Northern Reich Israel

Part of a double gate of the Hazor Fortress, 9th century BC BC, with volute capitals ( Israel Museum )

The northern kingdom of Israel was a state that existed in the eastern Mediterranean during the Iron Age (9th / 8th century BC). The royal residence was Samaria . The northern kingdom of Israel is known from the biblical books of kings , which, however, were written at a considerable distance from the events. It has also been used in extra-biblical sources since the 9th century BC. Mentioned. In Assyrian sources it is also called "House Omri" (Bīt Ḫumrī) or "Land Omri" ( ^KUR (māt) Ḫu-um-ri-i). It ended with the Assyrian conquest in 722/720 BC. "Northern Reich" is a customary specification in specialist literature, since "Israel" in the Hebrew Bible can also be used to designate an ethnic group or a religious community.

Under the royal dynasty of the Omrids , Israel was in the 9th century BC. BC an independent state that, in alliance with Aram-Damascus and other smaller states, was able to successfully halt the Assyrian expansion into Syria-Palestine in the medium term. In the 8th century BC Israel was an Assyrian vassal. It wasn't all downsides. Israel now participated in international trade and mainly produced olive oil and textiles for export. The long reign of Jeroboam II is considered to be the second heyday, which was characterized by prosperity, population growth, but also social polarization.

swell

Archaeological findings from several excavation sites, contemporary extra-biblical texts and the biblical books of kings are available for the history of the northern kingdom of Israel .

The books of the kings were written a long time after the events (6th century BC). In their current form they assume the end of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah and want to explain how it could come to this. Some exegetes assume a “first edition” that was written in the southern kingdom of Judah at the time of King Joschiah (7th century BC): “Thus they testify much more of the time in which they were written (7th century BC). or 6th century BC) than from the time they tell. ”( Barbara Schmitz ) Nevertheless, and in the absence of other sources, information about the names and reigns of the kings of Israel can be found in the books of kings . In the two books of kings information is given about the reigns of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, which are related by synchronisms to the reigns of the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. The synchronisms are the work of an editorial office based in Jerusalem that was able to access list-like material from both realms. Inconsistencies arose from differently counted co-entities and the beginning of the year in spring or autumn. If one reckons with the possibility that the rulers Ahaziah , Joram and Joasch of Israel and Ahaziah , Joram and Joasch of Judah did not have the same names by chance, but that they are also the same historical persons, this means that the authors of Royal books the history of both states in the 9th century BC Have rewritten strongly. This thesis is represented in the German-speaking area by Christian Frevel .

In the 9th century BC Israel and Judah first encountered Israel and Judah as political actors in extra-biblical sources, especially on the inscription of the Mescha stele in Moabite , which has been known since 1868 , to which the fragmentary Aramaic Tel-Dan inscription was added in 1993 . In 2003, an ancient Hebrew Joasch inscription allegedly originating in Jerusalem appeared on the antique market , but it is considered a forgery . From this it follows that there is still no known monumental inscription by a king of Israel or Judah. In Assyrian sources, Samaria or the House of Omri are mentioned several times. Among these source texts in Akkadian language , the following are of particular importance for the history of the northern Reich of Israel:

HTAT	source	Ruler	description
106	Stele of Kerk-i-Dicle (" Kurkh Monolith ")	Shalmaneser III	Battle of Qarqar (853), detailed report: participation of the king “ Ahab of Israel” in an anti-Assyrian coalition
112	Annal Fragment	Shalmaneser III	Mention of Jehu , the "son of Omri"
113	Black obelisk	Shalmaneser III	Tribute by Jehu "from the House of Omri"
122	Tell er-Rimaḥ stele	Adad-nīrārī III.	Tribute by Joasch "from the land of Samaria"
140, 147-149	annals	Tiglath-pileser III.	Kings Menahem , Pekah, and Hoshea ; Fall of the Kingdom of Israel

geography

Northern Reich Israel and Southern Reich Judah in the 9th century BC, according to biblical information

