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The Bible and Archaeology
The Early Kings of Israel:
A Kingdom Divided
by Mario Seiglie
Recent issues of The Good News
have covered some of the archaeological evidence that confirms and clarifies the
biblical record from Genesis through Solomon's kingdom. We continue the story with
the breakup of Israel, looking first at the archaeological evidence for the northern
10 tribes of Israel and their rulers. Later we will direct our attention to the nation
of Judah, which outlived the kingdom of Israel by more than a century.
After Solomon's tragic apostasy as a ruler, God removed the blessings of national
unity from the tribes of Israel. He had told Jeroboam, the future king of the northern
10 tribes of Israel: "Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon
and will give ten tribes to you (but he shall have one tribe for the sake of My servant
David, and for the sake of Jerusalem . . .), because they have forsaken
Me, and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians . . . and have
not walked in My ways to do what is right in My eyes and keep My statutes and My
judgments, as did his father David' " (1Kings 11:31-33).
Around 930 B.C. the united kingdom was divided, with Jeroboam governing the northern
10 tribes and Rehoboam, Solomon's son, governing the two southern ones, Judah and
Benjamin. (As priests, a good portion of the tribe of Levi eventually either resettled
in or remained with the southern kingdom.) As both of their wicked reigns came to
an end--and according to God's prophecies of punishment for disobedience--ominous
clouds began to appear over Israel's northern horizon. Assyria began to awaken as
a powerful enemy in that region.
Eugene Merrill suggests: "Perceptive observers of the world scene could already discern
by 900 (B.C.) the stirrings of the Assyrian giant. Though it would be almost fifty
years before they fell beneath its heel, the little kingdoms of the west could hear
it coming" (Kingdom of Priests, Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, 1996, p. 336).
An Abundance of Assyrian Evidence
Once Israel came under Assyria's expanding imperial reach, archaeological evidence
attesting to Israel's historical evidence increases. Not only were the Assyrians
meticulous recorders of their political, economic and religious life; they also developed
an exquisite stone-carving technique, called bas-relief, which records their lives
and accomplishments on numerous palace walls.
In the 19th century British archaeologists excavated many of Assyria's principal
cities. Nineveh, one of several Assyrian capitals during the history of the empire,
has been extensively explored. Archaeologists have even found in one of those capitals
a vast library of cuneiform tablets that belonged to one of Assyria's final kings,
Ashurbanipal (ca. 669-627 B.C.).
With this wealth of information about Assyrian history, it would be natural to expect
some mention of the long relationship between Israel and Assyria, as well as the
final Assyrian victory over the northern tribes. This is precisely what has been
found.
Omri, King of the House of Israel
After Jeroboam's short-lived dynasty came to an end around 905 B.C., the next
dynasty of importance was founded by Omri (881-870 B.C.). He is mentioned in Assyrian
monuments for his military exploits and his establishment of Samaria, a vast fortress
city that became the capital for the northern tribes. Because of his impressive military
and political achievements and Omri's line of powerful successors, the Assyrians
would refer to Israel as "the land of Omri" even long after the Omride dynasty had
ceased to exist.
"The reputation of Omri won by his achievements," says The Interpreter's Dictionary
of the Bible, "is evidenced by the fact that for over a century after his death,
Samaria was called in the Assyrian records 'House of Omri' and the land of Israel
the 'land of Omri' " (Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1962, p. 601).
Not only is King Omri mentioned in Assyrian records, but he is named on a monument
made by one of Israel's eastern neighbors, the Moabites.
The Moabite Stone
More than a century ago an Arab chieftain showed an Anglican missionary a beautiful
black monument that had been discovered at Dibon, east of the Jordan River, the region
of ancient Moab. This discovery triggered fierce competition among the Western nations,
which sought to acquire this Moabite Stone (also called the Mesha Stela), dated to
the ninth century B.C. What has survived of the monument is found today in a Paris
museum, the Louvre. The monument itself is a record of how King Mesha of Moab rebelled
against and finally rolled back Israelite domination of Moab established by King
Omri and perpetuated by his son Ahab.
