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Home , 2 Chronicles 32, Adrammelech, Nisroch, Shalmaneser III, Siege of Lachish

Archaeology and the (3) – The decline and fall of 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 701 BC Judah (the Southern Kingdom) attacked by of Assyria 597–586 BC Judah conquered and exiled by Nebuchadnezzar / Nebuchadrezzar of 539 BC King Cyrus of Persia conquers Babylon and allows Judah to return from exile 1. King bowing to Shalmaneser III (841 BC) Jehu, King of Israel, c. 841–815 BC; -10 Inscription: The Black of Shalmaneser III “The tribute of Jehu of the house of : 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 king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in 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 away to Assyria . The Babylonian Chronicle i.27-28: 27 On the twenty-fifth of the month Tebetu, Shalmaneser in Assyria 28 and Akkad ascended the throne. He ravaged Samaria.

Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel 1 3. The Assyrian invasion of Judah (701 BC) :13–19:37; 2 Chronicles 32; 36–37 An outline of the history: King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded Judah and captured many cities, including Lachish. King of Israel feared that Sennacherib would attack , 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 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

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 and directed them down to the west side of the city of . Hezekiah’s Tunnel

The , where Hezekiah’s Tunnel flows into Jerusalem

Archaeology and the Bible (3) – The decline and fall of Israel 2 King Sennacherib’s siege of Jerusalem :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 . 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 his god, and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. And his son reigned in his place . Babylonian Chronicle 1, column 3, lines 34-38: 34 On the twentieth day of the month Tebetu, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, 35 was 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 3 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 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 . Text of the Babylonian Chronicle 5, reverse side, lines 11-13 11 In 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) :1-3 1In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of 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 settleme nts, and the gods of the land of and Akkad which – 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 , p. 500)

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