Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel 1

Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel

Is there any evidence outside

the Bible to support the events

described in the Bible?

Introduction

The story of Israel from 930 BC to 539 BC

930 onward Division, idolatry, decline and exile

722 BC Israel (the Northern Kingdom) conquered and exiled by Shamaneser V of Assyria

701 BC Judah (the Southern Kingdom) attacked by Sennacherib of Assyria

597–586 BC Judah conquered and exiled by Nebuchadnezzar / Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon

539 BC King Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon and allows Judah to return from exile

1. King Jehu bowing to Shalmaneser III (841 BC)

Jehu, King of Israel, c. 841–815 BC; 2 Kings 9-10

Inscription: The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III

“The tribute of Jehu of the

house of Omri: I received from

him silver, gold, a golden bowl,

a golden vase with pointed

bottom, golden tumblers,

golden buckets, tin, a staff for a

king and spears.”

2. The Assyrian invasion of Israel (722 BC)

2 Kings 17:1-6 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in

Samaria over Israel, and he reigned nine years. 2And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD,

yet not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3Against him came up Shalmaneser king of

Assyria. And Hoshea became his vassal and paid him tribute. 4But the king of Assyria found

treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and offered no tribute 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. 5Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and came to Samaria, and for three

years he besieged it. 6In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, and he

carried the Israelites away to Assyria.

The Babylonian Chronicle i.27-28:

27On the twenty-fifth of the month Tebetu, Shalmaneser in Assyria

28and Akkad ascended

the throne. He ravaged Samaria.

Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel 2

3. The Assyrian invasion of Judah (701 BC)

2 Kings 18:13–19:37; 2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 36–37

An outline of the history:

King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and captured many cities, including Lachish.

King Hezekiah of Israel feared that Sennacherib would attack Jerusalem, so he built a

tunnel to channel water into the city.

Sennacherib beseiged Jerusalem, but suddenly called off the siege when thousands of his

troops mysteriously died.

Sennacherib then returned to Assyria where he also died and was replaced by his son.

The siege of Lachish

2 Kings 18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against

all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

2 Chronicles 32:9 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, who was besieging Lachish with all his forces …

The Lachish relief

Hezekiah’s tunnel

2 Chronicles 32:2-4 2And when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and intended to fight

against Jerusalem, 3he planned with his officers and his mighty men to stop the water of the

springs that were outside the city; and they helped him. 4A great many people were gathered, and

they stopped all the springs and the brook that flowed through the land, saying, “Why should the

kings of Assyria come and find much water?”

2 Chronicles 32:30 Hezekiah closed the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them

down to the west side of the city of David.

Hezekiah’s Tunnel

The Pool of Siloam,

where Hezekiah’s Tunnel

flows into Jerusalem

Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel 3

King Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem

2 Kings 19:35-36 35

And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the

camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead

bodies. 36

Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.

The Taylor Prism

Extract from the Taylor Prism:

As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke:

forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in

their area, which were without number, by levelling with

battering-rams and by bringing up seige-engines, and by attacking

and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches, I besieged

and took them. 200,150 people, great and small, male and

female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without

number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil.

Hezekiah himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal

city. I threw up earthworks against him— the one coming out of

the city-gate, I turned back to his misery.

1. Sennacherib claims to have beseiged Jerusalem

2. Sennacherib doesn’t claim to have captured Jerusalem

The murder of King Sennacherib of Assyria

2 Kings 19:36-37 36

Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at

Nineveh. 37

And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and

Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat.

And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Babylonian Chronicle 1, column 3, lines 34-38:

34On the twentieth day of the month Tebetu, Sennacherib, king of Assyria,

35was killed by

his son in a rebellion. For twenty-four years Sennacherib 36

ruled Assyria. After the

twentieth day of the month Tebetu 37

the rebellion continued in Assyria until the second

day of the month Addaru. 38

On the eighteenth day of the month Addaru Esarhaddon, his

son, ascended the throne in Assyria.

Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel 4

4. The Babylonian invasion of Judah (597–586 BC)

2 Kings 24:11-13 11

And Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were

besieging it, 12

and Jehoiachin the king of Judah gave himself up to the king of Babylon, himself and

his mother and his servants and his officials and his palace officials. The king of Babylon took him

prisoner in the eighth year of his reign 13

and carried off all the treasures of the house of the LORD

and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the

LORD, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the LORD had foretold.

2 Kings 24:17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah,

Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place, and changed his name to

Zedekiah.

Text of the Babylonian Chronicle 5, reverse side, lines 11-13

11In the seventh year, the month of Kislimu, the king of

Akkad mustered his troops, marched to the Hatti-land, 12

and besieged the city of Judah and on the second day

of the month of Addaru he seized the city and captured

the king. 13

He appointed there a king of his own choice,

received its heavy tribute and sent to Babylon.

5. The return from exile (539 BC)

Ezra 1:1-3 1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of

Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a

proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 2“Thus says Cyrus king of

Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has

charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3Whoever is among you of all his

people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the

house of the LORD, the God of Israel – he is the God who is in Jerusalem.”

The Cyrus Cylinder

The Cyrus Cylinder, lines 32-34:

I collected together all of their

people and returned them to their

settlements, and the gods of the

land of Sumer and Akkad which

Nabonidus – to the fury of the

lord of the gods – had brought

into Shuanna, at the command of

Marduk, the great lord, I returned

them unharmed to their cells, in

the sanctuaries that make them

happy.

Conclusion

“We have a consistent level of good, fact-based correlations right through from circa 2000

BC (with earlier roots) down to 400 BC.” (Kenneth Kitchen, The Historical Reliability of the

Old Testament, p. 500)