militaryconflicts, this period is a relative dark agein terms of available historical sources.It seems to have been characterized by theswitching of power between the Assyrians,Arameans, and Egyptians. For example, theAssyrian king, Tiglath-pileser I (1114-1076),claimed to have crossed the Euphrates 28times to fight the Arameans. After his reign,however, Assyria was unable to hold westernterritories against the Arameans, and theAramean Kingdom of Bit-Adini controlledthe area around the Euphrates crossing innorthern Syria. The HB/OT texts, if reliablein this regard, likewise indicate that theAramean kingdoms of Aram Zobah andDamascus gained hegemony over theterritory further west and south. 4 Egypt alsomade an attempt at resurgence during thistimeframe, when Pharaoh Sheshonq (biblical

"Shishak"S) founded the 22nd Dynasty andattempted to reassert Egyptian control overSyria-Palestine by undertaking a militarycampaign northward into central Canaanand the Mediterranean coast (c.925).

The decisive shift in the political worldof the Ancient Near East, a shift that wouldset the stage for the major military conflicts

:of the mid-9th to the early 6th centuries,began with the reemergence of Assyriaunder Ashur-dan II c.930. His reign markedthe beginning of the "Neo-Assyrian Empire"that would dominate the Ancient Near Eastfor the next three centuries, and force eventhe former powers of Babylonia and Egypt tostruggle in its shadow. His son, Adad-nirari II,began a limited practice of annexingconquered territories, a practice that wouldbe undertaken more systematically in thecenturies that followed. The high pointof Assyrian power drew near, however,when Ashurnasirpal II (883-859) subduedAssyria's major northern enemy of Urartu,gained control over the region of Bit-Adiniin the west, reached the Mediterranean Seaby 875, and collected tribute from kingdomsin Syria-Palestine. These actions inauguratedsome 50 years of continuous Assyrianmilitary expansion. This expansion reachedits climax under Ashurnasirpal's successor,Shalmaneser III, the king with whom Israel'smajor military conflicts under considerationin this volume began. He initiated theAssyrian practice of annual military


A representation of a Philistine warrior found at anEgyptian temple in Thebes.The Philistines were partof the "Sea Peoples," who moved into the area of Egyptand Syria-Palestine around 1200 Be. The typical Philistineheaddress is made of horsehair or feathers.(akg-images/Erich Lessing)

campaigns and campaigned west of theEuphrates 21 times during his 35-year reign.Shalmaneser effectively established Assyriancontrol over the territory from Babyloniain the east, to Urartu in the north, toSyria-Palestine in the west.

In the earliest stage of dominance, theAssyrians did not enact a systematic planfor the construction of a unified empire.Shalmaneser did not annex westernkingdoms into imperial provinces butmade them into vassal kingdoms witha required annual tribute. Nonetheless,over the following years the Assyriansgained ever-increasing control throughthe development of a complex bureaucracy,provincial system, and standing army. It isprecisely their efforts in this regard thatprovoked reactions from various kingdomslike Israel and judah. Alliances were forged,rebellions were instigated, and capitulationswere made - all in response to Assyria'sattempts to control the Ancient Near Easternworld. Western resistance to Assyria began

in earnest in 853 when Shalmaneserencountered a newly formed coalition thatincluded one of Israel's first significant kings.

The emergence of Israeland Judah

Around 1200, when the Ancient Near Eastplunged into 200 years of a dark agecharacterized by the collapse of empiresand a dearth of historical sources, Israelemerged on the scene. Hence, the originof the Israelite and judean kingdoms is one ofthe most debated periods in their history. Anyunderstanding of the events largely dependson interpretation of the relevant HB/OT texts.

The biblical texts, especially the books ofjoshua and judges (which were written manycenturies after the events they describe), tella comprehensive story. According to them,the kingdoms of Israel and Judah beganas a unified people. More specifically, theyconsisted of 12 tribes descended from the12 sons of jacob, who escaped from slaveryin Egypt and conquered the land of Canaan.The biblical story continues in the booksof Samuel and Kings, which tell that Davidreigned over a unified kingdom of Israeland judah from jerusalem for about 30 yearsafter the year 1000. His son, Solomon, thenreigned for about 40 years and established acentralized kingdom with a national buildingprogram. Furthermore, Solomon is said tohave created an empire in Syria-Palestinethat spanned the area from the EuphratesRiver to the Mediterranean Sea to theEgyptian border. 6 According to the biblicalstory, it was only after the death of Solomon(c.920) that Israel and judah split into twokingdoms with different ruling dynasties.

Historians are unsure how this biblicalpicture fits with historical reality between1200 and 900. There is a growing consensustoday that Israel did not conquer the landof Canaan from the outside but emergedfrom the consolidation of various foreignand indigenous elements. Similarly,many question whether Israel existed asa centralized kingdom in the 10th century,

Background to war 19

One of the bronze bands from the gates at Balawat,

which depicts Assyrian chariots and horsemen setting

out on a campaign to Hamath in 849 Be. The Assyrian

king Shalmaneser III campaigned throughout northern

Syria between 853 and 845 Be.(British Museum, London)

and thus Israel's creation of an empire inSyria-Palestine at that time. The biblicaltraditions themselves, for example, givevarying pictures of both Israel's emergenceand Solomon's power that cannot be squaredwith one another. 7 Evidence from outsidethe Bible only complicates the picture.One non-biblical inscription from the1200s mentions Israel in passing butdesignates Israel only as a people (not a cityor land) subdued by an Egyptian pharaoh.Archeological remains show the destructionof a few Canaanite cities and the emergenceof small agricultural villages in the highlandsof Syria-Palestine around 1200. But even thesedestroyed cities do not always concur withthe biblical conquest stories, and the villagesappear to continue the indigenous cultureof the preceding period and do not seem to bethe settlements of an outside group. Remainsof monumental architecture (such as citywalls or gates) that may date to Solomon'stime in the 10th century have been foundat some Israelite cities,8 but pottery remainsat those sites may equally suggest that thearchitecture comes from the followingcentury. No extra-biblical texts mentionSolomon or an empire centered in Jerusalem,and there is minimal archeological evidenceof international commerce in Judean territoryduring this period. Also, Jerusalem itself

shows no occupational evidence of havingserved as the urban capital of an expansiveempire during these years.

Taken as a whole, the evidence that isavailable suggests that Israel and Judahoriginated in groups of villagers who cametogether for religious and political purposesin the hill country of Syria-Palestine around1200. Despite the HB/OT's picture, theirearly existence probably differed little fromthe many similar small kingdoms emergingacross the area, and simply represented yetanother example of a wave of settlementsgoing on at this time. The followingcenturies - the biblical times of David andSolomon - probably saw the developmentof a minor chiefdom or city-state centeredon Jerusalem, which was perhaps capableof dominating western Syria-Palestine andthe northern Transjordan. By the time ofthe Neo-Assyrian Empire in the early 800s,however, two kingdoms clearly existedin southern Syria-Palestine: Israel with itscapital at Samaria, and Judah with its capitalat Jerusalem. These took their place amongthe many small kingdoms of the day,including coastal cities like Tyre andSidon, the Neo-Hittite cities in Anatolia,the Aramean Kingdom in Damascus, theAmmonite, Moabite, and Edomite kingdomsto the east, and the Philistine cities to thewest. Over the next four centuries, eachof these civilizations would be engulfedby shifting empires from the east and south,and would allow their politics, religion,and ideology to transform them intowarring sides.

Warring sides

The politics of religion,commerce, and war

The armies of Israel, Judah,and Aram

Four warring sides were the primaryparticipants in the outbreak of Israel's majormilitary conflicts in the mid-9th century Be:

Israel, Judah, Aram-Damascus, and Assyria.The HB/OT provides most of the availableinformation for the Israelite and Judeanmilitaries in this time, along with a fewreferences in Assyrian and Babylonian textsand evidence from archeological remains.The fullest biblical descriptions relate,however, to other periods of Israel's history,and the accuracy of all the biblical andextra-biblical descriptions remains debated.

As the HB/OT presents it, in the earliestperiod of a unified Israel and Judah(c.1200-1050), Israel's army was simplya militia of adult males summoned on anoccasional basis. A lack of constancy andstrength necessitated the avoidance of openbattles and the practice of primarily guerrillatactics, such as individual raids and nightattacks.9 By the reigns of David and Solomon(c. 1050-920), the HB/OT claims the presenceof a standing army that included chariotsand cavalry:

Solomon also had forty thousand stallsof horses for his chariots, and twelve thousandhorsemen ... as well as all ofSolomon's storagecities, the cities for his chariotry, the cities forhis cavalry.IO

Both biblical and non-biblical sourcesconfirm that standing armies were in placein Israel and Judah by the Assyrian period inthe 9th century. Little is known of the specificrecruitment, composition, and organizationof these forces, but they consisted of threeprimary elements: infantry, chariotry, andcavalry. Infantry formed the primary fighting

force and included spearmen, eqUipped withspears, lances, javelins, and shields; archers,utilizing bows of various sizes, carrying quiverson their backs, and often accompanied byseparate shield-bearers; and slingers, organizedin combat pairs. The infantry had units of1,000, 100, SO, and 10, and may have livedin garrisons in key cities.II Biblical texts andAssyrian reliefs portray Israelite and Judeaninfantrymen as outfitted with shields, helmets,and coats of armor, sometimes includinga scarf around the head and covering theears.12 While the prominence of cavalryremains unclear, chariotry was particularlyimportant during the reigns of Omri and Ahab(879-853). Israel and Judah did not have anavy, but biblical texts suggest the periodic useof ships for commercial purposes.13 Alongsidethe regular army core, royal guards served theking personally, and occasional levies couldraise additional temporary troops.

Only scant references exist concerningthe leadership of the Israelite and Judeanmilitary. The king was the head of the army.Offices like "captain" (Hebrew, shalish)14and "commander" (Hebrew, sar)IS wereimportant for the army and chariotry,yet the precise nature of these offices andhow one achieved them remains uncertain.

The size of the forces fielded by Israel andJudah varied in different periods and conflicts.For a battle with the Assyrians in 853, forexample, an Assyrian inscription creditedKing Ahab of Israel with 10,000 soldiers, 2,000chariots, and no cavalry, although the numberof chariots seems high here when comparedwith other forces. Archeological excavations atthe city of Megiddo have revealed the presenceof what appear to be stables, probably usedfor chariot forces during the time of Omriand Ahab. The stables had the capacity tohold nearly 500 horses. Second Kings 13: 7describes Judah's army during a time of

Warring sides 21

oppression by Aram-Damascus as consistingof 10,000 soldiers, SO cavalry, and 10 chariots,but texts reflecting other periods credit theJudean army with as many as 300,000 soldiers:

Under their command was an army of three

hundred seven thousand five hundred, who could

make war with mighty power, to help the kingagainst the enemy.16

An Assyrian relief showing stone-slingers in action.Slingers, along with spearmen and archers, formed thecore of the Assyrian infantry. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)

While there is some evidence for offensivecampaigns and city sieges undertaken byIsrael and Judah during the 9th to the 6thcenturies, their primary military tactic was theforming of alliances with surrounding states.


Flint stones used in slingshots during the battle of Lachishin 70 I Be. Such distance weapons were probably usedby both the Assyrian forces besieging the city and theJudean forces defending it. (British Museum, London)

These alliances were normally attempts toresist Assyrian or Babylonian hegemonyand to turn back these empires' attemptedreprisals against rebellious subordinates.Thus, the military activity of Israel and Judahprimarily served defensive purposes. Thefortifications of major cities, includinggates with strong towers and double wallsconnected by partitions, reflected thisreality and were designed to defendagainst potential sieges.

When drawn out of their cities, Israeliteand Judean forces practiced conventionalwarfare known throughout the ancientNear East, but without the well-developedmachinery and elite corps of the AssyrianEmpire. Israelite chariotry, and especiallycavalry, were limited to a supportive role.The spearmen constituted the major fightingforce at the front, with archers and slingersproviding assistance from the rear.

Israelite and Judean relations with theirimmediate neighbors vacillated betweencooperation and hostility, but the militariesof these neighbors seem to have been similarto the forces of Israel and Judah. For example,

the Kingdom of Aram-Damascus, locatedimmediately north of Israel and east ofthe Jordan River, at times constitutedIsrael's most powerful enemy and at othertimes their most significant ally. Assyrianand biblical texts provide nearly allthe available information concerning themilitary constitution and practices ofAram-Damascus, but reveal few details.The general composition of the armywas infantry, chariots, and cavalry.The same Assyrian inscription thatdescribed Israel's army in 853 assignedDamascus 20,000 infantry, 1,200 chariots,and 1,200 cavalry.

Perhaps because the various Arameankingdoms like Damascus never united intoan empire, their primary military tactic,like that of Israel and Judah, was theforming of coalitions. Damascus-ledcoalitions were active in the area ofHamath in the late 9th century and wereinvolved in several attempts to throwoff Assyrian domination of Syria-Palestinefrom the mid-9th to mid-8th centuries.The references to "governors of the districts"and "commanders" that replace kings in1 Kings 20: 14-15, 24 may also indicatean Aramean practice of organizing subduedterritories into administrative districts.

The might of the AssyrianEmpire

Israel, Judah, and Aram-Damascus livedin a shadow cast from the east. Assyriawas a militaristic state, which organizedits political, domestic, and social life aroundwarfare. As a result, Assyria developed themost powerful fighting force in the historyof the Ancient Near East prior to theemergence of Persia.

Most of the available information aboutthe Assyrian army relates to the late 700sthrough to the 600s, but a standing armycame into existence under Tiglath-pileser IIIin the mid-700s. The basic elements includedthe king's elite guard, infantry, chariotry,cavalry, and engineers. The infantry

A pictorial relief from the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser Ill's(c.745 Be) palace in Nimrud.The relief shows an Assyriansiege-engine supported by archers during the siege of acity. The background also pictures impaled citizens orsoldiers. (Werner Forman Archive)

Warring sides 23

consisted of heavy infantry (spearmen)and light infantry (archers and slingers).Visual representations show infantrymenwearing coats of mail, short tunics, leggings,and high boots.

As early as the mid-9th century, however,the cavalry and chariotry formed the elitecorps of the army. Reliefs from Ninevehpicture cavalrymen as working in pairs,normally barefoot, without a saddle, andusing a composite bow with a long swordon their side. Assyrian chariots functionedas light artillery and often carried a driver,archer, and shield-bearer.

The army's organization was hierarchical,with the king as the head who often ledcampaigns in person. The "field marshal"(tartan) was beneath the king. The basicunit was a company of SO men under thecommand of a captain. Some troops werepermanent, while others were probablycalled up through an institutionalrequirement to perform military service


The remains of an Assyrian siege ramp on the southwestcorner of Lachish from 70 I Be. The ramp was a typicalfeature of Assyrian siege warfare. It served to movebattering rams and troops into position against the citywalls. (http://www.lmlk.com/research/lmlkJachish-tel.htm)

each year for a set amount of time. Thus,the Assyrians could deploy forces as largeas several hundred thousand soldiers. Forexample, Shalmaneser III records crossingthe Euphrates in 845 with 120,000 men.The size of the forces varied, however,in different periods and conflicts.The standing army probably representedthe nucleus, but the majority of the forcewas called up on special occasions. TheAssyrians added more levies of troopsas the campaign progressed and oftenincorporated whole units of conqueredarmies into the Assyrian forces.

The Assyrian army practiced threemajor tactics: open battles, city sieges,and psychological warfare. As the Empireexpanded, siege warfare became the mostprominent. The Assyrians surrounded acity to cut off supplies, constructed siegeramps of earth and stone, and moved largebattering rams into place against the walls.Such a siege of the Judean city of Lachishappears in reliefs at the Assyrian palacein Nineveh, and the archeological remains

of a 160-190ft (50-60m) long siege rampare still in view at the site. Sennacherib,the Assyrian king at the time, recordedhis tactics:

As for Hezekiah, the Judean, I besieged 46 ofhis fortified walled cities ... Using packed-downramps and applying battering rams, infantryattacks by mines, breeches, and siege machines,I conquered them. 17

The Assyrians were perhaps most fearedfor their tactics of deportation and brutality.When a city fell, the Assyrians regularlydeported a significant portion of thepopulation and resettled them in Assyriancities or undeveloped parts of the Empire.In the final centuries of the Empire, theAssyrians deported perhaps as many asfour to five million people. The purposeof deportation was not to punish but toenhance Assyrian economy and security. Asthese deportees eventually lost their ethnicidentity, they created a mixed society thatcharacterized major Assyrian cities.

Assyrian brutality toward conqueredpeoples was also legendary across theEmpire. After the fall of a major city,Assyrians were known to burn houses,gouge out citizens' eyes, flay captives alive,

Warring sides 25

Bronze and iron arrowheads discovered in Judean ruins.Such arrowheads appear in the ruins of the ancientJudean city of Lachish, the southwestern city that was thecenter of a major battle between Assyrian and Judeanforces in 70 I Be. (British Museum, London)

pile up severed heads, and impale corpseson stakes around the city. For example, theAssyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 Be)

describes Assyrian brutality toward aconquered city:

Many of the captives taken from them Iburned in a fire ... I cut off their hands to thewrist, from others I cut off their noses, ears,and fingers; I put out the eyes of many ofthe soldiers ... I burnt their young men andwomen to death. (Saggs, The Might ThatWas Assyria, 261.)

While this brutality has been understood asindicating a bloodthirsty nature, it was notperpetrated on every city in every situation.These actions were performed against chosentargets, perhaps as psychological warfare -an attempt to convince nearby kingdoms tosubmit or remain loyal. Assyrian inscriptionslike those of King Tiglath-pileser III oftenfollow the description of some destructionor brutality with a comment about aneighboring kingdom: "the fame of my

lordship [(and of) my heroic deeds theyheard, and they made supplication to]my lordship."18

Once the results of war had beenachieved, the Assyrians maintained controlof their expansive empire primarily throughtreaty relationships with equals or vassals.When a kingdom submitted voluntarilyto Assyria, it became a "satellite kingdom."Satellites accepted Assyrian authority andpaid annual tribute, but remained relativelyindependent and locally governed. If akingdom refused to submit or rebelled afterinitial submission, the Assyrians reduced itto a "vassal kingdom" and annual tributewas reimposed; Assyrian officials andperhaps a garrison were stationed there,but the local ruling family remained inpower if they promised loyalty. When avassal rebelled, the Assyrians incorporated itinto the Empire as a "province": local rulerswere removed, portions of the populationdeported, and an Assyrian governor placedin control. The Kingdom of Israel movedthrough this very sequence from 730-720.The Assyrians were reluctant, however, toprovincialize Syria-Palestine's southernmostkingdoms like Judah, because they formedbuffer zones with Egypt at the far southwestcorner of the Empire.

26 Essential Histories • Ancient Israel at War 853-586 BC

Judean citizens of Lachish departing for deportationto Babylonia after the city's fall in 70 I BC, as portrayedon an Assyrian relief at the royal palace in Nineveh. TheAssyrians often allowed women and children deporteesto travel in carts. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)

Motives for war

Political and religious ideology was amotivational factor for the warring sides inthe mid-9th century and beyond. Assyrianstate ideology saw the conduct of wars onbehalf of the state as the king's primary role.The king was expected to lead a militarycampaign every year of his reign, andscribes denoted a king's years in termsof his military achievements. This ideologyalso had a religious aspect, as the king'sobligatory campaigns were undertaken forthe sake of the chief Assyrian god, Ashur.The role of religion was apparent in thepresence of priests and diviners, whoperformed rituals before campaigns andmarched out at the head of the army.Such religious convictions were alsopresent in Israel and Judah, where theHB/OT presents their wars as the god

Yahweh's wars, and depicts kings asconsulting religious personnel aboutmilitary activities. 19

Defensive motives also provided thecatalyst for military campaigns. Particularlyin the case of Assyria, the lack ofnatural boundaries around the homelandnecessitated the conquering of surroundingthreats. Perhaps the most significantmotivations, however, were economic.Assyrian campaigns served to secure accessto agricultural and commercial resourceslacking in the heartland, and resources fromspoil and tribute supplied major buildingprojects. Assyrian kings sought control oftrade across the Fertile Crescent, particularlyof metals, timber, and horses. The territoriesof Israel and Judah were of particular interestto the Assyrians because they were locatedon the land bridge between the majorcenters of Mesopotamia and Egypt, and thussat in the geographical center of the primarytrade routes. As Assyrian dominance grewin this area, the loss of commercial controland the heavy economic burden of tributefostered the seeds of resistance and rebellionamong the kingdoms of the west.

Outbreak

The emergence of dominationand resistance

The building of the AssyrianEmpire

A series of political, economic, and militarydevelopments that occurred around thebeginning of the 9th century Be plantedthe seeds for the major military conflictsof Israel and Judah throughout the nextthree centuries. Just before 900, Assyrialingered in a decline that had characterizedthe preceding century. The centraladministration in the heartland hadsuffered from a series of weak rulers andwas in disarray, and Aramean groups in Syriahad driven Assyrian influence back acrossthe Euphrates to the east. The Assyrianswere, as one king's annals recorded,a "toil-worn people." The first hint ofrecovery began in the years 934-884, with asequence of three rulers named Ashur-dan II,Adad-nirari II, and Tukulti-ninurta II. Theirreigns were relatively short but effective.They reestablished security around theAssyrian heartland, effected economicgrowth, and expanded the bordersnorthwest toward the Euphrates andsouth toward Babylon.

