"And Ahaz went to Damscus to meet Tig-lath-pi-leser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof. And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus. ... And when the king was come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and ... approached to the altar, and offered thereon."

Tiglath-Pileser (744-727 BC) and what he meant to Palestine

The plea of Ahaz for aid against Israel and Damascus must have come at the right time for T.P 's own plans and ambitions were already directed against them. He responded by conducting a campaign against Philistia in ~734 BC. It was a move aimed at splitting the allies, isolating Damascus and opening a way through northern Israel to the coastal plain, and effecting contact with Ahaz. During this campaign he most likely overran Israel, taking "Ijon, Abel-beth-maacha, Janoah, Kadesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee -- all the land of Naphthali." 2.Kings 15:29. He also deported the inhabitants to Assyria. During the next two years (733-732) he aimed against Rezenu of Damascus. Even though the Assyrian records of Tiglath-Pileser are fragmented we can learn enough from them showing that Damascus did fall and that a loyal supporter of the Assyrian king, King Panammu of Samal, fell in this intense and probably quite violent struggle, `16 districts of Aram I destroyed like mounds left by a flood. Hadaru, the father's house of Rezin of Aram [where] he was born, I besieged, I captured. 800 people together with their possessions... I carried off..." The concise but comprehensive biblical notice closely links the fall of Damascus with Ahaz' appeal and payment of tribute to Tiglath-Pileser. "And the king of Assyria listened to him...and went up against Damascus and took it, and carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin." 2.Kings 16:9. T.P. also controlled Israel. For the next years between ca. 733 to 630 BC, Tel Dor became the Assyrian provincial capital for the regions of Carmel and the Sharon coasts as is attested by an imported Assyrian brown agate seal found on the floor of an Assyrian building near the gate [Excavation area B1; See BAR, May/June 1993, p. 40]. Similarly an unusual seal impression was found in a for sale hoard of bullae depicting two figures in pseudo-Assyrian style, one with his hand raised indicating his submission, the other holding a bow and a bundle of arrows. The inscription reads (right to left), `Governor of the City .' [0600]

When Pekah was assassinated, the Assyrian emperor placed Hoshea on the throne, 2.Kings 15:30, obligating him to pay heavy tribute to Assyria. This also was duly recorded in the Assyrian inscriptions, "Paqaha [Pekah] their king, they deposed and I placed Ausi' [Hoshea] over them as king. 10 talents of gold....talents of silver, as their tribute I received from them and to Assyria I carried them." T.P. died in -727.

Shalmaneser V (726-722) and the Fall of Samaria

When Samaria chose to give her allegiance to Egypt in the days of Shalmaneser and Sargon II, the prophet Isaiah regarded it as a political mistake. "Woe to the rebellious children ... that walk to go down into Egypt ... to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt ... For his princes were at Zoan [Tanis] and his ambassadors came to Hanes." Isaiah 30:1,2,4. Because of the tribute Shoshenk received from Hoshea, king of Samaria, the Ten Tribes of Israel were doomed to lose their homeland. Shalmaneser V besieged Samaria, but even though Israel send out a plea for help to Egypt, Shoshenk did not send any military expedition to relieve the siege of Samaria by the Assyrians as they had done in the days of Jehoahaz.

"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." [2.Kings 17:4]

Despite Isaiah's warning, Samaria chose to give her allegiance to Egypt in the days of Shalmaneser and Sargon II.

"Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose...their strength is to sit still." [Isaiah 30:3,7]

But this time it was more than confusion, it was the end of national existence for the northern kingdom begun by the Egyptian educated Jeroboam just 200 years before. "Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years." [2.Kings 17:5]

This siege is connected to the 4th year of Hezekiah, 2.Kings 18:9-11. Before this siege was over Shalmaneser was succeeded by Sharrukin II, an usurper and general in the army, who assumed the venerable name Sargon II, 723-705 BC. Before the beginning of modern archaeology his name was known only from Isaiah 20:1 where we learn that Sargon attacked Ashdod and from the Assyrian records we know that he replaced its ruler with his borther Ahimetu. The fall of Samaria was the most prominent event in this kings first regnal year. Here is how Sargon II described the conquest of Samaria: "At the beginning of my royal rule, I... the town of the Samaritans I besieged, conquered. ... for the god ... who let me achieve this my triumph ... I led away as prisoners 27,290 inhabitants of it and equipped from among them soldiers to man 50 chariots of my royal corps ..." [0700] Earlier Assyrian conquests by Tiglath-Pileser III and Shalmaneser V, had already carried the inhabitants of the land districts into exile; those removed by Sargon where the last of Israel. King Hoshea was among them no doubt. Sargon, referring to his Babylon campaign wrote: "I bespatted his people with the venom of death." Of his campaign against Elam he wrote: "Into all their cities I cast gloom and turned all their provinces into deserted mounds." He did the same to Israel. Next he brought in settlers from Babylon, Cuthah, Hamath, Ava, and Sepharvaim and let them live in Samaria. "The town I rebuilt better than it was before and settled people therein, peoples from countries which I myself had conquered." [0800]

