Assyrian warriors on horseback
Biblical archaeology, part 2
8. The fall of the Ten-Tribe Kingdom
The first king over the land and people of Israel was Saul. Because of his disobedience to God, God made David king in his place. David was succeeded by his son Solomon, who adorned himself in beauty and splendor. Few people have been as rich as Solomon. But that wealth had to come from somewhere of course. In the first place that came from the conquered nations. For his father David had greatly expanded the kingdom of Israel through conquests. Not that David liked the wars. But again and again he was attacked by the armies of the surrounding nations. And because God helped David, David was always allowed to be victorious. Thus Solomon inherited a vast territory. In the second place Solomon imposed heavy taxes on his own people.
Solomon also loved many women. In the end he had 700 and another 300 concubines! That was of course not according to God's will. It is horrible for a woman when she have to share the love of her husband with 999 other women. At the end of his life, Solomon was so influenced by his wives, that he began to serve their gods, instead of the one true God of Israel. Therefore God spoke to him, that He would punish him. Ten of the twelve tribes would be torn from his kingdom. And that happened. His son Rehoboam became king of only 2 tribes therefore. The people of the other ten tribes chose someone else as king: Jeroboam, who came from a completely different family. This majority of the people of Israel no longer wanted to pay high taxes. From that time on, Israel remained divided into a Ten-Tribe Kingdom and a Two-Tribe Kingdom for over 200 years. The Ten Tribe Kingdom was simply called Israel (sometimes Ephraim) and the Two Tribe Kingdom Judah.
After that the Ten-Tribe Kingdom ceased to exist, as a result of the conquests and deportations by the Assyrians. The Bible tells this extensively in 2 Kings 17. There has also been told why this was so led by God. The Ten-Tribe Kingdom had always ignored God's commandments and lived in sin. Finally it was enough for God, and He used the Assyrians to punish the people. The people of this realm never returned. The Two-Tribe Kingdom continued to exist for another 135 years. Then also the people of this empire were carried away by an enemy force, this time by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar. But the people of this Two-Tribe Kingdom did return in part, as a result of the mandate of King Cyrus.
Imagination of the captivity of the Ten Tribe Kingdom by the Assyrians
It is interesting to note that there are many similarities between the biblical accounts of these events and the accounts of other nations about them. Of course the stories are not exactly the same. At first, stories are always summaries of reality. What actually happened in each hour and each minute is too extensive to be able to be described fully. So, if several people retell the events, the one will mention this and the other that. Second, one narrator will illuminate an event differently than another. The pagan peoples loved to boast of their own achievements. Sometimes things were exaggerated a bit to make the story even more beautiful. And the things that were not increasing their honor were gladly omitted. Nevertheless many striking similarities can be seen in the stories. And those similarities are enough to show that the Bible is not a fictional book:
1. Both the Bible and an Assyrian inscription mention King Menahem of the Ten-Tribe Kingdom. The Bible tells about him in 2 Kings 15: 19 and 20:
19. And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand.
20. And Menahem brought up the money from Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land.
The Assyrian inscription reads as follows:
Menahem was overrun with fear. He fluttered like a lone bird and submitted to me. I restored him to his position and ... silver, colored woolen garments, linen garments ... I received as his estimate.
An Assyrian temple. Assyria was a rich and powerful nation at that time.
2. A later king of the Ten-Tribe Kingdom, Pekah, forged an anti-Assyrian coalition with King Resin of Syria. This coalition also invaded the Two-Tribe Kingdom, where Ahaz was king. The Bible tells the following about this in 2 Kings 16: 5 - 9:
5. Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to the war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
6. At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath, and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.
7. So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying: I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.
8. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the house of the king, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.
9. And the king of Assyria listened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.
An Assyrian text says about this:
I received the tribute of Jehoahaz (= Ahaz) of Judah ... gold, silver, tin, iron, antimony, linen garments with many colored decorations.
3. The already mentioned Assyrian king Tiglathpileser (see above in 2 Kings 16: 7) began in the year 734 BC. with his campaigns to the Philistine coast, Israel and Syria, and deported many inhabitants to Assyria. The Bible says in 2 Kings 15:29:
In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
And in the annals of Tiglathpileser we find:
The wide land of Naphtali I brought in its entirety within the borders of Assyria. I made my army commander over them as governor... The land of the house of Omri, all its people and their goods, I carried off to Assyria.
A number of 30,300 deportees is mentioned here. Omri was regarded by the Assyrians as an important king of Israel, similar to David. Hence the country of Israel was called: ‘the country of the house of Omri’, although the royal house of Omri no longer reigned at that time.
