EBLA Fallen by Akkadians and How It Affected Israel and Judah Part II on Ebla

 Nadene Goldfoot

Israel today is facing lots of provocations from Hezbollah Terrorists on the border between Israel and Lebanon.  "If they don't watch out, we'll take them back to the Stone Age", was the comment from Israel.  We'll not go back that far, but take a look at ancient history between the two.  

When was the kingdom of Ebla of Northern Syria destroyed?  

Ebla flourished greatly between 2400 and 2250 BC, as a trading city with a sophisticated economic and social system. Ebla was one of the earliest kingdoms in Syria. 

Its remains constitute a tell located about 55 km (34 mi) southwest of Aleppo near the village of Mardikh.  (Reduced to a mound, once a great kingdom.)  So goes the history.  

                         Tiglath-Pileser II (745-726 BCE) strong, like USA

                      Sargon  II, the Assyrian king (721-712 BCE)

   Sennacherib, (705-681 BCE, son of Sargon II,     The second king of the Sargonid dynasty, Sennacherib is one of the most famous Assyrian kings for the role he plays in the Hebrew Bible, which describes history.  Until 689 BCE, he was constantly engaged in wars with Elam and Babylon.  He invaded Judah in 701 BCE and captured 46 cities, but Jerusalem was not one of them.  His first campaign against Judah resulted in Hezekiah's surrender, and the second was cut short by the plague.                                                                                                          

                                                                    

    Akkadians, here being attacked by a lion, soldiers not ruffled at all...

Ebla was destroyed by the Akkadians under Naram Sin in 2250 BC. Naram-Sin was Sargon's grandson. The god-like Akkadian kings ruled with absolute authority. Naram-Sin's title was "King of the Four Quarters" meaning "Ruler of The World".  

Akkad existed in the Babylonian period and was the northern region of the valley between the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers, which contained Babylon, Sippar, and other important cities.  Akkad was also the ancient city of Babylonia (mentioned in Gen.10:10).  It was the residence of Sargon the Great who became king of the Assyrians! Assyrians, also Semites, had an aggressive kingdom in the 20th century BCE. 

Aleppo, before and after War

 

In 2000 BC Ebla now (Tel Mardikh) was annexed into the Aleppo kingdom of Yamkhad. The city in Syria in the 1980s-2000 was called by the Jews as Aram-Zobah and its Jewish community was one of the oldest in the world.  The mosque there (Al- Hayyat) was previously a synagogue built in the 6th century CE.  1,,500 Jews lived in Aleppo in 1170 CE.  Even later, it became the home of many learned Jews and rabbis.  Spanish Jews arrived from Spain and lived in Aleppo after 1492, the Spanish Inquisition.  Before WWI in 1914 there were 14,000 Jews living here.  Then they started to emigrate to the US and England. Jews fled from Aleppo because of the riots against them in 1947.  Surprisingly, in 1991 there were 400 Jews still living in Aleppo and their occupations were in trade and peddling.  The Mustaribah synagogue was destroyed during the 1947 riots, however, and that had dated back to the 4th century CE.  A famous 10th century  masoretic codex of the Bible, which is now safe in Israel, was formerly preserved.  Ben Asher was involved.  Aleppo was the recent center of Jewish businesses until the war. .  There was even a "Jew Street" in Syria.                        

By 1948 BCE Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldees by the Euphrates River.    In 1600 BC Elba was conquered and heavily damaged by the Hittites.                                                 

The Hittites lived in Asia Minor and were a powerful ancient people.  Their power extended South to Syria.  Their main kingdom fell in 1200 BCE but flourished in Northern Syria and in the vicinity of the Euphrates River.  

Then they were overrun by the Armenians and the Assyrians.  The Bible connects the Hittites with the Canaanites (Gen.10:15.) and indicates that some lived in Eretz Yisrael/Canaan at an early period.  Abraham purchased the cave in Machpelah from a Hittite while Esau took wives from among them.                                      

     Recalling the story of King David and Bathsheba, whose husband , Uriah, was a Hittite in David's army.  Uriah was killed in battle.  

The Hittites were one of the 7 peoples from whom the Israelites conquered Canaan.  Later, David had Hittite warriors, and Solomon had Hittite wives.

All the neighbor states fought each other at times.  One needs a score pad to keep track of it all.