However, the birth of the so-called"Neo-Assyrian Empire" truly began witha king named Ashurnasirpal II in 883.He undertook 14 major campaigns duringhis 24-year reign. His goals includedachieving control of the crossings of theEuphrates and other major trade routes,acquiring tribute, material goods, andcaptives, as well as establishing tradecolonies in the west. While his campaignsfocused on the territory of northern Syria

King Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria (883-859 Be) pictured ina statue of 3ft 6in (I m).The 14 major campaigns duringhis reign gave birth to the "Neo-Assyrian Empire" andextended its influence westward to the MediterraneanSea. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)


A stone relief from the palace of Ashurnasirpal showingthe king's guards. (Werner Forman Archive)

around the Euphrates, they secured aperimeter around the Assyrian heartlandin every direction: the Zagros mountains tothe east, the area of Lake Van to the north,the middle Euphrates to the south, and theKingdom of Bit-Adini to the west. Probablyas a result of these successes, the heartlandflourished and Ashurnasirpal became knownfor significant, even extravagant, buildingactivities. For example, he built a new capitalat Calah (Nimrud) and dedicated it with acelebration that his annals say included over47,000 guests and 5,000 dignitaries fromvarious regions:

When I inaugurated the palace at Calah I

treated for ten days with food and drink

471 074 personsl men and womenl who were

bid to come from across my entire countryl (also)

51 000 important personsl delegates ... (also)

161 000 inhabitants ofCalah from all ways

of lifel 11 500 officials of all my palaces.2o

It was this aggressive Assyrianexpansion beyond the Euphrates that setthe stage for the conflicts with kingdoms inSyria-Palestine. Ashurnasirpal's inscriptionsstate that the Assyrians pushed into

Phoenician territory along the coast of theMediterranean Sea for the first time in 875,

after traversing northern Syria. The kingreceived tribute from all major rulers ofnorthern Syria and Phoenicia, as far southas Tyre. Although some of these paymentsmay have represented the voluntaryestablishment of trade relations and notsubjugation, Ashurnasirpal was the first kingto bring a powerful Assyrian presence intothe western part of the Fertile Crescent.

Ashurnasirpal did not, however,incorporate these kingdoms into theAssyrian Empire in a systematic way.That task fell to his son and successor,Shalmaneser III (859-824). In a seriesof annual campaigns over his first six years,the new king immediately embarked on aneffort not only to secure Assyria's dominancein northern Syria, but also to bring thekingdoms in southern Syria-Palestine underAssyrian influence. Several royal inscriptionsnote that in his first year, for example,Shalmaneser followed the path ofhis predecessor and marched to theMediterranean Sea, where he erectedan image of himself. On this campaign,he moved into the area of Bit-Adini and thecities of Til-Barsip and Carchemish, wherehe encountered a northern Syrian coalitionof four kingdoms (Sama'al, Patin, Bit-Adini,

and Carchemish). Although the size of thearmies involved is not known, the Assyrianscaptured various parts of coalition territory.

Although subdued, the northern Syriancoalition was not destroyed, and thesekingdoms continued to try to haltShalmaneser's movements in the west atvarious strategic points around the Haburand Euphrates rivers. Thus, in his secondyear, Shalmaneser returned west to subjugateand collect tribute from areas not conqueredin his first year. He also recapturedCarchemish and engaged Ahuni of Bit-Adini.By the end of the second year, the Assyrianshad confined Ahuni to his capital atTil-Barsip and laid siege to the city, buthad not captured it. Shalmaneser's third year,however, saw the final capture of Til-Barsipand thus the ultimate establishment ofAssyrian dominance in northern Syria.He turned Til-Barsip into an Assyrian royalcity named "Kar-Shalmaneser," built palaceswithin it, and repopulated it with Assyrians.Although the ruler Ahuni evaded capture forone more year, Shalmaneser received tributefrom the kings throughout the seacoast,solidified Assyrian domination of northernSyria, and returned east to attack Urartu.

A power in Israel

During the very years of Assyria's developingdominance in Phoenicia and northern Syria,Israel and other southern Syro-Palestiniankingdoms such as Damascus and Hamathexperienced newfound political and economicgrowth, which set them on a collision coursewith Assyria. For Israel, this growth beganin the first half of the 9th century withthe "Omride Dynasty." Omri (879-869), aranking officer in the Israelite army, ascendedto the throne shortly after the beginning ofAshurnasirpal's reign in Assyria. Omri and hisson, Ahab (869-853), oversaw the Kingdomof Israel's greatest period of domesticprosperity and political prominence.Together they made significant stridesin the areas of military strength, territorialexpansion, and political alliances.

Outbreak 29

Biblical texts about Omri and Ahabemphasize their unfaithfulness to Israel'sGod, with only incidental references tobuilding projects and no descriptionsof their military and political undertakingsthat are detailed in Assyrian and Moabiteinscriptions.21 Their religious unfaithfulnessparticularly involved promoting worship ofthe god Baal, a Phoenician deity associatedwith fertility of crops and animals. Thissponsorship may have resulted from closepolitical ties to Phoenicia, since Ahab tooka Phoenician princess as queen. But evenwithin this religious focus, the biblicalnarratives provide some details about Omri'srise. Around the time of Ashurnasirpal'saccession, Israel's army was attacking thePhilistine city of Gibbethon approximately30 miles (48km) southwest of Samaria, whileElah, the King of Israel, remained in hiscapital at Tirzah. Zimri, the commanderof half of Israel's chariotry, assassinatedElah in the capital and reigned in his place.After only seven days, however, the armyproclaimed Omri, the commander of theIsraelite infantry, king. He besieged Zimriin Tirzah, and Zimri burned the palace downupon himself in suicide. Upon that event,a civil war broke out in Israel between Omriand a rival claimant to the throne, namedTibni. No details about the war are known,but it may have involved opposing factionsof Israel's military, namely, the general army(supporting Omri) and the chariot corps(supporting Tibni). Resolution came at theend of about four years, and Omri securedthe Israelite throne by 879.

During the following two and ahalf decades, when Ashurnasirpal andShalmaneser were solidifying Assyriandominance over northern Syria, Omriand Ahab achieved a measure of domesticprosperity and political power for Israel.Archeology attests significant buildingactivities by these rulers, most importantlyOmri's founding of Samaria as the newcapital of Israel,22 a site located closerto the main north-south route throughSyria-Palestine to Egypt. Extensive Omrideconstruction phases also appear at key cities


The foundation of a portion of the 9th-century BC city

wall at the Israelite capital of Samaria.The construction

of this city as the capital of Israel was the work of King

Omri. (Todd Bolen/BiblePlaces.com)

like Megiddo, Hazor, and Jezreel; andOmri and Ahab were perhaps responsiblefor monumental architecture at othersites previously thought to be from the10th century.

Israel's political prominence under Omriand Ahab involved cooperation with anddominance over neighboring kingdoms.The HB/OT says Israel established analliance with Phoenicia, symbolized by themarriage of Ahab and Jezebel, the daughterof the king of Sidon: "he [Ahab] took as hiswife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal ofthe Sidonians... "23 The "Mesha Inscription,"a text from King Mesha of Moab thatcomes from after the death of Ahab (c.853),

notes that Omri had conquered Moabiteterritory north of the Arnon River becauseof the displeasure of Moab's god Kemosh,and celebrates Mesha's later liberationof that area:

Omri was the king ofIsrael, and he oppressedMoab for many days, for Kemosh was angrywith his land. And his son succeeded him, andhe said - he too - "I will oppress Moab!/I In mydays did he say [so], but I looked down on himand on his house, and Israel has gone to ruin,yes, it has gone to ruin forever!24

Biblical texts likewise describe annualtribute paid to Israel by Mesha25 and suggestthat a "deputy" of Israel or Judah governedEdom.26 Omri or Ahab may also havecampaigned successfully againstAram-Damascus, perhaps before 860,although this is not certain. The backgroundfor this possible campaign was the earlierreign of Baasha of Israel (903-882), whenthe Aramean king Ben-Hadad I seizedterritories in northern Israel around Dan:"he [Ben-Hadad I] conquered Ijon, Dan,Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth,with all the land of Naphtali."27 The HB/OTdoes not indicate when Israel regained theseholdings, and it may have been under Omrior Ahab. The opening lines of an Aramaicinscription from Tel Dan, which comes from

858: defeat ofTil-Barsip, Carchemish, a northernSyrian coalition of four kingdoms; Shalmaneserproceeds to the Mediterranean Sea.

MEDITERRANEANSEA

ARABIA

857: attack focused on Ahuniof Bit-Adini at Til-Barsip.

853: the forces of the coalition move upto meet Shalmaneser outside Qarqar.

tNI

200 miles

250 km

The members of the Syriancoalition that opposedShalmaneser III at Qarqarin 853 Be:HamathAram-DamascusIsraelQueMusri (perhaps Egypt)IrqantanaArvadUsanataShianArabiaAmmon

w


the later Aramean king, Hazael (c.843-805),mentions an Israelite invasion of Aramduring the time of his predecessor, and thismay be a reference to an Israelite campaignin the time of Omri or Ahab:

...my father went u[p against him when]he fought at x[]. Then my father lay down andwent to his [fathers]. There came up the king ofI[s]rael beforetime in the land of my father ...28

A depiction of the Canaanite god "Baal" found at thecity of Ugarit. Sponsorship of Baal worship, rather thanmilitary and political achievements, is the focus of thebiblical accounts of the Israelite kings Omri and Ahabin the 9th century Be. (R Sheridan, Ancient Art andArchitecture Collection Ltd)

Links with JudahWhile the ascendancy under Omri and Ahabcentered on Israel, Judah experienced similardevelopments, and the history of the twokingdoms corresponded closely during thisperiod. Judah, as a smaller, more remote,and less-developed kingdom, benefited fromIsrael's economic prosperity and politicalsecurity. The HB/OT links the two kingdomsby an alliance established by the marriage ofAthaliah, daughter of either Omri or Ahab,29to Jehoram, son of the Judean king,Jehoshaphat (877-853). Furthermore,biblical and non-biblical inscriptions suggestthat the Omrides may have reduced Judahto near-vassal status. The HB/OT remembersJehoshaphat as a king who placed the Judeanmilitary at the disposal of Ahab30 and who"made peace with" or "surrendered to"Israel.31 Likewise, Assyrian inscriptionsthroughout this period refer to severalIsraelite rulers but never mentiona Judean king until nearly the endof the 8th century.

Within the first half of the 9th century,Israel under Omri and Ahab became a majorplayer in the political scene of southernSyria-Palestine, with significant influence,if not control, over several neighboringterritories. Such burgeoning economicand political strength among kingdomslike Damascus, Hamath, and Israeldestined them to collide with theincreasing Assyrian dominancein the north.

Creating criSIS

The ultimate catalyst for the outbreak ofconflict in Syria-Palestine came in 856, whenShalmaneser III finally captured Til-Barsipin Bit-Adini and achieved a secure politicaland economic dominance over the area.

The Mesha Inscription of King Mesha of Moab in the9th century Be that describes Omri of Israel's subjugationof Moabite territory and Mesha's subsequent liberationof that territory after the death of Omri's son, Ahab.(akg-images/Erich Lessing)

Outbreak 33

Assyria's final subjugation of northern Syriaundoubtedly signaled an immediate threatto the southern kingdoms. In response,about a dozen of these kingdoms forgedan alliance, which was headed by thethree powers of Aram-Damascus, Hamath,and Israel. Together they sought to resistAssyrian domination of trade routes andcommercial resources.

Shalmaneser's immediate departure toUrartu after subduing northern Syria in 856provided the space needed to organize thecoalition. His inscriptions attest, however,that in 853 he set his sights onSyria-Palestine. The Assyrian army atfirst moved once more against northernterritories like Carchemish and Aleppo,but then began a new thrust to the southby approaching the town of Qarqar, thegateway to Hamath, Damascus, and southernSyria-Palestine. At Qarqar, Shalmaneserencountered the coalition of southernkingdoms, including the forces of Ahabof Israel. The confrontation was the firstof seven campaigns that Shalmaneserwould make into Syria-Palestine, and itset in motion a series of conflicts thatwould engulf the Ancient Near Eastover the next two centuries.

The fighting

In the maelstrom of empires

Israel and Assyria (853 Be)

By the early spring of 853, the Kingdomof Israel under Ahab stood besideAram-Damascus and Hamath as oneof the three major powers in centraland southern Syria. Hamath, under KingIrhuleni, dominated the territory northof Tyre around the Orontes River, whileAram-Damascus, under King Hadadezer(or Adad-idri), dominated the area south ofHamath and east of the Jordan River. Israelheld much of the inland territory south ofTyre and Sidon and west of the Jordan River.The northern kingdom had also possiblyrelegated the southern Kingdom of Judahto virtual vassal status.

Throughout most of the precedingtwo decades, these three regional powershad cooperated with one another at leastindirectly. Although some biblical textslocate hostilities between Israel andAram-Damascus during the reign of Ahab,32the historical details of these texts fit betterwith the next phase of Israelite history,and the texts have probably misidentifiedthe Israelite king originally involved. In anycase, the three kingdoms were able to controlthe flow of commerce without interferencefrom outside powers, including Assyria,which remained preoccupied with continuedresistance in northern Syria. Quite naturallythen, when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser IIIdecisively eliminated the north Syrian powerof Til-Barsip in 856, the southern powers ofHamath, Aram-Damascus, and Israel realizedthe imminent threat to their well-beingand formed a coalition to resist Assyrianadvancement into southern Syria.

In the summer months of 853, afterconquering the area between the Tigris andEuphrates and reasserting dominance overnorthern Syrian cities like Carchemish and

Aleppo, Shalmaneser turned the Assyrianarmy south into the territory controlled byIrhuleni of Hamath. Shalmaneser's MonolithInscription, the primary source for thiscampaign, describes the systematicdestruction of Irhuleni's royal citiesas the Assyrian army moved down theOrontes River toward the city of Qarqar:

I approached the cities ofIrhuleni, theHamathite. I captured Adennu, Pargii, (and)Arganii, his royal cities. I carried off captives,his valuables, (and) his palace possessions. I setfire to his palaces. I departed from the city ofArganii. I approached the city of Qarqar. 33

The Assyrians meet the coalitionat QarqarThe town of Qarqar, located on the east bankof the Orontes, was a mere 30 to 40 miles(50-60km) northwest of Hamath, andrepresented the gateway to southern Syria.With no recorded substantial resistance,the Assyrians conquered and burnedQarqar. When he set out to continuehis march south, however, Shalmaneserconfronted an extremely large coalitionfully drawn up to aid Irhuleni and stopAssyria's entrance into southern Syria.

Hamath, Aram-Damascus, and Israelconstituted the primary partners, but thecoalition against Shalmaneser consistedof around a dozen kingdoms from centralSyria, Syria-Palestine, northern Phoenicia,the Transjordan, Arabia, and perhaps Egypt,although the presence of that name ininscriptions remains uncertain. Many ofthese kingdoms had ties with Hamath andshared its concern to protect trade routesinto central and southern Syria. The Assyrianrecords also detail the coalition kingdoms'numbers of chariotry, infantry, and cavalry.

The fighting 35

A captured Judean chariot being led away by Assyriansoldiers after the battle of Lachish in 70 I Be. This is theonly known representation of a Judean chariot (whichlooks identical to the Assyrian chariot), although biblicaland extra-biblical texts consistently mention Israelite andJudean chariot forces. (British Museum, London)

If these records are accurate, the coalitionforce was massive and probably significantlyoutnumbered the Assyrian army. Accordingto the Assyrians, Hamath, Aram-Damascus,and Israel alone fielded 40,000 soldiers,1,900 cavalry, and 3,900 chariots, withthe other members contributing morethan 22,000 additional soldiers plus chariots.By comparison, just a decade later (c.843),

records indicate that the Assyrian armypossessed only about 2,000 chariots and5,500 cavalry. Assyrian inscriptions oftenexaggerated and rounded numbers forpropagandistic purposes, however, and someof the forces seem out of keeping with whatis known of the populations for the areas in

the mid-9th century. Such exaggerationsprobably served the purpose of makingAssyria's power seem even greater invictory, and providing ready explanationswhen victory was not clear.

Of particular interest is the armyattributed to Ahab of Israel: 10,000 soldiers,700 cavalry, and 2,000 chariots - the largestchariot force in the coalition and one thatwas equal to that of Assyria at the heightof its power in the following decade. Thepopulation estimates of the city of Samariafor this period suggest that Israel wouldhave fielded a much smaller army, and evenif one identifies stables in the archeologicalrecord at Israelite cities like Megiddo, thereremains a lack of evidence for adequatehorse facilities to support so large achariot force. Hence, some historians havesuggested that the number of Israel's forceswas mistakenly recorded or deliberatelymultiplied by perhaps as many as ten.


A better explanation can be derived from thefact that Assyrian records of this battle makeno mention of Israel's immediate neighborsof Judah, Moab, and Edom, kingdomsdescribed elsewhere as being under theinfluence, and perhaps even under thecontrol, of Israel during this period.For example, biblical texts, while notmentioning the battle of Qarqar, portrayJudah during this time as bound by a treatyrelationship to Israel through the marriageof a northern princess to a southern prince.34

The Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon,which like Judah also go unmentioned inAssyrian records of the battle, also had atreaty relationship with Israel signified bythe marriage of Ahab to Jezebel, daughterof the King of Sidon. Thus, another possibleexplanation for the size of Israel's forces atQarqar is that kingdoms like Judah, Moab,Edom, and perhaps Phoenicia contributedcontingents that were counted under thebanner of Israel.

Whatever the exact numbers, theSyro-Palestinian coalition presented aformidable force. The Assyrians had a tacticaladvantage, however, since the battlefieldwas near the territory of Bit-Agusi andother northern cities that had capitulatedto Assyrian control. Nonetheless, the sizeof the coalition armies, combined withthe likely depletion of Assyrian forces fromearlier battles on the campaign, tipped thescales in favor of the alliance. Assyrianrecords indicate a bloody battle. They placethe total of slain coalition troops at varyingnumbers between 14,000 and 29,000, andShalmaneser describes piling up enoughcorpses to stop up the Orontes River andform a bridge across it:

I decisively defeated them from the city ofQarqar to the city of Gilzau. I felled with thesword 14,000 troops, their fighting men... Ispread out their corpses (and) I filled the plain.[I felled] with the sword their extensive troops.I made their blood flow ... The field was toosmall for laying flat their bodies ... the broadcountryside had been consumed in burying them.I blocked the Orontes River with their corpses as

The Monolith Inscription of King Shalmaneser III of

Assyria containing an inscription written over the relief of

the king. This inscription is the main source for the battle

of Qarqar in 853, which involved King Ahab of Israel but

is not mentioned in the Bible. (British Museum, London)

with a causeway. In the midst of this battle Itook away from them chariots, cavalry, (and)teams of horses. 3S

There is reason to believe, however,that Qarqar was at least a stalemate if nota victory by Israel and its coalition partners.Shalmaneser did not press south of Qarqar in853 and did not even campaign west of theEuphrates for the next three years. Whenthe Assyrians finally did return to the westin 849, their annals record that they had tore-take north Syrian territories like Bit-Agusiand Carchemish, and battle the sameSyro-Palestinian coalition on threemore occasions.

Seen in a broad perspective, the coalition'sconfrontation at Qarqar with the Assyrianswas the most significant battle that tookplace in the Levant in the 9th century, andrepresented the pinnacle of Israel's powerduring that period. Ahab's ability tocontribute one of the most significantmilitary contingents to this battle was thefruit of several decades of prosperity. Thisaction solidified Israel's status as a regionalpower, and set it on a course of cooperationwith its neighbors against Assyria thatwould last until regional politics shifteddramatically at the end of the next decade.

Israel and Aram-Damascus(843-805)

The next major conflicts in Israeliteand Judean history involved a seriesof confrontations with Aram-Damascusthat spanned nearly the entire second halfof the 9th century.

Ahab of Israel apparently died sometimeshortly after the battle of Qarqar. Althoughthe sequence of kings is confusing for thefollowing years, Israel's and Judah's fortunesclearly changed for the worse. Shalmaneserreturned to the west on three more occasionsin 849, 848, and 845 and faced the samecoalition of southern kingdoms each time.Assyrian records continue to name Irhuleniand Hadadezer as the coalition leaders, butdo not refer to Ahab's successors Ahaziahor Jehoram. Since it is likely that Israelcontinued to participate in the coalition,the lack of reference may reflect adeterioration in its power.

Both biblical and extra-biblical texts showthat many of the kingdoms that had beenunder Ahab's control in 853 rebelled afterhis death: "After the death of Ahab, Moabrebelled against IsraeL .. In his Uehoram's]days Edom revolted against the rule ofJudah, and set up a king of their own."36

For example, an inscription of King Mesha ofMoab claims that he successfully drove theIsraelites out of Moabite territory east of theJordan River and north of the Wadi Arnon.

The fighting 37

Mesha may have joined with the Ammonitesto invade Judah by crossing the Dead Sea,taking the coastal city of Ein Gedi, andmarching into the wilderness southeast ofJerusalem. The HB/OT suggests that Jehoramof Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah led acombined Israelite and Judean retaliatorystrike into Moab by marching around thesouth end of the Dead Sea, through Edom,and laying siege to Kir-hareseth near Dibon,the capital of Moab.37 The route itself wasprohibitive, marked by dangerous desertheat and drought, and the biblical narrativeindicates that the army was saved fromdestruction by a flash flood in a canyon:

So the King ofIsrael, the King ofJudah, andthe King ofEdam set out; and when they hadmade a roundabout march of seven days, there

was no water for the army or for the animalsthat were with them... And he [Elisha] said,

'Thus says the LORD, I will make this wadi fullofpools'... The next day, about the time of themorning offering, suddenly water began to flowfrom the direction ofEdam, until the countrywas filled with water. 38

Although the army succeeded indestroying some cities in southern Moab,they were unable to conquer Kir-haresethor press on to Dibon, the capital. The biblicalaccount attributes the Israelite defeat to KingMesha's sacrifice of his son on the city wall.

Even with a weakened Israel, in the 840sthe coalition as a whole was successful inturning back the Assyrian army at theOrontes River on all three occasions whenthey advanced to that point. The balanceof power in the west changed radically,however, when a new king named Hazaelcame to the throne in Damascus around 843.Assyrian texts designate him a usurper, andbiblical texts imply that he murderedhis predecessor. Hazael may have interpretedthe steady decline in Israel's power andShalmaneser's inability to push below theOrontes as signs that Aram-Damascus couldgain power over all of southernSyria-Palestine. Perhaps for this reason,Hazael immediately reversed the existing


A band relief showing the Assyrian army of

Shalmaneser Ilion campaign in Phoenicia (c.850).The

top band depicts tribute being brought to the Assyrians

by inhabitants of the coastal city ofTyre. The bottom

band shows the army on campaign against Hazazu.