At the beginning of the reign of Omri's grandson, Jehoram, the Moabites sensed opportunity
and rebelled. They were successful in gaining independence.
The first few lines of the text records the king's boast: "I am Mesha, son of Kemosh(it),
king of Mesha, the Dibonite. My father ruled over Moab for 30 years, and I ruled
after my father . . . Omri (was) king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab
many days . . . And his son succeeded him, and he too said: 'I will oppress
Moab.'. . . And Omri had taken possession of the land . . . and
he dwelt in it in his days and the sum of the days of his sons: 40 years;
but (the god) Kamosh restored it in my days" (translated by Andre Lemaire, Biblical
Archaeology Review, May-June 1994, p. 33).
Here we find confirmation by Israel's enemies of what is recorded in the biblical
narrative. The Bible documents the Moabite rebellion and subsequent independence,
but adds what king Mesha failed to explain: that he won their independence only after
he had sacrificed his son to their pagan god.
The Bible even relates the pivotal story of that battle in the rebellion. "Now Mesha
king of Moab was a sheepbreeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel (referring
first to Omri, then to Ahab and now to his grandson Jehoram) one hundred thousand
lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams. But it happened that when Ahab died,
that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel . . .
"And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with
him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom (his
ally), but they could not. Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in
his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall; and there was
great indignation against Israel. So they departed from him and returned to their
own land" (2Kings 3:26-27, emphasis added throughout).
King Mesha did triumph, but (perhaps understandably) in the Moabite stone he refrains
from any mention of the costly price he paid for independence.
Some critics have doubted the biblical account of King Mesha's human sacrifice, since
it seemed far-fetched that a king would offer up his own son and successor to the
throne. Yet in 1978 a cuneiform tablet from the Syrian city of Ugarit mentions just
this type of sacrifice in times of war. The text said: "O Baal, drive away the force
from our gates, the aggressor from our walls . . . A firstborn, Baal,
we shall sacrifice, a child we shall fulfill."
Baruch Margalit, associate professor of Bible at Haifa University in Israel, explains
what was meant in the biblical text by Israel having been "indignant" with Mesha's
sacrifice of his son. "The word denotes the psychological breakdown or trauma that
affected the Israelite forces when they beheld the sign of human sacrifice atop the
walls of Kir-Hareseth. The author of the Ugaritic text apparently anticipated this
reaction of mass hysteria when he confidently predicted the withdrawal of the attacking
force . . . It follows that Mesha's sacrifice of his son, rather than unprecedented,
was in fact an integral, if seldom implemented, part of an age-old Canaanite tradition
of sacral warfare" (Biblical Archaeology Review, November-December 1986, p.
63).
Ahab's Clash with the Assyrians
Not only did the Assyrians have great respect for King Omri. They also had high
regard his son Ahab, who was a skilled and powerful military leader. The Bible, however,
is not so much concerned with Ahab's military exploits as with his establishment
of Baal worship in Israel after he married the Phoenician king's daughter Jezebel.
States The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia: "Ahab followed a wise
policy in defense, entering into alliance with Phoenicia, Judah, and even his erstwhile
enemies the Arameans. On the other hand, he fell under the influence of his fanatical
pagan queen Jezebel, who led him to worship Baal as Yahweh's peer, and consequently
to introduce such horrors as tyranny (1 K(ings) 21), religious persecution (18:4),
and human sacrifice (16:34)" (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids), 1979, Vol. 1, p. 75, "Ahabī).
Although the Bible is quite critical of Ahab's morality, it does acknowledge his
military prowess and that he defeated the Arameans and Syrians several times (1Kings 20:1-30). The Assyrians also record a major battle with Ahab and a coalition of other
neighboring states. Although they dealt Ahab's confederation heavy losses, the battle
did temporarily halt the Assyrian advance to the west.
"Ahab is mentioned in the Monolith Inscription of Shalmaneser III (858-824 B.C.),
which tells the story of the great battle Shalmaneser fought at Qarqar against an
Aramean-Israelite coalition . . . Ahab alone is said to have contributed
two thousand chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers. Ten lesser kings who took part
made important contributions in infantry and cavalry" (ibid., p. 76).