1. Israelite kings David and then son Solomon fought against the Aramean states in Mesopotamia and Syria.  This helped to strengthen Assyria.

    a. King Ashurbanipal II (883-59 BCE) of Assyrian army overran Syria and the Phoenician cities in 876.  

   b. 853 BCE  Shalmaneser III attacked Ben Hadad II of Damascus. 

   c.  King Ahab of Israel supported Ben  Hadad II in the battle of Karkar.

   d. 848 BCE Shalmaneser III attacked 2nd time -another failure.  

   e. 842 BCE King Ahab's house was liquidated (all the people). King Jehu took his place, paid tribute.  

   f.  841 BCE Damascus held out.  

  g.  806 BCE Damascus was captured which freed Israel from Damascus' control

 h. 803-802 BCE Adad-Nitari III (810-783) compelled the submission of Ben-Hadad III of Damascus.  Johoash of Israel and his son Jeroboam II were successful against Ben-Hadad III because of 

 i. 782-772 BCE Shalmaneser IV and his passivity.  He was under the pressure of kings of Ararat, and of Ashur-Dan III of 772-759 BCE

j.  744 BCE Jeroboam II of Israel (784-744 BCE) died and Uzziah became head of the W anti-Assyrian alliance.  The Assyrian decline , which made this possible, was ended  by:

k. 745-727 BCE Tiglath-Pileser III who overthrew the Syrian confederacy. 

l. 735 BCE: King Ahaz of Judah was attacked by King Pekah of Israel in alliance with Damascus., Philistia, and Edom, so appealed for help to Tiglath-Pileser.   

m. Result was Israel lost its territory in Transjordan and Galilee  

 Philistia, Tyre, Moab, and Edom became Assyrian provinces.  

n. 726 BCE: Hosea of Israel tried to throw off the yoke that led to Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria 

o. 721 BCE:  Samaria was captured by Sargon and deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media, and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners.  

p.715 BCE Ashdod revolted supported by King Hezekiah of Judah but was suppressed.

q. 705 BCE Accession of Sennacherib causing (?) an uprising throughout the Assyrian Empire giving Hezekiah a chance to reassert his independence.

r. 701 BCE Sennacherib marched south, subdued the Phoenician cities one by one and defeated the Egyptian forces at Eltekeh,, took Ascalon and Joppa, sacked Lachish but not Jerusalem.  

s. 700 BCE Sennacherib invaded and ravaged Judah all the while Hezekiah held out and got moderate terms by paying tribute and ceding territory.

t. 699 BCE  Sennacherib returned home because he was forced to leave when hit by a plague throughout the army.  

u. 669-626 BCE King Manasseh of Judah in plot against Ashurbanipal.

v. 652 BCE Manasseh of Judah was exiled to Assyria because of complicity in a plot against Ashurbanipal 

w. After this time, Assyria declined rapidly and was succeeded by Babylon.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia 

https://www.boredpanda.com/before-after-war-photos-aleppo-syria/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

IRAQ, Center of Genesis of Our Origins and What Was Happening There: Now and Then of Ur (Part V)

 Nadene Goldfoot                                     

 

Iraq Today-Ur is still on the map, land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. 

US Forces in Iraq, now planning a change.  During a visit to Iraq, Marine Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, said the reduction in Iraq — from about 5,200 troops to about 3,000 — reflects the Trump administration’s confidence in the ability of U.S.-trained Iraqi security forces to handle the militant threat from the Islamic State group.

U.S. troops invaded Iraq in 2003 and left in 2011 but returned in 2014 after the Islamic State group overran large parts of Iraq. McKenzie said the remaining U.S. troops would continue advising and assisting Iraqi security forces as they attempt to root out remnants of the Islamic State group, sometimes called ISIS.

“The U.S. decision is a clear demonstration of our continued commitment to the ultimate goal, which is an Iraqi security force that is capable of preventing an ISIS resurgence and of securing Iraq’s sovereignty without external assistance,” McKenzie said. “The journey has been difficult, the sacrifice has been great, but the progress has been significant.”

The monthly average temperatures in Iraq range from higher than 48 degrees Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) in July and August to below zero in January. Roughly 90 percent of the annual rainfall occurs between November and April, most of it in the winter months from December through March.  

      IRAQ is Mesopotamia.  Mesopotamia literally means "between the rivers" in ancient Greek. The oldest known occurrence of the name Mesopotamia dates to the 4th century BCE, when it was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria. ... Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf.

Before Islam came to this area, it was referred to as Babylonia.  The Arabs from Arabia conquered it in 637.  

          

Shinar  (Hebrew שִׁנְעָר Šinʿar,) is the southern region                  of Mesopotamia in the Hebrew Bible (Torah).

                                                  

Shinar comes to us right away in Genesis 10:10, telling us about Nimrod, son of Cush, the first of the mighty men on earth, having the reputation of being a mighty hunter first.  The beginning of his kingdom were the cities of Babel, Enech;, Accad, and Calneh in the LAND OF SHINAR.  Nimrod was of Cushite origin. His kingdom grew to include Babylon, Erech, Accad and the others.  Assyria was poetically known as the land of Nimrod.  His historical identity with one of the Babylonian kings is still up in the air.  

 Cush-before the days of DNA as found in the Bible was the son of Ham;  brother of Mizraim (Egypt), Put (Libya and Morocco) and Canaan (Gen. 10:6.  The Cushites seem to be tribes now found in Africa and southern Arabia.  The city of Cush/ Cosseans, which in Babylonian tradition, was one of the first cities built after THE FLOOD.  It is also the region south of Egypt-Nubia, Ethiopia, in Hebrew and other ancient languages.  It extended south from Elephantine and Syene (the modern Assouan-Awan as in Aswan Dam in Egypt). The Book of Numbers 12:1 describes Moses as having married "a Cushite woman".