(© 2003, Topham PicturePoint/Topfoto.co.uk)

political alignments and initiated hostilitiesagainst Israel in the Transjordan territoryaround Ramoth-gilead, a move thatprobably brought about the collapseof what remained of the old coalition.Although no descriptions of the battle havesurvived, 2 Kings 8 records that]ehoram, theKing of Israel, was wounded in this battleand retreated to ] ezreel leaving]ehu, oneof the commanders of the army, in chargeof the forces at Ramoth-gilead.

While Israelite forces were defendingRamoth-gilead against Aram-Damascusin 841, Shalmaneser led the Assyrian armyback to the west for a fifth time. This time,however, he did not meet the old coalitionbut only Hazael of Damascus. With nocoalition to check its advance at theOrontes, the Assyrian army probablymarched through the Beqa' valleyto Damascus. Hazael withdrew fromRamoth-gilead and made his stand at a peaknear Mount Lebanon. Assyrian texts claimthe defeat of 16,000 Aramean soldiers,

1,121 chariots, and 470 cavalry. TheAssyrians pushed Hazael back to the capitalcity of Damascus but chose not to placethe city under siege, a choice that wouldhave long-lasting consequences for thewest. Shalmaneser's army devastatedthe surrounding lands, cities, andvillages and proceeded to a mountainon the Mediterranean coast in thevicinity of Tyre.

The events of the clash between Hazaeland Shalmaneser overlapped one of the mostsignificant developments in Israelite history.With the wounded ]ehoram cloistered in]ezreel, the Israelite army at Ramoth-gileadproclaimed]ehu king, an accession that theHB/OT presents as a religious revolutionmotivated by the desire to eliminate theHouse of Ahab that had allowed worshipof the Phoenician god Baal.39 Accordingto the biblical story, ]ehu promptly attacked]ehoram at ]ezreel, as well as the ]udean kingAhaziah who had joined him there, killing]ehoram in the open field and wounding thefleeing Ahaziah who later died at Megiddo.Jehu then sent letters to the capital citySamaria, and secured by threat thecapitulation of the city's officials andgarrison. The Aramaic inscription fromTel Dan appears to give credit for the killings

of these kings to Hazael rather than Jehu,leaving open the question of who thedriving force was behind these actions.

In any case, upon his coup, Jehu facedthe choice of renewing the alliance withAram-Damascus that had turned back theAssyrians just four years earlier, or followingthe lead of many other regional kingdomsand submitting to Shalmaneser. Jehu optedto present himself before Shalmaneser andestablish Israel as an Assyrian vassal. Thissubmission is memorialized in relief andwriting on the Assyrian Black Obelisk, theonly surviving visual representation of anIsraelite or Judean king:

I received the tribute ofJehu ... (the man) of

Bit-Humrf : silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden

goblet, golden cups, golden buckets, tin, a staff

of the king's hand, (and) javelins(?)40

This pro-Assyrian alignment wouldbe Israel's dominant posture for nearlya century. As is typical for this period,

A panel of the Black Obelisk of King Shalmaneser III

of Assyria that depicts the Israelite king, Jehu, submitting

and paying tribute (c.84 1 Be). Jehu kneels, with his

representatives behind him bearing gifts, and

Shalmaneser stands to the left of the kneeling king.

(akg-images/Erich Lessing)

The fighting 39

biblical texts picture Judah as a weakerpartner that followed the northernkingdom's foreign policy.

Thus, Hazael was defeated by Assyriain 841 but, unfortunately for Israel, notdestroyed. Shalmaneser returned to the westto check Hazael once more in 838-837. Hecaptured some Aramean cities but still didnot remove Hazael or do extensive damageto his kingdom. Following this campaign,however, Assyria entered a period of declineand was unable to return to the west for thenext 30 years. The Egyptians during thisperiod were likewise entangled in internalconflicts and played no significant rolein Syria-Palestine.

In this vacuum between 837 and 810,Hazael established a mini-empire thatencompassed the central Palestinian hillcountry, Transjordan, Syria, and Philistia.He seems to have relegated Israel and Judahto vassal-like status. Virtually no details areknown for anyone battle, but the overallcourse of events is clear. Archeologicalevidence of destruction is visible at keyIsraelite cities like Jezreel, and biblical textsexplicitly describe the loss of Transjordanianterritory and the continual subjugation ofIsrael and Judah by Damascus:41 "The angerof the LORD was kindled against Israel, so


that he gave them repeatedly into the handof King Hazael of Aram, then into the handof Ben-Hadad son of Hazael."42 Aramaicinscriptions may even indicate that Hazaelcampaigned into Assyrian territory northof the Euphrates, and that his son andsuccessor, Ben-Hadad II, tried to extendAramean dominance over Hamath innorthern Syria.

Israel and Judah suffered militarily andeconomically during this time. Late in thisperiod (c.820), for example, 2 Kings 13: 7credits Jehoahaz, Jehu's successor, with anarmy of fewer than SO horsemen, 10 chariots,and 10,000 soldiers. The turning point came,however, in 810, when Adad-nirari IIItook the throne in Assyria and initiateda resurgence in the Empire's strength.After securing matters in Assyria, Adad-niraricame west in 80S and established his baseof operations at Arpad in northern Syria fora multi-directional, three-year campaign.This resurgence allowed Israel to throwoff the yoke of Aram-Damascus, a liberationthat probably began under Jehoahaz. Biblicalaccounts like 2 Kings 13 and 1 Kings 20 and22 suggest the possible scenario that, around80S, Ben-Hadad marched south to the JordanValley and sent demands to Samaria, but theIsraelites turned back the Aramean forces. Thenext spring, the Arameans returned south butwere met by an Israelite army at Aphek nearthe Jezreel Valley. The Israelites won a soundvictory, the HB/OT says, killing 28,000 enemysoldiers and capturing Ben-Hadad. He waslater released upon agreeing to relinquishcaptured Israelite territory. Some time later,biblical texts say that Jehoahaz led a jointIsraelite and Judean force to Ramoth-gilead inorder to reclaim territory that Ben-Hadad hadpromised to relinquish. The Israelite king wasmortally wounded in the battle, and Joashsucceeded him. Although the time span isunclear, Joash seems to have defeatedBen-Hadad on three subsequent occasionsand ended Aramean oppression of Israel forthe time being. The Assyrians then subjugatedDamascus sometime between 80S and 802 butdid not destroy the City or remove Ben-Hadadfrom the throne, perhaps thinking that this

A relief with accompanying inscription of King Adad

nirari III of Assyria, who led the Assyrian resurgence

in the west after 8 lOBe. He subdued Ben-Hadad II

of Aram-Damascus and allowed Israel to break free

of Aramean control. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)

would evoke his loyalty. Upon this showof force, several local kings paid tributeand reaffirmed their loyalty to Assyria.Among these kings was Joash of Israel.

Throughout these events, Judahprobably continued to play the role oflesser partner to Israel. Upon liberation fromAram-Damascus, a new Judean king namedAmaziah inherited the throne from hisfather Jehoash (c.802). According to thebiblical story, after capturing some Edomiteterritory east of Beersheba, Amaziahchallenged Joash of Israel.43 Although Judahwas the instigator, the battle took place in

Judean territory near Beth-shemesh, westof Jerusalem. Joash captured Jerusalem, brokedown a section of the city's wall, looted thetemple and treasuries, and took Amaziahprisoner to Samaria. While Joash laterreturned the Judean king to his throne,this conflict between the sister kingdomsforeshadowed things to come.

Israel, Aram-Damascus, andJudah: the Syro-Ephraimitic War(734-73 I Be)

With a resurgent Assyria after 80S, loyalAssyrian vassals like Israel experienced a timeof recovery, which took place during the firsthalf of the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel(788-748). The biblical account indicatesthat Jeroboam recovered the commercialport of Elath from the Arameans, whichopened the Red Sea trading route, and8th-century archeological remains at Israelitecities show an increased presence of luxuryitems that may date to Jeroboam's time.Israel also probably expanded its bordersnorthward to the Beqa' valley and southwardto the Dead Sea, expansions which are likelyto have been made at the expense ofDamascus and Hamath:

He restored the border of Israel fromLebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah[Dead Sea], according to the word of the LORD,the God ofIsrael, which he spoke by his servantJonah son ofAmittai, the prophet. ..44

The Judean kings Uzziah and Jothamreigned under the shadow of Jeroboamand probably shared in the prosperity. TheHB/OT claims that Uzziah expanded Judah'sarmy to 307,500 soldiers and scored victoriesover the Philistines, Arabs, and others.

Much of Israel's success at this timewas probably due to a change in Assyrianadministrative methods. Adad-nirari placedpower in the west into the hands of fieldmarshals who maintained a direct Assyrianmilitary presence in the region. But Assyriafell into decline during the reigns of

The fighting 4/

Adad-nirari's successors (c.780-750).

Powerful field marshals disappeared fromthe scene by about 750, removing the strongAssyrian presence and creating a vacuumof power. Around the year 750, a new rulernamed Rezin (or Radyan), who came from aprovincial town outside the capital, usurpedthe throne in Damascus and provedthat Assyria had made a mistake by notdestroying Aram-Damascus in precedingyears. Rezin's actions suggest that hehad visions of reestablishing Hazael'smini-empire of a century earlier andliberating the west from Assyriandominance. It seems possible that heseized control of Israelite territory inthe Transjordan and Galilee as early asthe 750s.45 He also appears to have assistedEdom in recapturing the port of Elath, andto have opened the door for the Philistinesto encroach on Judean territory in theShephelah and Negeb.

These events had severe consequences forIsrael and Judah. The available sources recorda series of subsequent actions that suggestthe population was divided into opposingfactions, with a large segment in bothkingdoms favoring the Damascus-ledmovement to throw off the Assyrian yoke.In Israel, for example, after the death ofJeroboam in 748, four kings reigned in quicksuccession between the years 748 and 734,and three of them were killed after shortreigns. The central government in Samariacontinually lost territory to surroundingkingdoms that were rallying to Rezin'scause.46 Most significantly, Rezin seemsto have fostered the emergence of apro-Damascus rival claimant to the thronein Israel named Pekah, a Gileadite fromthe region just south of Aram-Damascus.The HB/OT remembers Pekah as being activealongside Rezin in the northern Transjordanas early as the 750s while Jeroboam was stillking in Samaria.47 Perhaps Pekah became thepuppet ruler of the Transjordan and Galileewhen Rezin seized those territories after 750.

The event that precipitated theoutbreak of direct hostilities among Israel,Aram-Damascus, and Judah, however, came


in 745. After years of decline, a generalnamed Pul usurped the throne in Assyriaand took the name Tiglath-pileser III. Heimmediately undertook military campaignsdesigned to reestablish Assyrian dominanceover the north and west. He also instituted anew policy of relocating conquered peoples,annexing conquered kingdoms as imperialprovinces, and establishing permanentmilitary bases in conquered areas.

Tiglath-pileser came west in 743, andestablished the region around Arpad as a basefor a four-year campaign throughout northernSyria. During this campaign, Assyrian textsnote that Tiglath-pileser received tributefrom Syro-Palestinian kings including Tubailof Tyre, Menahem of Israel, and even Rezinof Damascus. These payments were probablyoffered only as nominal tribute designed toavoid direct confrontation, sinceTiglath-pileser was not yet moving intosouthern Syria. Assyria's only involvementin the south came when Tiglath-pileser senttroops to help Menahem of Israel securethe throne of Samaria, especially in lightof the rival claimant Pekah: "King Pul[Tiglath-pileser III] of Assyria came againstthe land; Menahem gave Pul a thousandtalents of silver, so that he might help himconfirm his hold on the royal power."48

By 737, however, Tiglath-pileser hadannexed 19 districts of Hamath and won

a conclusive victory over northern Syria.Rezin and his supporters no doubt sawthese developments as a sign that an Assyrianmove into southern Syria was now inevitable.Thus, when Tiglath-pileser withdrewnorthward to fight Urartu in 735, Rezinsolidified an anti-Assyrian coalition includingTyre, Gaza, Ashkelon, Arabia, and others. Aspart of this development, the rival claimantPekah finally made his move on the Israelitethrone. He apparently assassinated the sittingking, took control of Samaria, and joined thecoalition in 734.49 Although 2 Kings 15: 27

says he went on to reign 20 years, thechronology of biblical and Assyrian textssuggests this number includes his years as arival claimant. More importantly, for the firsttime in over a century, the official foreignpolicy of the northern kingdom becameanti-Assyrian. In the same year, Egyptianinscriptions indicate that the Ethiopian kingPiye sailed northward on the Nile, conqueredMemphis, and extended his dominanceinto the Egyptian Delta. This campaign,particularly designed to curb the expansionof Tefnakht of Sais, did not achievehegemony over the Delta but probably

A relief from the Assyrian royal palace at Calah thatshows the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (left) holdinga bow and standing over a kneeling vassal (c.745-727).(© 2004, Detroit Institute of Arts/Founders SocietyPurchase, Ralph Harman Booth Bequest Fund (50.32))

The fighting 43

IOOkm

100 miles

tNI

"'" "",y"",;

"","'"

"'"o Damascus

o

o

734-731: Campaigns down coast to Gaza;back-tracks to Tyre then across Galilee;withdraws to Sarrabanu in Babylon.

SEA

MEDITERRANEAN

E


secured the trade routes into Philistiaand Lebanon. To the eyes of the buddingSyro-Palestinian coalition it must have beena sign that Assyrian power was ready to slip.

For the first time since before the reignof Omri, however, the southern kingdom ofJudah apparently did not follow the northernkingdom's lead. After Pekah's coup inSamaria, the Assyrian records that showthe withholding of tribute by coalitionmembers contain the first reference toa tribute payment by any king of Judah.This payment probably meant thatKing Ahaz of Judah, who had inheritedthe throne from his father Jotham, refusedto join the coalition and prevented Rezinfrom establishing a united front againstthe Assyrians.

In response, probably before Tiglathpileser was out of the region in early 734,Rezin and Pekah besieged Jerusalem,initiating the so-called "Syro-EphraimiticWar." Several biblical texts describe thedetails of this siege, even includingpurported conversations betweenAhaz and the prophet Isaiah:

In the days ofAhaz son ofJotham son ofUzziah, king ofJudah, King Rezin ofAram andKing Pekah son ofRemaliah ofIsrael went upto attack Jerusalem, but could not mount anattack against it. ... [T] herefore thus says theLord GOD: It shall not stand, and it shall notcome to pass. 50

The express aim of Syria and Ephraim's(Le. Israel's) actions was to replace Ahazwith a compliant ruler and return Judah toits vassal-like role in relation to Israel. Theremay have been an unsuccessful assassinationattempt on Ahaz by an Ephraimiteoperative just prior to the siege in 734.51

Isaiah 10: 27d-32 perhaps details the routeof the Aramean and Israelite force: theytraveled south by an interior road eastof Samaria that passed through Michmashand Gibeon and ended at Nob, about a mile(roughly 2km) east of Jerusalem. This wasthe more geographically difficult but lessfortified path from Samaria to Jerusalem.

By this time, however, the anti-Assyrianactions in Syria-Palestine had attractedTiglath-pileser's attention. In late 734 orearly 733, the Assyrians swept down thelength of the Mediterranean coast to Gaza,probably to seal off the Egyptian borderand prevent any possible involvement byPiye of Ethiopia. Thus began a three-yearcampaign to deal with Rezin's coalition(734-731). Although the precise sequenceof events is difficult to decipher, it appearsthat Rezin and Pekah lifted the siege ofJerusalem and withdrew to defend theirown capitals. While at Gaza, the Assyrianssubjugated the cities of the Philistia regionand turned the coastal area just north ofPhilistia into a province. Tiglath-pileserthen backtracked northward and forcedthe submission of Hiram of Tyre. Headingeast from Tyre, the Assyrians sweptacross Galilee, which was probablyunder Aramean control at this time,and captured cities and prisoners. 52

By about 733, Damascus and Samariastood isolated. Tiglath-pileser engagedDamascus for two years, initially defeatingRezin's army in the field and pushingthem back into the city. The Assyriansthen destroyed outlying cities andterritories before eventually sackingDamascus by 731:

I captured his [Rezin's] warriors, archers,shield- and lance-bearers; and I dispersed theirbattle array. That one [Le. Rezin], in order tosave his life, fled alone; and he entered the gateof his city [like] a mongoose. I impaled alive hischief ministers; and I made his country behold[them]. I set up my camp around the city for 45days; and I confined him like a bird in a cage...I destroyed 591 cities of 16 districts ofDamascus like mounds of ruins afterthe Deluge. 53

Rezin was eventually executed and Syrianterritory was annexed as a province.

Although Tiglath-pileser claims to havedeported some Israelites, he specificallystates that he never attacked Samaria:"[A]ll [of whose] cities I leveled ... and I

The fighting 45

spared only (isolated) Samaria./54 Beforedeparting the area in 731 to deal with asituation in Babylon, the Assyrian kingestablished new political boundaries forthe west. He appointed Hoshea, a man ofunknown origins, who was perhaps alreadyleading an overthrow movement againstPekah, as the new King of Israel, and lefthim to reclaim Samaria. Assyrian textstestify that the Israelites overthrew Pekahthemselves, and biblical texts suggest thatHoshea led a joint Israelite and Judean forceup from Judah, perhaps along the same roadthat Rezin and Pekah had traveled earlier, torecapture Samaria.55 Upon success, Hosheasent vassal tribute to the Assyrian kingon campaign in southern Babylon. Thus,Israel returned to being an Assyrian vassalkingdom, probably with Judah once againa lesser partner.

Depiction of the Assyrian siege of an unidentified city.

The city has a moat (on left), lower wall, and main wall.

The left-hand side depicts soldiers using a ladder to

scale the city wall and the bottom portion shows

the execution of captured inhabitants or soldiers.

(Werner Forman Archive)

The events surrounding theSyro-Ephraimitic War reestablished Assyria'sdominance over the kingdoms and commerceof Syria-Palestine, and dramatically alteredthe balance of power. All areas previouslycontrolled by Aram-Damascus, includingthose in formerly Israelite territory such asGalilee and the northern and centralTransjordan, were changed into provincesruled by Assyrian governors and garrisons.Israel and Judah survived as kingdoms butwith greatly reduced borders, probably leftholding only those areas west of the Jordanand south of the Jezreel Valley.


Israel and Assyria (730-720 Be)

Tiglath-pileser died on campaign in December727. Either just before or immediately uponhis death, rebellion broke out in the west ledby the city of Tyre, and his son and successorShalmaneser V extended his father's campaignin that direction.

However, the sources for this period areparticularly difficult to unravel. There arelarge gaps and contradictions in the Assyrianrecords, and the biblical texts condensemultiple and complex events into a succincttheological explanation that attributes thefall of Israel to divine punishment for theabandonment of Yahweh and the worship ofother gods. All that seems certain is that Israeland Assyria had a protracted period of hostileinteraction from 730-720 that includedrevolts in Samaria and ultimately resultedin the destruction of the northern kingdomby 720. Within this general certainty, sourceslike 2 Kings 17 suggest that a more specificsequence of events possibly unfolded.

Around 727, when Tyre was in openrebellion, Hoshea of Israel joined otherregional rulers and withheld tribute from thenew Assyrian king, Shalmaneser V. Hoshea,who had been established as a pro-Assyrianvassal, probably saw Tyre's assertion as achance to escape from the economic burdenof tribute payments to Assyria. Even beforehis official enthronement ceremony,however, Shalmaneser V campaigned intoSyria-Palestine and secured the submissionof local kingdoms. While the only sourcefor this campaign is a description by the1st-century AD Jewish historian Josephus,who claims to be quoting an earlier sourcethat is relying on archives from Tyre,Shalmaneser V probably pressed into Syriaand Phoenicia enough to compel themto sign vassal treaties with him, and thenhe immediately withdrew. Hoshea thusbecame the new king's vassal and paidtribute in 727.56

When Shalmaneser V spent 726 inAssyria, Hoshea apparently again becameinvolved in rebellion and withheld hisannual tribute.57 Tyre was once again the

The HB/OT's description of the fall ofIsrael from 2 Kings 17: 1-6 (NRSV): "Inthe twelfth year of King Ahaz of Judah,Hoshea son of Elah began to reign inSamaria over Israel... King Shalmaneserof Assyria came up against him; Hosheabecame his vassal and paid him tribute.But the King of Assyria found treacheryin Hoshea; for he had sent messengers toKing So of Egypt, and offered no tributeto the King of Assyria, as he had doneyear by year; therefore the King ofAssyria confined him and imprisonedhim. Then the King of Assyria invadedall the land and came to Samaria; forthree years he besieged it. In the ninthyear of Hoshea the King of Assyriacaptured Samaria; he carried theIsraelites away to Assyria."

ring-leader in the west. A particular featureof this 726 rebellion was Hoshea's appeal forhelp to Egypt, specifically to a "King So. "58

There is no pharaoh known by this name,but it is likely to be a reference to Tefnakht,ruler of the city of Sais, who had come tocontrol virtually the entire Delta a decadeearlier. In response, Shalmaneser V led theAssyrian army into the west by 725 withthe primary aim of besieging Tyre. Probablyat some point during this campaign,Shalmaneser V captured Samaria andimprisoned Hoshea.59 The BabylonianChronicle, for example, says Shalmaneser Vravaged Samaria, a reference that may belongto this campaign. It is likely that with theremoval of its king in 725, Israel wasannexed and turned into the Assyrianprovince of "Samaria."

About a year later, however, Samariaevidently rebelled again. The HB/OT's notionof a three-year siege against Samaria byShalmaneser V may represent the Assyrianresponse.60 The siege probably began beforeSeptember/October 724 and ended byDecember 722. Since Samaria at the timewas apparently an Assyrian province withouta king, the citizens may have overthrown

King Sargon II of Assyria, who destroyed the Israelitecapital of Samaria in 720 BC, and inflicted losses onJudean territory after a failed revolt in 714-71 I Be.(akg-images/Erich Lessing)

their Assyrian governor and installed anative king whose name has not survived.The prophet Hosea, for example, offereda message from the god Yahweh thatproclaimed, "They carried out a coronation,but not through me."61 In any case, theAssyrians resubjugated Samaria by 722 butseemingly left the city intact.

