1.
Yehu
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The Sogdian-Turkish title of Yabgu is transliterated into literary Chinese as Yehu in various Chinese historical works. For the Israelite king, see Jehu, the yehu is a bowed string instrument in the huqin family of Chinese musical instruments. Ye means coconut and hu is short for huqin and it is used particularly in the southern coastal provinces of China and in Taiwan. As with most huqin the bow passes in between the two strings. Many players prefer to use silk strings rather than the modern steel strings generally used for the erhu, giving the instrument a distinctly hollow. The instrument comes in various sizes, in Chaozhou music it is a leading instrument, and is tuned quite high. In Cantonese music it can be large and is often tuned to a relatively low pitch. It is used as an accompaniment instrument in the local musics and operas of various areas, including Guangdong, Fujian and it is an important instrument in the music of the Chaozhou and Hakka peoples. In Taiwan, a variety of used in Taiwan opera is called kezaixian. Related instruments include the Vietnamese đàn gáo, the Thai saw ou, the banhu, used primarily in northern China, also has a coconut resonator and wooden face but is tuned quite high and has a much brighter timbre. Yehu page Huqin Banhu Đàn gáo Chinese music Traditional Chinese musical instruments String instruments
2.
Drive Like Jehu
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Drive Like Jehu is an American post-hardcore band from San Diego active from 1990 to 1995. Their second album, 1994s Yank Crime, gained a cult following, Reis continued with Rocket from the Crypt and Trombino became a successful record producer and audio engineer, while Froberg and Kennedy pursued careers outside of music. From 1999 to 2005 Reis and Froberg reunited in Hot Snakes, prior to forming Drive Like Jehu, vocalist Rick Froberg and guitarist John Reis had played together in Pitchfork from 1986 to 1990. The bands name was derived from the story of Jehu in the Books of Kings, While Froberg had sung in Pitchfork, in Drive Like Jehu he also played guitar. The bands debut album, Drive Like Jehu, was released in 1991 through Cargo Music and Headhunter Records, produced by Donnell Cameron and with artwork by Froberg, it was praised as a quantum leap forward from Reis and Frobergs work in Pitchfork. In 1992 Drive Like Jehu released the single Hand Over Fist / Bullet Train to Vegas through Merge Records, interscope Records, interested in Drive Like Jehu, pursued the band and wound up signing both them and Rocket From the Crypt. Drive Like Jehu released an album first, putting out Yank Crime in 1994, in 1995 Drive Like Jehu disbanded, partly so that Reis could concentrate on Rocket from the Crypt, who put out three releases that year and continued until 2005. Drive Like Jehu never officially announced a breakup, but simply stopped playing together, Trombino became a successful record producer and audio engineer, working with bands such as Blink-182 and Jimmy Eat World, while Kennedy left music to become a chemist. Froberg briefly played in Thingy before moving to New York City to pursue a career as a visual artist and illustrator, later reuniting with Reis in the Hot Snakes from 1999 to 2005. In November 2002 Reis re-released Yank Crime through his Swami Records label, including on it the tracks from Hand Over Fist / Bullet Train to Vegas, Reis currently performs in The Night Marchers and Froberg in Obits. On August 31,2014, Drive Like Jehu reunited for a performance at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in San Diegos Balboa Park, accompanied by San Diego Civic Organist Dr. Carol Williams. The collaboration was facilitated by Dang Nguyen, who co-owns Bar Pink in San Diegos North Park neighborhood with Reis, in February or March, we discussed possibilities and the topic of Jehu came up, thats where it started, said Nguyen. It was a project they wanted to bring back together, because, after Hot Snakes and Rocket reunited in the last couple of years, I think John and Rick felt that to do something at the organ pavilion was worth getting back together for. Reis expressed enthusiasm for the sound, saying I especially love the way the low-end sound on the organ is so massive. When I go see organ concerts in the park, I want to collaborate with that sound and its not necessarily a good idea, but its an idea I feel strongly about, and its such a San Diego thing. According to Williams, the point of the concert is to open up the boundaries, the organ needs a future and any opportunities like this, I really look forward to. The novelty of playing with the accompaniment of the organ was a key factor in bringing the band back together, the weird thing is that we are playing, and that it took something this weird for us to decide to play a couple of songs again, said Reis. Only two of us live in San Diego, lives in New York and s in Los Angeles, pretty much havent played music since Jehu or since shortly thereafter
3.
King
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King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, in the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the title may refer to tribal kingship. Germanic kingship is cognate with Indo-European traditions of tribal rulership In the context of classical antiquity, king may translate Latin rex or either Greek archon or basileus. In classical European feudalism, the title of king as the ruler of a kingdom is understood as the highest rank in the order, potentially subject. In a modern context, the title may refer to the ruler of one of a number of modern monarchies. The title of king is used alongside other titles for monarchs, in the West prince, emperor, archduke, duke or grand duke, in the Middle East sultan or emir, etc. Kings, like other royalty, tend to wear purple because purple was a color to wear in the past. The English term king is derived from the Anglo-Saxon cyning, which in turn is derived from the Common Germanic *kuningaz, the Common Germanic term was borrowed into Estonian and Finnish at an early time, surviving in these languages as kuningas. The English term king translates, and is considered equivalent to, Latin rēx, the Germanic term is notably different from the word for king in other Indo-European languages. It is a derivation from the term *kunjom kin by the -inga- suffix, the literal meaning is that of a scion of the kin, or perhaps son or descendant of one of noble birth. English queen translates Latin regina, it is from Old English cwen queen, noble woman, the Germanic term for wife appears to have been specialized to wife of a king, in Old Norse, the cognate kvan still mostly refers to a wife generally. Scandinavian drottning, dronning is a derivation from *druhtinaz lord. The English word is of Germanic origin, and historically refers to Germanic kingship, the Early Middle Ages begin with a fragmentation of the former Western Roman Empire into barbarian kingdoms. The core of European feudal manorialism in the High Middle Ages were the territories of the kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire, in southern Europe, the kingdom of Sicily was established following the Norman conquest of southern Italy. The Kingdom of Sardinia was claimed as a title held by the Crown of Aragon in 1324. In the Balkans, the Kingdom of Serbia was established in 1217, in eastern-central Europe, the Kingdom of Hungary was established in AD1000 following the Christianisation of the Magyars. The kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia were established within the Holy Roman Empire in 1025 and 1198, in Eastern Europe, the Kievan Rus consolidated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which did not technically claim the status of kingdom until the early modern Tsardom of Russia. In northern Europe, the kingdoms of the Viking Age by the 11th century expanded into the North Sea Empire under Cnut the Great, king of Denmark, England
4.
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel was one of two successor states to the former United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Historians often refer to the Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom or as the Kingdom of Samaria to differentiate it from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Kingdom of Israel existed roughly from 930 BCE until 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The major cities of the kingdom were Shechem, Tirzah, in the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel has been referred to as the House of Joseph. It is also referenced as Ephraim, the tribe whose territory housed the capital cities. It has also referred to as Israel in Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible, the territory of the Kingdom of Israel comprised the territories of the tribes of Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and its capital was Samaria according to the Book of Isaiah. The United Kingdom of Israel and Judah is said to have existed from about 1030 to about 930 BCE and it was a union of all the twelve Israelite tribes living in the area that presently approximates modern Israel and the Palestinian territories. After the death of Solomon in about 931 BCE, all the Israelite tribes except for Judah and Benjamin refused to accept Rehoboam, the rebellion against Rehoboam arose after he refused to lighten the burden of taxation and services that his father had imposed on his subjects. Jeroboam, who was not of the Davidic line, was sent for from Egypt by the malcontents, the Tribe of Ephraim and all Israel raised the old cry, Every man to his tents, O Israel. Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem, and in 930 BCE, Jeroboam was proclaimed king over all Israel at Shechem, after the revolt at Shechem at first only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. But very soon after the tribe of Benjamin joined Judah, the northern kingdom continued to be called the Kingdom of Israel or Israel, while the southern kingdom was called the kingdom of Judah. 2 Chronicles 15,9 also says that members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, both Eusebius and Josephus place the division in 997 BCE – lunar dates of Venus can be mistaken as 64 years later. Shechem was the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel, King Omri built his capital in Samaria, which continued as such until the destruction of the Kingdom by the Assyrians. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the kingdom of the ten tribes came to an end, for the first sixty years, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over the northern kingdom, and there was perpetual war between them. For the following eighty years, there was no war between them, and, for the most part, they were in friendly alliance, co-operating against their common enemies. The conflict between Israel and Judah was resolved when Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, allied himself with the house of Ahab through marriage, later, Jehosophats son and successor, Jehoram of Judah, married Ahabs daughter Athaliah, cementing the alliance. However, the sons of Ahab were slaughtered by Jehu following his coup détat around 840 BCE, in c.732 BCE, Pekah of Israel, while allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem. Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, people from these tribes including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system
5.
