Seder Olam: C25- Assyria
- Albert Benhamou
- Mar 15
- 16 min read
Updated: Mar 20
BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Generation 25: Hebrew years 2880 to 3000 (880-760 BCE)
Introduction
This chronological 25th generation covers the rise of Assyria as a regional power.
Chronology of the two kingdoms during the 25th generation
Hebrew Year | CE | Differ. | Kingdom of JUDAH | Kingdom of ISRAEL | Sources | Text |
2900 | -860 | 22 | The Temple is repaired | II Kings 12:7 | Y23 Joash | |
2900 | -860 | 28 | Jehu dies | II Kings 10:35- 36 | reigned 28Y | |
2900 | -860 | 22 | Jehoahaz son of Jehu reigns | II Kings 13:10 | Y23 Joash | |
2900 | -860 | Elisha the Prophet dies | II Kings 2:11 | estimate | ||
2907 | -853 | Shalmaneser III wins battle of Qarqar against a large coalition | Historical | |||
2913 | -847 | 36 | Jehoash son of Jehoahaz reigns | II Kings 13:10 | Y37 Joash | |
2914 | -846 | 1 | Hazael king of Aram dies, Ben-Hadad | II Kings 13:24 | ~Y1 Jehoash | |
2915 | -845 | 2 | Amaziah son of Joash reigns | II Kings 14:1 | Y2 Jehoahaz | |
2917 | -843 | 17 | Jehoahaz son of Jehu dies | II Kings 13:1 | reigned 17Y | |
2917 | -843 | 40 | Joash is murdered by 2 servants | II Kings 12:22 | reigned 40Y | |
2919 | -841 | Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III | Historical | |||
2929 | -831 | 16 | Jehoash son of Jehoahaz dies | II Kings 13:10 | reigned 16Y | |
2929 | -831 | 14 | Jeroboam son of Jehoash reigns | II Kings 14:23 | Y15 Amaziah | |
2940 | -820 | -16 | Azariah son of Amaziah born | II Kings 14:21, 15:2 | reigned 16Y old | |
2944 | -816 | 29 | Amaziah flees to Lachish; killed there | II Kings 14:2, 17 | reigned 29Y | |
2956 | -804 | 27 | Azariah son of Amaziah reigns | II Kings 15:1-2 | Y27 Jeroboam | |
2960 | -800 | -2 | Amos the Prophet | Amos 1:1 | ||
2962 | -798 | Earthquake | Amos 1:1 | assumption | ||
2970 | -790 | 41 | Jeroboam son of Joash dies | II Kings 14:23 | reigned 41Y | |
2993 | -767 | 37 | Zechariah son of Jeroboam reigns and dies | II Kings 15:8 | reigned 6 months | |
2994 | -766 | 38 | Shallum son of Jabesh kills Zechariah | II Kings 15:13 | reigned 1 month | |
2994 | -766 | 38 | Menahem son of Gadi kills Shallum and reigns | II Kings 15:14 | ||
2995 | -765 | "Pul" campaign; tributes paid | Historical |
Year 2900 – 860 BCE – Joash repairs the Temple
In the 23rd year of Joash's reign, he repaired the Temple of Jerusalem. This act seems to have been inscribed in a text that was found in Jerusalem and called the Jehoash [Joash] inscription. The authorities consider that this document is a forgery but there are other expert opinions that do not agree based on the material used for it. The text says:
[I am Yeho'ash, son of A]hazyahu, k[ing over Ju]dah, and I executed the re[pai]rs. When men's hearts became replete with generosity in the (densely populated) land and in the (sparsely populated) steppe, and in all the cities of Judah, to donate money for the sacred contributions abundantly, in order to purchase quarry stone and juniper wood and Edomite copper / copper from (the city of) ‘Adam, (and) in order to perform the work faithfully (= without corruption). (Then) I renovated the breach(es) of the Temple and of the surrounding walls, and the storied structure, and the meshwork, and the winding stairs, and the recesses, and the doors. May (this inscribed stone) become this day a witness that the work has succeeded, (and) may God (thus) ordain His people with a blessing. (source: Biblical Archaeology Review 2023)
To avoid being conquered by Hazael king of Aram, Joash sent a large tribute to him, made of all the idolatry items that were in the treasures of his royal house.