Finally, Shalmaneser V died in 722,and Assyria was racked by conflict overthe throne; rebellion took root across theEmpire. In the west, a coalition of rebelliousstates formed under the leadership ofYaubi'di of Hamath, involving kingdomssuch as Gaza and provinces such as Arpadand Damascus. Assyrian texts explicitlyname Samaria as a rebel and refer to theleadership of an unnamed hostile king,perhaps another native ruler enthronedby the citizens for the purpose of revolt.

Sargon II eventually emerged from outsidethe royal line and usurped the throne ofAssyria after suppressing an uprising fromsections of the military. He came west late

The fighting 47

in 720. The ringleader Yaubi'di tried to haltthe Assyrians' approach to Syria-Palestine,but Sargon defeated him at the familiarbattleground of Qarqar. Pictorial reliefs fromSargon's reign show Yaubi'di being flayedalive after his capture. The Assyriansthen moved down the Mediterraneancoast to Gaza.

At this point, Sargon encountered in 720what Tiglath-pileser had feared in 734. Afterconquering Gaza, Sargon had to pushhis troops south to meet an advancingEthiopian force at Raphia, just abovethe Wadi el-'Arish. Assyrian reliefs showEthiopian soldiers, typically beardless andcurly-haired, fighting against the Assyriansin various cities of southwest Syria-Palestine.The Assyrians defeated the Ethiopians,however, and Sargon claims to haveplundered thousands of people and burnedRaphia: "I razed, destroyed, and burnedRaphia. I carried off 9,033 inhabitantstogether with their great property."62

With the coast secure, Sargon movedagainst Samaria. Assyrian records do notdescribe a prolonged siege of the city.Since the other major coalition membershad already been defeated, it is likely thatSamaria offered little resistance. In any case,Sargon finally secured lasting provincialstatus for Samaria in 720. He claims tohave established an Assyrian governor,classified the people as Assyrian citizens,and incorporated the remaining elements ofthe military into the Assyrian army. He alsodeported over 27,000 people and resettledforeigners into the area:

I besieged and conquered Samarina. I took asbooty 27,290 people who lived there. I gathered 50chariots from them... I set my eunuch over them,and I imposed upon them the [same] tribute asthe previous king [Le. Shalmaneser V].63

Thus, by the year 720, Sargon controlledthe trade and commerce throughoutSyria-Palestine. At this time, he also initiateda trade relationship with the Egyptian rulersin the Delta an9 established a policy ofcooperation between Assyria and the


Delta Egyptians (against the Ethiopians)that would last until the end of theAssyrian Empire.

In Judah, King Hezekiah had inherited thethrone from his father, Ahaz, around 727. Heapparently did not follow Israel in becominginvolved in the rebellions against Assyriathroughout the 720s. Only one inscriptionof Sargon mentions subduing Judah, "whichis far away." The text probably dates from720 or 717 but seems to indicate only therenewal of Judean loyalty and not rebellion.It is even possible that Judah in 720 followedthe typical protocol for Assyrian vassalsillustrated in Assyrian inscriptions, andcontributed forces to the Assyrian armyin its campaign against Israel.

Judah and Assyria (714-70 1 Be)

Assyrian kings frequently rewardedkingdoms that remained loyal in themidst of nearby rebellions by givingthem expanded territory taken from rebels.Perhaps as a result of its loyalty in 720,Judah experienced a period of politicalprominence and territorial expansion overthe next six years (720-714). This expansionprobably involved the influx of refugeesfrom the destroyed northern kingdom,but may also have been tied to Sargon'sestablishment of trade between Assyriaand Egypt. Sargon claims to have reopeneda trading post near Egypt, perhaps in Gaza,at the close of the 720 campaign. SecondKings 18: 8 says that around the same timeHezekiah expanded Judean control into thevicinity of Gaza. It is possible that Sargonpushed his territory's border with Egyptsouth to the Wadi el-'Arish and appointedHezekiah to supervise the southwest cornerof the E..mpire from 720-714.

After this period of expansion, however,Judah would rebel against Assyria on twooccasions: 714-711 and 705-701. WhenSargon became occupied in Urartu in714-713, the people of the Philistine city ofAshdod overthrew their king, whom Sargonhad appointed to quell a rebellion two years

earlier, and placed a usurper named Yamanion the throne. He promptly organized amajor revolt against Assyrian dominationin the west that included other Philistineterritories, Edom, and Moab. Assyrianrecords also list Judah as a participantbut do not explicitly name Hezekiah. Theinspiration for this revolt came from Egypt,where the new Ethiopian pharaoh Shabakohad succeeded the aged Piye and invadedthe Delta in 715, and from Babylon, whereMerodach-baladan, who had seized thethrone in 721, opened hostilities withAssyria in the east. The Assyrian reactioncame in 712 or 711. Sargon led his ownpersonal forces, rather than the main army,down the Mediterranean coast and capturedAshdod. Yamani fled to the Ethiopian kingShabako for asylum, and the other rebelscapitulated. No siege of Jerusalem isrecorded, and Hezekiah remainedon the throne.

Given the fact that Hezekiah hadremained loyal to Assyria for more than adecade, it is difficult to understand why andhow he would have become involved in thisrebellion. The HB/OT does not address thoseissues. The only thing that can be said withcertainty is that, for whatever reason, Judahrebelled against Assyria around 714. Thebiblical and extra-biblical sources allow,however, the following hypotheticalsequence of events. The biblical story ofHezekiah suffering a life-threatening illness,which 2 Kings 20 associates with an Assyrianinvasion later in Hezekiah's reign, perhapsbelongs here, implying that around 714Hezekiah became incapacitated and turnedcontrol of the government over to twoofficials who subsequently led Judahinto the revolt. These two officials arecondemned by the prophet Isaiah in a textthat is placed in the context of the Ashdodrevolt. 64 At the end of the revolt in 712 or711, Judah apparently suffered some losses.The Assyrians despoiled the Judeanstronghold of Azekah and took awayPhilistine territory that had been underHezekiah's control. Because he was notpersonally responsible for the revolt,

Hezekiah survived. Perhaps he recoveredfrom his illness in time to surrenderwithout losing Jerusalem, but Hezekiahprobably lost the enhanced status hehad between 720 and 714.

The second Judean rebellion againstAssyria began about 10 years later. In 705,while fighting a tribal group in the north,Sargon died on the battlefield and revoltbroke out across the Empire. In the west,several kingdoms united in rebellion, andthis time Assyrian texts specify Hezekiahof Judah as the ringleader. His allies includedSidon, Ashkelon, Ekron, Ammon, Moab,and Edom, and the coalition probablyhoped for support from Shebitku, the newking of Ethiopia. Sargon's son, Sennacherib,apparently the third heir born to Sargonbut the first to survive childhood, struggledto secure the kingdom, and four years passedbefore he could campaign in the west.

One possible motivation Hezekiah mayhave had for rebellion was indignation overhaving suffered in 711 for a rebellion thathe did not initiate, particularly his beingdeprived of territory in southwestern Judahand the destruction of the city of Azekah.Perhaps as early as 711 or at least by 705,Hezekiah apparently undertook a series of

The fighting 49

preparations for rebellion and defense thatare evidenced in texts and archeology. InJerusalem, he strengthened the city wall andplaced new towers upon it. He also erected afortification wall, approximately 20ft (6m)thick, to enclose part of the western hill ofJerusalem. Workers dug the so-called "SiloamTunnel," an underground conduit one-thirdof a mile long that brought water from theGihon Spring in the Kidron Valley intothe enclosed western side of the city.

Elsewhere, Hezekiah strengthened andreorganized the military, forging new shieldsand weapons, and inaugurated a royal storageand supply system to send provisions tocities throughout the kingdom. This systemconsisted of the use of four-handled storagejars, each stamped with an emblem, theHebrew letters lmlk (which were used tosignify"for the king"), and the name of oneof four regional supply cities from which thestores probably originated. Most of these lmlk

jars were discovered in the areas of northern

The remains of the additional wall built by King Hezekiah

at Jerusalem in the late 8th century Be. The wall was

23ft (7m) wide and served to enclose previously

unprotected areas of the city, perhaps in preparation

for a revolt against Assyria. (Image courtesy of

www.HolyLandPhotos.org)


The "Siloam Tunnel" built by King Hezekiah of Judah in

the late 8th century to strengthen Jerusalem against

enemy siege. A Hebrew inscription describing

construction was found on an inside wall. The tunnel

is one-third of a mile long, and brings water from the

Gihon Spring in the Kidron Valley outside the city, into

a collection pool within the city (Y Kinory/Ancient Art

and Architecture Collection Ltd)

Jerusalem and the Shephelah that would beon the front lines of defense, but some evenappeared in the Philistine cities of Ekron andGath. Biblical texts also attribute a majorreligious reform to Hezekiah that required thecentralizing of Judean worship in Jerusalemby declaring all other sacrificial sites andpriestly offices illegitimate. This requirementhad the obvious political effect of increasingthe power of the capital city.6s

Sennacherib's campaign to put downthe rebellion in 701 is the best-documentedevent in Judean history, but the sourcesdiffer and do not permit certainty in thedetails. Even so, the combination of thesources suggests Sennacherib followedthe well-trodden path of campaigningdown the Mediterranean coast andconquered the Phoenician city of Sidonbefore pressing south to Philistia, where he

met his first major opposition. The Assyrianssacked Ashkelon and Ekron and received thevoluntary capitulation of other rebels likeEdom, Moab, and Ammon. At this point,Sennacherib seems to have confronteda combined Egyptian and Ethiopian forcethat had marched up from Egypt to Eltekehin the Philistine territory west of Jerusalem.This was a force of the Ethiopian Shebitku,who was also in control of the Delta, andmay have been under the command of thecrown prince Tirhakah (Taharqa) mentionedin 2 Kings 19: 9, "When the king[Sennacherib] heard concerning KingTirhakah of Ethiopia, 'See, he has setout to fight against you... "'66

By defeating this Egyptian force, theAssyrians secured the major areas leadingeastward into Judean territory. Sennacheribthen invaded southwestern Judah.Archeological evidence of destructionis present at cities like Ramet Rahel,Beth-Shemesh, Beersheba, and Gezer. TheAssyrians claim to have captured 46 citiesand exiled 200,150 people, although thisnumber seems too large for the geographicalarea. The siege and capture of Lachish wasthe most significant accomplishment of the

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TOP 8th-century BC storage jars found at Lachish,

inscribed with the phrase, "belonging to the king," or Imlk.The jars, also found at other cities in Judah and Philistia,

probably formed part of a supply network instituted by

King Hezekiah in anticipation of an Assyrian invasion

around 70 I Be. (British Museum, London)

BonOM Close-up of an 8th-century Judean storage jarfrom the time of Hezekiah that shows the stamp of a

winged emblem, as well as a Hebrew inscription, Imlk.(British Museum, London)

campaign, since it was a heavily fortified citycontrolling access to southwestern Judah.A wall relief in Sennacherib's palace inNineveh commemorated the battle forLachish and depicted Assyrian siegemachinery and troops, as well as Israelitesoldiers defending the city with arrows,stones, and torches.

The available sources favor theconclusion that while the Assyrian armywas at Lachish, Hezekiah made an initialoffer of capitulation that did not include thesurrender of Jerusalem: "King Hezekiah of

Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish,saying, 'I have done wrong; withdraw fromme; whatever you impose on me I willbear."'67 Sennacherib apparently refusedthis offer and dispatched a contingent ofsoldiers led by the "Rabshakeh," an Assyriandiplomatic spokesperson, to place Jerusalemunder siege and force its surrender.68 TheAssyrians built either a siege wall ofearthwork around the city or a series ofblockades/outposts to control all incomingand outgoing traffic. Second Kings 18-1969

may contain the actual speech of theRabshakeh, who used political and religiousrhetoric to call the city to surrender:

Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will

not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Donot let Hezekiah make you rely on the LORD by

saying, The LORD will surely deliver us ... Has

any of the gods of the nations ever delivered its

land out of the hand of the king ofAssyria ...

that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem outof my hand?70

Ultimately, the sources agree thatJerusalem was never taken, Hezekiahremained on the throne, and Sennacheribreturned home to Nineveh. In Sennacherib'saccount, he states:

He [Hezekiah] himself, I locked up within

Jerusalem, his royal city, like a bird in a cage.

I surrounded him with earthworks, and made

it unthinkable for him to exit by the city gate.

His cities which I had despoiled I cut off from

his land and gave them to Mitini, king of

Ashdod, Padi, king ofEkron and Silli-bel,

king of Gaza, and thus diminished his land.

I imposed dues and gifts for my lordship upon

him, in addition to the former tribute, their

yearly payment. He, Hezekiah ... sent me

after my departure to Nineveh, my royal city,

his elite troops (and) his best soldiers, which

he had brought in as reinforcements to

strengthen Jerusalem, with 30 talents

ofgold [and other tribute]. 71

There are, however, differing traditionsabout what precipitated this conclusion.

The fighting 53

Biblical texts attribute this to the miraculousovernight slaying of 185,000 Assyrian soldiersby an angel, a tradition that is similar to alater Greek story about a miraculous defeatof Sennacherib in Egypt. Assyrian recordsindicate that Hezekiah sent a very largetribute to Nineveh and suffered substantialdevastation of wider Judean territory.Perhaps news of trouble back home reachedSennacherib and thus he allowed Hezekiahto capitulate without losing Jerusalem. In alllikelihood, Sennacherib stationed a garrisonat Lachish to maintain future control of thearea. In the end, Sennacherib did not turnany of the rebellious kingdoms intoprovinces in 701, a move in keeping withAssyria's policy of retaining seaport andsouthern kingdoms, as opposed to northernand central kingdoms, as semi-independentvassals and thereby buffers with Egypt.

Nabopolassar was the founder of the"Neo-Babylonian Empire" that wrestedcontrol of the Ancient Near East awayfrom Assyria beginning in 626 BC.

His origins are unclear, but later Greekhistorians suggested he served one ofthe last Assyrian kings before leadinga rebellion in the city of Babylon.He may have been Chaldean fromsouthern Babylonia in ethnicity.

A rendering of the possible appearance of the ancientJudean city of Lachish before its destruction by the

Assyrians in 70 I Be. Assyrian texts and archeologicalremains attest to the presence of double walls, fortifiedtowers, and a large central building complex. (BritishMuseum, London)

Judah and Babylonia(597-586 Be)

Hezekiah's failed revolt inaugurated a longperiod in which Judah was a submissivevassal while Assyria reached the pinnacle ofits power (698-627). The rise of Nabopolassarin Babylonia in 626, however, marked thebeginning of Assyria's downfall. At the timeof his rise, groups of semi-nomads, especiallythe Medes from the northwest region ofmodern Iran, began to move into Assyrianterritory. By 612, the Babylonians and Medeshad formed an alliance and captured theAssyrian religious center of Ashur, as wellas the administrative capital of Nineveh.

During this period (626-612), Egyptunder Psammetichus I sided with Assyriaagainst the Babylonians and Medes. TheEgyptians must have concluded that theirinterests were best served by continuing theireconomic and power-sharing arrangementswith the empire they had known for morethan a century. At the time of Assyria'sdemise and gradual withdrawal from thewest, evidence suggests that Egypt captured


Part of the relief from Sennacherib's palace in Nineveh

that pictures the Assyrian siege of Lachish in 70 I Be. The

picture shows Judean archers fighting from a tower; men

and women exiting the city with their goods, and three

men impaled outside the city. (British Museum, London)

Ashdod, established military outposts atcities like Riblah, Carchemish, and Haran,and controlled the main north-south routeon the seaboard. This Egyptian dominancehad an impact on affairs in Judah underHezekiah's great-grandson, King Josiah(641-610). Despite the impression ofindependence given to him by the biblicalwriters,72 he may have been subservient,perhaps even as a vassal, to Egypt duringthe majority of his reign.

When Nineveh fell to the Babyloniansand Medes in 612, the remnants of theAssyrian army retreated to Haran, 100 miles(160km) west of Nineveh, probably to bewithin reach of Egyptian assistance. At thistime a new pharaoh, Necho II, marchednorthward through Syria-Palestine to assistthe Assyrians. On the way, for reasons that

are unknown, he killed Josiah at Megiddo. 73

Upon Josiah's death, a segment of the Judeanpeople placed his younger son, Jehoahaz IIon the throne.

In the fall of 610, the Babylonians andMedes forced the Assyrians and Egyptians towithdraw from Haran. Necho fell back and setup a temporary headquarters at Riblah. In anapparent exercise of his control over Judah,Necho summoned Jehoahaz II to Riblahand imprisoned him there. From June/Julythrough to August/September of 609, theEgyptians and Assyrians counterattackedHaran from the west but were unable to takethe city. This battle marked the end of Assyriaas a factor in the Ancient Near East. Nechowithdrew but maintained nominal controlover Syria-Palestine up to the area ofCarchemish. On his return south in 609,the pharaoh placed Jehoahaz II's olderbrother, Jehoiakim on the throne inJerusalem as an Egyptian vassal.

The turning point for all of Syria-Palestinecame a few years later with the battle ofCarchemish in the summer of 60S, the major

The fighting 55

In this scene from the relief in Sennacherib's palace inNineveh showing the Assyrian siege of Lachish (70 I Be),Assyrian soldiers lead away two Judean captives, perhapsroyal officials, who hold their hands in the posture of aplea for leniency. (Werner Forman Archive)

contest for western dominance between theremaining powers of Egypt and Babylonia.The Babylonians were led by the CrownPrince Nebuchadrezzar II. Babylonian textssuggest that they did not initially attempta direct assault on Carchemish, but spentthe two years before 605 isolating thecity by driving a wedge southward acrossnorthern Syria. In April of 605, however, theBabylonians surprised the Egyptians with adirect assault on Carchemish from the south.The Egyptian army withdrew to Egypt andleft Syria-Palestine open for the Babylonians.

During the following period of 605-603,

Nebuchadrezzar, who had now ascended thethrone in Babylon, marched throughoutSyria-Palestine establishing vassal kingdoms,and Jehoiakim officially switched Judah'sloyalty from Egypt to Babylonia. Babylonianpolicy at this time was evidently to leave the

local administrations that they encounteredin place; hence, Jehoiakim was left on thethrone even though he had been anEgyptian appointee.

The Babylonians apparently decidedthat they could not allow Egypt toremain independent. Thus, in late 601,

Nebuchadrezzar invaded Egypt but wasdefeated by Necho. When Nebuchadrezzarspent the next year in Babylon rebuilding hischariot forces, Necho advanced northwardinto Syria-Palestine, possibly conqueringGaza. 74 Perhaps envisioning a resurgence ofEgypt, Jehoiakim withheld tribute in rebellionagainst Babylonia around 600 or 599.

The Babylonian response began in lateNovember or early December 598, whenNebuchadrezzar led the main army outof Akkad toward the specific target ofJerusalem. No details of his march orof the siege itself are known. Before hisarrival in the west, however, Nebuchadrezzarapparently sent auxiliary forces from theChaldeans, Arameans, Moabites, andAmmonites into Judean territory, an action


that the HB/OT interprets as divinepunishment: "The LORD sent againsthim bands of the Chaldeans, bands ofthe Arameans, bands of the Moabites, andbands of the Ammonites ... "75 These groupsprobably captured ]udean outposts inthe Negeb and caused inhabitants of theoutlying territories to flee into Jerusalem.

Although there are differing biblicaltraditions about what happened to]ehoiakim76, it appears that he died inoffice while the Babylonians were stillen route to Jerusalem. His 18-year-old son,]ehoiachin, inherited both his father's royalthrone and ill-advised rebellion in December598. Three months later, the Babylonianarmy arrived in Judah and laid siege to] erusalem. Evidently]ehoiachin immediatelysurrendered without resistance, and theBabylonians took control of the city onMarch 15 or 16, 597:

Year 7 [598-597t month Kislev

[December-]anuary]: the king ofAkkad moved

his army in Hatti land [westt laid siege to the

city ofJudah Uerusalem] and on the second

day of the month Adar [15 or 16 March]he captured the city and seized its king. He

appointed in it a king of his liking, took heavybooty from it and sent it to Babylon. 77

Probably because ]ehoiachin was notpersonally responsible for the revolt andoffered immediate surrender, Nebuchadrezzardid not destroy]erusalem or provincializeJudah. He took ]ehoiachin, along with hismother, servants, officials, craftsmen, andtrained soldiers, into exile. Nebuchadrezzarleft the dynasty intact, however, andappointed 21-year-old Zedekiah, ]ehoiachin'suncle, to the throne. This lenient movewas in keeping with Babylonian policy at thetime to avoid disrupting stability and creatingvacuums that stronger enemies could fill.

Zedekiah's loyalty to Babylon after 597was short-lived. The biblical account in2 Kings 24-25 skips from the beginning tothe end of his reign. Other biblical materials

An Assyrian relief that shows soldiers of the Medes, a groupfrom the northwest region of modern Iran that formed analliance with the Babylonians against the Assyrians in the late7th century Be. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)

like the prophetic books of Jeremiah andEzekiel, however, provide more potentialinformation. Sometime shortly afterNebuchadrezzar returned to Babylon in 597,Zedekiah apparently hosted a conference inJerusalem with officials from Edom, Moab,Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon78 in order tocoordinate a rebellion in the west inconcert with Elam and others in the east.Elam initiated hostilities against Babylonin 595 or 594, but the revolt failed. Perhapsin response to these events, Nebuchadrezzarbrought Zedekiah to Babylon in 594-593,probably to ensure his loyalty. 79

After Zedekiah's return to Jerusalem,Pharaoh Psammetichus II, who had cometo the Egyptian throne in 595, initiatedan aggressive campaign against Ethiopiain 592/591 that resulted in a sweepingEgyptian victory. To celebrate this victory,Psammetichus II embarked on a victory tourof Syria-Palestine in 591. Probably as a resultof this Egyptian resurgence, coupled withlong-standing Judean religious beliefs in theinviolability of Jerusalem, Zedekiah withheldannual tribute and entered into openrebellion against Babylonia in the late590s or early 580s. Biblical and extra-biblicaltexts depict Judah appealing to Egypt forhorses and troops and sending royal officialsto Egypt for direct negotiations.