Omri
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Omri was, according to the Bible, the sixth king of Israel. He was a successive military campaigner who extended the kingdom of Israel. Other monarchs from the House of Omri are Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, although the Hebrew Bible is silent about his actions during his reign, he is called more wicked than all the kings who preceded him. Other than the Hebrew Bible, extrabiblical sources such as the Mesha stele, Omri is also credited with the construction of Samaria and establishing it as his capital. In the Biblical narrative, Omri was commander of the army of King Elah when Zimri, commander of half the kings chariots, murdered Elah and made himself king. Instead, the troops at Gibbethon chose Omri as king, to avoid the certain tortures of capture, Zimri set fire to the palace and died after a reign of only seven days. Although Zimri was eliminated, half of the people supported Tibni in opposition to Omri and it took Omri four years to subdue Tibni and at last proclaim himself undisputed king of Israel. Nothing is said in Scripture about the lineage of Omri and his name is either Amorite or Arabic. Omri became king of Israel in the 31st year of Asa, king of Judah, the biblical reference to the period of rivalry with Tibni is from the 27th year of Asa to the 31st year. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 876–869 BC, the fortress at Jezreel was situated on one of the main east-west routes through kingdom. The Moabite Mesha stele indicates that Omri expanded his holdings to include northern Moab east of the Jordan River and it makes reference to the oppression of Moab by Omri King of Israel. Israel would later become identified in sources as the House of Omri, thomas L. Thompson, however, interprets the Mesha stele as suggesting that Omri is an eponym, or legendary founder of the kingdom rather than an historical person. The Assyrian Black Obelisk in the British Museum has been interpreted as referring to Jehu son of Omri, the short-lived dynasty founded by Omri constitutes a new chapter in the history of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. It ended almost fifty years of constant civil war over the throne, on the other hand, peace with Sidon also resulted in the penetration of Phoenician religious ideas into the kingdom and led to a kulturkampf between traditionalists and the aristocracy. In foreign affairs, this period paralleled the rise of the Kingdom of Aram based in Damascus, and Israel soon found itself at war in the northeast. It was the first in a series of wars that would lead to the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. In 841 BC, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III campaigned along the Mediterranean coast, Assyrian kings frequently referred to Omris successors as belonging to the House of Omri. History of ancient Israel and Judah Smiths Bible Dictionary, Omri
6.
Akkadian
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Akkadian is an extinct East Semitic language that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia. The earliest attested Semitic language, it used the writing system, which was originally used to write the unrelated Ancient Sumerian. The language was named after the city of Akkad, a centre of Mesopotamian civilization during the Akkadian Empire. The mutual influence between Sumerian and Akkadian had led scholars to describe the languages as a sprachbund, Akkadian proper names were first attested in Sumerian texts from around the mid 3rd-millennium BC. From the second half of the third millennium BC, texts written in Akkadian begin to appear. By the second millennium BC, two variant forms of the language were in use in Assyria and Babylonia, known as Assyrian and Babylonian respectively, for centuries, Akkadian was the native language in Mesopotamian nations such as Assyria and Babylonia. However, it began to decline during the Neo-Assyrian Empire around the 8th century BC, by the Hellenistic period, the language was largely confined to scholars and priests working in temples in Assyria and Babylonia. The last known Akkadian cuneiform document dates from the 1st century AD, Akkadian belongs with the other Semitic languages in the Near Eastern branch of the Afroasiatic languages, a family native to East Africa, which then spread to West, Northwest and Northeast Africa. Within the Near Eastern Semitic languages, Akkadian forms an East Semitic subgroup and this novel word order is due to the influence of the Sumerian substratum, which has an SOV order. Additionally Akkadian is the only Semitic language to use the prepositions ina and ana, other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic have the prepositions bi/bə and li/lə. The origin of the Akkadian spatial prepositions is unknown, in contrast to most other Semitic languages, Akkadian has only one non-sibilant fricative, ḫ. Akkadian lost both the glottal and pharyngeal fricatives, which are characteristic of the other Semitic languages, until the Old Babylonian period, the Akkadian sibilants were exclusively affricated. Old Akkadian is preserved on clay tablets dating back to c.2500 BC and it was written using cuneiform, a script adopted from the Sumerians using wedge-shaped symbols pressed in wet clay. As employed by Akkadian scribes, the cuneiform script could represent either Sumerian logograms, Sumerian syllables, Akkadian syllables. For this reason, the sign AN can on the one hand be a logogram for the word ilum, additionally, this sign was used as a determinative for divine names. Another peculiarity of Akkadian cuneiform is that many signs do not have a phonetic value. Certain signs, such as AḪ, do not distinguish between the different vowel qualities, nor is there any coordination in the other direction, the syllable -ša-, for example, is rendered by the sign ŠA, but also by the sign NĪĜ. Both of these are used for the same syllable in the same text
7.
Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
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For the band see, Black Obelisk The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III is a black limestone Assyrian sculpture with many scenes in bas-relief and inscriptions. It comes from Nimrud, in northern Iraq, and commemorates the deeds of King Shalmaneser III and it is on display at the British Museum in London, and several other museums have cast replicas. It is the most complete Assyrian obelisk yet discovered, and is significant because it is thought to display the earliest ancient depiction of a biblical figure - Jehu. The traditional identification of Yaw as Jehu has been questioned by some scholars and its reference to Parsua is also the first known reference to the Persians. Tribute offerings are shown being brought from identifiable regions and peoples and it was erected as a public monument in 825 BC at a time of civil war, in the central square of Nimrud, close to the much earlier White Obelisk of Ashurnasirpal I. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1846 and is now in the British Museum and it features twenty relief scenes, five on each side. They depict five different subdued kings, bringing tribute and prostrating before the Assyrian king, from top to bottom they are, Sua of Gilzanu, Jehu of Bit Omri, an unnamed ruler of Musri, Marduk-apil-usur of Suhi, and Qalparunda of Patin. Each scene occupies four panels around the monument and is described by a cuneiform script above them, on the top and the bottom of the reliefs there is a long cuneiform inscription recording the annals of Shalmaneser III. It lists the military campaigns which the king and his commander-in-chief headed every year, some features might suggest that the work had been commissioned by the commander-in-chief, Dayyan-Assur. The second register from the top is thought to include the earliest surviving picture of a biblical figure, the name appears as mIa-ú-a mar mHu-um-ri-i. Hincks letter was published by Athenaeum on the day, entitled Nimrud Obelisk. Hincks identification is now the commonly held position by biblical archaeologists, the identification of Yaw as Jehu was questioned by contemporary scholars such as George Smith as well as in more recent times by P. Kyle McCarter and Edwin R. Thiele, based on the fact that Jehu was not an Omride, as well as transliteration, however, the name read as Yaw, son of Omri, is generally accepted to follow Hincks as the Biblical Jehu, king of Israel. The stele describes how Jehu brought or sent his tribute in or around 841 BC, Jehu severed Israel’s alliances with Phoenicia and Judah, and became subject to Assyria. Horn Museum at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, MI and in the library of the Theological University of the Reformed Churches in Kampen, the Netherlands
8.
Shalmaneser III
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Shalmaneser III was king of Assyria, and son of the previous ruler, Ashurnasirpal II. His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the tribes, the Babylonians. His armies penetrated to Lake Van and the Taurus Mountains, the Hittites of Carchemish were compelled to pay tribute, and it is in the annals of Shalmaneser III from the 850s BC that the Arabs and Chaldeans first appear in recorded history. In 842 BC, Shalmaneser campaigned against Hadadezers successor Hazael, forcing him to take refuge within the walls of his capital. While Shalmaneser was unable to capture Damascus, he devastated its territory, babylonia had already been conquered, including the areas occupied by migrant Chaldaean, Sutean and Aramean tribes, and the Babylonian king had been put to death. In 836 BC, Shalmaneser sent an expedition against the Tibareni which was followed by one against Cappadocia, civil war continued for two years, but the rebellion was at last crushed by Shamshi-Adad V, another son of Shalmaneser. His reign saw the first appearance in history of the camel-mounted Arabs and his reign is significant to Biblical studies because two of his monuments name rulers from Hebrew Bible. The Black Obelisk names Jehu son of Omri, and the Kurkh Monolith names king Ahab and he had built a palace at Kalhu, and left several editions of the royal annals recording his military campaigns, the last of which is engraved on the Black Obelisk from Calah. The Black Obelisk is a significant artifact from his reign and it is a black limestone, bas-relief sculpture from Nimrud, in northern Iraq. It is the most complete Assyrian obelisk yet discovered, and is significant because it displays the earliest ancient depiction of an Israelite. On the top and the bottom of the reliefs there is a cuneiform inscription recording the annals of Shalmaneser III. It lists the military campaigns which the king and his commander-in-chief headed every year, some features might suggest that the work had been commissioned by the commander-in-chief, Dayyan-Ashur. The second register from the top includes the earliest surviving picture of an Israelite, Jehu severed Israels alliances with Phoenicia and Judah, and became subject to Assyria. It describes how Jehu brought or sent his tribute in or around 841 BC and it was erected as a public monument in 825 BC at a time of civil war. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1846, bronze Reliefs from the Gates of Shalmaneser King of Assyria Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III Babylonian and Assyrian Literature
9.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
10.
