Ancient Israel at War 853–586 BC

By Brad Kelle

Complex and unstable, in 922 BC the kingdom of Ancient Israel was divided into Judah, in the South, and Israel, in the North. For the next 200 years, there was almost constant warring between these kingdoms and their neighbors. These bitter feuds eventually led to the collapse of Israel, leaving Judah as a surviving nation until the emergence of the Babylonian Empire, the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, and the exile of the Judean people. Using ancient Jewish, Biblical, and other contemporary sources, this title examines the politics, fighting, and consequences of Israel's battles during this period. Focusing on the turbulent relationship between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, this book explains Israel's complex, often bloody, foreign policy, and provides a definitive history of these ancient conflicts.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Release date: Jun 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781472810304

Book preview

Background to war

The rise of the kingdoms

The centuries of conflict covered in this volume saw ancient Israel and Judah engaged with allies and enemies from four primary areas – Assyria, Aram-Damascus, Babylonia, and Egypt – in a territory now called the Ancient Near East or Fertile Crescent. This area stretched from the Persian Gulf, up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, below the Zagros mountains, to the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, down to the Gulf of Aqaba, and over Gaza to the Nile River. It was a highly active trade route, whose communication avenues and political activities fostered the growth of kingdoms and empires.

The kingdoms that arose in Assyria and Babylonia became the major empires that dominated the Ancient Near East after the mid-9th century BC, and engulfed smaller kingdoms like Israel and Judah in the maelstrom of their activities. Each of the four primary areas had, however, a long history of development, which stretched back to around 2000 BC and formed the background for the sequence of conflicts relevant to the present study. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah, apparently emerging around 1200 to 1000, were relatively late in their development. While the precise time and dynamics of their emergence remain difficult to establish, direct Israelite and Judean engagement with kingdoms from these primary areas began in the mid-9th century.

The kingdoms to the east and south

Between about 2000 BC and the outbreak of conflicts around 850, the history of the Ancient Near East was characterized by the continual shifting of the center of power between Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, with smaller powers such as the Arameans (in Syria), the Hittites (in Anatolia), and Urartu (in eastern Asia Minor) arising occasionally. Out of this matrix of ascendancy and decline, the Kingdom of Assyria eventually arose as the dominant force in the Ancient Near East.

Assyria actually began to emerge around 3000 BC as a conglomeration of various independent city-states located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In the 2000s, the area coalesced into a unified entity, and by c.1800 Shamshi-Adad I had expanded Assyrian control into central Syria. Throughout the following centuries, the Assyrian heartland consisted of a triangle bordered by the Kurdish mountains, the Tigris River, and the Upper Zab River, with its chief cities at Ashur, Calah, and Nineveh. Assyria’s efforts at expansion, however, would later enlarge its territory to include a region that stretched from the Persian Gulf in the south to the Zagros mountains in the east, and from the Kurdish mountains in the north to the Mediterranean Sea in the west.

Throughout its history, Assyria’s geographical location made it particularly vulnerable to enemies from the north and south. For instance, in the 18th century BC, the Babylonians under Hammurabi moved up the Tigris and came to rule nearly the whole of the Assyrian heartland. After Hammurabi’s reign, however, Babylonia itself fell under the power of more distant kingdoms like the Kassites and Hittites. Around 1700 BC, Assyria entered a period of weakness that would last for some 400 years, when its territory was brought under the dominance of the Kingdom of Mitanni, centered on the Habur River.

At this time, the center of power in the Ancient Near East shifted back to Egypt. For over 100 years, Egypt had been ruled by the Hyksos, Semitic rulers from Asia. But around 1550 BC, the Hyksos were expelled and an Egyptian dynasty led from Thebes established an empire that would dominate the western part of the Fertile Crescent, including the land of Canaan or Syria-Palestine, until around 1200. This so-called New Kingdom took shape under pharaohs like Thutmose III, Amenhotep, and Ramesses II, and saw the Egyptian annexation of territories from Nubia in Upper Egypt to cities in northern Canaan, even as far north as the Euphrates River. While Assyria and Babylonia sent diplomatic presents to the Egyptian rulers, Egypt’s major enemy was the Hittites from Anatolia. After years of battling one another to a stalemate, the Egyptians and Hittites entered into a treaty during the time of Ramesses II and effectively shared domination of the Ancient Near East.

Throughout these years, the eastern powers of Assyria and Babylonia were only able to gain strength for brief periods, and even then had to contend with nearby threats like those of Elam and Mitanni. One such moment occurred with the emergence of the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I (1363–1328). In the midst of Egypt’s western domination, he was able to control Babylonia and correspond with the Egyptian pharaoh as an equal. Although the years immediately following his reign would see the loss of control over Babylonia, this first self-proclaimed King of Assyria began Assyria’s westward expansion toward the Mediterranean Sea, which would grow incrementally over the next several