During this renewed rebellion in thewest, an aggressive new pharaoh, Hophra orApries, came to the Egyptian throne in 589.The combination of these factors led theBabylonians to change their earlier policyof maintaining stability. Nebuchadrezzarapparently decided henceforth to replacecurrently ruling families, relocate rebelliouskingdoms' centers of power, and rule themmore directly. Thus, in the late fall of 589,Nebuchadrezzar set out from Babylonia tomake Jerusalem the first example of this newpolicy. He led his forces to central Syria andestablished a base of operations at Riblah.There he evidently divided his army andsent one contingent down the coast towardthe border of Egypt and another towardJerusalem where they placed the city undersiege in January 587. For his part, Zedekiah's

The fighting 57

military tactics included establishinga network of communication amongcommanders and garrisons at key Judeancities. Messages on ostraca (inscribedpotsherds) and papyrus were sent fromJerusalem to the commander of a particularlocation such as Lachish, who then sentthem to another post. Within the capital,Zedekiah freed the slaves in order to addnew levies for defense.

During the siege of Jerusalem, anEgyptian force of Hophra/Apries was ableto break into Syria-Palestine and force theBabylonians to withdraw from the citytemporarily. The Egyptians seem to haveretreated without a confrontation, however,and the Babylonians reinstated the siege.Near the end of July 586, 18 months afterthe siege began, the Babylonians breachedthe city wall in the north or west:

And in the ninth year of his [Zedekiah's]reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of

the month, King Nebuchadrezzar ofBabyloncame with all his army against Jerusalem, and

laid siege to it. .. On the ninth day of the fourth

month the famine became so severe in the citythat there was no food for the people of the land.Then a breach was made in the city wall ...80

Biblical texts add that Zedekiah anda military escort attempted to flee southtoward the Transjordan but were capturedand brought to Nebuchadrezzar at Riblah.Probably in keeping with the stipulatedpunishments of his vassal treaty, Zedekiah'ssons were killed in front of him, his eyeswere put out, and he was sent to Babyloniain chains: "They slaughtered the sons ofZedekiah before his eyes, then put out theeyes of Zedekiah; they bound him in fettersand took him to Babylon."81

In keeping with the Babylo"nians' newwestern policy, the written sources indicatea severe treatment of Jerusalem. Aboutone month after the city's capture,Nebuchadrezzar sent Nebuzaradan,captain of the royal guard, to raze Jerusalem.He burned the temple, palace, and houses,and broke down the city walls. Biblical


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Babylonians temporarily lift siege ofJerusalem and divert forces to meetan Egyptian army at Raphia. Siege ofJerusalem subsequently reinstated.

Egyptian forceof Hophra/Apries

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50 miles

texts contain differing accounts of thedeportations that followed,82 but probablymost of the inhabitants of Jerusalem wereexiled, as well as about 800 Judeans fromsurrounding areas. The Babyloniansrendered the city of Jerusalem desolate.

The new Babylonian policy apparentlydid not, however, entail the completeannihilation of rebellious kingdoms butonly the removal of the old royal centerand family. With the exception of the majormilitary cities of Lachish and Azekah, there

The fighting 59

is little evidence of destruction outsideof Jerusalem, especially in the area directlynorth. The Babylonians evidently chose thisarea for a new administrative capital of Judahunder a hand-picked leader. With Jerusalemdestroyed, the Babylonians then pressed theirnew policy of removal and reduction towardSidon, Tyre, Ammon, and Moab.

A reconstructed model of the "Ishtar Gate" of

Nebuchadrezzar II at the ancient city of Babylon.

(© bpk, Berlin)

Portrait of a soldier

Pekah, son of Remaliah: rebel,office~ I<ing

Pekah, son of Remaliah, was arguably themost significant figure in Israel's historyduring the 8th century Be, and is knownto us from both the HB/OT and Assyrianinscriptions. He affected the reigns of fivedifferent Israelite kings, and dramaticallyaltered the course of Israelite policy inrelation to Aram-Damascus, Judah, andAssyria. Although all reconstructions ofancient persons remain tentative, it seemsthat during the course of his military careerPekah progressed from a common soldier,to a rebel leader, to a royal officer, to the soleruler of the northern kingdom. The HB/OTrecords a few specific pieces of biographicalinformation for him: firstly, before hebecame king he served as a military officerto the preceding king; secondly,· he reignedfor 20 years in Israel; thirdly, while he wasking, he joined King Rezin of Damascus inan attack on Jerusalem. Pekah's life alsoprovides a glimpse of the experiencesof being a soldier in ancient Israel.

The significant part of Pekah's careerbegan around 750 when Rezin of Damascus,who had recently usurped the throne,launched his effort to throw off Assyriancontrol of the west, and to reestablishAramean dominance in Syria-Palestine.These actions took place during the finalyears of the reign of Jeroboam II in Samaria,and the period of the Assyrian Empire'sdecline in the years just beforeTiglath-pileser III assumed the throne.Probably due to his desire to replaceAssyrian control, Rezin immediatelyinitiated hostilities against Israel, wherethe central administration in Samaria hadbeen pro-Assyrian in its foreign policy sincethe time of Jehu (c.841). While Rezin triedto gain control over the Israelite territoriesthat most directly bordered his own, namely,Gilead in the northern Transjordan and

Galilee north of Samaria and west of theJordan River, he was probably alreadyworking to form a coalition to opposeAssyrian dominance and to reassert thelevel of regional control that Damascus hadpossessed under Hazael in the 9th century.

Pekah was an Israelite soldier from Gileadin the Transjordan, who evidently came tosympathize with the anti-Assyriansentiments of his Aramean neighbor tothe north. In this context, we can imaginewhat experiences he and his fellow soldiersunderwent. As a "regular" soldier inthe standing army, Pekah may havebeen a member of a division of 50 or100 infantrymen under the commandof one ranking officer. At times joiningwith similar divisions and at times operatingindependently, Pekah's division was probablya mobile infantry group, not stationed inanyone town but moving from camp tocamp throughout the region, yet havingstrong local ties to its men's ancestralhometowns in the area. As an infantrygroup, it almost certainly operated asfoot soldiers carrying a spear or javelin,personal shield, and perhaps a sword attheir side. Standard dress was probably ashort tunic and boots, while battle gear waslikely to include scale armor, a breastplate,and perhaps a helmet.83

In a tumultuous border region like theTransjordan area of Gilead, a soldier likePekah was probably involved in continualdeployments and redeployments designedto counter Aramean moves into Israeliteterritory. At times, soldier divisions probablyformed reaction forces and mobilized tobesiege and retake towns that had fallenunder Aramean occupation and plunder.On other occasions, Pekah perhaps foundhimself temporarily garrisoned in a townin order to fortify it against Aramean

A seal inscribed with the picture and name of"Pekah,"who became king in Samaria around 734 Be. The seal,although broken, pictures him striding and \Nearing ashort tunic but without a crown, perhaps suggesting itcomes from the time before he ascended the throne.(Vorderasiatische Museum, Berlin)

advancement. It is not difficult to imaginethat a border-region native like Pekah wouldhave grown weary of the constant warfarewithin and destruction of his ancestralterritory. To a soldier hailing from andserving in a territory so heavily influencedby the anti-Assyrian efforts of Damascus,the stubborn loyalty of the central Israelitegovernment in Samaria to an AssyrianEmpire without any strong presence inthe region and the resulting hostilities withAram-Damascus may have been difficultto support.

Perhaps for this reason, the presentationsin later biblical and extra-biblical texts implythat when Rezin finally gained control ofGilead and Galilee, Pekah emerged from theIsraelite ranks and was installed as ruler ofthese areas under Aramean oversight. Thus,Pekah emerged as a rival claimant to thethrone in the Kingdom of Israel nearthe end of the reign of Jeroboam II, andboth Assyrian and biblical texts presenthim as the primary ally of Rezin for thenext two decades. He probably represented a

Portrait of a soldier 61

significant faction of the Israelite populationthat saw the Damascus-led anti-Assyrianpolicy as the proper course for the kingdomat the time.

For the next 15 years after 750, Pekahcontinued his presence as a rival ruler andfostered further division among the peopleof Israel over which foreign policy to follow.The HB/OT's assignment of a 20-year reignto Pekah may include these years of dividedrule.84 Because of this division within thekingdom, these years also saw a steadyloss of territory and control by the centralgovernment in Samaria. Rezin and Pekaheven jointly harassed Judah as early as thetime of King Jotham (c. 750s): "In thosedays, the LORD began to send King Rezinof Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah againstJudah."8s By the time of Jeroboam'ssuccessors, Menahem (746-737) andhis son Pekahiah (736-735), the kingwho sat in Samaria probably had firmcontrol of only the capital city and itsimmediate vicinity, with Pekah holdingGalilee and Gilead.

We cannot be certain about whathappened next, but when Pekahiahsucceeded his father Menahem to theIsraelite throne in 736, Pekah's status mayhave changed. It was possibly at this pointthat King Pekahiah established Pekah as ashalish ("officer", "captain") within hismilitary administration, which is how theHB/OT remembers Pekah.86 This move wouldappear to have been an attempt to reunifythe government and regain lost territorythat was under Pekah's rule or influence.At times, the rank of shalish designated apersonal assistant to the king,87 but Pekah'sexperience as a "captain" was more likelyas a member of a group of commandingofficers or elite warriors within the militaryorganization.88 The office shared someof the functions of and perhaps developedout of the older position of the nose l kelim

("armor-bearer"), which had been prominentin Israel during the early stages of militarydevelopment before the 9th century. Anarmor-bearer was a personal attendantor group of attendants who kept the


equipment of a warrior, and alsoaccompanied him into battle, often beingcharged with finishing off enemies who hadbeen mortally wounded.89 It perhaps gaveway to the broader shalish office whenthe Israelite military became increasinglycentralized around the monarchy,beginning in the 10th century.

Given the long-standing history ofPekah's rebellious activity, however, it islikely that he served only as one memberamong Pekahiah's group of "captains,"rather than as a personal attendant of theking. A possible representation of Pekah inthis capacity appears on an 8th-century sealfound in the Samaria region. The seal, whichwas used to affix personal identifications tocorrespondence, bears the Hebrew namePekah and pictures a striding figure witha wig, a short tunic, and a javelin in anupraised right hand. If the representationis Pekah, it shows him without a crownand is thus similar to the seals of otherofficers but not those of kings.

Pekah did not last in the role ofPekahiah's captain, however. Around 735,when the Assyrians withdrew from the westafter having conquered Hamath in northernSyria, and Rezin's coalition entered intoopen rebellion against Assyria, Pekahmade his move on the throne in Samaria.As the HB/OT indicates, sometime betweenSeptember and November 734, Pekahled a contingent of 50 men from Gileadinto Samaria, assassinated Pekahiah inthe palace citadel, and usurped controlof the entire northern kingdom:

Pekah son ofRemaliah, his [Pekahiah's]captain, conspired against him with fifty ofthe Gileadites, and attacked him in Samaria,in the citadel of the palace along with Argoband Arieh; he killed him, and reigned in place

ofhim.9o

His coup was both an internal palacerevolt by a royal officer, and the productof rebel groups in particular areas thatwere sympathetic to Rezin'santi-Assyrian movement.

For over a century, Pekah's royalpredecessors in Samaria had successfullymaintained at least powerful influence if notcontrol over the southern kingdom. But, asnoted in the last chapter, upon Pekah'susurpation the Judean king, Ahaz, assertedhis independence. He refused to join theanti-Assyrian coalition, so Rezin and Pekahled a coalition force south from Samaria andlaid siege to Jerusalem shortly after Pekah'scoup: "Then King Rezin of Aram and KingPekah son of Remaliah of Israel came up towage war on Jerusalem; they besieged Ahazbut could not conquer him."91 Seen morespecifically from Pekah's perspective, thissiege was not simply about establishing aunified front against Assyria, but was anattempt to resubjugate Judah and gain alevel of authority equal to those who hadgone before him. Another biblical traditionexpands Pekah's personal involvement inthese events by claiming that he killed120,000 Judean warriors in a single day:

Pekah son ofRemaliah killed one hundredand twenty thousand in Judah in one day,all of them valiant warriors, because they

had abandoned the LORD, the God oftheir ancestors.92

When Tiglath-pileser III led the Assyrianarmy down the Mediterranean coast inlate 734, Pekah withdrew from Jerusalem,separated from Rezin, and retreated intohis capital at Samaria. He would never againleave the city. As the Assyrians systematicallysubdued the members of the coalition andkilled Rezin, a pro-Assyrian overthrowmovement apparently formed withinIsrael. Prophets began to describe Pekahand his capital as a promiscuous woman andsickening wound and to declare that it wasGod's will to bring destruction upon them:

Plead with your mother [Samaria?], plead ...that she put away her whoring from her face,and her adultery from between her breasts ...

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judahhis wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria,and sent to the great king. 93

In this atmosphere, Tiglath-pileser did notneed to attack Samaria. While Pekah remainedbarricaded in his capital, Tiglath-pileserdesignated Hoshea, a previously unknownfigure who was perhaps the leader of theoverthrow movement, as the new ruler ofIsrael, probably returning Judah to Israel'scontrol, and departed the region in earlysummer 731: "[They killed] Pekah, their king,and I installed Hoshea [as king] over them."94

Exactly when and how Pekah met hisend is unknown. He was probably able to

Portrait of a soldier 63

hold out in Samaria until around Octoberor November 731, but was eventuallydeposed and killed by Hoshea: "ThenHoshea son of Elah made a conspiracyagainst Pekah son of Remaliah, attackedhim, and killed him."95 Pekah hadsucceeded, however, in introducingthe sentiments of rebellion against, andfreedom from, Assyria that would surfacerepeatedly throughout the reign of hisassassin and ultimately result in Israel'sdestruction by 720.

The world around war

The effects of conflict

From the 9th to the 6th century Be, periodsof prolonged conflict were the norm for Israeland Judah; years of peace and stability weremerely interludes in a progression of wars.The elements that accompanied these conflicts- the development of alliances establishedby commercial trade, the need for militarypersonnel and materials, and the enemyincursions into and destructions withinthe kingdoms - significantly affected theirsocio-economic structures and religiousbelief systems.

Society and economy

Throughout the period of the monarchiesin Israel and Judah, both kingdoms existedas agrarian societies that were primarilydependent upon plant cultivation and animalhusbandry for survival. Even though therewere significant cities like Samaria andJerusalem, a great deal of the population livedin small farming villages of 100-250 people.In the period prior to the outbreak of majormilitary conflicts in the mid-9th century,evidence from texts and archeologysuggests that these villages revolved arounda family-based mode of production in whichfamily units cooperated to share labor anddistribute the risk of crop failure. In thissubsistence economy, the farmers kept themajority of their surplus resources in order toprovide for their own survival. While there wasno private ownership of land in the modernsense, family units maintained plots of landthat were passed on through inheritance.

This agrarian society also operated on apatron-client system: certain local leaderswho had access to goods and the centers ofpower ("patrons") entered into cooperativerelationships with the local farmers andproducers ("clients"). Prior to the mid-9th

century, this patronage relationship wasreciprocal between the ruling and producinggroups. After meeting their own needs, thevillages provided a portion of their surplusto a local leader who had limited power.He depended upon the farmers for goodsand labor, and they depended upon himfor protection and support.

The major military conflicts between 853and 586, however, brought about changes inthe social and economic structures. Thesechanges were often the result of politicalalliances established through commercialtrade, increased need for Israel and Judah to"stock up" on military personnel, materials,and buildings, and the oppression of Israeland Judah by kingdoms like Aram-Damascus,Assyria, and Babylonia. Such wartimedevelopments began to shift thesocio-economic structures of Israel andJudah toward oppression, inequality, andpoverty, especially for the farmers/producers.The economy gradually changed froma family-based subsistence economy to acentralized economy in which the royaladministration dictated the distributionof resources according to the demands ofinterregional trade and foreign domination.The forging of offensive and defensivealliances, for example, produced profitsfrom imports and exports and allowed forsome prosperity. The central administration,however, distributed these profits to the localrulers (patrons). Rather than allowing thegoods to "trickle down" to the villagefarmers, the rulers acquired luxury itemslike ivory for themselves while continuingto drain the surplus of the villages. Thispractice increasingly denied farmers theresources needed to sustain production.

The central government also practiced landconsolidation by giving land grantsto military and administrative functionaries

The world around war 65

An olive press. Such facilities were used to support the

increased royal demands for wine and oil throughout the

periods of Israel's major wars. (akg-images/Erich Lessing)

and establishing large estates controlledby wealthy elites. Thus, a new urban eliteclass displaced family-based Village structures.The ancestral lands of peasant farmers wereincreasingly subsumed into the boundariesof royally designated estates. The farmersprobably had to pay rent or taxes on thelands they worked, and in bad years they mayhave had to surrender any claim to the landsin order to gain the seed needed to plant forsurvival. Some villagers may even have foundthemselves working like tenant farmers onthe very lands that had been in their familiesfor generations. This economic strain alsomust have forced some members of farmingfamilies into military service. Many villagers'lands and inheritance were now probablyinsufficient to provide for male childrenother than the firstborn heir. With little otherrecourse for survival, many of these youngersons probably joined - voluntarily orotherwise - the military.

As Israel and Judah continued to engagein political alliances and military conflicts,the demand for military resources increased.Thus, goods that could have provided for theneeds of peasants had to be increasingly used

to purchase materials for fortified palaces andcity walls or to provide stores and supplies forsoldiers. The capital city's increased need forthese materials also required the local andregional royal functionaries to give up moreof their share of the economic resources andthreatened the prosperity they had previouslyknown. In order to maintain this prosperity,these rulers shifted the burden to thefarmers/producers, probably throughincreased rent payments and higherproduction demands.

The economic strain increased as Israeland Judah became subject to foreign powers.The village farmers lost not only resourcesbecause of the need to supply the military,but also because of the need to pay therequired tributes to ruling empires. In orderto meet these two demands, the kingdomsneeded to produce particular commoditiesthat were easily gathered, stored, andtransported. Biblical and archeologicalindicators suggest that these commoditieswere especially grain, oil, and wine. Hence,the royal administration engaged in a processof imposed"cash cropping./I The rulers forcedfarmers and villages to transform their landsinto vineyards and olive orchards and toproduce only the specialized cash cropsof grain, wine, and oil for use by the centralgovernment. Specialization of oil and wine


Remains of a "casemate" wall from the northern Israelite

city of Hazor. These structures consisted of two parallel

walls with the space between them divided into smaller

compartments, and served to bolster the defenses of a

city (Ronald Sheridan, Ancient Art and Architecture

Collection Ltd)

production was especially prevalent in thehill country, while the intensified grainproduction was centered in the lowlandareas. Archeological remains show, forexample, the multiplication of rock-cut oliveand grape processing stations around Samariain the 8th century. About 6S notationswritten on potsherds, which date fromthe 9th/8th centuries and were found ina storehouse in Samaria, also register thedelivery of olive oil and wine and may berecords of the receipt of such items fromroyal estates outside of the capital.

The effects of this cash cropping onthe village farmers were devastating. Underpressure to grow only specialized crops, thefarmers lost their ability to raise what theyneeded for local subsistence. Many peasantshad to take out loans from the ruling elitewho had control of basic subsistence resourcesgranted by the central government. To get

these loans, the farmers offered their inheritedlands, family members, or even their ownpersons as collateral. When the almostinevitable foreclosures occurred, peasantsfrequently became landless debt-slaves tomembers of the ruling elite. Various biblicaltexts suggest that even the courts of lawcharged with supervising such loans andforeclosures increasingly came to be controlledby the ruling elites, and thus came to becorrupted to serve their interests. Farmersalso lost the ability to use agricultural practiceslike crop rotation and fallowing to spread risksof crop failure. Instead, they had to investtime, labor, and resources into establishingterrace-farming of vineyards and olive treesand engage in continuous sowing and reapingin order to support the royal land agenda.

Religion

War fundamentally affected Israeliteand Judean religion. Religious beliefs andpractices became avenues by which the royalhouses legitimized their policies and othersopposed them.

The official dynasty-sponsored religionthroughout the 9th to 6th centuries centeredon the worship of the god Yahweh, and wasexpressed through the practice of priests andsacrifices. This worship was "monolatrous,"that is, it promoted the exclusive worshipof Yahweh without denying the existenceof other deities. The HB/OT is an extensivesource for these religious beliefs andpractices. While the Bible is evidently nota historical annal, it is explicitly a collectionof ancient Israelite and Judean religioustexts. These texts, as well as evidence fromextra-biblical writings and archeology,show that the official religion was not static,uniform, or universal throughout householdsin Israel and Judah, and that the variouswars helped to shape the official religionin diverse ways.

One strand of Israelite religion came tosee the god Yahweh as a "divine warrior"who fought alongside Israel's troops andprovided the decisive factor in their victories.This belief appears in some of the mostancient poems preserved in the HB/OTand may have had its roots in Israel'spre-monarchical period. Especially in Israel'sstruggles against stronger and dominatingempires, the Israelites came to see Yahwehas a warrior who acted in violent wayson behalf of the weaker group in order toprovide deliverance from oppression andsecurity for existence:

The LORD is a warrior; the LORD is his

name... Your right hand, a LORD, glorious in

power - your right hand, a LORD, shattered theenemy;96 The LORD your God, who goes before

you, is the one who will fight for you... Do not

fear them, for it is the LORD your God who

fights for yoU.97

Such a belief was also similar to whatother Ancient Near Eastern kingdomssaid about their gods. By casting their ownhistorical battles as events in which God wasinvolved, the Israelites transformed thosebattles into larger conflicts between theirGod and cosmic forces of evil representedby other gods. Even so, biblical texts insisted


that Yahweh's first loyalty was to justiceand righteousness and that he was notunconditionally loyal to Israel, a concessionthat probably helped explain defeats sufferedin battle.