Jehoram of Israel
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Jehoram was a king of the northern Kingdom of Israel. He was the son of Ahab and Jezebel, and brother to King Ahaziah, according to 2 Kings,8,16, in the fifth year of Joram of Israel, Jehoram became king of Judah, when his father Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, indicating a co-regency. The author of Kings speaks of both Jehoram of Israel and Jehoram of Judah in the passage, which can be confusing. Joram began to reign in Israel in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat of Judah, william F. Albright has dated his reign to 849–842 BC, whereas E. R. Thiele proposed 852–841 BC. Unike his predecessors, Joram did not worship Baal, but followed in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who led the Israelites to sin, with Jehoshaphat of Judah, Jehoram attacked Mesha, King of the Moabites. In the war between Aram-Damascus and Israel, Elisha befriended Joram, revealing to him the plans of the enemy, subsequently, when Ben-hadad besieged Samaria, reducing the city almost to starvation, Joram sought to kill the prophet. When Hazael, king of the Arameans, revolted in Damascus, as Elisha had predicted, Jehoram made an alliance with his nephew Ahaziah, the two kings set forth to take Ramoth-gilead from Aram. The battle failed, Joram was wounded in the fighting, and it is likely that his defeat at Ramoth-Gilead was a disaster. As a result, while Joram was recuperating at Jezreel, his general, Jehu, incited a revolt. Jehu executed Joram by shooting him in the back with an arrow, with the death of Joram and his other family members, the Ahab Dynasty came to an end. Jehu claimed the throne of Israel as his own, the author of the Tel Dan Stele claimed to have slain both Ahaziah and Jehoram. Hazael is the most likely to have written it
11.
Jehoahaz of Israel
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Jehoahaz of Israel was king of Israel and the son of Jehu. William F. Albright dated his reign to 815–801 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 814–798 BC, a stamp seal dated to the end of the 7th century BC has been found with the inscription to Jehoahaz, son of the king. The kings of the Arameans, Hazael and Ben-hadad, prevailed over him, Jehoahaz besought the Lord for a deliverer to relieve Israel from Aramean oppression, and He provided a savior for Israel, who is not named. The Arameans were defeated, but this left Jehoahaz with an army of 50 horsemen,10 chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers. In II Kings 13,25, and 14,27, Jehoahazs son Joash and his grandson Jeroboam II seem to fulfill the requirements of the unnamed savior of Israel who defeats the King of Aram. Adad-nirari III, King of Assyria, also made campaigns into the west, and on one of the incursions captured and sacked the city of Damascus, thus removing the worst enemy of Israels prosperity
12.
Samaria (ancient city)
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Samaria was an ancient city in the Land of Israel. It was the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries BC, the ruins of the city are located in the Samaria mountains of the West Bank and are under the jurisdiction of the Israel National Parks Authority. Israelite Shomron was located in the heart of the mountains of Samaria, the ruins of the Israelite town, as well the ruins of towns built at this same location later in history, are all adjacent or within the modern Palestinian village of Sebastia. The hill of Shomron is a hill, with steep but not inaccessible sides. Samaria, as the new capital of his instead of Tirzah. As such it possessed many advantages, Omri resided here during the last six years of his reign. According to biblical tradition, it appears Omri granted the Arameans the right to make streets in Samaria as a sign of submission and this probably meant permission was granted to the Aramean merchants to carry on their trade in the city. This would imply the existence of a considerable Aramean population and it was the only great city of Israel created by the sovereign. All the others had been consecrated by patriarchal tradition or previous possession. But Samaria was the choice of Omri alone, according to Biblical tradition, Samaria was frequently besieged. In the days of Ahab, Benhadad II came up against it with thirty-two vassal kings, Biblical tradition also holds that in the days of Jehoram, Benhadad again laid siege to Samaria. The fragment of a stela with an Assyrian inscription attributed to Sargon II was found on the slope of the acropolis testifying to their presence. In addition, according to inscriptions from Sargons palace at Khorsabad, I fought with them and decisively defeated them]. 50 chariots for my royal force, I deported the rest of them. Also, The inhabitants of Samaria/Samerina, who agreed with a king me, not to do service and not to bring tribute, I counted as spoil 27,280 people, together with their chariots, and gods, in which they trusted. I formed a unit with 200 of chariots for my royal force, I settled the rest of them in the midst of Assyria. I repopulated Samaria/Samerina more than before, I brought into it people from countries conquered by my hands. I appointed my eunuch as governor over them, and I counted them as Assyrians
13.
Kings of Israel and Judah
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This article is an overview of the kings of the United Kingdom of Israel as well as those of its successor states. Abimelech – the son of Gideon, was the first man declared a king in Israel, according to the Bible, the Tribes of Israel lived as a confederation under ad hoc charismatic leaders called judges. In around 1020 BCE, under threat from foreign peoples. Samuel anointed Saul from the Tribe of Benjamin as the first king, Saul Ish-bosheth David – made Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Under Hezekiah rule in the Kingdom of Judah, the Neo-Assyrian Empire conquered and destroyed the northern kingdom 722 BCE leaving only the kingdom of Judah
14.
Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
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The United Monarchy is the name given to the Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. This is traditionally dated between 1050 and 930 BCE, modern historians are divided on the historicity of the United Monarchy as described in the Bible. There is no evidence of a united Kingdom of Judah. According to standard source criticism, a number of source texts were spliced together to produce the current books of Samuel. The most prominent in the parts of the first book are the pro-monarchical source. In identifying these two sources, two separate accounts can be reconstructed, the anti-monarchical source describes Samuel to have thoroughly routed the Philistines, yet begrudgingly accepting that the people demanded a ruler, and thus appointing Saul by cleromancy. Textual critics also point to disparities in the account of Davids rise to power as indicative of separate threads being merged later to create an age of a united monarchy. David is thought by scholars to have been a ruler in Judah while Israel, comparatively immense, modern archaeology also supports this view. Most scholars believe the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been a contemporary account, for example, there is mention of later armor, use of camels, cavalry, and iron picks and axes. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelite tribes previously lived as a confederation under ad hoc charismatic leaders called Judges. Abimelech was the first to be declared king by the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and reigned over Israel for three years before he was killed during the Battle of Thebez. The Bible treats the notion of kingship as having been an anathema at the time, it being seen as one man put in a position of reverence and power, which in their faith was reserved for God. According to the Second Book of Samuel, due to his disobedience to God, Sauls reign was curtailed, the Masoretic Text says that Saul ruled for only two years. The Bible portrays Saul as having died in battle against the Philistines, Sauls heir, Ishbaal, took over rulership of Israel but, according to Samuel, ruled for only two years before he was assassinated. David, who had become king of Judah only, ended the conspiracy, a number of textual critics and biblical scholars have suggested that David was actually responsible for the assassination, and Davids innocence was a later invention to legitimize his actions. Israel rebels, according to Samuel, and appoints Davids son Absalom as their new king, the Bible then describes Israel as taking over Judah and ultimately forcing David into exile east of the Jordan. This section of the text, and the bulk of the remainder of the Books of Samuel, is thought by textual critics to belong to a single large source known as the Court History of David. Israel and Judah are portrayed in this source as quite distinct kingdoms, eventually, according to the Book of Samuel, David launches a counter-attack, and wins, although with the loss of Absalom
15.
