Digging Up the Bible: The Kurkh Monolith

DIGGING UP THE BIBLE
Important Archeological Finds that help Us Understand Scripture
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Dr. Paul Manuel—2017
 

Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III
(863 BC)

A limestone stele documenting the reign of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III recounts his victory at Qarqar (north-west of Damascus, south of Hamath, by the Orontes River) over a coalition of enemy forces, including some from the northern kingdom: "I burned with fire...2,000 chariots [and] 10,000 soldiers of Ahab, the Israelite."

 

 

(There is a companion Kurkh monolith recounting the exploits of Shalmaneser's son, Ashurnasirpal II, who does not appear in the biblical text.)

 

The Bible does not record the battle between Ahab and Shalmaneser. The only foreign individual Ahab meets in battle is the king of Syria, which does not begin well but does end well:

Now Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his entire army. Accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, he went up and besieged Samaria and attacked it He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, saying, "This is what Ben-Hadad says: 'Your silver and gold are mine, and the best of your wives and children are mine." The king of Israel answered, "Just as you say, my lord the king. I and all I have are yours." ...For seven days they camped opposite each other, and on the seventh day the battle was joined. The Israelites inflicted a hundred thousand casualties on the Aramean foot soldiers in one day.... "I will return the cities my father took from your father," Ben-Hadad offered. "You may set up your own market areas in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria. Ahab said, "On the basis of a treaty I will set you free." So he made a treaty with him, and let him go. (1 Kgs 20:1-4, 29, 34)

Even the summary of Ahab's reign includes no mention of intermediary contact with Assyria:

As for the other events of Ahab's reign, including all he did, the palace he built and adorned with ivory, and the cities he fortified, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel? (1 Kgs 22:39)

Israel's sole encounter with Assyria was its last. From Shalmaneser's perspective it was the king's treachery; Hoshea's failure to pay tribute caused the deportation:

Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up to attack Hoshea, who had been Shalmaneser's vassal and had paid him tribute. But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was a traitor, for...he no longer paid tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year.... The king of Assyria invaded the entire land, marched against Samaria and laid siege to it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. (2 Kgs 17:3-6)

From God's perspective it was the people's apostasy; Israel's worship of pagan deities caused the deportation:

All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the LORD their God.... They worshiped other gods and followed the practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced.... The LORD removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are; still there. (2 Kgs 17:7-8, 23)

Significance for Biblical Studies: The Kurkh Monolith of Shalmaneser III confirms the historicity of Ahab king of Israel and recounts a battlefield encounter with the Assyrian monarch. It also pits Assyria's threat of conquest against God's promise of support:

This is what the LORD says concerning the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here...." That night the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (2 Kgs 19:32, 35)

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