4. Under point 2 above, 2 Kings 16: 9 from the Bible was mentioned already for the sake of completeness:
And the king of Assyria listened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and killed Rezin.
The Assyrian annals describe this very dramatically:
Rezin the Damascene ... with the blood of his warriors I colored the river red ... I captured his warriors, archers and spearmen and broke their array. Rezin fled to save his body like a mouse in the gate of his city. I impaled its high servants on (sharp) poles, set my camp around the city for 45 days, and shut him up like a bird in its cage.
Siege of a city by Assyrians
5. In 2 Kings 15:30 is written:
And Hosea the son of Elah conspired against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and killed him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah.
In the Assyrian historiography it is said about this:
They killed Pekah and I made Hoshea king over them. I received from them ten talents of gold and ten talents of silver.
This shows that the Assyrian king was also involved in this matter. Maybe he had even ordered Hosea to get rid of Pekah. And probably Hosea still had to pay a high price to be allowed to be king over Israel. Of course Hosea had that money paid by his subjects.
6. Although Hosea owed his kingship to Assyria, he tried to throw off the Assyrian yoke with help from Egypt. Several times he even tried to become independent. But that did not work out. Thus we read in 2 Kings 17: 3 - 6:
3. Against him came up Shalmaneser, king of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents.
4. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.
5. Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years.
6. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Moreover in verse 24 of the same chapter we read:
And the king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
The Assyrian version of the story can be found on the so-called Nimrod prism. There is:
The inhabitants of Samaria who conspired with an enemy king ... I fought against them. 27,280 people with their war chariots and gods (images) I counted as booty. From them I formed a unit of 200 war chariots for my army. The rest I settled in Assyria. I populated Samaria more than before. I settled inhabitants from conquered lands therein and set a governor over them. I considered them as Assyrians.
The Nimrod Prism, on which the Assyrian king Sargon II tells about his victories
Thus, on the one hand the Bible, and on the other hand the extra-biblical historiography, confirm each other. And of course they also complement each other. For every historian has his own accents. What is worth mentioning for one person, that another sometimes wants to keep silent. The Assyrian kings generally wrote to their own honor (or to the honor of their god). The Bible writers wrote everything down in the light of the covenant, that God had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and with all Israel. God allowed the Assyrians to conquer the land of Israel, because the Israelites had forsaken the God of their fathers and forefathers.
9. The attack on the Two Tribe Kingdom in the time of King Hezekiah
When the Ten Tribe Kingdom (about which has been told above) was taken away to Assyria in the year 721 BC., the Two Tribe Kingdom (as stated) continued to exist for another 135 years. But also that empire was seriously threatened by the surrounding nations. About 6 years before that dramatic fall of Israel (that is: The Ten Tribe Kingdom), Hezekiah became king of Judah, as the Two Tribe Kingdom was called at that time. In the fourteenth year of the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his armies against Judah to conquer it. Both the Bible and the extra-biblical sources tell also about this history.
1. We read in 2 Kings 18, from verse 13:
13. Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.
14. And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying: I have offended, return from me, that which thou puttest on me will I bear. And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
15. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house.
16. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
17. Nevertheless the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah against Jerusalem with a great army. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is at the highway of the fuller's field.
Assyria was thus successful at the beginning of the campaign. And of course King Sennacherib wanted to boast about it. That is why he had written on a prism (a column with 6 sides):
Sennacherib, the great king, the mighty king, king of the world, king of Assyria (...) darling of the great gods, keeper of justice, who loves justice, who supports and helps the helpless, the mighty and first among the kings, (…) who strikes the wicked with lightning: the god Assur has entrusted to me an undisputed kingship and made my weapons mighty above all those who dwell in palaces (…). Concerning Hezekiah the Judean who did not submit to my yoke: I besieged and took 46 of its strong walled cities, as well as innumerable smaller towns, by battering rams and siege engines, by assaults on foot through mines, tunnels and breaches. I shut up Hezekiah like a caged bird in Jerusalem, his royal capital.
The Taylor Prism, on which the Assyrian King Sennacherib tells about his victories
In 2 Kings 18: 14 (see above) we could already read, that Hezekiah tried to buy off the attack of Sennacherib. Also about that Sennacherib wanted to boast. He therefore had on the prism written, that he had received from Hezekiah: 800 (!) talents of silver, 30 talents of gold, precious jewels, and other goods. And also his daughters, his harem, and his musicians. And not only on the Taylor Prism, but also on six reliefs in a room of his palace, Sennacherib left reminders of his victories. He had the siege and the capture of Lachish depicted there in detail. For this city was after Jerusalem the most important stronghold of Judah. Archaeologists have been able to uncover the siege rampart of Lachish.