Saul
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Saul, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the first king of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, Sauls life and reign are described in the Hebrew Bible. He was anointed by the prophet Samuel and reigned from Gibeah and he fell on his sword to avoid capture in the battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, during which three of his sons were also killed. The succession to his throne was contested by Ish-bosheth, his surviving son, and his son-in-law David. A similar yet different account of Sauls life may be given in the Quran, according to the New Testament account, Saul reigned for a period of forty years. The Biblical accounts of Sauls life are found in the Books of Samuel, the narrative contains various internal inconsistencies, to the point that his biography is often embarrassingly confusing. According to the Tanakh, Saul was the son of Kish, of the family of the Matrites, and it appears that he came from Gibeah. Saul married Ahinoam, daughter of Ahimaaz and they had four sons and two daughters. The sons were Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua and Ish-bosheth and their daughters were named Merab and Michal. Saul also had a concubine named Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, Saul died at the Battle of Mount Gilboa, and was buried in Zelah, in the region of Benjamin. Three of Sauls sons – Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua – died with him at Mount Gilboa, Ish-bosheth became king of Israel, at the age of forty. At Davids request Abner had Michal returned to David, Ish-bosheth reigned for two years, but after the death of Abner, was killed by two of his own captains. Armoni and Mephibosheth were given by David along with the five sons of Merab to the Gibeonites, the only male descendant of Saul to survive was Mephibosheth, Jonathans lame son, who had been five when his father and grandfather Saul had died in battle. In time, he came under the protection of David, Mephibosheth had a young son, Micah, who had four sons and descendants named until the ninth generation. The Books of Samuel give three differing accounts of Sauls rise to the throne, Saul is sent with a servant to look for his fathers strayed donkeys. Leaving his home at Gibeah, they arrive at the district of Zuph. Sauls servant tells him that they happen to be near the town of Ramah, where a famous seer is located, the seer offers hospitality to Saul and later anoints him in private. A popular movement having arisen to establish a centralized monarchy like other nations, after having been chosen as monarch, Saul returns to his home in Gibeah, along with a number of followers
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David
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David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, reigning in c. He is described as a man after Gods own heart in 1 Samuel 13,14 and Acts 13,22. The Hebrew prophets regarded him as the ancestor of the future messiah, the New Testament says he was an ancestor of Jesus. God is angered when Saul, Israels king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine instruction to not only all of the Amalekites. Consequently, he sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul. Sauls courtiers recommend that he send for David, a man skillful on the lyre, wise in speech, and brave in battle. So David enters Sauls service as one of the royal armour-bearers, and plays the lyre to soothe the king, war comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Sauls army, refusing the kings offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the heros father. Saul sets David over his army, all Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him. Saul plots his death, but Sauls son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his fathers schemes and David flees. He becomes a vassal of the Philistine king Achish of Gath, but Achishs nobles question his loyalty, Jonathan and Saul are killed, and David is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Sauls son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, with the death of Sauls son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David, Your throne shall be established forever. David wins more victories over the Philistines, while the Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites, during a battle to conquer the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David seduces Bathsheba and causes the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite. In response, Nathan prophesies the punishment that shall fall upon him, in fulfillment of these words Davids son Absalom rebels. The rebellion ends at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, Absaloms forces are routed, and Absalom is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree, and killed by Joab, contrary to Davids order. Joab was the commander of Davids army, David laments the death of his favourite son, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom
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Solomon
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Solomon, also called Jedidiah, was, according to the Bible, Quran, hadith and Hidden Words a fabulously wealthy and wise king of Israel and a son of David, the previous king of Israel. The conventional dates of Solomons reign are circa 970 to 931 BC and he is described as the third king of the United Monarchy, which would break apart into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah shortly after his death. Following the split, his descendants ruled over Judah alone. According to the Talmud, Solomon is one of the 48 prophets, in the Quran, he is considered a major prophet, and Muslims generally refer to him by the Arabic variant Sulayman, son of David. Solomon was, according to the Quran, a king of ancient Israel as well as the son of David, the Hebrew Bible credits him as the builder of the First Temple in Jerusalem. It portrays him as great in wisdom, wealth, and power any of the previous kings of the country. His sins included idolatry, marrying foreign women, and ultimately turning away from Yahweh, Solomon is the subject of many other later references and legends, most notably in the 1st-century apocryphal work known as the Testament of Solomon. Solomon was born in Jerusalem, the second child of David and his wife Bathsheba. The first child, a son conceived adulterously during Uriahs lifetime, had died before Solomon was conceived as a punishment on account of the death of Uriah by Davids order. Solomon had three named full brothers through Bathsheba, Nathan, Shammua, and Shobab, besides six known older half-brothers through as many mothers, according to the First Book of Kings, when David was old, he could not get warm. So they sought a young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite. The young woman was very beautiful, and she was of service to the king and attended to him, while David was in this state, court factions were maneuvering for power. Solomon greatly expanded his military strength, especially the cavalry and chariot arms and he founded numerous colonies, some of which doubled as trading posts and military outposts. Trade relationships were a focus of his administration, Solomon is considered the most wealthy of the Israelite kings named in the Bible. Solomon also built the First Temple, beginning in the year of his reign. Solomon was the Biblical king most famous for his wisdom, in 1 Kings he sacrificed to God and prayed for wisdom. God personally answered his prayer, promising him great wisdom because he did not ask for self-serving rewards like long life or the death of his enemies. Perhaps the best known story of his wisdom is the Judgment of Solomon, Solomon easily resolved the dispute by commanding the child to be cut in half and shared between the two
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Rehoboam
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Rehoboam was an Israelite king mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David and his mother was Naamah the Ammonite. One of the most difficult issues in identifying Shishak with Shoshenq I is the statement that King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. Solomons wisdom and power were not sufficient to prevent the rebellion of several of his border cities, Damascus under Rezon secured its independence of Solomon, and Jeroboam, a superintendent of works, his ambition stirred by the words of the prophet Ahijah, fled to Egypt. Thus before the death of Solomon the apparently unified kingdom of David began to disintegrate, with Damascus independent and a powerful man of Ephraim, the most prominent of the Ten Tribes, awaiting his opportunity, the future of Solomons kingdom became dubious. Conventional Bible chronology dates the start of Rehoboams reign to the mid-10th century BC and his reign is described in 1 Kings 12 and 14, 21-31 and in 2 Chronicles 10-12 In the Hebrew Bible, Rehoboam was 41 years old when he ascended the throne. The assembly for the coronation of Solomons successor, Rehoboam, was called at Shechem, before the coronation took place the assembly requested certain reforms in the policy followed by Rehoboams father, Solomon. The reforms requested would materially reduce the royal exchequer and hence its power to continue the magnificence of Solomons court, the older men counseled Rehoboam at least to speak to the people in a civil manner. However, the new king sought the advice from the people he had grown up with, who advised the king to show no weakness to the people, and to tax them even more, which Rehoboam did. He proclaimed to the people, Whereas my father laid upon you a heavy yoke, Whereas my father chastised you with whips, so shall I chastise you with scorpions. For my littlest finger is thicker than my fathers loins, and your backs, the two sections had acted independently until David, by his victories, succeeded in uniting all the tribes, though the Ephraimitic jealousy was ever ready to develop into open revolt. The building of the Temple was a blow for the various sanctuaries scattered through the land. Josephus makes the rebels exclaim, We leave to Rehoboam the Temple his father built, Jeroboam and the people rebelled, with the ten northern tribes breaking away and forming a separate kingdom. The new breakaway kingdom continued to be called Kingdom of Israel, the realm Rehoboam was left with was called Kingdom of Judah. Rehoboam went to war against the new Kingdom of Israel with a force of 180,000 soldiers, however, he was advised against fighting his brethren, and so returned to Jerusalem. The text reports that Israel and Judah were in a state of war throughout his 17-year reign, in the 5th year of Rehoboams reign Shishaq, king of Egypt, brought a huge army and took many cities. According to Joshua, son of Nadav, the mention in 2 Chron,11,6 sqq. that Rehoboam built fifteen fortified cities, indicates that the attack was not unexpected. The account in Chronicles states that Shishaq marched with 1,200 chariots,60,000 horsemen and troops who came with him from Egypt, Libyans, Sukkites, shishaqs armies captured all of the fortified towns leading to Jerusalem between Gezer and Gibeon
19.
Jeroboam
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Jeroboam I /ˌdʒɛrəˈboʊ. əm/ was the first king of the northern Kingdom of Israel after the revolt of the ten northern Israelite tribes against Rehoboam that put an end to the United Monarchy. William F. Albright has dated his reign from 922 to 901 BC, the name Jeroboam יָרָבְעָם is commonly held to have been derived from riyb רִיב and ʿam עַם, signifying the people contend or he pleads the peoples cause. It is alternatively translated to mean his people are many or he increases the people, in the Septuagint he is called Hieroboam. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, a member of the Tribe of Ephraim of Zereda and his mother, named Zeruah was a widow. He had at least two sons—Abijah and Nadab, who succeeded him on the throne, after this event he returned and participated in a delegation sent to ask the new king Rehoboam to reduce taxes. After Rehoboam rejected their petition ten of the tribes withdrew their allegiance to the house of David, only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remaining with the new kingdom of Judah, and Rehoboam. Although criticised for his activities in I Kings 12, 25–33, calf worship was not new in Israelite ritual. Bethel and Dan were already established cultic sites, according to 1 Kings 13, 1–6, while Jeroboam was engaged in offering incense at Bethel, a man of God warned him that a son named Josiah will be born to the house of David who would destroy the altar. Attempting to arrest the prophet for his words of defiance, Jeroboams hand was dried up. At his urgent entreaty his hand was restored him again, and this man of God who warned Jeroboam has been equated with a seer named Iddo. In 1 Kings 14, Jeroboams son Abijah gets sick, ahijahs message, however, is that Abijah will die, which he does. Jeroboam was in constant war with the house of Judah, in the eighteenth year of Jeroboams reign, Abijah, Rehoboams son, became king of Judah. During his short reign of three years, Abijah went to lengths to bring the Kingdom of Israel back under his control. He waged a battle against Jeroboam in the mountains of Ephraim. According to the Book of Chronicles Abijah had a force of 400,000, the Biblical sources mention that Abijah addressed the armies of Israel, urging them to submit and to let the Kingdom of Israel be whole again, but his plea fell on deaf ears. Abijah then rallied his own troops with a phrase which has become famous. The biblical account states that his elite warriors fended off a movement to rout Jeroboams troops—killing 500,000 of them. Jeroboam was crippled by this defeat to Abijah and posed little threat to the Kingdom of Judah for the rest of his reign
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Nadab of Israel
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Nadav was the second king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel. He was the son and successor of Jeroboam, Nadav became king of Israel in the second year of Asa, King of Judah, and reigned for two years. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 901 -900 BCE, in the second year of his reign, while they were besieging Gibbethon, a Philistine town in southern Dan, a conspiracy broke out in Nadavs army. He was slain by one of his own captains, Baasha, having slain Nadav, Baasha put to death the remainder of the royal family. This was consistent with the prophecy given via Ahijah the Shilonite concerning the extinction of the entire House of Jeroboam and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George
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Baasha of Israel
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Baasha was the third king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel. He was the son of Ahijah of the Tribe of Issachar, Baashas story is told in 1 Kings 15, 16-16,7. Baasha became king of Israel in the year of Asa. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 900 -877 BCE, Baasha came to power by murdering the previous king, Nadab, followed by the entire House of Jeroboam. Baasha had previously been a captain in Nadabs own army, like many military leaders, he appears to have risen from obscurity. The fact that he came from the tribe of Issachar suggests that he may have represented a local faction, over the course of his 23-year reign, Baasha was at war with Asa, king of Judah. He allied Israel with Aram and endeavored to strangle Judahs trade by fortifying Ramah, King Asa of Judah then bribed King Ben-hadad of Syria to switch sides and attack Israel, prompting the loss of extensive territory in Dan and Naphtali northwest of the Sea of Galilee. Baasha was forced to withdraw from Ramah, Asa of Judah utilized the materials of the abandoned fort for the fortification of his own frontier towns, Geba and Mizpah. Though Baasha remained in power for life, he was not without his opponents, the prophet Jehu, the son of Hanani, foretold the destruction of his dynasty, which came to pass with the assassination of Baashas son Elah
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King Elah
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Elah was the fourth king of Israel, the son and successor of Baasha. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 877 BC -876 BC, Chapter 16 of 1 Kings relates how Elah and all his family members were murdered by his chariot commander Zimri, who became his successor. Him that dieth of Baasa in the city shall the dogs eat, now the rest of the acts of Baasa, and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. And Baasa slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah, in the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasa to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and reigned two years. And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne,1 Kings Chapter 16 Elah, Jewish encyclopedia
23.