Some oak beams have been found on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (in the so-called "Solomon's Stables"). They had been used in the roof structure of the el-Aqsa Mosque which collapsed in the 1927 Jericho earthquake. The British Authorities, who ruled over the region at the time, had later sent some samples of the wood to a Carbone-14 laboratory in England to analyze the dating. The conclusion was that some beams dated back from about 880 BC, which is, with usual margin of error associated with the dating methods, well inside the timeframe of the reparations carried out by King Joash in the Temple.
Year 2900 – 860 BCE – The House of Jehu, kings of Israel
Jehu reigned for 28 years over Israel and was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz. During his reign, Hazael the king of Aram waged war against both Israel and Judah until his death. His son Ben-Hadad could not defeat Jehoahaz either but succeeded in taking back all the territories that his father Jehu had lost to Hazael. The Stele of Zakkur, found in 1903 near Aleppo in Syria, testifies of the existence of this king and father of the kingdom of Aram:
I am Zakkur, king of Hamath and Luash . . . Bar-Hadad, son of Hazael, king of Aram, united against me seventeen kings . . .all these kings laid siege to Hazrach . . .Baal-Shamayin said to me, “Do not be afraid! . . .I will save you from all [these kings who] have besieged you.” (Ivor Poobalan, The Period of Jeroboam II with Special Reference to Amos, page 51)
This Baal-Shamayin was the main deity in Aram, equivalent to the Greek’s Zeus.
In the Biblical year 2900 (860 BCE) when Jehoahaz came to power in the kingdom of Israel, Elisha the Prophet died.
In his turn, when Jehoahaz son of Jehu died, he was succeeded by his son Jehoash who had been placed on the throne of Israel a couple of years before, a way to ensure the succession while the old king was still alive (II Kings 13:10). In Judah, Joash did the same when he got old and placed his son Amaziah on the throne. Joash’s life however ended brutally when he was murdered by two of his servants.Before Jehu died, God promised to him that four generations of his descendants will reign over Israel. The first to reign was his son Jehoahaz. He was followed by his son Jehoash. Then Jeroboam II reigned, and he was succeeded by his son Zechariah who will finally be murdered, thus ending the House of Jehu.
Year 2907 – 853 BCE – The Kurkh Stele
In 859 BCE, Shalmaneser III started to reign over Assyria. Six years later, he faced a major coalition formed by all the kingdoms at the west of his borders, from Egypt to Aram. This coalition included the kingdom of Israel ruled by Jehoahaz son of Jehu. Shalmaneser won a decisive battle in Qarqar in 853 BCE against this coalition, thus opening the door for him to invade the Levant. This victory was recorded in the Kurkh Stele found in Turkey in 1861, but the scribes of these annals made some mistakes in the text, for example by referring to the king of Israel as being Ahab and to the king of Aram as being Ben-Hadad (they wrote Adad-idri), whereas both kings had died many years before. No doubt they were ignorant of the actual names of some rulers, because the allied kingdoms were still unknown or foreign to their records, so they simply put names of fame that they knew would illustrate the corresponding kingdoms. Ahab had been a known name from the kingdom of Israel, and so had been Ben-Hadad. The Assyrian scribes wanted to correctly note which kingdoms took part in the defeated coalition. They also greatly exaggerated the number of chariots brought by each of these small kingdoms, in a goal to increase the glory of Shalmaneser to have defeated them all.
The bottom of the stele and the continuation on the reverse side of the stela bears the following text:
2000 chariots, 10000 footmen of a-ha-ab-hu [=Ahab] matu [=land of] sir-i-la-a-a [=Israel]. (Menant, Annales des Rois d'Assyrie, 1874, page 112)
The battle of Qarqar took place during the reign of Jehoahaz son of Jehu king of Israel. This reign signaled a turn in the existence of this kingdom because most of the Israelite army had already been destroyed in previous wars against the traditional enemy of Aram, before the battle of Qarqar:
For there was not left to Jehoahaz of the people save 50 horsemen, and 10 chariots, and 10000 footmen; for the king of Aram destroyed them and made them like the dust in threshing. (II Kings 13:7)
So, it is impossible for the king of Israel to have supplied 2000 chariots for the battle of Qarqar, in support of the king of Aram, as Jehoahaz only had 10 chariots left according to the Biblical text. But he did have 10000 footmen that were those sent, probably at the request of Aram, to support the coalition.