King Ahab's House of Ivory
Archaeologists haven't found only Assyrian evidence for the existence of King
Ahab. While excavating Samaria they have found indications of another biblical description
connected to Ahab's reign--his house of ivory. The Bible says of Ahab, "Now the rest
of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, the ivory house which he built and
all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles
of the kings of Israel?" (2Kings 22:39).
Herschel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review, writes: "An important
ivory find from the Iron Age comes from Ahab's capital in Samaria where over 500
ivory fragments were found . . . The Bible speaks of Ahab's 'house of ivory'
(1Kings 22:39). Does this refer to the paneling of the walls or to the furnishings?
To put the matter differently, did the ivory fragments found at Samaria decorate
the walls of the building or the furniture? There is some evidence from Nimrud that
a room in an Assyrian palace was, in fact, paneled with ivory veneer. Was this the
case at Samaria? On the basis of the evidence at hand, it is difficult to tell.
"Whether paneling for the wall or decoration for furniture, the houses of ivory--based
on a highly sophisticated Phoenician ivory industry--were for the Hebrew prophets
symbols of social oppression and injustice; the 'ivory houses' (mentioned in Amos 3.15) were also evidence of participation in the barbarous pagan practices and heathen
worship of Phoenicia. Based on the archaeological evidence, the prophets knew what
they were talking about" (Biblical Archaeology Review, September-October 1985,
p. 46).
Jehu Kneels Before an Assyrian King
Because of the wicked rule of the "house of Omri," God sentenced Ahab, Jezebel
and their descendants to death. He would use a general of the Israelite army, Jehu,
to accomplish most of these sentences. God told the prophet Elijah: "Go, return on
your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king
over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And
Elisha . . . you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that
whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword
of Jehu, Elisha will kill" (1Kings 19:15-17). God would not allow the enormously
wicked acts of the House of Omri to go unpunished.
Jehu eventually killed not only Jezebel, but all of Ahab's children, in effect exterminating
the dynasty) of Omri. Although Jehu became God's rod of retribution, he failed to
purge Israel of all vestiges of false religion.
"Thus Jehu destroyed Baal from Israel. However Jehu did not turn away from the sins
of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin, that is, from the golden calves
that were at Bethel and Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, 'Because you have done well
in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was
in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.'
But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart;
for he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, who had made Israel sin. In those
days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered them in all
the territory of Israel . . ." (2Kings 10:28-32).
It was during the spiritual decline of Jehu that Assyria again began directly to
threaten Israel. Soon Israel was paying Assyria tribute--protection money--to spare
itself warfare and invasion. The Assyrians carved an impressive monument, called
the Black Obelisk, to the achievements of King Shalmaneser III. The monument includes
detailed panels portraying King Jehu (or his emissary) bringing tribute to the Assyrian
king. This elaborate illustration is the earliest known depiction of an Israelite
(king or commoner).
This famous monument of the ninth century B.C., now prominently displayed in the
British Museum in London, was discovered in 1846 in the Assyrian city of Nimrud.
It includes scenes depicting the tribute given to the king and the bearers of that
tribute. In the second scene from the top the inscription reads, "Tribute of Iaua
(Jehu), son of Omri. Silver, gold, a golden bowl, a golden beaker, golden goblets,
pitchers of gold, tin, staves for the hand of the king, (and) javelins, I (Shalmaneser)
received from him" (Biblical Archaeology Review, January-February 1995, p.
26).
The scene is startling. There before the Assyrian king is either Jehu himself or
one of his chief representatives kneeling in submission. The monument, including
not only his name but his picture, is remarkable evidence of this biblical king.
This series in The Good News will continue covering archaeological discoveries
relating to the later kings of the house of Israel. It is astonishing how much evidence
supporting the biblical record has been uncovered by the spade of diligent archaeologists.
©1999 United Church of God, an International Association
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Keywords: archaeology Assyria Israel, ancient Moab
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