The heartland of Israel was the mountainous country with Samaria as its center. It possessed fertile valleys in which grain was grown, while the mountain slopes could be terraced and used for olive and wine growing. To the north of it, at Megiddo, the Jezreel plain joined. The kings of the northern empire could not control this continuously, but only in the heyday of the empire. Then they had access to a very rich agricultural area. An important long-distance trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia also ran here . On the adjacent map, Dor on the Mediterranean coast with its natural harbor belongs to the territory of Israel. This cannot be clearly proven in the archaeological findings. It can only be made likely. Israel Finkelstein considers Dor to be the most important port in the Northern Reich. Atlit , 12 km further north, was, according to Finkelstein, a Phoenician trading post on the Israelite coast.

Judah, Israel's neighboring state in the south, was more than 100 years behind Israel in terms of development due to its more meager nature. This resulted in a strong dependence on the northern Reich of Israel in the 9th and 8th centuries. An independent policy was only possible for Judah in the 8th century and even more so only after the fall of the Northern Empire.

history

Background: Assyrian expansion

Due to its geographical location, Palestine has always been caught between Egypt and Mesopotamia. The background to the entire history of Israel is the expansion of the Neo-Assyrian Empire into the Syrian-Palestinian region. After the Palestine campaign of Pharaoh Scheschonq I in 920/917 BC A period of Egypt's foreign policy weakness followed, and when Egypt became more active again in Palestine (anti-Assyrian coalition with the small states of the southern Levant, 713 BC), the northern kingdom of Israel no longer existed.

For the first time, the strengthening of Assur made itself felt at the end of the 10th century under Adad-nirari II (912-891) through campaigns against Babylonians and Arameans . Assur-nasirpal II (884–859) gained states in the west of his empire as vassals. His successor Shalmaneser III. (859-824) enlarged the territory of Assur, but the Empire of Urartu stopped the expansion in the north. The allied small Aramaic states offered resistance in the west. The high point of the policy of annexation was the rule of Tiglath-Pileser III. (745–727), which was also religiously legitimized: According to official Assyrian ideology, the gods had given the king of Assyria together with kingship also world domination . The ancient orientalist Andreas Fuchs explains that the Assyrians therefore never thought that they would wage a war of aggression. Their king "rather only enforced his right to justice where evil people prevented him from exercising it." This basic assumption resulted in brutal warfare. The reasons for Assur's success are less innovative weapons technology than the experience of combat through constant deployment and the numerical superiority of the Assyrian armed forces.

The smaller states on the periphery, including Israel, responded to the Assyrian threat in a repetitive pattern: when faced with a strong Assyrian presence, they submitted and paid tribute. If the Assyrian pressure subsided, they formed coalitions among themselves and stopped making payments to Assyria. Whenever possible, the headquarters reacted directly with military punitive measures, increased tax demands and downsizing of the area. Resist employed population were in other areas of the Empire deported and in their place new population that came from other parts of the empire, settled (two-way Deportation).

Tribal union state

During his campaign in Palestine, Pharaoh Scheschonq I came across in 920/917 BC. BC from Gaza via Gesar to Megiddo , without any opponent to be taken seriously by the Egyptian military in the south or north of Palestine. A victory inscription placed in the temple of Karnak lists 150 places that Sheschonq devastated; they are located in the mountains of Palestine as well as in the Jezreel and coastal plains. This unique advance by Egypt was not so momentous for the network of villages in the mountainous region, but Sheshonq's campaign put an end to the year for the Late Bronze Age cities of the Jezreel plain, which were currently in an upward trend: Tel Rechov , Bet She'an , Taanach and above all Megiddo . A power vacuum was created here. For the people in the northern mountainous country, it offered the opportunity to establish their own kingdom.