Zimri (king)
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Zimri or Zambri was a king of Israel for seven days. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 876 BCE and his story is told in 1 Kings, Chapter 16. He was the commander who murdered king Elah and all his family members at Tirzah, as Elah was drinking in the house of Arza. However, Zimri reigned only seven days, because the army elected Omri as king, finding his position untenable, Zimri set fire to the palace, killing himself. Omri became king only after four years of war with Tibni, the name Zimri became a byword for a traitor who murdered his master. In John Drydens Absalom and Achitophel, the character of Zimri stands for the Duke of Buckingham
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Ahab
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Ahab was the seventh king of Israel since Jeroboam I, the son and successor of Omri, and the husband of Jezebel of Sidon, according to the Hebrew Scriptures. Ahab is considered a king in the Hebrew Bible. He is criticised for going after his wife Jezebel, killing Naboth, the existence of Ahab is historically supported outside of the Bible. Shalmaneser III documented 853 BC that he defeated an alliance of a dozen kings in the Battle of Qarqar, Ahab became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, and reigned for twenty-two years, according to 1 Kings. William F. Albright dated his reign to 869–850 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 874–853 BC, most recently, Michael D. Coogan has dated Ahabs reign to 871–852 BC. Omri seems to have been a military leader, he is reported in the text of the Moabite Mesha Stele to have oppressed Moab for many days. During Ahabs reign, Moab, which had been conquered by his father, Ahab was allied by marriage with Jehoshaphat, who was king of Judah. Only with Aram Damascus is he believed to have had strained relations, Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of the King of Tyre. 1 Kings 16–22 tells the story of Ahab and Jezebel, and indicates that Jezebel was a dominant influence on Ahab, Ahab was succeeded by Ahaziah and Jehoram who reigned over Israel until Jehus revolt of 842 BC. Ahabs contribution was estimated at 2,000 chariots and 10,000 men, in reality, however, the number of chariots in Ahabs forces was probably closer to a number in the hundreds. If, however, the numbers are referring to allies it could possibly include forces from Tyre, Judah, Edom, a treaty was made whereby Ben-hadad restored the cities which his father had taken from Ahabs father, and trading facilities between Damascus and Samaria were granted. Jezreel has been identified as Ahabs fortified chariot and cavalry base, in the Biblical text, Ahab has five important encounters with prophets. The first encounter is with Elijah, whom Ahab refers to as the troubler of Israel and this encounter ends with Elijah victorious over the official Baal prophets of Israel in a contest held for the sake of the Israelites and their king, Ahab. The contest ends when Elijahs God consumes the offering which the Baal worshipers could not induce their god to touch, the second encounter is between Ahab and an unnamed prophet in 1 Kings 20,22. The third is again between Ahab and a prophet who condemns Ahab for his actions in a battle that had just taken place. The fourth is when Elijah confronts Ahab over Ahabs and Jezebels execution of Naboth, upon the prophets remonstration, Ahab displayed sincere remorse. Three years later, war broke out east of the Jordan River, during this battle Ahab disguised himself, but was mortally wounded by an unaimed arrow. The Hebrew Bible says that dogs licked his blood, according to the prophecy of Elijah, but the Septuagint adds that pigs also licked his blood, symbolically making him unclean to the Israelites, who abstained from pork
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Ahaziah of Israel
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This entry is not about King Ahaziah of Judah. Ahaziah was king of Israel and the son of Ahab and Jezebel, william F. Albright has dated his reign to 850-849 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 853-852 BC. The author of the Books of Kings criticized him for following the ways of his father Ahab, during his reign the Moabites revolted against his authority. This event is recorded on the Mesha stele, an inscription written in the Moabite language. Joram formed a partnership with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. However, because Jehoshapat had made an alliance with Ahaziah the ships were wrecked, according to the Second Book of Kings, he did not recover from his injuries and died. Having no son, Ahaziah was succeeded as king of Israel by Joram, the ancestors of Ahaziah can be recognized by the Bible. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton
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Jehoash of Israel
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Jehoash, whose name means “Yahweh has given, ” was a king of the ancient northern Kingdom of Israel and the son of Jehoahaz. He was the 12th king of Israel and reigned for 16 years, william F. Albright has dated his reign to 801 BC –786 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 798 BC –782 BC. When he ascended the throne, the Kingdom of Israel was suffering from the predations of the Arameans, Jehoash was king of Israel for 16 years and led the Israelites through some decisive battles. According to the book of Kings, Jehoash was sinful and did evil in the eyes of Yahweh for tolerating the worship of the golden calves. Jehoash went to visit the prophet Elisha, who was sick with the illness that would lead to his death. He held the prophet Elisha in honor, and wept by his bedside while he was dying. Jehoash pleased Elisha, addressing him in the words Elisha himself had used when Elijah was carried up into heaven, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. In three signal and successive victories Jehoash overcame the Syrians, and retook from them the towns which Hazael had captured from Israel, later in his reign, Jehoash led the men of Kingdom of Israel in the defeat of King Amaziah of Judah. Amaziah had begun to worship some of the idols he had taken from the Edomites, which the author of Chronicles believes led to his ruin and his defeat by Jehoash, whom he had challenged to battle. Jehoash had warned Amaziah, saying, “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon, then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle underfoot. You have indeed defeated Edom and now you are arrogant, glory in your victory, but stay at home. Why ask for trouble and cause your own downfall and that of Judah also, Jehoash utterly defeated Amaziah at Beth-shemesh, on the borders of Dan and Philistia. Jehoash then advanced on Jerusalem, broke down a portion of the wall, and carried away the treasures of the Temple, Jehoash took Amaziah as a prisoner. Amaziahs defeat was followed by a conspiracy that took his life, Jehoash also took hostages to assure good conduct. After the battle he died and was buried in Samaria
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Jeroboam II
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Jeroboam II was the son and successor of Jehoash, and the fourteenth king of the ancient Kingdom of Israel, over which he ruled for forty-one years in the eighth century BC. His reign was contemporary with those of Amaziah and Uzziah, kings of Judah, william F. Albright has dated his reign to 786–746 BC, while E. R. Thiele says he was coregent with Jehoash 793 to 782 BC and sole ruler 782 to 753 BC. He was victorious over the Arameans, conquered Damascus, and extended Israel to its former limits and these ostraca, while unremarkable in themselves, contain valuable information about the script, language, religion and administrative system of the period. Archaeological evidence confirms the account of his reign as the most prosperous that Israel had yet known. By the late 8th century BC, the territory of Israel was the most densely settled in the entire Levant and this prosperity was built on trade in olive oil, wine, and possibly horses, with Egypt and especially Assyria providing the markets. According to the prophet Amos, the triumphs of the king had engendered a haughty spirit of boastful overconfidence at home. Oppression and exploitation of the poor by the mighty, luxury in palaces of unheard-of splendor, under Jeroboam II, HaShem was worshiped at Dan and Beth-el and at other old Israelitish shrines, but through actual images, such as the golden calf. Eat lambs from the flock and calves, a major earthquake had occurred in Israel c.760 BC, which may have been during the time of Jeroboam II, towards the end of his rule. This earthquake is mentioned in the Book of Amos as having occurred during the rule of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, geologists believe they have found evidence of this big earthquake in sites throughout Israel and Jordan. Archeologists Yigael Yadin and Israel Finkelstein date the level at Tel Hazor to 760 BC based on stratigraphic analysis of the destruction debris. Similarly, David Ussishkin arrives at the date based on the sudden destruction level at Lachish. According to Steven A. Austin, the magnitude of this earthquake may have been at least 7.8 and this magnitude 8 event of 750 B. C. appears to be the largest yet documented on the Dead Sea transform fault zone during the last four millennia. The epicenter of this earthquake may have been 200–300 km north of present-day Israel, multiple biblical references exist to this earthquake in the Book of Amos, and also in Zechariah 14,5. Indirect references may be found in Isaiah 2,19, Joel 3,16, recent excavations by Aren Maeir in ancient Gath have revealed evidence of a major earthquake. Based on the tight stratigraphic context, this can be dated to the mid-8th cent. His name occurs in the Old Testament only in 2 Kings 13,13,14,16,23,27,28,29,15,1,8,1 Chronicles 5,17, Hosea 1,1, and Amos 1,1,7,9,10,11. In all other passages it is Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat that is meant, omrides, the previous dynasty View of Philistine temple and “Amos” earthquake The Tell es-Safi/Gath Excavations Weblog – July 2010
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Zechariah of Israel
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Zechariah was a king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel, and son of Jeroboam II. Zechariah became king of Israel in Samaria in the year of Azariah. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 746 BC –745 BC, the account of his reign is briefly told in 2 Kings. Zechariah ruled Israel for only six months before Shallum murdered him and this ended the dynasty of Jehu after four generations of his descendants, fulfilling the prophecy in 2 Kings 10,30. Floyd N. Jones suggests that Zechariah may have reigned 12 years and he argues that 2 Kings 15,8 may indicate that Zechariah did not begin reigning in the 38th year of Azariah, but that in his final year he reigned six months into Azariahs 38th year. Jones suggests that Zechariah most likely reigned from 784 to 772 BC
29.