At the time of the fall of Samaria, not only did Egypt lose all of its remaining influence in Asia - its last Libyan rulers were themselves compelled to submit to Assyrian overlordship. In the 7th year of Sargon "Pir'u, the king of Musru" (Pharaoh of Egypt) is listed among those sending tribute to Assyria. The conquest of Egypt had been carried out with iron weapons and Assyrian tools made of iron were found in Egypt. [Petrie, `Ancient Egypt', Vol. II (1915), p. 22; also Petrie, `Six Temples at Thebes', 1896, p. 18f] Later in that same year a certain `Iamani' seized power in Ashdod, an independent principality next to Judah on the coast; trying to organize an anti-Assyrian league and to enroll the help of Egypt, Sargon recounts in his annals, "... sent bribes to Pir'u king of Musru, a potentate incapable to save him...and asked him to be an ally." The rebellious prince tried also to involve Judah (Ia-u- di) in the conspiracy: but Hezekiah, probably at Isaiah's urging (Isaiah 7), refused to risk the nations future on so doubtful a venture. Informed of Iamani's revolt, Sargon gathered chosen troops and sent them against the rebel: "In a sudden rage I marched quickly...against Ashdod, his royal residence." Without Egyptian help, along with other towns on the Philistine coast, Iamani "fled into the territory of Musru [Egypt] which belongs [now] to Ethiopia."

722 BC was also the year when Ramses Siptah came to prominence for 1 year. He was followed by the child king Merneptah Siptah whose foster mother, Queen Twosert¹⁾, directed affairs for him for some 6 years. At the apparent death of the child king, Sethos became king. His allegance was toward Ethiopia and he went on several campaigns against the Assyrians. Eventually he found it necessary to have his brother Armais [Harmhab/Horemheb] take charge of affairs in the palace during his extended absences. But during his reign the Assyrian influence in Egypt quickly faded for a time. Horemheb used these occasions to take charge of the palace and the government and made known to the Assyrians that he supported their cause. In about 709 BC Sargon became king of Egypt and when he changed his name sometime around -705 to Sennacherib, Horemheb married his daughter Mutnodjme and was made vassal king over Egypt.

1) In our reconstruction Twosre was the queen of Ramses Siptah on account of a pedigree through which she must have had an 18th Dynasty family background reaching back about 100 years. Ramses Siptah owed his royal status through this marriage against the background of the last Libyan ruler in Egypt.

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Picking up again were Sargon pursued Iamani; as far as Iamani was concerned, however, he did not find safety in Egypt. The Ethiopian king and now king of Egypt (probably Shabataka/Shabako) extradited the rebel Yamani: "He threw him in fetters, shackles, and iron bands, and they brought him to Assyria, a long journey." No mention is made of "Pir'u king of Musru" whose aid Yamani had sought only a few months earlier, and A. Spalinger assumed that he had been deposed by the king of Ethiopia, but we believe Sethos had come to the end of his ability to keep things under control and his brother Horemheb gained influence. [A. Spalinger, "The Year 712 BC and its Implications for Egyptian History", Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 10(1973), pp. 95-101] In revised view this `Pir'u' king of Musru' must have been Sethos (716-693? BC) before his demise and before the installation of Horemheb, who served first as scribe and palace official, married the daughter of the Assyrian king and became vassal king of Egypt. This episode marks also the first appearance of Ethiopians in Assyrian annals. Eventually Tirhaka gained strength and took charge of affairs in Egypt and Horemheb was forced to flee in about 688 BC.