Aramaic cult stele, et-Tell , Iron Age IIB (Israel Museum)

Jeroboam I is counted as the first king of Israel . The fact that his reign has been handed down indicates the beginning of royal annals . But he only ruled over a tribal union state, a "smallest state of the mountainous country." Later, the northern empire was a "potent area state", a middle power of the southern Levant. But that does not apply to the time of Jeroboam I. The territory of the northern empire did not, from the beginning, include the entire area from Dan in the north to Bet-El in the south. Rather, these are ideas derived from the theological concept of the division of the land to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the Davidic-Solomonic Empire. Other regional actors were initially more powerful: In Syria, Aram-Damascus became stronger and stronger in the course of the 9th century and brought, among other things, the Aramaic Empire of Geschur (area around the Sea of ​​Galilee ) under its control, with the tendency to expand further south . Little is known about the Aramaic chiefdoms, but their cultural influence on the northern kingdom of Israel is likely to have been considerable. The excavation of an Aramaic central place of the Iron Age IIB in Et-Tell / Bethsaida is to be emphasized. Perhaps et-Tell the Iron Age Geshur, but this identification is not certain. The finds include a cult installation with a podium and a basalt stele, which probably depicts a lunar deity in the form of a bull. The combination of abstract-symbolic and animal-like representation of the deity is iconographically interesting.

Further regional political actors on the coast were the city-states of Tire and Sidon and, further south, the cities of the Philistines.

First heyday among the Omrids

A military leader named Omri (882/878 - 871/870) founded the first dynasty of the Northern Empire, which in this phase achieved territorial statehood and political importance. The interests of this emerging state were directed north and east. For a short time Israel also controlled the Jezreel Plain, Bet She'an and Galilee , economically prosperous areas.

Marriage policy

Neither a place of origin nor the patronymic of Omri are known. He acted very skillfully both domestically and internationally. The marriage of his son and heir to the throne Ahab with the Phoenician king's daughter Jezebel (rated negatively by the Bible: 1 Kings 16:31  ZB ) brought Israel political and economic advantages.

Ahab and Jezebel had two sons, Ahaziah and Joram, and a daughter, Ataliah . The naming of the children shows that YHWH was worshiped by them as the highest deity.

• Assuming that the books of kings conceal the massive dependence of Judah on Israel in the 9th century, the following scenario arises: The two sons of Ahab divided the rule over Samaria and Jerusalem between themselves, apparently exchanging roles once; the kingdom of Judah was assigned to the northern kingdom of Israel as a secondary school . Such secundogenitures are attested several times from the environment of Israel. Ataliah was the sister of Joram.
• If one follows the biblical description and distinguishes the Omrid Joram in Samaria and the Davidid Joram in Jerusalem, Ataliah would have been married to the latter in order to bind Judah closely to Israel.

One cannot get beyond guesswork, since the books of kings construct a purely Davidic dynasty for the southern kingdom of Judah. Christian Frevel emphasizes, however, that in order to be able to reconstruct the course of history, one must break away from the narrative of the royal books.

Construction work

Omrid Palace in Samaria

Horizontal, over 61 m long tunnel from the Megiddo water supply system

Representative buildings in Samaria, Megiddo, Geser, Jezreel and other places served the Omrids to communicate rulership.

Omri had around 880 BC Extend Samaria into a royal residence, which can also be seen in the archaeological evidence. The location offered itself due to its convenient location. Before, there was a simple village or farm on the hill that Omri had leveled. Since the location on a hill did not offer enough space for representative buildings, earth was raised at great expense to form an artificial platform, which was surrounded by a retaining wall. The earth filling was almost 6 m high in places; the casemate chambers of the wall, which were also filled with earth, were supposed to absorb the pressure of the filling. The acropolis created in this way was about 2 hectares in size. The only partially excavated palace shows (according to Israel Finkelstein) the highest quality Iron Age masonry that archaeologists in Israel / Palestine have uncovered. The main building has a floor area of ​​around 2000 m ² . Proto- Aeolian capitals , found in the rubble by archaeologists, likely highlighted the main gate. However, other archaeologists only assign the casemate wall to the 8th century, i.e. probably under the reign of Jeroboam II.

Hazor was developed as a frontier fortress against the Arameans. It was the most important city of the Omrids in the north, where they claimed Aramaic territories. Gesar, however, was the border town of Israel in the southwest.

