5. Ashurnasirpal.
Ashurnasirpal, King of Assyria, 884-860 B. C., in describing his expedition to the Mediterranean lands, makes the following statement:[499]
At that time I marched along Mount Lebanon, unto the great sea of the land of the Amorites I went up. In the great sea I cleansed my weapons. I made sacrifices to the gods. The tribute of the kings by the side of the sea, from the land of the Tyrian, the land of the Sidonian, the land of the Gebalite, the land of the Maḫallatite, the land of the Maisite, the land of the Kaisite, the land of the Amorite, and the city Arvad, which is in the midst of the sea; silver, gold, lead, copper, copper vessels, garments of bright colored stuffs, cloth, a great pagutu, a small pagutu, ushu-wood, ukarinnu-wood, teeth of a sperm-whale porpoise, a creature of the sea, as their tribute I received; they embraced my feet. To Mount Amanus I ascended; beams of cedar, cypress, juniper, pine, I cut. Sacrifices to my gods I offered. A pillar recording my warlike deeds I set up.
This inscription records the first approach of an Assyrian king to Hebrew territory. He did not actually come into contact with the Israelites, though he took tribute from their neighbors, the Tyrians and Sidonians. The expedition of Ashurnasirpal was, however, the precursor of many others which progressed further.
Ashurnasirpal, like Gudea and Hrihor, secured wood from this region for his buildings, thus affording another parallel to Solomon’s procedure.
6. Shalmaneser III.
Shalmaneser III, the son and successor of Ashurnasirpal, reigned from 859 to 825 B. C. He not only approached more closely to Palestine, but claims to have taken tribute from her kings. In the case of King Jehu the claim is no doubt true. The following extracts give the accounts in Shalmaneser’s own words.[500]
In the eponym year of Dan-Ashur (i. e., 854 B. C.), month Aru, 14th day, I departed from the city of Nineveh; I crossed the river Tigris ....... to the city Qarqar I approached. Qarqar, his royal city, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire. 1,200 chariots, 1,200 horsemen, 20,000 men of Hadadidri (Benhadad) of Damascus; 700 chariots, 700 horsemen, 10,000 men of Irhulina, the Hamathite; 2,000 chariots, 10,000 men of Ahab, the Israelite; 500 men of the Quæan (i. e., Que, in Cilicia); 1,000 men of the Musræan; 10,000 chariots, 10,000 men of the Irqantæan; 200 men of Matinu-ba’li, the Arvadite; 200 men of the Usantæan; 30 chariots, 10,000 men of Adunu-ba’li, the Shianian; 1,000 camels of Gindibu, the Arabian; 1,000 (?) men of Basa, son of Ruhubi, the Ammonite—these 12 kings he took as his helpers and they came to make battle and war against me. With the exalted power which Ashur, the lord, had given me, with powerful weapons, which Nergal, who goes before me, had presented me, I fought with them; from Qarqar to Gilzan I accomplished their defeat. 14,000 of their troops I overthrew with arms, like Adad I poured out a flood upon them; I flung afar their corpses, I filled the plain with their mighty troops. With weapons I made their blood to flow .......... The field was too narrow for smiting (?) them, the broad plain (?) was used (?) for burying their bodies. With their corpses I dammed the Orontes as with a dam (?). In that battle their chariots, their horsemen, their horses, harnesses, and yokes I took.
It is of especial interest that Ahab and Benhadad, two kings well known from the Bible, formed a part of the coalition that attempted to repel this first Assyrian invasion. Shalmaneser’s claim of victory is probably exaggerated, for he retired without further effort to subdue the country. Had it been as sweeping a triumph as he would have us believe, he would surely have pressed forward.
Another of his inscriptions describes the battle of Qarqar as follows:[501]