Year 2915 – 845 BCE – Amaziah of Judah
In Judah, Amaziah had succeeded his father Joash before the latter was murdered by two servants. Amaziah started to reign when he was 25 years old and did what was right in the eyes of God at the beginning of his reign of 29 years (II Kings 14:1-2). He soon punished the murderers of his father:
And it came to pass, as soon as the kingdom was established in his hand, that he slew his servants who had slain the king his father; but the children of the murderers he put not to death; according to that which is written in the book of the law of Moses, as the Lord commanded saying: 'The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall be put to death for his own sin.' (II Kings 14:5-6)
Amaziah was successful in his military campaigns against Edom, which had gained independence from Judah since the troubled reigns of the two Jeroham kings. Amaziah conquered present-day Petra in Jordan which was called Sela (סלע) in the Biblical text, which means the Rock (Petra also means Rock in Greek):
He slew ten thousand [men] of Edom in the Valley of Salt and took Sela (סלע) by war, and called the name of it Joktheel (יקתאל), unto this day. (2 Kings 14:7)
The circumstances of this war and the aftermath is described in great details in 2 Chronicles 25. Amaziah sinned after the war as he served to the pagan gods of the Edomites he just conquered.
He then sought to vanquish Jehoash, king of Israel. Commentaries agree to say that Amaziah felt strong after his conquest of Edom, alone without the help of the kingdom of Israel, and now thought arrogantly to get rid of the king of Israel and re-unite all the Israelite tribes under one kingdom. This however was a bad omen because God did not want the people of Judah to mix with the deviant people of Israel. Jehoash responded with contempt and advised Amaziah to desist from his thoughts.
A war ensued between Judah and Israel. In the battle of Beit-Shemesh, Jehoash crushed the Judean army and captured Amaziah. He then went up to Jerusalem, smashed a good part of its walls, and took all the gold and silver vessels found in the Temple (II Kings 14:14). This act of disrespect for the House of God soon caused the death of Jehoash, as he had entered the Temple against the divine commandment that only the priests could do so. Amaziah was then released from his imprisonment in Samaria but ultimately, after 15 years, he lost his throne as conspirators decided to overthrow him because of his bad politics that had already cost the sack of the Temple (II Kings 14:17). Amaziah fled to the city of Lachish in the 29th year of his reign. His son, Azariah, being 4 years old at the time, was too young to reign. When he reached the age of 16, soldiers were sent to Lachish to kill Amaziah so that his son could finally be proclaimed king of Judah.
Year 2920 – 840 BCE – The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III
The Black Obelisk is a stele that was found in the ruins of the Nineveh palace. It was made to commemorate the reign of Shalmaneser III who ruled Assyria in 858-824 BCE. It is made of black limestone and is composed of four sides. One of the sides shows an Israelite king bowing and paying tribute to Shalmaneser.
The find is important because of the text that accompanies the stele. In two occurrences, the name of Hazael king of Aram is mentioned. Hazael was contemporary of the campaigns of Shalmaneser III because he died around 846 BCE, which was the first year of the reign of Jehoash, king of Israel.
Some historians have wrongly assumed that the Israelite king mentioned on the obelisk was "Jehu son of Omri". Jehu was not the "son of Omri" so this mention could only mean a reference to Omri as the founder of the Israelite dynasty that ruled in Samaria: Omri was indeed the one who established the city of Samaria as the capital of the kingdom of Israel, around 826 BCE, when he moved his seat from Tirzah. What about Jehu? This king was not contemporary to Shalmaneser III’s campaign either so his mention on the obelisk cannot be relevant. The issue here is simply that the cuneiform text has been misinterpreted. The text actually shows:
It is obvious that the text mentions Ya-u-a, or even Ya-Gu-a, which should have rather been translated into Jehoash, instead of Jehu. Je-ho-a[sh] was the correct Israelite king, contemporary to Shalmaneser III, that was mentioned on the Black Obelisk.
On another side of the obelisk, there is also mention of Shalmaneser's victory against "Hazael of Damascus", a king of Aram also cited in the Bible.