The cavalry of the northern empire was supposed to be stationed in Jezreel . There were good conditions for keeping horses here, so water, barley and hay from the area could easily be provided. In any case, military use of the facility is more plausible than the "winter palace" of the kings of Israel assumed by earlier research. This interpretation was ultimately due to the biblical narratives that are set in Jezreel (e.g. Nabot's vineyard, 1 Kings 21.1  ZB ). As in Samaria, the builders in Jezreel had raised an artificial plateau, which was surrounded by a casemate wall. Since Jezreel was only inhabited for a short time in the 9th century, the archaeologists had the opportunity to develop criteria for Omrid architecture and ceramics that could be used for other places with a complex history of settlement.

In both Hazor and Megiddo, the builders of the Omrids created elaborate tunnel systems to ensure the supply of drinking water. It was not only about the practical value of such a facility in the event of a siege, but also about the prestige that the royal builder gained with it. Among the palace buildings, the South Palace of Megiddo should be emphasized, which followed the northern Syrian bit-ḫilani type and had a floor area of ​​around 20 × 35 m. Here, too, two proto-aeolian capitals were found, probably belonging to the palace gate. The building type of the pillar construction, which comes across in several places, is interesting. For Megiddo, a use as horse stables has probably been made. There is no consensus on the use of the pillar structures in other locations; apparently they were multifunctional and could e.g. B. serve as storage rooms.

Under Omri, Israel reached into the East Bank and brought Moab under its suzerainty , with Atarot (Ḫirbet ʿAṭārūs) and Jahaz (Ḫirbet el-Mudēyine eṯ-Ṯemed) being expanded as border fortresses. These two fortresses, which are mentioned in the Mescha inscription , show architectural features known from Omridic buildings in Samaria, Jezreel, Megiddo VA – IVB, Hazor X and Gezer VII: podiums, casemate walls, gateways, glacis and moats. The area enclosed by the fortifications usually has a rectangular floor plan (exception: Hazor) with large open spaces between the buildings.

Battle of Qarqar

Assyrian chariot (British Museum)

Omri's son Ahab (871/870 - 852/851) had one of the largest professional armies in the region and initially continued the expansion policy successfully, as the inscription on the Mescha stele shows. He participated in an anti-Assyrian alliance, which included the Phoenician cities and Aram-Damascus and that of the Assyrian forces under Shalmaneser III. faced in the battle of Qarqar (853 BC). The Assyrian tactic generally seems to have consisted in a first phase of shooting the enemy ready for attack through a hail of arrows and then followed by the attack with chariots , from which the military decision was expected.

According to the inscription on the Kurkh monolith , Ahab provided the largest contingent of chariots in the anti-Assyrian coalition. The figures cited in this Assyrian source have repeatedly been questioned by historians: Ahab would have brought in 2,000 chariots and 10,000 foot soldiers. He would have had about as many chariots as the entire Assyrian army. With Nadav Na'aman , Hermann Michael Niemann considers 200 chariots to be a realistic contingent that Israel could have put under Ahab. Ahab rather reluctantly, according to Niemann, brought the chariot force into the anti-Assyrian coalition. What was left of this prestigious military unit after the Battle of Qarqar is not known. Shalmaneser claimed victory on the Kurkh monolith, but the direct consequences suggest that he was defeated. Because Shalmaneser broke off his advance and returned to Assyria.

End of the Omrid dynasty

According to Omer Sergi, the engagement in the anti-Assyrian coalition was in the years 853-845 BC. In the long run, the military possibilities of the smaller allies were overstrained. Hamat , on whose territory the fighting took place, suffered most . Due to continued Assyrian pressure, it left the coalition and submitted to the Assyrians. Even Israel was overwhelmed militarily to send contingents far north to take part in these battles. This became clear when Mesha of Moab was able to capture fortresses of the Omrids in the east bank. Joram of Israel tried in vain to restore the northern empire's sovereignty over Moab - an indication of dwindling military strength. Now Samaria was also preparing its transition to an Assyrian vassal relationship. In doing so, Joram made himself an enemy of Aram-Damascus, the former ally. Joram thought the situation favorable, just as the Assyrians attacked Damascus, even to advance into Aramaic territory, to Gilead . At Ramot-Gilead there was a battle with the Arameans. Joram of Israel was defeated and likely fell in those battles, as was Ahaziah of Judah. It is possible that the victorious Arameans also got Jehu , the general of Israel, under their control in this battle , but pardoned him and installed a vassal on the throne of Samaria.