The king and his royal officials, whosought to maintain the social and economicstructures they had instituted, used suchbeliefs to give themselves moral andreligious legitimacy. Amidst the militaryconflicts led by the king and capital, Israel'sreligion developed a "royal theology" thatpictured God as siding with the king againstall enemies of the kingdom, and envisionedthe king himself as the human representativeof the divine warrior. This theology appearedin several ancient royal hymns that havebeen preserved in the biblical book of Psalmsand that simultaneously honor both the ruleof God and the rule of the king:

Then he [Yahweh] will speak to them in his

wrath ... "I have set my king on Zion, my holy

hill... Ask of me, and I will make the nations

your heritage, and the ends of the earth your

possession. You shall break them with a

rod of iron, and dash them in pieces likea potter's vessel. 1198

By making an explicit connectionbetween the divine warrior and theroyal establishment, this belief systemlegitimated the monarchy's policies and thesocio-economic order that they produced.Under this system, the elements of religiouspractice often became intertwined with thegovernment's interests. Royal sanctuaries atplaces like Bethel and Jerusalem functionedas administrative and economic centers, andpriests in local areas promoted the dominantreligious ideology and managed economicresources. Sacrifices and offerings given bythe people served as sources of revenue forthe government, since only a portion of theoffering was consumed on the altar andthe remainder went to the priest forredistribution or re-use.99

At times, Israelite and Judean kings alsoexplicitly instituted changes in religiouspractices that served military needs. For


example, the HB/OT describes how theJudean king Hezekiah, who inheritedthe throne from his father around 727,undertook a religious reform that closedall outlying sanctuaries and decreed thatall sacrificial rituals must take place atthe central sanctuary in the capital cityof Jerusalem. IOO He evidently destroyed localreligious shrines, reorganized the priesthoodand Jerusalem temple, and held a Passoverfestival to which he invited remnants of thedestroyed northern kingdom. When seenin the historical context of Judah's conflictswith Assyria between 714 and 701, it is likelythat these actions had political effects if notmotives. Such a reform consolidated powerin the capital, drew in potential assistancefrom the old northern kingdom, andcentralized economic resources to preparefor a siege of the city. The actions readiedJudah for revolt against Assyria near theend of the 8th century.

Alongside these changes that wereinstituted by the Israelites and Judeansthemselves, the majority of war's effectson religion resulted from the influenceof both friendly and hostile foreign powers.Cooperative alliances in particular may havebeen responsible for introducing the worshipof other gods into Israel and Judah, sincethe making of treaties evidently involvedtacit recognition and perhaps outrightsponsorship of the chief gods of one's allies.The biblical story of King Ahab of Israel,for example, who had an alliance withPhoenicia through his marriage to Jezebel,describes official Israelite sponsorship of theworship of the Phoenician god Baal in the9th century.IOI Various Assyrian texts alsosuggest that the making of Virtually everykind of political treaty involved worshipceremonies in which each treaty partnerhonored the other's gods and swore thetreaty in the name of both sets of deities.

The submission of Israel and Judah tohostile foreign powers is also likely to havecaused changes to their religious beliefsand practices. While the Assyrians did notforce their religion on vassal kingdoms, theexperience of suffering defeat at their hands

was probably interpreted by some asa sign of the supremacy of Assyria's gods.Moreover, as the influence of foreignkingdoms became increasingly powerfulin Israel and Judah, much of the populationseemingly absorbed and imitated theirreligious practices. This mixing of culturesmay explain the biblical description of KingManasseh of Judah, who reigned during thepeak of Assyria's power in the 7th centuryand is said to have sponsored Judeanworship of "all the host of heaven":

For he rebuilt the high places that his fatherHezekiah had destroyed; he erected altars forBaal, made a sacred pole, as King Ahab ofIsraelhad done, worshiped all the host of heaven, andserved them. I02

Certainly when the Assyrians destroyedthe northern kingdom in 720 and resettledforeigners into the territory, these settlersbrought their own religious traditions, aswell as the influence of official Assyrianreligion, into Israelite territory.

While the wars of the 9th to the 6thcenturies saw some aspects of Israelite andJudean religion become co-opted by theroyal establishment or influenced by foreignelements, other groups within the kingdoms,often those outside the centers of power,used religious traditions to challenge thesocial and political developments. It ispossible, for example, that royal landconsolidation, cash cropping, andexploitation of peasants generated some ofthe social legislation in the "Torah" sectionof the HB/OT (GenesiS-Deuteronomy).Several of the biblical law codes presentedthere as coming directly from Yahwehcommand fair treatment of the poor,defenseless, and vulnerable in society,and picture Yahweh as most closely tiedto those groups:

You shall not withhold the wages ofpoor andneedy laborers, whether other Israelites or alienswho reside in your land in one of your towns.You shall pay them their wages daily beforesunset, because they are poor and their livelihood

depends on them; otherwise they might cry to theLORD against you, and you would incur guilt. 103

These laws may have come from othergroups of priests or religious figures outsidethe royal court and may have functioned asan alternative perspective to the monarchy'sroyal theology.

Prophets

Religious figures called "prophets"represented one reaction to the new socialand political developments. The HB/OThas preserved stories about and speechesassociated with several of the major prophets.Although commonly thought of as predictorsof the future, prophets in ancient Israeland Judah, as elsewhere throughout theAncient Near East, were more accuratelyspokespersons or orators who offereda message from Yahweh into particularpolitical and social situations, a message thatwas not limited to issues of religious belief.Many of these individuals publicly arguedagainst unjust political, social, and economicrelations in the name of Yahweh.

The prophets often spoke explicitlyabout politics and advocated particularcourses of action they believed Yahwehwanted the rulers of Israel and Judah totake. The prophet Jeremiah, for instance, wasa religious leader in Judah who confrontedthe kings Jehoiakim and Zedekiah about theirforeign policy during the years of 605 to 586and advocated loyalty to Babylonia in theface of a rising tide of rebellion coming fromEgypt. The biblical prophets' speeches alsocontain specific references to the emergingpractices of royal land consolidation andsocial exploitation of peasant farmers. Whilethe prophets themselves do not appear tohave been peasants and did not advocatethe establishment of an egalitarian society,they proclaimed that the new socio-economicstructures violated the God-ordained historicethos of Israel as a covenant community, anethos expressed in Israel's Torah. This ethosmeant, according to the prophets, that


Yahweh desired social and economic practicescharacterized by mutual obligations and justrelations among the different levels in theIsraelite community.

These convictions led the prophets tocondemn Israel's ruling officials and wealthyelites as standing under divine judgment.The prophet Amos, who preached to thepeople of the northern kingdom in themid-8th century, proclaimed,

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and

bring to ruin the poor of the land ... buying the

poor for silver and the needy for a pair ofsandals,and selling the sweepings of the wheat. 104

The prophet Micah spoke a similarmessage to the 8th-century leaders of thesouthern kingdom:

Listen you heads ofJacob and rulers of the

house ofIsrael! Should you not know justice?

you who hate the good and love the evil, who

tear the skin offmy people, and the flesh offtheir bones. 105

Beyond these condemnations of officials,however, the prophets came to see Israel'sand Judah's involvement in various conflicts,as well as the unjust consequences thatemerged from those conflicts, as acts thatwould bring divine judgment upon theentirety of both kingdoms. This judgmentwould take the form of destruction and exile.Thus, according to the prophet Ezekiel, areligious leader taken into exile to Babyloniaafter 597, Yahweh commanded him,

(A)nd say to the people of the land, Thus

says the Lord GOD concerning the inhabitants

ofJerusalem in the land of Israel: They shall eat

their bread with fearfulness, and drink their

water in dismay, because their land shall be

stripped of all it contains, on account of the

violence of all those who live in it. 106

Whatever future the prophets envisioned forIsrael and Judah rested only upon how Yahwehmight redeem them from their violence andrestore them after their destruction.

Portraits of civilians

Three faces of Israel and Judah

The history of ancient Israel and Judah hasleft us with a unique resource for learningabout individual civilians from the past.While written records from kingdoms likeAssyria and Babylonia preserve the namesof individuals, even recording some of theirsignificant deeds and characteristics, thesepersons are often royal or military officialsand any ideas about their personalities,attitudes, or motivations must behypothesized from usually impersonalannals. For Israel and Judah, however,the Bible is a collection of texts thatpreserves a large amount of characterportraits and personal stories of individualcivilians. Many biblical stories are intimateengagements with individuals, frequentlyclaiming to describe their actual words,emotions, and thoughts. In many ways,the HB/OT reads like a collection of in-depthcharacter biographies of people who rangefrom royal to peasant, native to foreigner,and Yahwistic to non-Yahwistic.

This observation does not negate thedifficulties associated with using scripture as ahistorical source. The biblical texts are heavilyone-sided in their coverage; for example, thenumber of male characters vastly supersedesthe number of female characters. Many, if notthe majority, of the stories were also writtenlong after the times of the persons theydescribe, in some instances perhaps as manyas 500 years later. One cannot simply assumethat the biblical portraits of individuals, asintimate and detailed as they may be, arealways comprehensive and accurate.Some of the characters may be fictitious,and the Bible depicts all characters, eventhe ones who are also mentioned in morecontemporary, non-biblical sources, by usingliterary artistry associated with storytelling.Nonetheless, while allowing for creativityand embellishment, for many of the civiliansdescribed, there is little reason to doubt that

they, or someone very much like them,experienced life in ancient Israel. At the veryleast, even if some of the figures have beencreated by later writers, the historical realitiesthat they are said to experience often matchwhat one would expect for the times in whichthey are set.

Naboth the vineyard owner

Naboth was the owner of a vineyard inJezreel, the former capital of the northernKingdom of Israel. The main story about himappears in 1 Kings 21,107 and he apparentlylived during the reign of King Ahab of Israelin the 9th century (868-853), although it ispossible his story belongs to the time of thefollowing dynasty. In any case, Naboth'sexperiences as a landowner represented wellthe local impact of the royal policies of landconsolidation, power grabbing, and economiccontrol that increased in these years due totrade alliances and military development.

In keeping with the typical family-basedsocio-economic structures of his day, Nabothpossessed a piece of farming land that washis family's inheritance. He may have beensimply a local landowner without anysignificant status, or he may have beenone of the "elders" and "nobles" whosat in political and judicial authority inJezreel- the biblical account can implyeither. 108 It seems more likely that he wasa wealthy landowner of a large estate, ratherthan a peasant farmer, and he may haveeven received a land grant from the crownat some earlier point. Thus, Naboth probablypossessed a plot of land on which severalpeasant farmers worked each day.

What brought Naboth into the memoryof history was that his vineyard was next toKing Ahab's winter palace in Jezreel. At somepoint during his reign, Ahab offered to buy

Naboth's vineyard in order to turn it into aroyal vegetable garden. The king offered togive Naboth a better vineyard or to pay himthe market value of the property. Yet Nabothrefused to sell because the land was hisfamily's ancestral inheritance. He appealedto the traditional Israelite ethos that landmust remain in the family. Several biblicallaws stipulated that the family land couldonly be transferred through inheritance andthat if economic hardship required that theland be sold, it automatically returned to itsprevious owners at the end of SO years:

And you shall hallow the fiftieth year andyou shall proclaim liberty throughout the land toall its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you:you shall return, every one ofyou, to yourproperty and every one ofyou to your family.lo9

Upon his refusal, Naboth fell victimto the ruling dynasty's increasing impositionof control. Ahab's queen, Jezebel, determinedto help her dejected husband acquire the landand assert the royal authority that she believedhe deserved, orchestrated a conspiracy inwhich two hired witnesses falsely accusedNaboth of blasphemy against God and treason

Portraits of civilians 71

against the king, two crimes punishableby death according to biblicallaw. IIO

On the strength of the legally-required twowitnesses,lll Naboth was executed by stoning:"The two scoundrels came in ... saying,'Naboth cursed God and the King.' So theytook him outside the city, and stoned him todeath."112 After Naboth's execution, Ahab tookpossession of the vineyard, since apparentlyall of Naboth's sons were killed as well. 113

But God sent the prophet Elijah to announce apunishment upon Ahab and his dynastic line.

The experiences of Naboth of Jezreelbecame known to history as a cautionarytale. Although he attempted to resist theroyal land consolidation under way inthe 9th century, Naboth's life ultimatelyshowed how even wealthy land ownerscould have their rights violated by thecrown. His life represented a protestagainst these unjust practices, a protestthat proclaimed divine judgment onthose who perpetrated such injustice.

Small female figurines from the 9th to 7th centuries, suchas these, have been discovered throughout the territoriesof Israel and Judah, and may represent the presence ofgoddess worship in local and household settings.(akg-images/Erich Lessing)


Huldah the prophetess

Huldah lived in the capital city Jerusalemduring the reign of King Josiah of Judah(641-610) and was one of the few femalereligious figures to be recorded in theHB/OT. Her main story, which is foundin 2 Kings 22,114 describes her as "theprophetess Huldah the wife of Shallumson of Tikvah, son of Harhas, keeper of thewardrobe."llS Depending on whether herhusband worked with the "wardrobe" of theking or of the priests, Huldah was marriedto a member of either the court officials ortemple personnel. She herself was apparentlya court "prophetess." It is unclear preciselywhat role such female prophets played inancient Israel, although the HB/OT namesfour other prophetesses, and texts fromMari and Assyria testify to female prophetsin those cultures. They probably hadsimilar functions to male prophets,which included serving as intermediariesbetween the divine and human realms,and communicating messages from Godconcerning specific situations.

The moment of notoriety for Huldah camein the 18th year of King Josiah (622). At thistime, during a repair project on the Jerusalemtemple, the high priest Hilkiah found whathe called "the book of the law" in the temple:"The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan thesecretary, 'I have found the book of the lawin the house of the LORD'."116 Scholars haveoften concluded that this was an early form ofthe biblical book of Deuteronomy, particularlythe section of various blessings and cursesthat will come upon the people for obedienceor disobedience to Yahweh. When the bookwas read to Josiah, he went into mourningand ordered the high priest to make aninquiry of Yahweh concerning the fateof the king and people.

The high priest Hilkiah, along with theroyal secretary, Shaphan, and three others,took the book to Huldah. Her role was not toauthenticate the book, since Josiah evidentlyaccepted its authenticity, but to interpret themeaning of its contents for the king andpeople. In a two-part oracle,lll Huldah

proclaimed that Yahweh would judge Judahfor its disobedience by bringing destructionupon the land but Josiah, because he wasrepentant, would die before he had towitness the destruction first-hand:

...my wrath will be kindled against this place,and it will not be quenched. But as to the King ofJudah ... because your heart was penitent ... youshall be gathered to your grave in peace. lIS

In response to Huldah's proclamation,Josiah enacted a widespread religious reform inJudah that called the people into a covenantof obedience to Yahweh's commands andcentralized worship in the Jerusalem temple.

Baruch the scribe

Baruch the son of Neriah worked as a"scribe" (Hebrew, sopher) in Jerusalem duringthe final three decades of Judah's existence(c.608-586). The book of Jeremiah recordedhis profession and indicated that he was aclose companion of the prophet Jeremiah,perhaps even serving as his personalsecretary.119 A bulla - an impression in claymade by a stone seal used to secure the stringsaround a letter - that has been recovered fromancient Judah attests to his profession andcontains the words, "belonging to Berechiah[an alternate form of the name Baruch], sonof Neriah, the scribe." References in anotherbiblical text and recovered bulla also suggestthat Baruch came from a family of scribesand that his brother was the "quartermaster"under King Zedekiah.120

As an ancient scribe, Baruch was a memberof a professional guild that functioned withinthe bureaucracy and fulfilled tasks of writingand record keeping. Since probably only asmall percentage of the Judean populationwas literate, scribes served to record events,note transactions in the temple, and composeofficial correspondence. Such writing wasprimarily done on clay, potsherds, papyrus,or leather, and practices from other culturesindicate that scribes often trained in schoolsrun by the temple or royal palace.

Portraits of civilians 73

A representation of Ishtar; the Mesopotamian goddessof war. The goddess appears here with her foot on alion and next to a worshipper in audience. The worshipof Ishtar probably provided some of Assyria's religiousmotivations for its military undertakings.(Werner Forman Archive)

In this capacity, Baruch served theprophet Jeremiah during the tumultuousyears of Judah's rebellions against Babyloniaunder kings Jehoiakim and Zedekiah(c.605-586). Baruch apparently played amajor role in preserving Jeremiah's preachingand forming the biblical book that bears hisname. Some biblical scholars even think thatBaruch was Jeremiah's biographer and wasresponsible for most of the book's narratives.Indeed, the reactions of some Judeans toBaruch preserved in the book suggest thathe was no mere recorder but actively shapedthe political advocacy of the prophet, anadvocacy that argued it was Yahweh's willfor Judah to surrender to Babylonia: "butBaruch son of Neriah is inciting youUeremiah] against us, to hand us over to theChaldeans, in order that they may kill us ortake us into exile in Babylon."121

According to Jeremiah 36, around the year605 as Babylon was establishing its dominancein Syria-Palestine, Jeremiah dictated a scroll of

his preaching to Baruch and sent him to read itto a gathering of people during a fast at theJerusalem temple. An official who overheardthe reading then brought Baruch before all theroyal officials of King Jehoiakim, and Baruchread the scroll to them. Apparently disturbedby its proclamations of divine judgment,the officials sent the scroll to be read to theking, who subsequently burned the scroll andordered that Jeremiah and Baruch be arrestedfor treason. Warned in advance to flee,Jeremiah and Baruch escaped capture,and Jeremiah dictated a replacement scrollto Baruch along with additional materials.

By the time of the Babylonian siegeof Jerusalem under King Zedekiah (c.588),

however, Jeremiah and probably Baruch withhim had been imprisoned in Jerusalem. Whenthe Babylonian siege was temporarily lifted,Baruch went with Jeremiah outside Jerusalemto serve as a legal witness to the prophet'spurchase of a piece of ancestral land inAnathoth, a purchase presented as asign of hope for the eventual restorationof Judah. 122 When Jerusalem finally fell tothe Babylonians, Baruch and Jeremiah werereleased from prison and allowed to remainin the land. But a few years later, when theBabylonian-appointed ruler of Judah was


assassinated, Baruch and Jeremiah went toEgypt, perhaps being taken by force againsttheir will, with a group of Judean officialswho feared Babylonian reprisals for theassassination: " ...everyone whomNebuzaradan the captain of the guardhad left with Gedeliah ... also the prophetJeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah ... cameinto the land of Egypt... 11123 Baruch settled ina town in the northeastern delta, where heapparently ended his career. In this setting,although the episode may have occurredearlier,124 the book of Jeremiah tells of apersonal prophecy of comfort that Baruchreceived from Jeremiah.125 Baruch, apparentlydisheartened by his lack of significance oreffectiveness in his career, received a promisethat Yahweh would preserve his life in themidst of war and destruction, a gift that

A relief from the southwest palace in Nineveh thatshows two Assyrian scribes recording the spoils of war.One scribe holds a hinged, wooden tablet, and the othera papyrus scroll. (Ronald Sheridan/Ancient Art andArchitecture Collection Ltd)

positioned Baruch to carryon the prophet'smessage and to symbolize the possibilityof hope for his devastated people.

Baruch became a major figure in laterJewish literary tradition. Three writingsnot included in the Jewish and Protestantcanons of the HB/OT bear his name,even though they were evidently writtencenturies after his death by later Jewishauthors and do not exist in Hebrew.126 Thedevelopment of this later tradition suggeststhat Baruch came to be seen as a symbolof loyalty and obedience in the midstof a time of unfaithfulness and rebellion.

How the war ended

Judah as a Babylonian province

A series of military conflicts that spannedmore than two and a half centuries is unlikelyto have a clear conclusion, and the end ofJudah's major wars likewise consisted ofseveral developments that unfolded after theBabylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586.When the city fell at the close of a prolongedsiege in mid-July, the Babylonians put intoeffect the new policy that they had adoptedin response to a growing Egyptian threat inthe late 590s. This policy entailed makingdrastic changes in the government ofrebellious kingdoms. The Babyloniansimmediately executed the Davidic kingZedekiah, as well as most of the royal officials,top priests, and local leaders, and took manyinhabitants into exile to Babylonia.127 Itappears that the Babylonians allocated aboutone month to accomplish the exilingof people from Jerusalem and the gatheringof the city's spoil, since approximately amonth after Jerusalem's capture a Babyloniancontingent arrived to raze the city and leaveit desolate. Thus, Jerusalem in late 586 was anearly deserted town, with dismantled walls,destroyed political and religious buildings,and burnt houses.

In the period following these events,several developments brought the historyof Judah's major military conflicts to an end:the Babylonians reorganized the governmentof Judah with a new capital; that neworganization collapsed shortly thereafter; andthe Babylonians and Judeans reacted to thatcollapse in various ways. Within this sequenceof events, three things appear certain:

1) the Babylonians subjugated Judah,removed the Davidic family frompower, and eliminated the historiccapital city;

2) Gedeliah son of Ahikam, a Judeanroyal official not from the rulingDavidic family, was appointed by

Babylonia to rule over a depleted Judahfrom a new center in Mizpah;

3) Gedeliah was subsequently assassinatedand his government collapsed.

Beyond these general happenings, thebiblical and extra-biblical evidence allowssome more detailed speculation.

First, at the time when the Babyloniansdestroyed Jerusalem and some other majorJudean cities in the summer of 586, theytreated subjugated territories differently thantheir predecessors had. While the Assyrianshad likewise restructured governmentalsystems, they had also practiced the physicaland economic rebuilding of conqueredterritories. The Babylonian practice, on theother hand, was to conduct no militaryoperations other than war and to leaveconquered territories devastated andimpoverished with only relatively minorgovernmental structures in a particularchosen area. Babylonia's goal appears tohave been the establishment of a bufferzone of dilapidated areas between itself andEgypt. Hence, when the former center of thekingdom at Jerusalem collapsed, peripheralareas of the kingdom like the Negev, JordanValley, and Shephelah also fell into decline.

In light of these practices, the Babyloniandestruction should not be seen as total, andJudah should not be thought of as an "emptyland." Although the Babylonians deportedmany Judean people, removed the rulingdynasty, and left destroyed areas in ruins, themajority of the population seemingly remainedin the territory. Archeological evidence showsthat most of the devastated areas weresouthwest of Jerusalem in places likeBeth-shemesh and Lachish, and the areaimmediately north of Jerusalem remainedvirtually unscathed and even experiencedgrowth during this time. In fact, it is likelythat the Babylonians chose this limited area


A modern threshing floor. Such facilities helped produce

the grain needed for subsistence, supply, and trade.

(Image courtesy of www.HolyLandPhotos.org)

for leniency even before the destructionof Jerusalem. Probably while the siegewas underway, they established a newadministrative center for Judah at Mizpahin the territory of Benjamin just north ofJerusalem. At this location, the Babyloniansstationed a garrison of troops (apparently smallenough to be later liquidated by a contingentof only ten men; see below), gathered themajor elements of the remaining population,and established a submissive government.