Year 2929 – 831 BCE – Jeroboam II of Israel
Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, succeeded his father in Israel, and reigned for 41 years (II Kings 14:23). Although the new king did not depart from the sinful conduct of his fathers, God however saw the affliction of the people of his kingdom and decided He would not allow the name of Israel to be blotted out from the face of the earth. So, He instructed Jonah the prophet to go to Nineveh and announce their destruction, as their threat against the Kingdom of Israel was rising. But Jonah fled from his mission and, although the Biblical text only alludes to it, Jonah was given the other task to prophesize that Jeroboam will secure his kingdom:
He [Jeroboam II] restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath [maybe the hot sources of Hamat-Gader, the border of the Golan in the north] unto the sea of the Arabah [the Western coastline], according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which He spoke by the hand of His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was of Gath-Hepher. (2 Kings 14:25)
Jonah was no ordinary person, and God didn't allow him to die until his original mission will be accomplished: prophesizing the destruction of Nineveh, but some generations later after the original Assyrian threat was no longer a matter of urgency.
Also, God had given the promise to Jehu king of Israel to have four generations of his children to reign over Israel, and Jeroboam II was the 3rd generation. So, God made Jeroboam successful in his military campaigns against the enemies of Israel and also against Judah, especially after the kingdom of Judah was weakened by the lack of a king, while Azariah was still too young to succeed his father Amaziah. Jeroboam did not however take too much advantage of the situation to oppress Judah and God recompensed him with a long reign.
Year 2956 – 804 BCE – Azariah / Uzziah of Judah
Azariah started to reign in the 27th year of reign of Jeroboam II (II Kings 15:1). He was 16 years old and had been educated in the path of God. God granted him an exceptionally long reign of 52 years (II Kings 15:1-2). His name was later changed to Uzziah.
About Year 2960 – 800 BCE – Amos the Prophet
It is during the reigns of Jeroboam and Uzziah that Amos prophesized the destructions of all the kingdoms in the Levant, including Israel and Judah. During his time, a powerful earthquake also shook the region.
Yea, you shall flee, like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. (Zechariah 14:5)
When Amos came to prophesize in the kingdom of Israel, he was rebuked and told by Amaziah, the priest of pagan Beth-El, to return to Judah:
Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah: 'I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son; but I was a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore-trees; and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said unto me: “Go, prophesy unto My people Israel.”
Now therefore hear you the word of the Lord: You say: “Prophesy not against Israel, and preach not against the house of Isaac;” Therefore thus says the Lord: “Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword, and your land shall be divided by line; and you yourself shall die in an unclean land, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of his land.” (Amos 7:14-17)
God told him about an eclipse that will mark the start of His punishment onto His people. This eclipse took place 40 years later (Ffor Jewish symbolism of the numbers, click here), day for day:
And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day. And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. (Amos 8:9-10)
This eclipse was actually recorded in Assyrian annals as having occurred in June 763 BCE of their calendar, which corresponds to about the Hebrew year 3000 due to the difference of noting the calendars in Mesopotamia and in Israel. It corresponds to the first time when an Assyrian king entered the region and threatens the Israelite kingdoms.Amaziah the priest of Beth-El tried to slander against Amos so that Jeroboam would execute the prophet, but the king showed restraints and rejected the slander:
And whence do we know that he [Jeroboam] did not heed slander? Because it is written, Then Amaziah the priest of Beth-El sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying: Amos has conspired against you [etc.]; and it is written, For thus Amos said: Jeroboam shall die by the sword [etc.]. Said he [Jeroboam]: ‘Heaven forfends that that righteous man should have said thus! Yet, if he did say, what can I do to him! The Shechinah told it to him. (Talmud, Pesachim, 87b)
After failing with Jeroboam, Amaziah probably tried to carry out a punishment nonetheless because, according to an apocryphal text, Amos was deadly wounded by Amaziah’s son who had been cursed by Amos’ prophesy:
He [Amos] was from Tekoa. Amaziah (the priest of Beth-El) had often beaten him, and at last Amaziah's son killed him with a cudgel, striking him on the temple [of the golden calf in Beth-El]. While still alive, he made his way to his land, and after some days died and was buried there. (Torrey, Charles Cutler, The Lives of the Prophets, 1946, Amos 1-2)
According to the Talmud, Amos and Amaziah, the king of Judah, were brothers, and according to the Bible, Amos’ son was to become Isaiah the Prophet (Isaiah 1:1):
Rabbi Levi further said: The following is a tradition that we have from our ancestors, that Amos and Amaziah were brothers. (Talmud, Megillah, 10b)
Year 2993 – 767 BCE – Zechariah of Israel
The last king from the House of Jehu was Zechariah, son of Jeroboam II. But he only started to reign 13 years after his father had died, most probably because, like Azariah in Judah, he was too young to reign at the time. This lasting situation surely caused some parties to develop some independence from the rule of a king. So, when Zechariah was called to reign, he only did so for six months before being murdered (II Kings 15:8).