Jehuid (or Nimshid) dynasty

Jehu's "Revolution"

Inscription from Tel Dan, lines 6–9: “[...] And I killed [...] mighty (?) [Kings], took thousands of chariots and thousands of horses. [And I killed Jo] ram, son of [Ahabs], king of Israel, and [I] killed [Ahaz] yahu, son of [Joram, king] of the house of David, and I set […] ”(Israel Museum)

Jehu submits to Shalmaneser III. “The tribute of Jehu from Beth-Omri - silver, gold, a bowl of gold, a bowl of gold, goblets of gold, buckets of gold, pewter, a scepter for the king's hand (and) spears - I received from him . "(Black Obelisk, British Museum )

With Jehu (Jehu ben Joschafat ben Nimschi) a usurper ascended the throne and founded a dynasty that, with five generations, was the longest ruling dynasty in the Northern Empire. He paid 841 BC BC tribute to the Assyrians; its mention on the black obelisk gives it a fixed extra-biblical date. In this way he remained true to the line taken by Joram in foreign policy. But when did Jehu come to power? Putting the Bible to the government years of his predecessor, Ahaziah and Joram reliable advance so coup Jehu in the same year 841. In this case, no scope for independent policy and cooperation with remains Hazael of Damascus , who was possibly in his coup in the background but Jehu submitted directly to the Assyrians. To avoid this scenario, Jehu's coup is traditionally dated a little earlier, to the year 845 BC. Then the Tel-Dan-inscription can be related to these processes. According to the widespread understanding of the fragmentary text, the author prides himself on having killed the kings Joram of Israel and probably Ahaziah of Judah (the so-called "house of David" here), actions that the Bible ( 2 Kings 9-10  EU ) Jehu assigns. Because of the Aramaic language of the inscription, it is unlikely that Jehu had such a stele placed. Mostly Hasael of Damascus is presumed to be the author, to which the location Tel Dan fits well as a border town. It is very speculative that Jehu staged a coup with Aramaic support and then submitted to the Assyrians against Aramaic interests. The usual description of the military coup in the specialist literature as " Jehu's Revolution " is committed to the biblical description, according to which Jehu asked the city aristocracy to participate in a letter ( 2 Kings 10.1–6  ZB ).

In Jerusalem, Atalja, a member of the Omrid dynasty, held on to power after the death of her husband. It seems, however, that the Jerusalem elites realized that in the long run no policy could be made against the interests of Samaria, where the Nimshids were now in power. Atalja was thus murdered and replaced by Joasch, a child whose Davidic descent, as Christian Frevel suspected, was faked by the biblical authors; in reality it was a member of the Nimschi family.

Aramaic campaign

Despite all efforts, Shalmaneser III succeeded. not to conquer Damascus. Now it became clear that the termination of the alliance with Aram-Damascus would cost Israel a price. Hazael of Damascus advanced from the north to the territory of Israel from around 837. A horizon of destruction that can be assigned to this campaign of Hazael can be found at various archaeological sites: Hazor IX, Megiddo VA – IVB, Tel Jokneam XIV, Jezreel and Taanach IIB. Of Israel only the core area in the mountains of Samaria remained; the whole north fell to Hazael, who built Dan, Hazor and Bethsaida as Aramaic cities. But that's not all: Hasael advanced far to the south on the coast. He destroyed Tell es-Safi / Gat (around 830, cf. 2 Kings 12.18  ZB and Am 6.2  ZB ). His expedition to the south was probably aimed at getting the copper trade with the Edomites under his control. By paying high tribute, Joasch of Judah achieved that Hazael spared Jerusalem ( 2 Kings 12 : 18-19  ZB ).