Menahem
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Menahem or Menachem was a king of the northern Israelite Kingdom of Israel. He was the son of Gadi, and the founder of the dynasty known as the House of Gadi or House of Menahem, some have speculated that Gadi was a scion of the tribe of Gad. Menahems ten-year reign is told in 2 Kings 15, 14-22, Menahem marched from Tirzah to Samaria, about six miles westwards and laid siege to Samaria. He took the city, murdered Shallum a month into his reign, according to Josephus, he was a general of the army of Israel. He brutally suppressed a revolt at Tiphsah and he destroyed the city - which has not been located - and put all its inhabitants to death, even ripping open the pregnant women. The Prophet Hosea describes the drunkenness and debauchery implied in the words he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, the author of the Books of Kings describes his rule as one of cruelty and oppression. The author is apparently synopsizing the annals of the Kings of Israel, Menahem became king of Israel in the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Azariah, king of Judah, and reigned for ten years. According to the chronology of Kautsch, he ruled from 743 BC, according to Schrader, william F. Albright has dated his reign from 745 to 738 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 752 –742 BC. Menahem seems to have died a death, and was succeeded by his son Pekahiah. Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria began his reign in 745 BC three years before Menahem became king of Israel. During Menahems reign, the Assyrians first entered the kingdom of Israel, the Assyrians may have been invited into Israel by the Assyrian party. Hosea speaks of the two parties, the Egyptian and Assyrian. To maintain independence, Menahem was forced to pay a tribute of a thousand talents of silver - which is about 37 tons of silver and it is now generally accepted that Pul referred to in 2 Kings 15,19 is Tiglath-Pileser III of the cuneiform inscriptions. Pul was probably his name and the one that first reached Israel. Tiglath-Pileser records this tribute in one of his inscriptions, to pay the tribute, Menahem exacted fifty shekels of silver - about 1 1⁄4 pounds or 0.6 kg - from all the mighty men of wealth of the kingdom. To collect this amount, there would have had to be at the time some 60,000 that were mighty, after receiving the tribute, Tiglath-Pileser returned to Assyria. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain
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Pekahiah
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Pekahiah was a king of Israel and the son of Menahem, whom he succeeded, and the second and last king of Israel from the House of Gadi. He ruled from the capital of Samaria, Pekahiah became king in the fiftieth year of the reign of Azariah, king of Judah. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 738 BC –736 BC, Pekahiah continued the practices of Jeroboam, which are called the sins of Jeroboam. After a reign of two years, Pekahiah was assassinated in the citadel of the palace at Samaria by Pekah, son of Remaliah, one of his chief officers
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Pekah
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He was a captain in the army of king Pekahiah of Israel, whom he killed to become king. Pekah was the son of Remaliah, Pekah became king in the fifty-second and last year of Azariah, king of Judah, and he reigned twenty years. In the second year of his reign Jotham became king of Judah, Jotham was succeeded by his son, Ahaz in the seventeenth year of Pekahs reign. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 737 –732 BC, while E. R. Thiele and this explanation is consistent with evidence of the Assyrian chronicles, which agree with Menahem being king in 743 BC or 742 BC and Hoshea being king from 732 BC. When Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram to attack Ahaz, the king of Judah, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III and this the Assyrian king obliged, but Judah became a tributary of Assyria. With the aid of a band of Gileadites, from home territory he probably originally came, he slew Pekahiah. In c.732 BCE, Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram and threatened Jerusalem. The prime reason for such a league was probably to protect their respective countries from another incursion of Tiglath-pileser III. who had compelled Menahem, the two kings united their armies and attempted to coerce Ahaz of Judah into joining them. Pekah raided Judah and carried to Samaria a number of captives, the united forces of Israel and Syria appeared before the walls of Jerusalem to demand its surrender. At this juncture Isaiah the prophet came to the support of Judah, the allies had proposed to set upon the throne of Judah a son of Tabeel, probably one favorable to the alliance. Ahaz, however, knowing that Tiglath-pileser was within call, appealed to him for help, after Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrians sacked Damascus and annexed Aram. According to 2 Kings 16,9, the population of Aram was deported, according to 2 Kings 15,29, Tiglath-Pileser also attacked Israel and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, Tiglath-Pileser also records this act in one of his inscriptions. Soon after this Pekah was assassinated by Hoshea, the son of Elah, Tiglath-Pileser in an inscription mentions the slaying of Hoshea by his fellow Israelites. He is supposed by some to have been the shepherd mentioned in Zechariah 11,16, the data given for Pekahs reign in the biblical sources have generated considerable discussion. His ending date can be established fairly firmly as 732/731 BC, but two conflicting systems of reckoning seem to be used for his reign. One system gives him a reign of twenty years, which puts his starting date in 752 BC. This date is consistent with the statement that Jotham of Judah began to reign in Pekahs second year,750 BC, and that Jothams successor Ahaz began to reign in his 17th year,735 BC
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Hoshea
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See also Hosea, who has the same name in Biblical Hebrew. Hoshea was the last king of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel, william F. Albright dated his reign to 732–721 BC, while E. R. Thiele offered the dates 732–723 BC. Assyrian records basically confirm the Biblical account of how he became king, an undated inscription of Tiglath-Pileser III boasts of making Hoshea king after his predecessor had been overthrown, Israel. overthrew their king Pekah and I placed Hoshea as king over them. I received from them 10 talents of gold,1,000 talents of silver as their bute, so long as Tiglath-pileser was on the throne Hoshea remained loyal, but when Shalmaneser V succeeded, Hoshea made an effort to regain his independence and entered into negotiations with Egypt. Probably misled by favorable promises on the part of Egypt, Hoshea discontinued paying tribute, Shalmaneser soon interpreted this as rebellious, and directed his armies against Samaria. The Assyrian Eponym Canon shows that Shalmaneser campaigned against in the years 727,726, and 725 BC, the Babylonian Chronicle states that Shalmaneser ravaged the city of Sha-ma-ra-in. The capital, though deprived of the ruler, made an effective defense, nonetheless, the Assyrians captured Samaria after a siege of three years. However, Shalmaneser died shortly after the city fell, and the Assyrian army was recalled to secure the succession of Sargon II, the land of Israel, which had resisted the Assyrians for years without a king, again revolted. The author of the Books of Kings states this occurred because the children of Israel sinned against the Lord. What happened to Hoshea following the end of the kingdom of Israel, Hoshea eventually withheld the tribute he promised Shalmaneser, expecting the support of So, the king of Egypt. There is some mystery as to the identity of this king of Egypt, some scholars have argued that So refers to the Egyptian city Sais, considering the fact that Osorkon reigned at the time of Hoshea, this is highly likely. Alternatively it may refer to a lesser Egyptian, such as Siebe, a commander mentioned in the Assyrian record. The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri, cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. In the case of Hoshea, synchronization with the reign of Hezekiah of Judah shows that he came to the some time between Tishri 1 of 732 BC and the day before the first of Nisan,731 BC. The end of his reign occurred between the first of Nisan,723 BC, and the day before Tishri 1 of the same year. This narrowing of the dates for Hoshea is supplied by later scholars who built on Thieles work and that Hoshea died before Tishri 1 in the fall of 723 BC is additional evidence that it was Shalmaneser V, not Sargon II, who initially captured Samaria. Shalmaneser did not die until December 722 or January 721 BC
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Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
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Modern Hebrew
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Modern Hebrew or Israeli Hebrew, generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew, is the standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It was revived as a language in the 19th and 20th centuries and is one of the two official languages of Israel, along with Modern Standard Arabic. Modern Hebrew is spoken by about nine people, counting native, fluent. The organization that directs the development of the Modern Hebrew language. The most common term for the language is Modern Hebrew. Most people refer to it simply as Hebrew, the term Modern Hebrew has been described as somewhat problematic as it implies unambiguous periodization from Biblical Hebrew. Rosén supported the now widely used term Israeli Hebrew on the basis that it represented the nature of Hebrew. In 2006, Israeli linguist Ghilad Zuckermann proposed the term Israeli to represent the origins of the language. Jewish contemporary sources describe Hebrew flourishing as a language in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew remained a spoken vernacular following the Babylonian captivity, Hebrew died out as a vernacular language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining after the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136 CE, which devastated the population of Judea. After the exile Hebrew became restricted to liturgical use, the revival of the Hebrew language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Modern Hebrew used Biblical Hebrew morphemes, Mishnaic spelling, and Sephardic pronunciation, idioms and calques were made from Yiddish. Ben-Yehuda used a stock of 8,000 words from the Bible and 20,000 words from rabbinical commentaries and codified and planned the new language, some words he invented, such as ḥatzilīm for eggplants and ḥashmal for electricity. Sometimes, old Hebrew words took on different meanings altogether, for example, the Hebrew word kǝvīš, which now denotes a street or a road, is actually an Aramaic adjective meaning trodden down, blazoned, rather than a common noun. It was originally used to describe a blazoned trail, for a simple comparison between the Sephardic version of Mishnaic Hebrew and the Yemenite version of the same, see Yemenite Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is classified as an Afroasiatic language of the Semitic family, although it has been influenced by non-Semitic languages, Modern Hebrew retains its Semitic character in its morphology and in much of its syntax. A minority of scholars argue that the language had been so influenced by various substrate languages that it is genealogically a hybrid with Indo-European. These theories have not been met with acceptance, and Modern Hebrew continues to be considered a Semitic language by most experts