Year 2993 – 767 BCE – Shallum and Menachem, of Israel
Zechariah was killed publicly in the capital of Samaria by a conspirator called Shallum, son of Jabesh, who took over the throne from the house of Jehu after this dynasty reigned for 120 years. But the duration was only 100 years from the divine promise to Jehu, which corresponds to four times 25 years as four human generations.
Shallum did not enjoy his new position very long because another party led by Menachem from Tirzah killed him after one month. Then Menachem reigned in his stead (II Kings 15:13). However, this new coup was not easily accepted by the people, so Menachem had to crush some cities of the kingdom that rebelled against his usurpation. And, maybe as a divine punishment for his previous murder, he would be the first king of Israel to have to deal with a new much more powerful invader towards the end of his reign: Assyria.
To save his kingdom, Menachem forced his nation to pay a tribute that had cost every family of Israel a high levy. It was a matter of time before their displeasure would lead them to conspire. He only reigned 10 years (II Kings 15:17). When he died, his son Pekahiah reigned for two years before being murdered by the head of the Israelite army, Pekah son of Remaliah.
In Judah, as Uzziah did not destroy the altars of idolatry that were in his country, God punished him and he became a leper towards the end of his life. When this happened, he was put in a separate house as it was the custom then to avoid epidemies. Instead, his son Jotham started to reign as regent until he officially reigned when his father died (II Kings 15:15).
Year 2995 – 765 BCE – The campaign of Ashur-Dan III, king of Assyria
Towards the end of the 25th generation, Assyria reached the Levant for the first time and threatened the various states in that region. The only way for the kingdoms to avoid destruction was to pay a big tribute:
There came against the land Pul the king of Assyria; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem exacted the money of 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. (II Kings 15:19-20)
Pul means "heir" or "prince" in Assyrian, as for example the name of King Ashurbanipal which actually was “Assur-Nasir-aPli” and meant "Ashur is the guardian of the Heir". So why would the king of Assyria would be referred as the "heir" in the Biblical text? Because, after the death of the powerful king called Adad-Nirari III, the kingdom of Assyria went through a series of crisis in which three of his sons successively reigned over the realm. There were the "heirs" and it was important for them to be declared so in their very title, in order to avoid any conflict of succession or claim of legitimacy.
The Pul of the Bible was one of these three brothers: Ashur-Dan III. He was the one who led military expeditions to strengthen his kingdom at a time when internal feuds threatened its future and after the reign of his brother, Shalmaneser IV, for whom little is known about the reign. This lack of records means that he didn't achieve much and was probably a weak ruler.
Ashur-Dan III reigned between 773 and 755 BCE. In order to build the legitimacy of his reign, Ashur-Dan III had to declare himself as the "heir", although he only was the third son to reign. He also had to lead the Assyrian army into successful military campaigns as it was customary for rulers to maintain themselves in power. This is what he did in the Levant, although his campaign stopped at the entrance of kingdom of Israel when the king Menachem agreed to pay him a high tribute. This was a good enough achievement for Ashur-Dan after having conquered the other countries north from Israel. So, after getting the payment, he turned back as the Biblical text states it.
According to Assyrian chronology, his kingdom was hit by a plague in 765 BCE, which would have been another reason for him to turn back as potential problems caused by a national calamity would have made his presence more important in Nineveh at this time. Ashur-Dan III was succeeded in 755 BCE by another brother, Ashur-Nirari V.
Year 3000 – 763 BCE – Millennium eclipse
The eclipse announced to Amos the Prophet occurred at the turn of the millennium of the Biblical calendar, which corresponded to about 763 BCE in Assyrian chronology. Their historical records also mention this eclipse during the reign of Ashur-Dan III.
To return to the list of chronological generations from Seder Olam Revisited, click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Adar 5785 - March 2025