Ancient Levant · Chronicle V of IX
The Ancient Levant
Israel and Judah, the prophets, and the Assyrian fall of Samaria.
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The Divided KingdomMilitary
The Egyptian pharaoh Shishak sweeps through the land, plundering towns in both Israel and Judah.
Soon after the kingdom split, the pharaoh Sheshonq I (the biblical Shishak) campaigned through Canaan, a raid recorded both in the Bible and on the walls of the temple at Karnak. His list of captured towns is one of the earliest external witnesses to the geography of the two young kingdoms.
Kingdom of IsraelPolitical
King Omri builds a new capital at Samaria and makes northern Israel a regional power.
Omri founded a strong dynasty and a splendid hilltop capital at Samaria, and made Israel prosperous enough that the Assyrians long called it 'the House of Omri.' The northern kingdom, with its fertile valleys and trade routes, was now clearly the greater of the two Hebrew states.
Kingdom of IsraelReligious
King Ahab and his Phoenician queen Jezebel clash with the prophet Elijah over the worship of Baal.
Ahab's marriage to the Tyrian princess Jezebel sealed an alliance with Phoenicia but brought the cult of Baal to Samaria, provoking the prophet Elijah's fierce resistance. The struggle, dramatized in the Bible as a contest between Baal and the God of Israel, became a defining story of prophetic opposition to kings.
Kingdom of IsraelMilitary
Ahab joins a coalition of kings that halts the Assyrian advance at Qarqar in Syria.
An Assyrian inscription lists Ahab of Israel among the western kings who fought Shalmaneser III at Qarqar, crediting him with two thousand chariots — a rare mention of a biblical ruler in a foreign record, and a measure of Israel's military strength at its height.
Kingdom of IsraelPolitical
After seizing the throne in a bloody coup, Jehu pays tribute to Assyria, recorded on the Black Obelisk.
Jehu overthrew the house of Omri, wiping out Ahab's line and the priests of Baal. Soon after, he submitted to Shalmaneser III; the Assyrian Black Obelisk shows a figure labelled as Jehu bowing before the Assyrian king — the earliest surviving picture of an Israelite. Israel was now caught in Assyria's lengthening shadow.
Kingdom of IsraelCultural
King Mesha of Moab records his revolt against Israel on a stone stele — a rare voice from Israel's neighbours.
The Moabite king Mesha's victory stele boasts of throwing off the yoke of the 'House of Omri' and names the God of Israel, Yahweh. Written in a language almost identical to Hebrew, it is one of the most important inscriptions from the biblical world, a rival kingdom's own account of the endless border wars east of the Jordan.
Age of the ProphetsReligious
The first of the writing prophets denounce injustice and idolatry, warning of coming judgement.
In a prosperous but unequal Israel, prophets like Amos, a shepherd, and Hosea thundered against the oppression of the poor and the worship of other gods, insisting that God demanded justice and mercy above sacrifice. Their words, preserved and collected, became a cornerstone of the Hebrew Bible and of later ethical monotheism.
Assyrian ConquestMilitary
Tiglath-Pileser III strips Israel of Galilee and the east, deporting their people to Assyria.
When Israel joined a revolt against Assyria, Tiglath-Pileser III annexed Galilee and Gilead and carried off their inhabitants, leaving a rump state around Samaria. The Assyrian policy of mass deportation, designed to break rebellious peoples, was now falling on Israel — a foretaste of the end.
Fall of IsraelMilitary
Assyria destroys the kingdom of Israel and deports its people — the 'ten lost tribes' of legend.
After a three-year siege, Samaria fell and the northern kingdom was extinguished; tens of thousands were deported across the Assyrian Empire and vanished from history as the 'ten lost tribes,' while new peoples were settled in their place. Only Judah, in the southern hills, was left to carry on the story of Israel.
1 more entry, to 722 BC