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Tiberian vocalization
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The system soon became used to vocalize other Hebrew texts as well. The Tiberian vocalization marks vowels and stress, makes fine distinctions of consonant quality and length, the sin dot distinguishes between the two values of ש. A dagesh indicates a consonant is geminate or unspirantized, and a raphe indicates spirantization, the mappiq indicates that ה is consonantal, not silent, in syllable-coda position. Each of the vowel phonemes could be lengthened, occasionally. The ultrashort vowels are more complicated. There were two graphemes corresponding to the vowel /ă/, attested by alternations in manuscripts like ארֲריך~ארְריך, ואשמֳעָה~ואשמְעָה. . In addition, one of the graphemes could also be silent, Shva was used both to indicate lack of a vowel and as another symbol to represent the phoneme /ă/, the latter also represented by hataf patah. The phoneme /ă/ had a number of allophones, /ă/ had to be written with shva rather than hataf patah when it was not pronounced as, before a laryngeal-pharyngeal, mobile šwa was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel and as preceding /j/. Using ḥataf vowels was mandatory under gutturals but optional under other letters, קָ֫מֶץ also denotes a slighter, as שׁוּרֶק and קִבּוּץ a firmer, compression or contraction of the mouth. Segôl takes its name from its form, so שָׁלֹשׁ נְקֻדּוֹת is another name for Qibbúṣ. Moreover the names were mostly so formed, that the sound of each vowel is heard in the first syllable, in order to carry this out consistently some even write Sägôl, Qomeṣ-ḥatûf, cantillation signs mark stress and punctuation. Metheg may mark secondary stress, and maqqaf conjoins words into one stress unit, babylonian vocalization Palestinian vocalization Niqqud Cardinal vowels Blau, Joshua. Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew, a History of the Hebrew Language
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Yahweh
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Yahweh was the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. By the end of the Babylonian exile, the existence of foreign gods was denied, and Yahweh was proclaimed as the creator of the cosmos. The Israelites originated as Bronze Age Canaanites, but Yahweh was not initially a Canaanite god, in this case a plausible etymology for the name could be from the root HWY, which would yield the meaning he blows, appropriate to a weather divinity. There is considerable but not universal support for the view that the Egyptian inscriptions refer to Yahweh, the question that arises is how he made his way to the north. A widely accepted hypothesis is that traders brought Yahweh to Israel along the routes between Egypt and Canaan, the Kenite hypothesis, named after one of the groups involved. Israel emerges into the record in the last decades of the 13th century BCE, at the very end of the Late Bronze Age. The milieu from which Israelite religion emerged was accordingly Canaanite and he lived in a tent on a mountain from whose base originated all the fresh waters of the world, with the goddess Asherah as his consort. This pair made up the top tier of the Canaanite pantheon, the tier was made up of their children. Baals sphere was the thunderstorm with its life-giving rains, so that he was also a fertility god, below the seventy second-tier gods was a third tier made up of comparatively minor craftsman and trader deities, with a fourth and final tier of divine messengers and the like. He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old, so Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacobs abode. Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs. After the 9th century BCE the tribes and chiefdoms of Iron Age I were replaced by ethnic nation states, Israel, Judah, Moab, Ammon and others, each with its national god, and all more or less equal. Thus Chemosh was the god of the Moabites, Milcom the god of the Ammonites, Qaus the god of the Edomites, the festivals thus celebrated Yahwehs salvation of Israel and Israels status as his holy people, although the earlier agricultural meaning was not entirely lost. Sacrifice was presumably complemented by the singing or recital of psalms, prayer played little role in official worship. Shiloh, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, Ramah and Dan were also sites for festivals, sacrifices, the making of vows, private rituals. Yahweh-worship was famously aniconic, meaning that the god was not depicted by a statue or other image, pre-exilic Israel, like its neighbours, was polytheistic, and Israelite monotheism was the culmination of a unique set of historical circumstances. The original god of Israel was El, as the name demonstrates—its probable meaning is may El rule or some other sentence-form involving the name of El. Asherah, formerly the wife of El, was worshipped as Yahwehs consort, and various biblical passages indicate that her statues were kept in his temples in Jerusalem, Bethel, and Samaria
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Jehovah
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Jehovah is a Latinization of the Hebrew יְהֹוָה, one vocalization of the Tetragrammaton יהוה, the proper name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew Bible. The consensus among scholars is that the historical vocalization of the Tetragrammaton at the time of the redaction of the Torah is most likely Yahweh. The historical vocalization was lost because in Second Temple Judaism, during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the Hebrew vowel points of Adonai were added to the Tetragrammaton by the Masoretes, and the resulting form was transliterated around the 12th century as Yehowah. The derived forms Iehouah and Jehovah first appeared in the 16th century, Jehovah was popularized in the English-speaking world by William Tyndale and other pioneer English Protestant translations such as the Geneva Bible and the King James Version. Most scholars believe Jehovah to be a form derived by combining the Latin letters JHVH with the vowels of Adonai. Some hold that there is evidence that a form of the Tetragrammaton similar to Jehovah may have been in use in Semitic, others say that it is the pronunciation Yahweh that is testified in both Christian and pagan texts of the early Christian era. They also point out that the English form Jehovah is quite simply an Anglicized form of Yehovah, dennio, in an article he wrote, in the Journal of Biblical Literature, said, Jehovah misrepresents Yahweh no more than Jeremiah misrepresents Yirmeyahu. The settled connotations of Isaiah and Jeremiah forbid questioning their right, according to a Jewish tradition developed during the 3rd to 2nd centuries BCE, the Tetragrammaton is written but not pronounced. When read, substitute terms replace the name where יְהֹוָה appears in the text. Based on this reasoning, the form יְהֹוָה has been characterized by some as a hybrid form and this form, which first took effect in works dated 1278 and 1303, was adopted in Tyndales and some other Protestant translations of the Bible. In the 1560 Geneva Bible, the Tetragrammaton is translated as Jehovah six times, four as the proper name, in the 1611 King James Version, Jehovah occurred seven times. In the 1885 English Revised Version, the form Jehovah occurs twelve times and it is also used in Christian hymns such as the 1771 hymn, Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah. The most widespread theory is that the Hebrew term יְהֹוָה has the points of אֲדֹנָי. Taking the spellings at face value may have been as a result of not knowing about the Qre perpetuum, resulting in the transliteration Yehowah, emil G. Hirsch was among the modern scholars that recognized Jehovah to be grammatically impossible. יְהֹוָה appears 6,518 times in the traditional Masoretic Text, the pronunciation Jehovah is believed to have arisen through the introduction of vowels of the qere—the marginal notation used by the Masoretes. For a few frequent words the marginal note was omitted, referred to as qre perpetuum. One of these frequent cases was Gods name, which was not to be pronounced in fear of profaning the ineffable name. Instead, wherever יהוה appears in the kethib of the biblical and liturgical books, it was to be read as אֲדֹנָי and this combination produces יְהֹוָה and יֱהֹוִה respectively
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William F. Albright
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William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist, and expert on ceramics. Albright was born in Coquimbo, Chile, the eldest of six children of American evangelical Methodist missionaries Wilbur Finley Albright, Albright was an alumnus of Upper Iowa University. He married Dr. Ruth Norton in 1921 and had four sons and he was also the Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem, 1922–1929, 1933–1936, and did important archaeological work at sites in Israel such as Gibeah and Tell Beit Mirsim. A prolific author, his works include Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, The Archaeology of Palestine, From the Stone Age to Christianity. He also edited the Anchor Bible volumes on Jeremiah, Matthew, throughout his life Albright was honored with numerous awards, honorary doctorates, and medals, and was given the title Yakir Yerushalayim —the first time the award had been given to a non-Jew. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts, after his death, his legacy continued as a large number of scholars, inspired by his work, became specialists in the areas Albright had pioneered. The American School of Oriental Research, Jerusalem, is now known as the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, from the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement. This area is widely contested among scholars. His student George Ernest Wright followed in his footsteps as the leader of the biblical archaeology movement, contributing work at Shechem. Albright also inspired, trained and worked with the first generation of world-class Israeli archaeologists, who have carried on his work, other students, notably Joseph Fitzmyer, S. J. Frank Moore Cross, Raymond E. Brown, and David Noel Freedman, became leaders in the study of the Bible. As editor of the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research between 1931 and 1968, Albright influenced both biblical scholarship and Palestinian archaeology, in this Albrights American Evangelical upbringing was clearly apparent. He insisted, for example, that as a whole, the picture in Genesis is historical, similarly he claimed that archaeology had proved the essential historicity of the Book of Exodus, and the conquest of Canaan as described in the Book of Joshua and the Book of Judges. In the years since his death, Albrights methods and conclusions have been increasingly questioned, the irony is that, in the long run, it will have been the newer secular archaeology that contributed the most to Biblical studies, not Biblical archaeology. The Archaeology of Palestine, From the Stone Age to Christianity Views of the Biblical World, Jerusalem, International Publishing Company J-m Ltd,1959. Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, An Historical Analysis of Two Contrasting Faiths The Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra Albright, interesting finds in tumuli near Jerusalem. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, New Light from Egypt on the Chronology and History of Israel and Judah. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Biblical archaeology List of artifacts significant to the Bible Views of the Biblical World Davis, Thomas W. Shifting Sands, the Rise and Fall of Biblical Archaeology
39.