2. Although Hezekiah had reduced for a moment the danger by the high price he had paid, he still did not trust it. He strengthened the city wall of Jerusalem and even had houses demolished to have material for the wall. He even had a wall made of 7 meters high and 7 meters wide. In this way he tried to make that the wall would be resistant to battering rams. He also built a water reservoir between the walls. But at that time he relied very little on God, on Whom he ultimately depended. His lack of confidence had been shown before, namely in the fact that he had cut off the gold from the doors of the temple, only to please Sennacherib.
Therefore, the prophet Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 22:10 and 11):
10. And you have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and you have broken down the houses to fortify the wall.
11. You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool; but you have not looked unto the Maker thereof, neither had respect unto Him who fashioned it long ago.
At excavations in 1970 they indeed uncovered a part of Hezekiah's 'Broad Wall'. Even the traces of the houses, which had been demolished to strengthen the wall, were found!
Remains of the Broad Wall of Hezekiah
3. It was no easy matter to ensure, that Jerusalem would have an abundance of water in case of a prolonged siege. Moreover the enemies had to find no springs and canals outside Jerusalem! That is why all the wells and irrigation canals outside the city were closed and plugged and (if possible untraceable) covered. But from the Gihon source an underground channel of 533 meters long was cut (straight through the rock bottom!) until inside Jerusalem. It was tunneled from both sides. And yet the workmen came out well to each other! In an inscription they wrote about themselves and their work:
They hewed with their pickaxes, both teams towards each other, and when only three cubits of thickness were left to hew away, they could hear and call to each other, more and more distinctly, from both sides. On the day of the breakthrough the stonecutters hacked in each other's direction, pickaxe against pickaxe. And the waters flowed from the spring to the reservoir along a length of 1200 cubits, and the layer of rock above the stonecutters was 100 cubits thick.
The Bible says it a little more briefly (2 Chronicles 32:30):
This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah prospered in all his works.
Also this Tunnel of Hezekiah can still be clearly identified in the present!
The Tunnel of Hezekiah
4. And how did it go on further? King Sennacherib of Assyria was indeed untrustworthy (as indicated already above). Although Hezekiah had paid a high price to placate him, Sennacherib still sent his army to Jerusalem. This can be read in the Bible in 2 Kings 18, from verse 17:
17. Nevertheless the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah against Jerusalem with a great army. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. And when they were come up, they stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is at the highway of the fuller's field.
18. And when they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the chancellor.
19. And Rabshakeh said unto them: Speak you now to Hezekiah: Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: What confidence is this wherein you trust?
20. You say (but it is only a word of lips): I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom do you trust, that you rebellest against me?
21. Now behold, you trust upon the staff of this bruised reed, upon Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand, and pierce it; so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him
22. But if you say unto me: We trust in the LORD our God: is not he the person, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?
23. Now therefore, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders upon them.
24. How then will you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for the chariots and for the horsemen?
25. Am I now come up without the LORD against this place to destroy it? The LORD said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it.
And with many more such words, including letters, the chief of the army of Assyria mocked Hezekiah, his people, and his God. But Hezekiah went into the temple and spread the letters before God’s face. He also sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah. And Isaiah said, among other things (2 Kings 19, from verse 32):
32. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow therein, nor come before it with a shield, nor cast an embankment against it.
33. By the way that he came, by this same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, says the LORD.
34. For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.
And then we read in verse 35 and 36:
35. And it came to pass that night, that the Angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
It is understandable that these things were not recorded on the Taylor Prism. For that is not an honorable mention for the haughty Assyrian kings! The prism concludes the passage that Sennacherib imprisoned Hezekiah like a caged bird. Then the story ends. Why? Why didn't Sennacherib mention how he conquered Jerusalem and humbled Hezekiah? We already know the answer. Sennacherib was already dead, and his army had been defeated by the Angel of the Lord. For the Bible does not tell fairy tales!
Moreover, there are also extra-biblical sources that confirm the biblical history in this regard. In Egypt the story went around that the army of Sennacherib was eliminated for the biggest part in one night by a plague of mice, which gnawed and destroyed the equipment of the soldiers (and of course ate also their food). The later Greek historian Herodotus tells this. Moreover the Babylonian historian Berossus (later quoted again by Flavius Josephus) tells that a highly contagious pestilence killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers already on the first night of the siege, after which the king hurriedly returned to Nineveh with the rest of his army.