The same events are also described by the prophet Isaiah:

"In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, when Sargon the king of Assyria sent him, and fought against Ashdod, and took it." Isaiah continued and warned: "So shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian prisoners and the Ethiopian captives, young and old, ... And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory." Isaiah 20:1,4. It is not explained whom the prophet had in mind by saying "they". Israel had already been exiled in Sargon's first year; Isaiah apparently had in mind a party in Judah which saw rays of hope in the recent replacement of the Libyan masters of Egypt by first some native rulers in -722 and later the Ethiopians in the later years of Shabako (716-702) and Shabatka/Shebitku (702-690 BC). Isaiah understood the importance of his message so urgently that he walked like a dervish, unclothed and barefoot (v.2) to emphasize the significance and possible consequences of an erroneous political orientation of the leaders of Judah. This chapter in Isaiah contains the only mention of Sargon in the Bible. Tartan, sent by Sargon to fight against Ashdod, is not a private name; it is a high military and administrative title. [0900] "The Assyrian word "turtan" refers to a high military and administrative official second in rank only to the king. ... Besides `tartannu' also `tartanu' is attested." But we identified this `Tartan' or `Turtan' with `Holofernes' or `Ashur-isqa-danin' still preserving the possibility that `turtan' was a title.

In the decades that followed the Scythians [Umman-Manda] descended from the steppes of Russia [possibly because of inhospital changes in weather] and headed toward Palestine driving out the Cimmerians before them. The defenses of the Assyrians withstood the onslought of the Cimmerians and here the ill fated history of Esarhaddon and Judith begins.

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The reign of Sargon II we take as from ca. 723-705 BC as Sargon and from then on probably as Sennacherib.

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From -704 on Sargon/Sennacherib came to prominence and here the ill fated history of Judith and Essarhadon begins.


Sennacherib and the Year 701 BC

In our paper on Sargon and Esarhaddon we show the more updated history of these late Assyrian kings. Sargon II/Sennacherib inherited a potentially enormous empire. Right away he began to expand it even more. After two campaigns against enemies in the north he turned his attention to Syria/Palestine. His army attacked Sidon and its king Luli fled into the sea and perished. Sennacherib appointed a new king and received tribute from him. Arvad and Ashdod, Ammon and Edom, brought him gifts and "kissed [his] feet." Sennacherib encircled Beth-Dagon, Jaffa, and Bne-Brak and conquered them. "The people of Ekron became afraid and called upon the king of Egypt, the bowmen, chariots and horses of the king of Melukha [Ethiopia], a boundless host, and these came to their aid." The Assyrian army met them at the walls of Eltekeh; neighboring Ekron was stormed and its people killed, their corpses hung on poles around the town. "As to Hezekiah, the Judean [Ha-za-qi-(i)a-u Ia-u-da-ai], he did not submit to my yoke." Sennacherib besieged the "strong cities" of Judah and the "walled forts" and "countless small villages in their vicinity," and took them by assault carrying their people into exile. Then he turned against the capital. "I made (Hezekiah) like a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage." Nevertheless, Jerusalem held out and Sennacherib withdrew, even though not before exacting a heavy ransom. "Hezekiah himself, whom the terror-inspiring splendor of my lordship had overwhelmed ... did send me, later, to Niniveh [0950], my lordly city, together with 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones ... couches (inlaid) with ivory ... elephant hides ... and all kinds of valuable treasures, his own daughters, concubines, male and female musicians. In order to deliver the tribute and to do obeisance as a slave he sent his (personal) messenger." Having agreed to the ransom Jerusalem was not entered by the Assyrian army. The corresponding biblical record in 2.Kings 18:14 differs only in the quantity of silver in the ransom. It too mentions 30 talents of gold, but only 300 talents of silver. Besides this record on a clay prism, the Assyrian bas-reliefs [1000] show the siege of Lachish in southern Palestine, on the way from Jerusalem to Egypt. From the biblical account we know that Sennacherib was at Lachish, pressing the siege, when he received Hezekiah's submission. Lachish must have fallen not long after that. Did Sennacherib press his conquest into Egypt and subdue it? Since long ago historians argued about this question. Herodotus wrote that Sennacherib came against Egypt "with a great host" and encamped at Pelusium. [1100] Berosus, who wrote a history of Chaldea, said that Sennacherib conducted an expedition against "all Asia and Egypt." 1200] Jewish tradition tells of the conquest of Egypt by Sennacherib and of his march towards Ethiopia:"Sennacherib was forced to stop his campaign against Hezekiah for a short time, as he had to move hurriedly to Ethiopia. Having conquered this `pearl of all countries' he returned to Judea." [1300]