Arameans
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The Arameans, or Aramaeans, were an ancient Northwest Semitic Aramaic-speaking tribal confederacy who emerged from Syria in the Late Bronze Age the region known as Aram from the 11th-8th centuries BC. They established a patchwork of independent Aramaic kingdoms in the Levant, in the New Babylonian, or Chaldean, empire, Chaldeans, Aramaeans, Suteans and indigenous Babylonians became largely indistinguishable. This empire stretched from Cyprus and the East Mediterranean in the west to Persia and Elam in the east, and from Armenia, the Achaemenid Empire greatly spread Imperial Aramaic, north to the Coast of the Black Sea and westward to the Indus Valley. This Akkadian and later Old Persian influenced version of Aramaic later developed into the Syriac dialect of Edessa, one of the annals of Naram-Sin of Akkad mentions that he captured Dubul, the ensí of A-ra-me, in the course of a campaign against Simurrum in the northern mountains. Other early references to a place or people of Aram have appeared at the archives of Mari, urban settlements in The Levant diminished in size, until eventually fully nomadic pastoralist lifestyles came to dominate much of the region. These highly mobile, competitive tribesmen with their sudden raids continually threatened long-distance trade and interfered with the collection of taxes, however, they seem to have been displaced or wholly absorbed by the appearance of a people called the Ahlamu by the 13th century BC, disappearing from history. The presence of the Ahlamû is attested during the Middle Assyrian Empire, Shalmaneser I is recorded as having defeated Shattuara, King of the Mitanni and his Hittite and Ahlamû mercenaries. The Arameans would appear to be one part of the larger generic Ahlamû group rather than synonymous with the Ahlamu, the first certain reference to the Arameans appears in an inscription of Tiglath-Pileser I, which refers to subjugating the Ahlamû-Aramaeans. Shortly after, the Ahlamû rapidly disappear from Assyrian annals, to be replaced by the Aramaeans and this indicates that the Arameans had risen to dominance amongst the nomads, however, it is possible that the two peoples had nothing in common, but operated in the same area. By the late 12th century BC, the Arameans were firmly established in Syria, however, they were conquered by the Middle Assyrian Empire, as had been the Amorites and it is from this point that the region was called Aramea. Further north, the Arameans gained possession of Neo-Hittite Hamath on the Orontes and were soon to become strong enough to dissociate with the Indo-European speaking Neo-Hittite states. North of Samal was the Aramean state of Bit-Gabari, which was sandwiched between the Syro-Hittite states of Carchemish, Gurgum, Khattina, Unqi and the Georgian state of Tabal. At the same time, Arameans moved to the east of the Euphrates, where settled in such numbers that, for a time. Eastern Aramaean tribes spread into Babylonia and an Aramaean usurper was crowned king of Babylon under the name of Adad-apal-iddin, one of their earliest semi-independent kingdoms in southern Mesopotamia was Bît-Bahiâni (Tell Halaf. Assyrian annals from the end of the Middle Assyrian Empire c.1050 BC, the Assyrians would launch repeated raids into Aramea, Babylonia, Ancient Iran, Elam, Asia Minor, and even as far as the Mediterranean, in order to keep its trade routes open. This process was continued by Ashurnasirpal II, and his son Shalmaneser III, in 732 BC Aram-Damascus fell and was conquered by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III. The Assyrians named their Aramean colonies Eber Nari, whilst still using the term Aramean to describe many of its peoples, the Assyrians conducted forced deportations of hundreds of thousands Arameans into both Assyria and Babylonia. These Arameans were absorbed into the indigenous populations of Assyria and Babylonia, the Neo Assyrian Empire descended into a bitter series of brutal internal civil wars from 626 BC, weakening it greatly
40.
Jezreel (city)
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Jezreel was an ancient Israelite city and fortress originally within the boundaries of the Tribe of Issachar, and later within the northern Kingdom of Israel. According to the Book of Kings, the palace of King Ahab in Jezreel was adjacent to the vineyard of Naboth. Prior to the division of the United Kingdom of Israel, the city was also the hometown of Ahinoam, the modern archaeological site is located on a low hill on the southern edge of the Jezreel Valleys eastern edge in northern Israel. Archaeologists David Ussishkin and John Woodhead believe that Jezreel was a fortress that served as a base for King Ahab. As recounted in 2Kings 9, 1-37, after Jehu kills King Jehoram, he confronts Jezebel in Jezreel and they comply, tossing her out the window and leaving her in the street to be eaten by dogs. Only Jezebels skull, feet, and hands remained, in 2Kings 10,8 Jehu orders the death of 70 descendants of Ahab, and has their heads sent to the new king in Jezreel and piled up in two heaps at the gate entrance. Water was supplied by cisterns inside the walls and by the spring of En Jezreel northeast of the fortress. Jezreel was a 9th-century BCE fortress possibly built during the reign of King Omri but certainly active in the reigns of King Ahab and his consort Queen Jezebel and it was destroyed soon afterward, possibly by the Arameans in the late 9th-century. The pottery found in the fortress during the dig all dates to this brief period, the fortress was built on the site of a small village that existed in the Early Bronze Age and Late Bronze Age. The fourth-century Christian nun and pilgrim Egeria visited Jezreel and reported that the tomb of Jezebel is stoned by everyone to this very day, Jezreel was the site of a Byzantine-era village, a Crusader-period village belonging to the Knights Templar, and an Arab period village named Zirin. A beautiful Crusader church still stands largely intact, benjamin of Tudela visited Jezreel in 1165 CE and reports that a Jewish man a dyer by profession lived there. It was the site of a large Ottoman-era fortified tower, during the Israeli War of Independence the village of Zerin became a central base for Arab forces and was therefore conquered and the site cleared. Archaeologists David Ussishkin and John Woodhead led a dig at Jezreel, staff and volunteers from about 25 countries joined the dig. Renewed excavations are planned to start in the summer of 2012 under the new directorship of Norma Franklin, the fortress enclosed an area of almost 11 acres. It was 860 long and 470 wide, and defended by a slope to the north
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Ahaziah of Judah
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This entry is not about King Ahaziah of Israel. Ahaziah of Judah or Jehoahaz, was a king of Judah, and the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, according to 2 Kings 8,26, Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king of Judah and reigned for one year. However,2 Chronicles 22,2 gives his age as 42 years when his reign began, most scholars regard the 42 years in 2 Chronicles 22,2 as a copyists error for an original 22 years. The age of 22 is also found in some Greek and Syrian versions of 2 Chronicles 22,2, william F. Albright has dated his reign to 842 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the date 841/840 BC. Later scholars corrected this by dating these kings one year earlier, Ahaziah was the youngest son of Jehoram of Judah. According to 2 Chronicles 21, 16-17, his brothers had been carried off in a Philistine. Under the influence of his mother Athaliah, Ahaziah introduced forms of worship that offended the Yahwistic party, members of her family became his advisors and encouraged him to join his uncle Jehoram, king of Israel, in an expedition against Hazael, king of the Arameans. Jehoram was wounded in the battle, and went to recuperate at Jezreel, Ahaziah also left the field of conflict in Gilead, and, after a visit to Jerusalem, came to Jezreel for a conference with Jehoram, and was caught up in the revolt by Jehu. According to the account given in the Second Book of Kings, Ahaziah, Ahaziah watched as his uncle was shot by Jehu, who was armed with a bow. Ahaziah fled for his life, but was wounded at the pass of Gur in Ibleam and had only to reach Megiddo. 2 Chronicles, however, gives a different account of Ahaziahs death. The author of the inscription on the Tel Dan Stele claimed to have slain both Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, and Jehoram, the most likely author of monument is Hazael of the Arameans. Bryant G. Wood notes that in 1 Kings 19,15 the prophet Elijah was directed by God to go to Damascus and anoint Hazael king of Aram, Hazael later resumed his attacks on Israel. The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri, cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. For Ahaziah, the Scriptural data allow the narrowing of his accession to some time between Nisan 1 of 841 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of the same BC year. For calculation purposes, this should be taken as the Judean year beginning in Tishri of 842/841 BC and his death occurred within this six-month period. Leslie McFall proposed a coregency between Ahaziah and his father Jehoram that was occasioned by the disease Jehoram contracted one year before he died. McFalls conception of a coregency is consistent with the seriousness of the disease contracted by Jehoram