Although the biblical story of the peoplewho remained in the land, which is toldin 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 40-41, has anoticeable slant in favor of those deportedto Babylonia and describes those remainingas only the poorest of the land, there areother indications that they also includedpriests, scribes, soldiers, officers, artisans,and workers. The exact number of peopleremaining is unknown, but they probablygathered in the region of Mizpah fromthe devastated areas. The biblical texts

also indicate that refugees who had fledto neighboring kingdoms like Edom, Moab,and Ammon returned to the new center atMizpah, as did the remnants of the Judeanarmy commanders:

Now when all the captains of the forces and

their men heard that the king ofBabylon had

appointed Gedeliah as governor, they came withtheir men to Gedeliah at Mizpah ... 11128

These were probably junior officersof several small army units. Thus, in theaftermath of Jerusalem's destruction,the Babylonians reorganized Judah into aterritory centered in Mizpah and extendingmainly to surrounding cities like Gibeon andBethlehem. Archeological remains indicatea population of 400 to 500 people inMizpah, as well as the emergence of villagesettlements in some areas throughout Judah.Evidence from burial caves suggests thatthere may also have been some limitedreoccupation of parts of Jerusalem.

In order to administrate the remainingterritory, the biblical texts record that theBabylonians appointed Gedeliah ruler over

Judah. Gedeliah was apparently from asocially prominent Judean family, since hisgrandfather was Shaphan, the royal secretaryunder King Josiah. 129 He may also have beenone of the high-ranking officials within theJudean court of Zedekiah before 586. A bulladiscovered at Lachish before its destructionidentifies someone named Gedeliah ashaving been "over the household," aphrase that designated the chief ministerof the royal court. Thus, it appears thatthe Babylonians appointed one of thechief officials who was not from theDavidic ruling family to govern thereorganized territory.

The exact nature of Gedeliah's positionremains unclear, however, since the biblicaltexts do not specify his office. Althoughmost modern Bible translations insertthe title"governor" and assume that theBabylonians annexed Judah into a directlycontrolled province immediately afterJerusalem's fall, there are some indicationsthat Gedeliah may have been installed as anew king and Judah left as a greatly reducedvassal kingdom. Some references in Jeremiah40-41, as well as a seal found at Mizpah,mention "the king" in the period followingJerusalem's destruction and in connectionwith people whom the HB/OT lists as beingamong Gedeliah's officers.

If the Babylonians appointed Gedeliahas a king, rather than a governor, the newBabylonian policy toward rebelliouskingdoms probably did not entailimmediately turning them into provinces.Rather, the Babylonians may have allowedkingdoms like Judah to remain vassalkingdoms, but with a new ruling familyand capital city and in a reduced condition.The dearth of Babylonian records does notpermit certainty, and the policy could havetaken different forms with regard to differentkingdoms. Yet the Babylonians were perhapsfollowing the former Assyrian practice of notprovincializing the kingdoms of southernSyria-Palestine that were closest to theEgyptian border. In any case, the biblicaltexts attribute to Gedeliah the authority topromise Babylonian protection, distribute

How the war ended 77

A seal discovered at Lachish inscribed with the words,

"belonging to Gedeliah, who is over the house," perhaps

indicating that Gedeliah was a royal official before being

appointed by the Babylonians as ruler of Judah after

586 Be. (Wellcome Library, London)

lands and houses, oversee subsistenceresources, and perhaps even collect taxes:

As for me, I am staying at Mizpah to represent

you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but asfor you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil,

and store them in your vessels, and live in the

towns that you have taken over. 130

Even if the Babylonians allowed Judah topersist as a vassal kingdom after Jerusalem'sdestruction, they annexed it as an imperialprovince shortly thereafter. The apparentcatalyst for this development was theassassination of Gedeliah and the collapseof his administration at Mizpah. The HB/OT

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inscription "belonging to Jaazaniah, servant of the king."

Jaazaniah was an official under Gedeliah at Mizpah after

586 Be (2 Kgs 25: 23). Because the seal refers to the

"king," it may indicate that Gedeliah ruled as king, rather

than governor; of Judah after the Babylonian destruction.

(©2004 Credit: Topham PicturepointITopfoto.co.uk)

describes how some of the Judean soldiersthat gathered to Gedeliah at Mizpah hadwarned him that King Baalis of Ammonhad employed Ishmael son of Nethaniah toassassinate him. I31 The biblical texts describeIshmael as "one of the chief officers of theking," and imply, if the "king" here isGedeliah, that Ishmael initially submittedto Gedeliah's authority.I32 But the texts alsoemphasize that Ishmael was "of the royalfamily," probably indicating that he was amember of the extended Davidic family,although not a son of the previous kingZedekiah. I33 Ishmael no doubt representedopposition to a non-Davidic ruler in Judahand a desire to reinstate the old ruling family.

Ishmael, with a contingent of ten men,eventually succeeded in assassinatingGedeliah and his officers in Mizpah, as wellas taking captives, destroying the smallBabylonian garrison, and even massacring80 mourners on their way to the ruinsof Jerusalem:

But in the seventh month, Ishmael son ofNethaniah son ofElishama, of the royal family,

How the war ended 79

came with ten men; they struck down Gedeliah

so that he died, along with the Judeans andChaldeans who were with him at Mizpah. 134

After the assassination, the soldiers loyalto Gedeliah pursued Ishmael to Gibeonand rescued the captives, but Ishmaelescaped to Ammon. Even so, the armyofficers from Mizpah took the people theyhad rescued from Ishmael, as well as Jeremiahthe prophet, Baruch the scribe, and perhapsothers, and fled to Egypt because theyfeared Babylonian reprisals for the civilunrest in Judah.

The precise date of these climactic eventsremains uncertain. The biblical texts placethem in "the seventh month," but do notprovide the year. I35 While the structureof the biblical narrative implies that theassassination happened in 586 shortly afterJerusalem's destruction, it more likelyoccurred in 582/581, after Gedeliah hadruled for about five years. At this time, theJewish historian Josephus reports that KingNebuchadrezzar of Babylon campaignedagain in Syria-Palestine, a campaignparticularly aimed at Moab and Ammon:

And so it happened; for in the fifth yearafter the sacking ofJerusalem, which was the

twenty-third year of the reign ofNebuchadnezzar[582/581 Be], Nebuchadnezzar marched againstCoele-Syria and, after occupying it, made warboth on the Moabites and the Ammanites. 136

Jeremiah 52: 30 also records anotherdeportation of 745 Judeans by theBabylonians in this year: "in thetwenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar,Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard tookinto exile of the Judeans seven hundredand forty-five persons."I3? These referencessuggest that the Babylonians took punitiveaction in response to the assassinationof Gedeliah and the overthrow of hisadministration, and that this action occurredin 582/581. While the Babylonians may haveallowed Judah to remain a vassal kingdomafter 586, it was probably in 582/581

that they finally reduced the kingdom to


a province. Judah likely became a part ofthe Babylonian province that included theterritory of the old northern Kingdom ofIsrael and was governed from Samaria.

At the end of this concluding sequenceof events, the various deportations in 597,586, and 582/581 had probably sent about20,000 Judeans to Babylonia, but had alsoleft a collection of citizens living in thedepleted territory of the former kingdom.Hence, at the end of this period, the people

of the kingdom formerly known as Judahexisted in different communities in separatelocations: those remaining in the land ofJudah; those living together in Babylonia;and those who had fled in smaller groupsto surrounding kingdoms like Egypt.Throughout the following decades, thesegroups faced the tasks of forging identitiesfor themselves in the midst of their newsituations, and answering the questionof where and with whom their future lay.

Conclusion and consequences

Forging identities (586-539 Be)

The two and a half centuries of war thatended in 586 Be produced new life situationsfor the peoples who had previously calledthemselves "Israelites" and "Judeans", andpushed those peoples to think intentionallyabout their present and future existence.More specifically, the Babylonian destructionof Jerusalem was a cultural and theologicaltrauma for the people of Judah withconsequences on several levels. For example,the HB/OT as a whole indicates that Judeanshad long found their sense of who theywere through an association with theso-called "promised land" and Jerusalemtemple. Obviously, these trends had to bereformulated after the destruction in 586.

The fall of Judah and the subsequentdeportations were traumatic on anotherlevel because they gave rise to diversecommunities of "Judeans" living throughoutthe Ancient Near East. The HB/OT, especiallybooks like 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Jeremiah,and Ezekiel, presents the destruction ofJerusalem in 586 as inaugurating a 47-year"Babylonian exile" (586-539) in whichthe "true" community of the Judean peoplelived in Babylonia while awaiting divinerestoration to their homeland. While itis true that at least after the collapse ofGedeliah's government in Mizpah by582/581, the "Judeans" no longer dwelttogether in their ancestral land and manyfound themselves in Babylonia, significantportions of Judah's people continued to livein their ancestral territory while some settledin places like Egypt.

Thus, at least two major communitiesof people, descended from the inhabitants ofthe Judean Kingdom, emerged in the decadesafter 586: those who remained in the landof Judah (now a Babylonian provincecentered at Mizpah), and those who livedin Babylonia as a result of the deportations

of 597, 586, and 582/581. Naturally, thesecommunities tried to forge identities forthemselves and envision their futures,drawing on their memories and ideas of theheyday of Judean power in the "promisedland." This process produced competingvisions that led to an ideological rift betweenthe two communities. Eventually, however,the two communities would encounter oneanother again when the Persians destroyedthe Babylonian Empire and began to sendthe Judean "exiles" home in 539.

Judeans remaining in the land

The biblical sources relevant to this periodwere produced or at least edited by thedeported community living in Babyloniaand thus, like all written sources, representa particular perspective. Hence, the biblicalpicture draws a sharp distinction betweenconditions before and after 586 and impliesthat there was a nearly complete exile,that the center of cultural and religious lifeshifted to Babylonia, and that only a meagerpopulation of poor people remained in theland of Judah. Especially the latest materialsadded to biblical texts138 minimize thenumber and status of those remaining inJudah, and seem to deliberately concealtheir presence there throughout 586 to 539.This perspective, of course, helped to backup the exiles' claim that they were the truecommunity of Judah. Only in this biblicalperspective, however, can these years beseen as a time when Judah lived in exile.Archeological remains demonstrate that acommunity continuous with the precedingculture persisted in the old territory ofJudah. Judah was not an empty land duringthe so-called Babylonian exile. In fact, themajority of Judeans probably remained in


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the land, perhaps as much as 75 percent ofthe earlier population.

Because the focus of the relevant biblicaltexts is elsewhere, very little is known aboutthe community that remained in the land.This community was likely constituteddifferently than the pre-destruction society.Since deportation had removed much ofthe upper and artisan classes, there wasapparently redistribution of property andresources to the benefit of the lower classes:"Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard leftin the land of Judah some of the poorpeople who owned nothing, and gave themvineyards and fields at the same time. "139Although the inhabitants in this communityofficially shifted from being Judean citizensto being Babylonian citizens, they retainedan administrative center at Mizpah, andseemingly continued the characteristicelements of their previous lifestyle. Evenin the time immediately after Jerusalem'sdestruction, for example, Gedeliah hadinstructed the remaining community toresume their normal life and agricultureunder Babylonian rule. 140

In the aftermath of the deportations anddestructions, however, the people remainingin the land sought to forge an identity forthemselves that could explain their past,present, and future. Advantageous in thisregard was the fact that the Babylonians,unlike the Assyrians, did not resettleforeigners into conquered territoriesbut practiced only one-way deportation toBabylonia. Thus, the people in Judah did notmeld into a society of blended ethnic groupsas the population of the northern Kingdomof Israel did after its destruction in 720. Thefact that Judah was, then, still populatedby Judeans allowed the continuation of theworship of Yahweh to become a key elementin the construction and maintenance of thecommunity's identity. Although the HB/OTgives the impression that all cultic activitystopped in Judah after the destruction ofthe temple, several specific texts suggestthat Yahweh worship of some kind persistedat various locations. The Babylonians mayhave established Mizpah to function as a

Conclusion and consequences 83

combined administrative and religiouscenter, in much the same way that Jerusalemhad functioned previously. Additionally,some people apparently continued toworship at the ruins of the Jerusalem temple.The book of Lamentations, for example,assumes that cultic rituals were takingplace at the destroyed temple. Such worshipwas probably informal, characterized bymourning and repentance, and carried outthrough meal and incense offerings ratherthan animal sacrifices.

This continued cultic activity forgedcommunity identity in particular ways.Mourning and repentance rituals served tohelp the people explain and cope with thecatastrophic events that had befallen theirkingdom. Yet such activities specificallycreated a vision of identity that saw thosetaken to Babylonia as the sinners who hadincurred divine judgment and thus broughtabout the kingdom's destruction. Note howthe prophet Ezekiel, himself one of theexiles, says the community in the landlabeled the deportees as those who"have gone far from the LORD."141

Judeans in Babylonia

Only a few biblical and extra-biblical sourcesprovide details of the lives of the Judeansdeported to Babylonia between 597 and582/581. In the HB/OT, the primary sourcesare the book of Ezekiel, a prophet who wastaken into exile in 597 and carried out hispreaching among the deportees in Babylonia,and Isaiah 40-55, the words of a prophetwho lived in exile near the end of theBabylonian Empire (c.539). The deporteesprobably totaled in the tens of thousandsand were primarily settled in the depletedarea between Assyria and Babylonia that hadbeen devastated during wars between thetwo empires. Note that many of the namesof the Judean settlements contain the word"Tel" ("mound") and thus imply that thedeportees were mainly moved into areasin need of redevelopment (e.g. Tel-Abib142).While some Judeans undoubtedly assimilated


into Babylonian culture in these contexts,the Babylonians, unlike the Assyrians beforethem, did not force ethnic intermingling.In fact, Babylonian policy apparently was tosettle deportees in groups according to theirorigins and ethnicity and allow them somelimited self-governance. For example, thebiblical texts record the use of ethnic titleslike "the elders of Judah" and the "eldersamong the exiles" to designate leadersamong the deportees. 143

The Judean exiles received differenttreatment depending on their social status,but certainly were not slaves. Kings likeJehoiachin, the Judean king when Jerusalemfell in 597, were imprisoned, but Babylonianrecords note that he and his sons receivedgrain rations and that he was later releasedfrom prison and given a place in the royalcourt.l44 Non-royal deportees were likewisenot oppressed or restricted in significantways, since Babylonian texts contain thenames of Judeans who were involved incommercial, real-estate, and economicactivities like normal Babylonian citizens.Overall, the exiles served as something likeland-tenants to the Babylonian king, whoprovided needed labor, tax revenues, andmilitary service.

Even so, the cultural and theologicaldisorientation of being displaced from theirhomeland left the exiles needing to forgea social and religious identity that couldaccount for their present and envision theirfuture. As with those remaining in Judah,the continuation of Yahweh worship inBabylonia formed part of this effort. Sincethe Jerusalem temple had been the stipulatedplace for animal sacrifices, Judeans in exileapparently had a non-sacrificial religion thatfocused on gatherings of prayer, praise, andperhaps the reading of Torah in localmeeting places. Such gatherings mayhave been the early forerunners of Jewishsynagogues, though the synagogues' fullrealization seems to have developed later inthe Roman period. Along the same lines, thereligious practices of Sabbath observance andcircumcision became important designatorsof ethnic identity, as witnessed by the

biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah thatcome from the exile community.

The continued presence of members ofthe Davidic royal line among the exiles inBabylonia also furthered a sense of religiousand national identity and fostered hope forfuture restoration. Biblical texts producedduring this period, for example, continuedto number the years in exile as part ofKing Jehoiachin's reign. 145 The survivalof descendants from this family throughoutthe time of the Babylonian Empire alsohelped to confirm in the audience'sminds prophetic proclamations that an"anointed one" ("Messiah") would emerge asa future Davidic leader and bring about therestoration of the exiles: "I will make themone nation in the land, on the mountainsof Israel; and one king shall be king overthem alL .. My servant David shall be kingover them."146 Thus, the Judean communityin Babylonia constructed a competing visionof identity to that of the community thatremained in the land. Prophets like Ezekielproclaimed that Yahweh had abandoned theland of Judah and accompanied the exiles toBabylonia and that they represented the truecommunity that Yahweh planned to restoreto the homeland. 147 A bright future awaitedthe"good figs" that had been sent into exile,but a bleak future was in store for the "badfigs" that remained in the land of Judah:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Likethese good figs, so I will regard as good the exilesfrom Judah ... I will set my eyes upon them forgood, and I will bring them back to this land. 148

The major tool by which the Judeancommunity in Babylonia forged its socialand religious identity was the productionand editing of written texts that have nowbecome part of the Jewish and Christianscriptures. The HB/OT itself reveals thatthere was widespread literary activity amongthe community in Babylonia. In fact, themajority of the texts that now appear inthe HB/OT were either written or given theirfinal edited form by this exilic communityin order to serve their effort to construct an

identity. For example, exilic editors collectedthe speeches of prophets like Hosea, Isaiah,and Jeremiah, recontextualized and expandedtheir words in light of the new situation, andshaped them into the literary compilationsthat eventually became today's biblical books.In the hands of the exilic community, theseprophetic texts served to reinterpret thedestruction and deportation as simply thefirst part of Yahweh's plan to make Israeland Judah a faithful people, a plan thatalso included a return to the promised landafter a period of cleansing. 149 The propheticmessages proclaimed that the destruction andexile did not represent the weakness or failureof Judah's God but were carried out on hisorders. Prophets like Jeremiah even recastNebuchadrezzar of Babylon as the"servant"whom Yahweh used to enact his plan:

Now I have given all these lands into thehand ofKing Nebuchadnezzar ofBabylon, myservant, and I have given him even the wildanimals of the field to serve him. 150

Some of the biblical texts composed orcompiled among the exiles emphasized thepossibility of living a faithful and prosperouslife by submitting to Babylonian authority asdivinely ordained. Biblical stories like thoseof Joseph, 15 1 Daniel, and Esther, characterspresented as living in the capitals of foreignempires, probably began to take shapeduring this period and held up theirheroes as models of a faithful lifestyle inthe courts of foreign kings. This emphasisagain underscored the conviction thatdeportation was not an end in itselfbut was part of a divine plan movingtoward restoration.

The most significant example ofscripture's role in shaping the exiliccommunity's sense of identity is theso-called "Deuteronomistic History,"which includes the biblical books of Joshua,Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings,and may have originated as a unified work.These books offer an extensive narrativepresentation of Israelite and Judean historyfrom its beginning to the middle of the exile.


While an earlier version of this work mayhave been written before 586, the presentform underwent significant expansionand editing during the time of the exiliccommunity. These books are, of course,selective in their reporting and oftenallow religious concerns to shape theirpresentation. Rather than being deficiencies,these characteristics suggest that theDeuteronomistic History was composednot simply to report but to interpret theevents that resulted in the destructionsand deportations of the 6th century. Onthe whole, the work answers the questionsof what happened and what will happen interms of religious faithfulness. Israel's andJudah's fate depended upon faithfulness totheir God, but their unfaithfulness generateddivine punishment. This interpretation againallowed the exilic community to see theirpresent circumstances as part of Yahweh'splan and generated hope that renewedfaithfulness would lead to a good life in thepresent and restoration in the future. Hence,2 Kings 25 concludes the DeuteronomisticHistory with the report of King Jehoiachin'srelease from prison in Babylon andachievement of an exalted seat inthe Babylonian court:

In the thirty-seventh year of the exile ofKingJehoiachin ofJudah ... King Evil-merodach ofBabylon, in the year that he began to reign,released King Jehoiachin ofJudah from prison;he spoke kindly to him, and gave him a seatabove the other seats of the kings who werewith him in Babylon. 152

Return, rebuilding, and resistance

The two major Judean communities thatemerged after 586 came into contact withone another again when the BabylonianEmpire gave way to the new world powerof Persia around 539. After the death ofNebuchadrezzar, there was a rapid successionof relatively unsuccessful Babylonian kingsthat reached a climax with Nabonidus, aruler who emerged from a western part of


the Empire outside the capital (555-539).

This ruler alienated much of the populationthrough religious reforms and spent a decadeaway from the capital, leaving his son rulingas a regent. During these years of Babyloniandecline, the Persians, an Indo-Europeanpeople centered in the area of modern Iran,rose to power under Cyrus II. Babylonianrecords indicate that Cyrus began as a lesserally of Nabonidus, but eventually capturedthe city of Babylon without a fight inOctober 539. This event inaugurated theso-called "Persian period" or "Achaemenidperiod" that lasted until the ascendancy ofAlexander the Great of Greece around 333.

The historical sources for the entirePersian period, especially for eventsconcerning Judah, are very limited, and themain sources are biblical writings like 1 and2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, andZechariah. Virtually all of these sourcesfocus exclusively on the deportees ratherthan on the community that remained inthe land. What the available biblical andPersian texts suggest, however, is that thePersians adopted a different policy of empire

The "Cyrus Cylinder" contains a cuneiform inscription in

which King Cyrus of Persia permits a deported people

to return to their homeland. Although it does not

mention Judeans, it suggests that the allowance of such

returns was Persian policy in the late 6th century. A

similar decree appears for the Jews in Ezra I: 1-4 and

6: 3-5. (c) The British Museum/HIPlTopfoto.co.uk)

building: they allowed deportees to returnhome and rebuild their local temples andcapitals, a move likely designed to refortifydistant areas of the Empire. For example,the"Cyrus Cylinder" is a piece of Persianpropaganda that seemingly testifies to thepolicy of sponsoring the rebuilding of localreligious sites:

... I returned (the images of) the gods to thesacred centers [on the other side of] the Tigris

whose sanctuaries had been abandoned for along time, and I let them dwell in eternal

abodes. I gathered all their inhabitants andreturned (to them) their dwellings. 153

Probably as a result of this policy, theJudeans living in Babylonia received theopportunity to return to Jerusalem andrebuild its temple. The HB/OT preservesdifferent versions (in both Hebrew andAramaic) of an "Edict of Cyrus" thatinaugurated these events:

Thus says King Cyrus ofPersia: The LORD,the God ofheaven, has given me all the

kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me

to build him a house at Jerusalem in Judah. Any

of those among you who are of his people - may

their God be with them! - are now permitted

to go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and rebuild thehouse of the LORD, the God of Israel - he is

the God who is in Jerusalem. 154


The mound of remains that marks the site of ancient

Lachish, the major fortified city in southwestern Judah in

both the Assyrian and Babylonian periods.The Assyrians

commemorated the city's destruction in 70 I Be with a

pictorial relief on the wall of Sennacherib's palace in

Nineveh (see book cover). (R Sheridan, Ancient Art

and Architecture Collection)

The biblical texts, dedicated tothe interests of the deportees, give theimpression of a massive, all-at-once, returnfrom Babylonia in the early Persian period,and supply lists of names that imply thereturn of about 50,000 people under theleadership of a Persian-appointed governornamed Sheshbazzar. ISS The names of theofficials in these lists, however, are from lateryears and suggest that the lists may reflectperiods after 539. There are, in fact, diversetraditions preserved in the Bible about howthe process of return occurred and underwhose leadership. Both the Cyrus Cylinderand the Edict of Cyrus imply that theoriginal return was specifically connectedwith those who would rebuild the templeand thus was probably very limited. Mostlikely, the return of Judeans from Babyloniawas a gradual process that occurred in several

waves over nearly a century, perhapsbeginning with an initial return ofabout 4,000 people in the early 530s.The combined biblical traditions suggestat least four phases of return:

1) an initial return under Sheshbazzarin 538;

2) a movement that completed therebuilding of the temple under thePerSian-appointed governor Zerubbabeland the high priest Joshua around 515;

3) a return concerned with religiousreform led by the priest Ezra in 458;

4) an effort aimed at refortifyingJerusalem's walls led by the governorNehemiah in 445.