Second heyday of Israel under Joash and Jeroboam II.

The balance of power shifted again in favor of Israel in the time of Adad-nīrārī III. Joasch of Israel (800–785) paid this Assyrian ruler in 796 BC. BC tribute, while the Aramaeans were under strong Assyrian pressure. Joash's son and successor Jeroboam II (785-745) succeeded in consolidating Israel and partially regaining areas in the north that had been lost to the Arameans. With the Jezreel Plain, Gilead, Bashan and Galilee as well as the cities of Hazor and Abel-Bet-Maacha, Samaria again controlled economically strong regions in which textiles were manufactured, an important export good for Israel. The south and west banks of the Sea of ​​Galilee belonged to the northern kingdom of Israel, but the north and east banks remained with Aram-Damascus. An archaeological site where this development can be traced is Tell el-Oreme / Kinneret , a place that was expanded in Stratum II into an Israelite border fortress. During this second heyday of the northern kingdom of Israel, Megiddo was also expanded into an administrative center (Stratum IVA). Adad-nīrārī III. apparently gave his vassal Israel control of the trade route to Arabia , as it was enough for the Assyrians to know that their interests were indirectly protected.

Anti-Assyrian Coalition and the Fall of Samaria

Conquest of a city, relief in the Tiglat-Pilesers III palace in Nimrud (British Museum)

In 738 BC The Assyrian ruler Tiglath-Pileser III received. Tribute to Menahem of Israel and Rezin of Damascus. After that, however, he was militarily bound in the east and south of his empire, and the local actors in the Syrian region used this to organize their resistance against Assyrian rule. As Tiglat-Pileser III. in 734 BC After advancing along the coast to the Egyptian border (near Gaza), the small states of Judah, Ammon, Moab and Edom rushed to pay tribute to him. Rezin of Damascus, Hiram II of Tire and Pekach of Israel, on the other hand, renewed the earlier anti-Assyrian coalition. They urged Ahaz of Judah to join their alliance, but it wisely refused - here you can see how the southern empire broke away from the dominance of the north and tried to find its own political path. Judah remained a loyal Assyrian vassal and possibly asked the Assyrians for military aid. In the Old Testament literature, this conflict is traditionally referred to as the Syrian-Ephraimite War . However, it is not clear whether there was even a military confrontation between Damascus, Israel and Judah. In any case, Tiglat-pileser III attacked. the coalition of his opponents in 733. Damascus fell in 732 BC. And was converted into an Assyrian province. Israel lost Galilee, the Jezreel Plain, Megiddo, Dor and Transjordan , territories from which the Assyrians formed two new provinces, Megiddo and Karnajim. The northern Reich of Israel had melted into a rump state and had lost its economically strongest regions; there was also the deportation of parts of the population. Pekah was deposed by the Assyrians, the Hosea raised as the new king in Samaria on the throne. At first he also acted as an Assyrian vassal and paid tribute; to the news of the death of Tiglat-Pilesers III. but he dared to rebel.

Shalmaneser V besieged Samaria from 724 BC. He succeeded in capturing Hoschea; 722/721 he took the city. But since he died before the complete conquest, his successor Sargon II completed the work and apparently had to conquer Samaria a second time in 720. Now Samaria and the surrounding area have been converted into an Assyrian province. There is one odd thing here, however. A two to three year siege and subsequent destruction of Samaria is neither confirmed by extra-biblical texts nor by archaeological findings. The Bible reports a siege and capture, but not a destruction of Samaria. Hermann Michael Niemann therefore suggests that the Acropolis of Samaria should not be seen as the capital in the true sense of the word, but rather as a royal residence that served the rulers of the Northern Empire for representational purposes and whose fortification was only sufficient to prevent roaming Aramaic gangs from raiding. The Assyrians entered Samaria without any problems and imprisoned King Hoschea. For propaganda purposes, Sargon II had the former residence expanded as the capital of the Samaria Province (Šāmirīna) and thus became the actual founder of Samaria.