Sennacherib and Sethos

Herodotus placed Sennacherib's invasion in the reign of "the priest of Hephaestos, whose name was Sethos." At that time, he wrote,"king Sennacherib (came) against Egypt with a great host of Arabians and Assyrians." [1400] "In the popular tradition preserved by Herodotus the name of the Egyptian king is given as `Sethos' ... the true appelation of the monarch has disappeared in favor of the great Seti ... It is impossible to reject the whole story to the actual period of Seti in face of the direct mention of Sanacharaibos [Sennacherib]." [1500] The more complete name of the grandfather (of Seti by the name of) Sethos, was Userkheprure-setpenre-Seti-merenptah, and his famous grandson was Seti-merenptah-menmaat-re, or Seti-Ptah-maat. Merenptah means "beloved of Ptah." The Greeks identified Ptah with Hephaestos. In describing Sethos as a priest of Hephaestos, Herodotus was evidently referring to Seti's second name. [1600]

In conventional chronology Seti the Great lived in the latter part of the 14th century BC. The events which we now describe took place in the final years of the 8th century. Conventional history puts the grandson of Sethos 600 years before his grandfather, if we can prove our contention this confusion of history is not to be blamed on Herodotus.

Sennacherib invaded Egypt twice. His 1st campaign resulted in the victory for the Assyrians and Egypt's submission; his 2nd, 15 years later, as it will be told, ended in disaster. His own records speak only of his first campaign and are silent about the second; the Scriptures do not distinguish between the two campaigns; and in the Egyptian record, transmitted by Herodotus, only the 2nd campaign is remembered. [1700] Each of these sources provides only part of the picture and we must draw on all of them to complete it.

"At Ayelet Ha-Shahar, at the foot of the mound of Hazor, the fragmentary remains of an Assyrian residency have been revealed. Its details correspond remarkably to those of the Assyrian palaces in capital cities of the empire ... The Assyrian presence and influence are reflected in the pottery assemblage as well. ... a wealth of small finds may be related to Assyrian military or administrative presence, but they could also be prestige items that arrived by way of trade. They include a series of Assyrian cylinder seals and bullae. At Kafr Kana in the lower Galilee a magnificent Assyrian bronze vessel, resembling a goblet with a basket handle, was found. It has the shape of a ram's head, and an ornamental band near the rim contains a cultic scene in the royal Assyrian style. The vessel bears the name of its owner, Lizirishu." [2700]

Additional Information

In a room (EA) adjacent to the throne room of the NW Palace of Nineveh archaeologists discovered a cuneiform inscribed 1.3 meter tall stele with 154 lines of text in 1951. The floor pavements of the palace were made of burnt-brick and more than one layer was excavated. The earlier layer of Ashurnasirpal's [2800] palace was built upon by Shalmaneser III, whose workmen used a different size burnt-brick making it easier to distinguish his constructions. In the debry at the base of the stele were found finely carved ivories depicting Ashurnasirpal richly clothed and holding in his left hand the vulture bird-headed sickle of the god Ninurta and in his right he balances a cup on his fingertips. The occasion for the stele was the completion of the palace high up on the western ramparts of the akropolis, south of the Ziggurat and as near to the sacred precincts as it could be located, the completion of the entire town, temples, official buildings, houses, orchards, farms and gardens. The textual emphasis is said to be more directed toward the kings character as a high priest rather than on his kingship and successes as a military commander but not without a touch of arrogance. [2900]