The significance of these developmentsrests in the situation they created within theland of Judah, a situation that representedthe resolution of the effects of centuriesof war and shaped the land's future wellbeyond the 6th century. After 539, theformer Kingdom of Judah existed as aPersian province called "Yehud," with itsreligious and economic center in Jerusalem.Yehud was part of the larger imperial districtcalled "Abar Nahara" ("across the river"),


which included most areas west of theEuphrates. The province of Yehud itselfconsisted primarily of the area from justabove Bethel to just below Beth-zur andfrom the Jordan River to just west of Azekah,an area about 25 miles (40km) north-southand 30 miles (48km) east-west. Persia tookan active role in the administration of thisprovince, often appointing its political andreligious leaders (e.g., Ezra and Nehemiah).Although the refortification of Jerusalem'swalls around 445 returned that city to itsstatus as the center of the area, it remaineda smaller version of its former self with apopulation of probably no more thanabout 500 people throughout the firstcentury of Persian rule. Not until the2nd century Be would Jerusalem againachieve a significant population.

Perhaps more significantly, the return ofsome deported Judeans created a situationof internal conflict in Yehud between thereturnees and those who had remained inthe land. The HB/OT attests to oppositionfrom locals to the rebuilding of Jerusalemand its temple: "Then the people of theland discouraged the people of Judah, andmade them afraid to build."156 One causeof such conflict may have been that whilethe Babylonians apparently appointedgovernors from locals in the province, thePersians sent members of the Davidic lineback from Babylonia and reestablishedthe rule of the Judean elite. Hence, a new

ruling class of priests associated withthe Jerusalem temple emerged anddisenfranchised those local political andreligious leaders. This situation of externalprovincialization and internal conflictwould characterize Yehud's existence fromthe time of the rebuilding of the temple andcity walls until the rise of the Greek Empire(c.515-333). During this time, Yehud simplyexisted as one of many provinces in thePersian Empire and virtually disappearedfrom historical view amidst the conflictsamong powers like Persia and Egypt.

Also important for understanding theconsequences of Israel's and Judah's manycenturies of war is the fact that the provinceof Yehud after the rebuilding did notcomprise the sole location of the formerinhabitants of the Kingdom of Judah.Only from the Bible's perspective can wesay that the"exile" ended. The centuries ofwar throughout the Assyrian and Babylonianperiods ultimately concluded with pocketsof former Judean citizens, now rightly called"Jews," living in dispersed places like Yehud,Babylon, Egypt, and elsewhere. Thus, thelegacy of the kingdoms of Israel and Judahwas not a restored kingdom with set borders,but rather diverse communities living invarious geographical and political contexts,people somewhat united by ethnicity andshared religious practices. This constitutionwould give shape to the Jews' participationin the subsequent eras of world history.

Further reading

Ahituv, S. and E. Oren, eds, The Origin

ofEarly Israel - Current Debate: Biblical,

Historical, and Archaeological Perspectives,

Ben Gurion University of the Negev

Press, Beer-Sheva (1998)

Ahlstrom, G., The History ofAncient

Palestine, Fortress, Minneapolis, (1993)Albertz, R., Israel in Exile: The History and

Literature of the Sixth Century B.C.E.,

Society of Biblical Literature Press,

Atlanta (2003)

Anglim, S. et al., Fighting Techniques

of the Ancient World, 3000 BC-AD 500,

Equipment, Combat Skills and Tactics,

Thomas Dunne Books, New York (2002)

Arnold, B., Who Were the Babylonians?,

Society of Biblical Literature Press,Atlanta (2004)

Aubin, H., The Rescue ofJerusalem: The

Alliance between Hebrews and Africans

in 701 BC, SOHO, New York (2002)

Barnes, W.H., Studies in the Chronology of the

Divided Monarchy of Israel, Scholars Press,

Atlanta (1991)

Becking, B., The Fall of Samaria, Brill,

Leiden (1992)Borowski, 0., Daily Life in Biblical Times,

Society of Biblical Literature Press,Atlanta (2003)

Brettler, M., The Creation ofHistory inAncient Israel, Routledge, London (1995)

Bright, J., A History of Israel, WestminsterJohn Knox, Louisville (2000)

Chapman, C., The Gendered Language of

Warfare in the Israelite-Assyrian Encounter,

Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake (2004)

Chavalas, M., and K.L. Younger, eds,

Mesopotamia and the Bible: Comparative

Explorations, Baker Academic, GrandRapids (2002)

Cline, E., Jerusalem Besieged: From Ancient

Canaan to Modern Israel, University of

Michigan Press, Ann Arbor (2004)

Cogan, M., Imperialism and Religion:

Assyria, Israel and Judah in the Eighth

and Seventh Centuries B.C.E., ScholarsPress, Missoula (1974)

Coogan, M., ed., The Oxford History of the

Biblical World, Oxford University Press,

Oxford (1998)Davies, P., In Search of 'Ancient Israel', JSOT

Press, Sheffield (1992)Dawson, D., The First Armies, Cassell,

London (2001)

Day, J., In Search of Pre-Exilic Israel,

T&T Clark, London (2004)

De Odorico, M., The Use of Numbers and

Quantifications in the Assyrian Royal

Inscriptions, University of Helsinki Press,Helsinki (1995)

Dever, W., What Did the Biblical Writers

Know and When Did They Know It?

What Archaeology Can Tell Us About

the Reality ofAncient Israel, Eerdmans,

Grand Rapids (2001)

Finkelstein, I. and N. Silberman, The Bible

Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of

Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred

Texts, Free Press, New York (2000)

Finkelstein, I. and N. Silberman, David

and Solomon: In Search of the Bible's

Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western

Tradition, Free Press, New York (2006)Frame, G., From the Upper Sea to the Lower

Sea: Studies on the History ofAssyria and

Babylonia in Honour ofA.K. Grayson,

Nederlands Instituut voor het Nabije

Oosten, Leiden (2004)

Freedman, D.N., ed., The Anchor Bible

Dictionary, Doubleday, New York (1992)

Fretheim, T., Deuteronomistic History,

Abingdon, Nashville (1983)

Gabriel, R., The Military History ofAncient

Israel, Praeger, Westport (2003)

Gale, R., Great Battles ofBiblical History,

The John Day Co., New York (1970)


Galil, G., The Chronology of the Kings of Israel

and Judah, Brill, Leiden (1996)Gallagher, W., Sennacherib's Campaign to

Judah, Brill, Leiden (1999)Grabbe, L., ed., Can a "History of Israel"

be Written?, Sheffield Academic Press,Sheffield (1997)

Guild, N., The Assyrian, Scribner,New York (1987)

Hallo, W. and K.L. Younger, eds,The Context ofScripture, Brill, Leiden(1997-2002)

Hayes, J .H. and P.K. Hooker, A New

Chronology for the Kings of Israel and

Judah and Its Implications for Biblical

History and Literature, John Knox,Atlanta (1988)

Hayes, J .H. and J.M. Miller, eds, Israelite

and Judaean History, Westminster,Philadelphia (1977)

Herzog, C. and M. Gishon, Battles of the

Bible: A Modern Military Evaluation of

the Old Testament, Random House,New York (1978)

Hobbs, T.R., A Time for War: A Study of

Warfare in the Old Testament, MichaelGlazier, Wilmington, Delaware (1989)

Hoerth, A., G. Mattingly, and E. Yamauchi,eds, Peoples of the Old Testament World,

Baker, Grand Rapids (1994)Hughes, J., The Secrets of the Times: Myth and

History ofBiblical Chronology, JSOT Press,Sheffield (1990)

Irvine, S., Isaiah, Ahaz, and the

Syro-Ephraimitic Crisis, Scholars Press,Atlanta (1990)

Ishida, T., History and Historical Writing

in Ancient Israel: Studies in Biblical

Historiography, Brill, Leiden, (1999)Keefe, A., Woman's Body and the Social Body

in Hosea, Sheffield Academic Press,Sheffield (2001)

Kelle, B.E., Hosea 2: Metaphor and Rhetoric in

Historical Perspective, Society of BiblicalLiterature Press, Atlanta (2005)

Kelle, B.E. and M.B. Moore, eds, Israel's

Prophets and Israel's Past: Essays on the

Relationship ofProphetic Texts and Israelite

History in Honor ofJohn H. Hayes, T&TClark, London (2006)

King, P. and L. Stager, Life in Biblical Israel,

Westminster John Knox, Louisville (2001)Kitchen, K., The Third Intermediate Period in

Egypt (1100-650 B.C.), Aris and Phillips,Warminster (1986)

Kitchen, K., On the Reliability of the Old

Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids (2003)Knoppers, G. and J.G. McConville, eds,

Reconsidering Israel and Judah: Recent

Studies on the Deuteronomistic History,

Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake (2000)Kofoed, J.B., Text and History: Historiography

and the Study of the Biblical Text,

Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake (2005)Kuan, J.K., Neo-Assyrian Historical

Inscriptions and Syria-Palestine, AllianceBible Seminary Press, Hong Kong (1995)

Lipinski, E., The Aramaeans: Their History,

Culture, and Religion, Peeters, Leuven(2000)

Lipschits, 0., The Fall and Rise ofJerusalem:

Jerusalem under Babylonian Rule,

Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake (2004)Lipschits, o. and J. Blenkinsopp, eds, Judah

and the Judeans in the Neo-BabylonianPeriod, Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake (2003)

Lipschits, o. and M. Oeming, eds, Judah and

the Judeans in the Persian Period,

Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake (2006)Liver, J., ed., The Military History of the Land

of Israel in Biblical Times, Israel DefenseForce Publishing House, Jerusalem (1964)

Long, V.P., ed., Israel's Past in Present

Research: Essays on Ancient Israelite

Historiography, Eisenbrauns, WinonaLake (1999)

Matthews, V., A BriefHistory ofAncient Israel,

Westminster John Knox, Louisville, (2002)Matthews, V. and D. Benjamin, Social World

ofAncient Israel 1250-587 B.C.E.,

Hendrickson, Peabody (1993)McDermott, J., What Are They Saying

about the Formation of Israel?, Paulist,New York, (1988)

McKay, J., Religion in Judah under the

Assyrians 732-609 B.C., A.R. Allenson,London (1973)

Miller, J.M. and J.H. Hayes, A History of

Ancient Israel and Judah, Westminster,Philadelphia (1986)

Miller, P.D., The Religion ofAncient Israel,Westminster John Knox, Louisville (2000)

Moore, M.B., Philosophy and Practice inWriting a History ofAncient Israel, T&TClark, London (2006)

Nelson, R., The Historical Books, Abingdon,Nashville (1998)

Noth, M., The Deuteronomistic History,University of Sheffield Press, Sheffield(2001)

Olmstead, A.T., History ofAssyria, Universityof Chicago Press, Chicago (1960)

Oppenheim, L., Ancient Mesopotamia:Portrait of a Dead Civilization, Universityof Chicago Press, Chicago (1977)

Organ, B., Is the Bible Fact or Fiction? AnIntroduction to Biblical Historiography,Paulist, New York (2004)

Person, R., The Deuteronomic School: History,

Social Setting, and Literature, Brill, Atlanta(2002)

Pitard, W., Ancient Damascus: A HistoricalStudy of the Syrian City-State from the

Earliest Times until its Fall to the Assyriansin 732 B.C.E., Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake(1987)

Provan, 1., V.P. Long, and T. Longman, A

Biblical History of Israel, WestminsterJohn Knox, Louisville (2003)

Rainey, A., The Sacred Bridge: Carta's Atlas of

the Biblical World, Carta, Jerusalem (2006)Redford, D., Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in

Ancient Times, Princeton University Press,Princeton (1992)

Saggs, H.W.F., The Might That Was Assyria,Sidgwick and Jackson, London (1984)

Further reading 9 I

Sasson, J., ed., Civilizations of the AncientNear East, Hendrickson, Peabody (2000)

Tetley, M.C., The Reconstructed Chronologyof the Divided Kingdom, Eisenbrauns,Winona Lake (2004)

Thiele, E., The Mysterious Numbers ofthe Hebrew Kings, Zondervan, GrandRapids (1983)

Ussishkin, D., The Conquest ofLachish by

Sennacherib, Tel Aviv University Instituteof Archaeology, Tel Aviv (1982)

Van de Mieroop, M., A History of the AncientNear East c. 3000-323 B.C., Blackwell,Oxford (2003)

Van der Woude, A.S., ed., The World ofthe Old Testament, Eerdmans, GrandRapids (1989)

Vaughn, A., Theology, History, andArchaeology in the Chronicler's Account of

Hezekiah, Scholars Press, Atlanta (1999)Vaughn, A. and A. Killebrew, eds,

Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology,Society of Biblical Literature Press,Atlanta (2003)

Von Soden, W., The Ancient Orient: An

Introduction to the Study of the Ancient NearEast, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids (1994)

Yadin, Y., The Art of Warfare in Biblical Landsin the Light ofArchaeological Study,McGraw-Hill, New York (1963)

Yamada, S., The Construction of the AssyrianEmpire: A Historical Study of theInscriptions of Shalmaneser III(859-824 BCE) Relating to hisCampaigns to the West, Brill,Leiden (2000)

Endnotes

1 see 2 Kgs. 15: 11; 16: 19 41 2 Kgs. 10; 132 2 Kgs. 16: 2; New Revised Standard 42 2 Kgs. 13: 3; NRSV; see also 10:

Version (NRSV) 32-33; 12: 17-18

3 2 Kgs. 16: 1; NRSV 43 2 Kgs. 14

4 1 Sam. 14: 47; 1 Kgs. 11: 23-25 44 2 Kgs. 14: 25; NRSV; see also 14: 285 see 1 Kgs. 14: 25-27 45 see Amos 1: 3-5

6 1 Kgs. 4: 20-21 46 see Amos 1-27 compare Josh. 1-12 and Judg. 1-2 47 2 Kgs. 15: 37

8 see 1 Kgs. 9: 15-19 48 2 Kgs. 15: 19; NRSV9 see Judg. 7: 16-22 49 2 Kgs. 15: 25

10 1 Kgs. 4: 26; 9: 19; NRSV 50 Isa. 7: 1, 7; NRSV; ct. 2 Kgs. 16;

11 2 Kgs. 1: 9-13 2 Chr. 28

12 1 Kgs. 22: 34 51 2 Chr. 28: 7

13 1 Kgs. 22: 47-49 52 2 Kgs. 15: 29

14 2 Kgs. 9: 25; 15: 25 53 Context ofScripture 2.117A: 28615 1 Kgs. 16: 9; 2 Kgs. 9: 5 54 Context ofScripture 2.117G: 29216 2 Chr. 26: 13; NRSV 55 Hos. 1: 10-11; 2 Kgs. 17: 2

17 Context ofScripture 2.119B: 303 56 2 Kgs. 17: 318 Context ofScripture 2.117C: 288 57 2 Kgs. 17: 4a

19 see 1 Kgs. 22 58 2 Kgs. 17: 4a

20 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to 59 2 Kgs. 17: 4b

the Old Testament, 560 60 2 Kgs. 17: 5-6; 18: 10

21 see 1 Kgs. 16: 15-2 Kgs. 8: 27; 61 Hos. 8: 4; author's translation

2 Chr. 17-20 62 Context of Scripture 2.118A: 29322 see also 1 Kgs. 16: 24 63 Context ofScripture 2.118£: 296;23 1 Kgs. 16: 31; NRSV ct. 2 Kgs. 17: 6, 2424 Context ofScripture 2.23: 137 64 Isa.20-22

25 2 Kgs. 3: 4 65 2 Kgs. 18; 2 Chr. 2926 1 Kgs. 22: 47 66 NRSV27 1 Kgs. 15: 20; NRSV 67 2 Kgs. 18: 14; NRSV

28 Context of Scripture 2.39: 161 68 see 2 Kgs. 18: 17-19: 7

29 ct. 2 Kgs. 8: 18 and 8: 26 69 ct. Isa. 36

30 1 Kgs. 22: 4 70 2 Kgs. 18: 29-30, 33, 35; NRSV

31 1 Kgs. 22: 44 71 Context ofScripture 2.119B: 30332 1 Kgs. 20; 22 72 see 2 Kgs. 22-23

33 Context ofScripture 2.113A: 263 73 ct. 2 Kgs. 23 and 2 Chr. 3534 2 Kgs. 8: 18 74 see Jer. 47: 1

35 Context ofScripture 2.113A: 264 75 2 Kgs. 24: 2; NRSV

36 2 Kgs. 1: 1; 8: 20; NRSV 76 2 Kgs. 24: 6; 2 Chr. 36: 6

37 2 Kgs. 3; ct. 2 Chr. 20 77 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Related to38 2 Kgs. 3: 9, 16, 20; NRSV the Old Testament, 56439 2 Kgs. 9-10 78 Jer. 27: 1-3

40 Context ofScripture 2.113F: 270 79 Jer. 51: 59

Endnotes 93

80 2 Kgs. 25: I, 3; NRSV 117 2 Kgs. 22: 16-17, 18-2081 2 Kgs. 25: 7; NRSV 118 2 Kgs. 22: 17-20; NRSV82 2 Kgs. 25; Jer. 52 119 Jer. 32, 36, 43, 4583 see 1 Kgs. 22: 34 120 JeI. 51: 5984 2 Kgs. 15: 27 121 Jer. 43: 3; NRSV85 2 Kgs. 15: 37; NRSV 122 JeI. 3286 see 2 Kgs. 15: 25 123 Jer. 43: 6-7; NRSV87 e.g., 2 Kgs. 7: 2, 17, 19 124 see Jer. 45: 188 e.g., Exod. 15: 4; 1 Kgs. 9: 22; 125 Jer. 45

Ezek 23: IS, 23 126 Baruch, 2 Baruch, 3 Baruch89 see Judg. 9: 54; 1 Sam. 14: 1-17; 127 see 2 Kgs. 25: 11-12

2 Sam. 18: 15 128 2 Kgs. 25: 23; NRSV90 2 Kgs. 15: 25; NRSV 129 see 2 Kgs. 22: 891 2 Kgs. 16: 5; NRSV; cf. Isa. 7: 1 130 Jer. 40: 10; NRSV; cf. 2 Kgs. 25: 2492 2 Chr. 28: 6; NRSV 131 JeI. 40: 13-1693 Has. 2: 2; 5: 13; NRSV 132 Jer. 41: 194 Context ofScripture 2.117C: 288 133 Jer. 41: 195 2 Kgs. 15: 30; NRSV 134 2 Kgs. 25: 25; NRSV;96 Exod. 15: 3, 6;NRSV cf. Jer. 41: 2-797 Deut. 1: 30; 3: 22; NRSV; 135 2 Kgs. 25: 25; Jer. 41: 1

see also Deut. 33; Judg. 5 136 Antiquities X: 180-18298 Ps. 2: 5-6, 7-8; NRSV; 137 NRSV

see also Ps. 18; 110 138 see, e.g., 2 Kgs. 24-25; Jer. 4099 see Lev. 2; 6; 7 139 Jer. 39: 10; NRSV; cf. 2 kgs. 25: 12

100 see 2 Kgs. 18; 2 Chr. 29-31 140 see Jer. 40: 9-10101 1 Kgs. 16 141 Ezek. 11: 14-15102 2 Kgs. 21: 3; NRSV 142 see Ezek. 3: 15103 Deut. 24: 14-15; NRSV; cf. Exod. 22: 143 Jer. 29: 1; Ezek. 8: 1

21-24; Deut. 10: 17-18; 15: 7-11 144 see 2 Kgs. 25: 27-28104 Amos 4: 4, 6; NRSV 145 e.g., Ezek. 1: 2105 Mic. 3: 1-2; NRSV 146 Ezek. 37: 22, 24; NRSV106 Ezek. 12: 19; NRSV 147 see Ezek. 10-11107 see also 2 Kgs. 9: 21-26 148 Jer. 24: 5-6; NRSV108 see 1 Kgs. 21: 8 149 see Has. 1-3; Ezek. 37109 Lev. 25: 10; NRSV 150 Jer. 27: 6; NRSV110 Exod. 22: 28; Lev. 24: 14-16 151 Gen. 37-50111 Deut. 17: 6; 19: 15 152 2 Kgs. 25: 27-28; NRSV112 1 Kgs. 21: 13; NRSV 153 Context ofScripture 2.124: 315113 2 Kgs. 9: 26 154 Ezra 1: 2-3; NRSV; cf. 2 Chr. 36:114 cf. 2 Chr. 34 22-23; Ezra 6: 3-5115 2 Kgs. 22: 14; NRSV 155 Ezra 2; Neh. 7116 2 Kgs. 22: 8; NRSV 156 Ezra 4: 4; NRSV

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Essential Histories 067 - Ancient Israel at War 853 586 BC