These 2 extra-biblical messages need not conflict with each other. It can both be true. There may indeed have been a plague of mice in the Assyrian army, that had been encamped around Jerusalem. And those mice may have transmitted the pestilence, both to each other and to the soldiers. The food that the mice had not yet eaten will have been highly contaminated. The mice may have urinated on it and left their feces on it. In this way an infectious disease such as the pestilence can spread quickly. But nothing is beyond God's government. And that is why the Bible attributes all this to the Angel of the Lord.
The destroying angel in the army of Assyria (impression by Gustave Doré)
5. How it went further on with King Sennacherib of Assyria we know from 2 Kings 19: 37:
And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.
This is also confirmed by sources outside the Bible. On a Babylonian clay tablet they found the message:
On the twelfth day of the month of Tebetu, Sennacherib was killed by his rebellious son (...) his son Esarhaddon came to the throne of Assyria.
Here one son is mentioned as the perpetrator. Apparently he was the main culprit. But Esarhaddon himself, the son who succeeded his father as king, writes about his brothers:
My brothers made a criminal decision. They forsook the gods, returned to their acts of violence and plotted evil. They rebelled. To win the kingship they killed their father Sennacherib.
6. After the death of Sennacherib, Assyria's display of power did not imply so much. About 70 years later the capital Nineveh was attacked by joint Median and Babylonian armies, which thoroughly destroyed the city. Thus was fulfilled what Isaiah had already prophesied (Isaiah 10: 5 and 24 - 27):
5. O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.
24. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts: O my people that dwellest in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian, when he shall smite you with a rod, and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.
25. For yet a very little while, and the indignation shall be fulfilled, and my anger in their destruction.
26. And the LORD of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and as his rod was upon the sea, so shall he lift it up after the manner of Egypt.
27. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed, because of the anointing.
Another translation has here: 'because of the Anointed One'. Who is that Anointed One? This is probably the Lord Jesus. For the Old Testament contains many prophecies about the Lord Jesus. And also elsewhere in those prophecies He is called Anointed One. In every case the fall of Assyria and its capital Nineveh is also confirmed in extra-biblical sources, for example in the Babylonian Chronicle.
The Babylonian Chronicle, on display in the British Museum, which records the capture of Nineveh
10. Jeremiah and the captivity of Judah in Babylon
1. The Bible contains many names of people from the time of Jeremiah. The interesting thing is that many of those names have been found on seals, sort of stamps, that were used to seal documents made of papyrus or parchment. Found are seals of Baruch (Jeremiah 32:12), Seraiah (Jer. 40:8), Yuchal (Jer. 37:3), Gedaliah son of Pashhur (Jeremiah 38:1), Gedaliah son of Ahikam (Jer. 39:14), and Jezaniah (Jer. 40:8). This also proves that the Biblical stories are not fairy tales, but faithful accounts of history.
2. In the Bible we can read how Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem and captured King Jehoiachin and many others. In fact at that time there were 3 deportations of Jews by the Babylonians. This was the second deportation. In 2 Kings 24: 10 - 17 this is described thus:
10. At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
11. Even Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city, when his servants besieged it.
12. And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers; and the king of Babylon captured him in the eighth year of his reign.
13. And he carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the house of the king, and demolished all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
14. And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths; none remained except the poorest sort of the people of the land.
15. Thus he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land; those he carried into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.
16. And all the men of might, even seven thousand, and craftsmen and smiths a thousand, and all who were strong and apt for war; even them the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon.
17. And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father's brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
The Babylonian Chronicle, visible in the picture above, tells this story as follows:
In the month of Kislev of the year 7 (this must be a year of the Babylonian calendar), the king of Babylonia marched with his army to Hattuland (Syria/Palestine). He set his camp against the (capital) city of Judah and on the 2nd of Adar he conquered the city and captured the king (= Jehoiachin). He appointed a new king of his choice (= Zedekiah), imposed a heavy tribute and sent it to Babylon.
3. Jehoiachin did not return to his homeland. He remained captive in Babylon. But when Evilmerodach came to power there, he got a better life. This is told in the Bible in 2 Kings 25: 27 - 30:
27. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon in the year in which he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison;
28. And he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon;
29. And changed his prison garments, and he did eat bread continually before him, all the days of his life.
30. And his allowance was a continual allowance given him of the king, a daily rate for every day, all the days of his life.
This too can be found on a Babylonian clay tablet. It states how much oil Jehoiachin received. The inscription reads as follows:
10 sila for Yaukin (= Jehoiachin), the king of Judah; 2.5 sila for the 5 sons of the Judean king.
If we compare this with the ration lists of others, we see that Jehoiachin received better treatment than others. This agrees well with the Biblical testimony!
The ration list for king Jehoiachin