Wine had been invented by now as Noah, our ancestor, got drunk.  He had had vineyards before the flood.  The earliest evidence of a rice and grape mixed based fermented drink was found in ancient China (c. 7000 BC), earliest evidence of wine in Georgia (Russia)  from 6000 BC, Iran from 5000 BC, and Sicily from 4000 BC. The earliest known wineries from 4100 BC is the Areni-1 winery in Armenia.  Possibly our cavemen drank liquids from fermented grapes and enjoyed the experience!  The vintage find, probably a branch of Beer,  was dated to the second half of the sixth millennium B.C.E. -- a couple of thousand years before the first beer. That can be traced to the fourth millennium B.C.E., when common folk in Egypt and Mesopotamia (present day Iraq) produced the inexpensive brew from wheat or barley.

A recent discovery by a team of researchers highlights the importance that wine once had in the region. Earlier this summer, the remains of 40 large wine jugs were found in the Canaanite palace of Tel Kabri, in the northwestern part of modern-day Israel. 

 Israel.Sep 24, 2014.                       

      Clay Tablet of Gilgamesh

This epic story of Gilgamesh was discovered in the ruins of the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh by Hormuzd Rassam in 1853. Written in cuneiform on 12 clay tablets, this Akkadian version dates from around 1300 to 1000 B.C. “The Epic of Gilgamesh” was one of the most beloved stories of Mesopotamia.Other identifications have been made with the Epic of Gilgamesh and with the Assyrian war-god, Nimurata.   The Epic of Gilgamesh is based on an ancient story from Sumer; the standard version is written in Babylonian. This is  an ancient Babylonian creation myth.  It also includes our Flood story. This original Noah is named Gilgamesh.  It could mean that Jews returning from Babylon in 538 BCE after they had been taken in away in  597 BCE and again in 586 BCE brought back with them this tale;  or it might mean that Assyrians already had the story much earlier.                                

                           Jonah was swallowed by a whale

From Shinar, Ashur left and built Nineveh, Rehovoth-ir, Calah and Resen between Nineveh and Calah that is the great city.  Genesis 11:2 mentions Shinar in that Noah's ancestors living in Mesha going toward Sephar, the mountain to the east.  They migrated from the East and found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.  Nineveh was the capital of the new Assyrian Empire from about 1100 BCE.  We read about Nineveh in the story of Jonah and the whale, when he was sent to Nineveh to persuade its citizens to repent.  They must have failed, because in 721 BCE they attacked Israel and took away the best of the 10 northern Tribes out of the 12 to Assyria, no doubt.  

Ashur (also known as Assur and Asshur) was an Assyrian city located on a plateau above the Tigris River in Mesopotamia (today known as Qalat Sherqat, northern Iraq). The city was an important center of trade, as it lay squarely on a caravan trade route that ran through Mesopotamia to Anatolia and down through the Levant. (Jacob's son by wife, Zilpah, was Asher).  Jacob was the grandson of Abraham.     

                                                

The Great Assyrian Empire by 650 BCE

Assyria, an ancient state of western Asia, was made up of Semites in the 20th century BCE.  which would be the 2nd millennium, the time when Abraham was born which we believe to be in 1948 BCE. Abraham was also a Semite.  

                                                         

Akkadia was the world’s first empire. It was established in Mesopotamia around 4,300 years ago after its ruler, Sargon of Akkad, first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BCE.  He united a series of independent city states. Akkadian influence spanned along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers from what is now southern Iraq, through to Syria and Turkey.                                  

The north-south extent of the empire meant that it covered regions with different climates, ranging from fertile lands in the north which were highly dependent on rainfall (one of Asia’s “bread baskets”), to the irrigation-fed alluvial plains to the south. 

It appears that the empire became increasingly dependent on the productivity of the northern lands and used the grains sourced from this region to feed the army and redistribute the food supplies to key supporters. Then, about a century after its formation, the Akkadian Empire suddenly collapsed, followed by mass migration and conflicts. The anguish of the era is perfectly captured in the ancient Curse of Akkad text, which describes a period of turmoil with water and food shortages:  … the large arable tracts yielded no grain, the inundated fields yielded no fish, the irrigated orchards yielded no syrup or wine, the thick clouds did not rain.

The Collapse of the Akkadian Empire  was followed by mass migration from north to south which was met with resistance by the local populations. A 180km wall – the “Repeller of the Amorites” – was even built between the Tigris and Euphrates in an effort to control immigration, not unlike some strategies proposed today. The stories of abrupt climate change in the Middle East therefore echo over millennia to the present day.                       

A Later Sargon, king of Assyria ruled (721 BCE-712 BCE)and had attacked Israel, taking the 10 Northern tribes back to Assyria.  

 

Resource:

https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-epic-of-gilgamesh#:~:text=This%20epic%20story%20was%20discovered,most%20beloved%20stories%20of%20Mesopotamia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sargon_of_Akkad