As Assyrian subjects, the Israelites found themselves in the same situation as the Assyrians themselves, since there was no such thing as Assyrian citizenship and associated privileges. From the point of view of the king and his power apparatus, the subjects were living inventory and could be moved around the realm of the empire as he thought useful. A desirable side effect was that the populations, mixed up by deportations, were divided and incapable of united resistance. The total deportation reported in the Bible ( 2 Kings 17.6.24–41  ZB ) does not correspond to historical facts. Only a minority were deported: urban elites and specialists. The chariot fighters in particular were such specialists; they were incorporated into the Assyrian army. Based on their personal names, which contain the name of the god YHWH , around 50 deported people at their new place of residence can be more or less reliably identified in Assyrian sources. Individual deportees made careers in the military or civil service, others were mentioned as guarantors or witnesses in legal texts. On the basis of these signs of life from the exiles, Manfred Weippert explains the myth of the Ten Lost Tribes spun out of 2 Kings 17:23 and their fates in late antiquity as "a product of exegetical fantasy ... that clashes with historical reality." Also in science The variant represented, that all exiles were absorbed in the melting pot of the New Assyrian Empire and had lost their identity, should be revised.

The majority of the population of the Northern Reich was not deported, but stayed where they were. "The settlement of new population elements in Samaria and Samaria brought [...] new cultural impulses to the region, but ethnic and cultural inhomogeneity was nothing new here." ( Angelika Berlejung )

military

The fact that the dynasty founders Omri and Jehu belonged to the military aristocracy is typical of Iron Age kings in the Levant: The kingship at that time was the "rule of a knight caste over a rural population living in village and tribal communities," says Christoph Levin .

Inventory of a pillar building in Megiddo ( Rockefeller Museum , Jerusalem) interpreted as a feeding manger for horses

Even the first kings of Israel had built up a troop of chariots, although they could hardly be used in the mountainous heartland of Israel. They wanted to advance into the plains. There were several lucrative destinations there: Sharon Plain , Jezreel Plain, Lower Galilee, Hule Basin, Jordan Valley, Besan Bay, Golan , Bashan , Mishor. Ahab was able to use a significant contingent of chariots in the battle of Qarqar, which also shows the economic strength of Israel in the Omrid period. Because chariots were expensive, especially because of the two to four horses that were necessary for them. Since Ahab could not loot them on a large scale or claim them as tribute, he had to buy them, and further investment was needed to house the horses and maintain the chariots. The chariot fighters were a group of the upper class who were provided with land and other privileges in order to devote themselves entirely to training their particular war technique.

According to Finkelstein, the well-known Megiddos stables, attributed by the excavators to Solomon, date to the 8th century. Here, in the most fertile part of the country, horses were kept, which was a very lucrative business. The large Nubian horses sought for the Assyrian army's chariots were imported from Egypt by Israel. They were bred and trained in Megiddo and then sold on to Assur and other customers in the north.

economy & Administration and Management

As the administrative center of the northern Reich of Israel, Megiddo had a different character than before (late Bronze Age city-state) and after (Assyrian provincial capital). In the Israelite period there were hardly any residential quarters. Only the state officials lived in the city; their subjects ran agriculture with surplus production in the area. The same was found in simultaneous strata in Hazor.