[0100] According to dated information: "The German excavations at Assur appear to show that underneath the Sumerian stratum lies a Mitannian stratum (H). Above the Sumerian stratum comes a stratum (F) belonging to the period of the foundation of the great temple, and of the Kings Auspia (Auswa) and Kikia, whose names, however, are more probably Gutian than Mitannian." See A.H. Sayce, `Who were the Ammorites', Sep 1924, p. 74.
[0200] Example of seal impressions on tablets dated by limmu between 716-622 BC can be seen in M.E.L. Mallowan, `Nimrud and Its Remains', Vol. I, London, 1966, p. 198-199.
[0300] For a translation and discussion see A.K.Grayson, Vol. I, 1972, pp. 137-138; quoted in D. Rohl, `Pharaohs and Kings', p. 394.
[0400] Weidner, 1917, quoted in E.Mahler, `Scripta Universitatis at que Bibliothecae Hierosolymitanarum', 1924; Some regard Benno Landsberger as one of the greatest, conventional Assyriologists. Described as arrogant (he thought he deserved the Nobel price for his subject, but no such price existed. Today we realize their conclusions were way off the mark on the late Neo-Assyrian kings.
[0450] Horses, Assyrian Kusâa. See on a 1876 BM tablet said to have been from `Capadocia' in PSBA, Nov. 1, 1881, p. 11-21.
[0500] For text and images see also I. Beit-Arieh, `New Light on the Edomites', BAR, Mar/Apr 1988, p. 32-41.
[0600] See BAR, Vol. XIII, Sep/Oct 1987, p. 62.
[0700] Luckenbill, `The Records of Assyria', Vol. II, par. 4.
[0800] Ibid.
[0900] J.Pritchard, `Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament', (Princeton, 1950), p.285, n. 4.
[0950] Mentioning the city of Niniveh reminds us of the story of the prophet Jonah and the whale, can we really believe that story? After having read all sorts of explanations over the years, the most recent one makes the most sense to me. This explanation holds that the type of fish which swallowed Jonah was a species not alive today. This fish is the Leedsichthys problematicus, a rather large fish described this way: The fossil bones of a giant fish named `L.p.' provide support for the story of Jonah. The fish was named after en English farmer, Alfred Leeds, who first discovered such bones in the late 1880s. Leeds sold the skeleton to the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow University in 1915. The work of its reconstruction only began five years ago and found to be 15 meters (c. 45 feet) long. A whal shark or blue whale is 14 meters long. Unlike a whale shark (Dunkleosteus), a `Leedsichthys' would not have torn its prey apart with its teeth for it has none on its jaw. This fish, instead, has thousands of gill rakers with needle-like teeth to filter for plankton and small fish and had a mouth large enough to swallow a man. We do not know for sure what kind of fish swallowed Jonah, but such a specy could have done it. [See TJ, Summer, 2005, p. 7. Image of fish provided.]
[1000] Many bas reliefs from Assyria are known today, among them also those of Arslan Tash, the ancient Hadatu. See Pauline Albenda, The Gateway and Portal Stone Relief from Arslan Tash in BASOR, Aug 1988, p. 5-30.
[1100] Herodotus, Bk. II, 141.
[1200] Josephus, Antiquities, X, i.4.
[1300] L.Ginzberg, `The Legends of the Jews', (Philadelphia, 19xx), Vol. VI, p.365; cf. Seder `Olam 23; Talmudic sources also relate that after conquering Egypt Sennacherib carried away from there the throne of Solomon. (Ginzberg, Legends, IV, p.160.
[1400] Herodotus, `The Histories', Bk. II, p.141.
[1500] H.R.Hall, The Ancient History of the Near East', p. 492.
[1600] F.Griffith, `Stories of the High Priest of Memphis', (Oxford, 1900), p. 8, note 1.
[1700] Herodotus is likewise silent about the conquest of Egypt by Esarhaddon, and Ashurbanipal; nor does Manetho record Egypt's humiliation by Assyria.
[1800] 2.Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:36. - Herodotus, Chap. II. Sec. 141.
[1900] Josephus quoting Berosus in Jewish Antiquities, X, i.4-5.
[2000] Archaeology, `Assyrian Gold Treasure', March/April 1990 and May/June 2002, p.9.
[2100] See BAR, Vol. XI, May/Jun 1985, p. 15.
[2200] For the image see BAR, Vol. 25, Jan/Feb 1999, p. 56.
[2300] W.Culican, `Problems of Phoenicio-Punic Iconography - A Contribution' in AJBA, Vol. 1, 1970, p. 28-(55)-57.
[2400] See `The Lost Worlds', N.Y., 1962, p. 301. This book also shows the image of the tablet which has figures as well as text.
[2500] Wiseman, unfortunately, does not give further details of the tablet(s) on which it is found.
[2600] For an image of Tiglath-Pileser III see BAR, Vol. 24, May/June 1998, p. 50.
[2700] Gabrial Barkay, `The Iron Age II-III' in The Archaeology of Ancient Israel, 1992, p. 352.
[2800] Highlights on the City of Nineveh: Having proposed that Ashirnasirpal may be the same person also known as Ben-Hadad I, Abdi-Asirta, Tushratta, Kurigalzu, Kadashman-enlil, Yuya in Damien Mackey's papers posted on this website we set out to collect as much pertinent information on this king and his proposed name sakes as time and space allow.
[2900] M.E.L. Mallowan, `Nimrud and its Remains', Vol. I & II, London, 1966, p. 57ff.