Reconstruction of an Iron Age oil press in Hazor

In 1910, archaeologists found 102 ostracas with economic texts in the Acropolis of Samaria , possibly a palace registry that documented donations from the rural population to the royal court. The stratigraphy was not yet mature in 1910, so the dating of the ostraca done by the age of the letterforms ( paläografisch estimates). The ostraka come from the reign of Jeroboam II. The content is about deliveries of oil and wine. In the mountains south of Samaria, numerous production sites for olive oil from the Iron Age IIB have been identified. It is believed that olive oil production increased in the 8th century. Olive oil was an important export item from Israel as olive trees did not thrive in Egypt, Phenicia, and Mesopotamia. Under Assyrian rule, Israel participated in international trade. The result was a social division: large landowners who leased their land benefited from the cultivation of olives. The existence as a tenant, however, was precarious. Debt as a result of a bad harvest easily led to increasing financial dependency. Texts from the biblical book Amos illustrate these relationships (e.g. Am 2,6  ZB , Am 4,1  ZB ); however, they were written down with a certain time lag. Barbara Schmitz suspects: “The proportion of 'real' words from 'historical' Amos is likely to be low. But the power of his preaching is also evident in the fact that his words left such an impression that they were collected, expanded and further developed under his name by future generations. "

Kuntillet ʿAdschrud in the northeast of the Sinai Peninsula is interpreted as an Israelite trading post of the early 8th century. This fortress-like secured facility was a station on the Darb el-Ġazze trade route , which connected Tell el-Qedērat / Kadesch -Barnea with Tell el-Ḫulēfe / Eilat . In Kuntillet ʿAdschrud, the archaeologists found large quantities of dyed textiles, which were apparently processed here and were an export good to Israel. A fragmentary wall painting in the entrance area shows a seated ruler, or an official representative of Israel, who smells a lotus blossom .

Clerk training

In the caravanserai of Kuntillet ʿAdschrud , the archaeologists found letter forms showing that trained scribes were working for the northern empire . There is archaeological evidence of literature production in Tell Deir Alla (East Bank, around 800 BC). In a building that fell victim to a severe earthquake, two literary Aramaic wall inscriptions were found:

• A: a tale tinged with wisdom with the prophet Balaam in the lead role;
• B, very fragmentary: a wisdom dialogue.

There are no indications of a religious or state-representative function of the building. Erhard Blum suspects that it was a school. This is supported by the fact that the excavators found an L-shaped bank-like elevation in the floor. Whoever sat on it could see the wall written in elegant cursive script in red and black ink. You can imagine that it was used like a blackboard in class. If necessary, they could be whitewashed and rewritten. Tell Deir Alla , only a village, but conveniently located in terms of transport, belonged to the domain of Aram / Damascus. According to Blum, members of the local Israelite upper class were taught here in order to consolidate Aramaic rule in the region. Because of the cultural proximity to the Aramaeans, one can imagine the scribal training of the northern Reich of Israel to be similar.

Literary works

Particularly in the reign of Jeroboam II, which was accompanied by a cultural boom, the collection and writing of northern Israelite traditions can be expected. Some literary works were brought to the south after the end of the Northern Empire and underwent a major overhaul in Jerusalem. Literature of the northern Reich of Israel entered the Hebrew Bible in this way , insofar as it was acceptable to the Jerusalem editors.

An original version in the northern Reich of Israel is being discussed for the following texts:

• Psalm 45 , poetry by a court poet on the occasion of the king's wedding. It is a singular text in the Book of Psalms , which, through linguistic features (aramaisms), points to the north, or to the court of Samaria, and which fits in with the marriage policy of the Omrids.
• Jacob's traditions in the Book of Genesis ; the literary figure Jacob is connected in a special way with the high-altitude sanctuary in Bet-El ( Gen 28: 12-15  ZB ) and visits other places in the northern kingdom with Shechem , Mahanajim and Pnuel, but never Jerusalem, Hebron , Gerar or Mamre , Locations of the Abraham and Isaac stories. Such a localization of the Jacob's cycle is not undisputed, however, because the stories that are central to the composition show Jacob as an exile in Mesopotamia and, if Jacob is to be a kind of identification figure, include the fall of Samaria and the exile of his elites after 720 BC. BC: "The literary-topographical staging of the Jacob story, which Jacob connects with the exiled Israelites and with the East Jordanian diaspora, is therefore not before the 7th / 6th Century BC Conceivable. ”( Detlef Jericke ) There is still a consensus that the Jacob stories refer to the northern kingdom, the dissent consists in the question of whether they originated before or after 720, ie whether they were a cult in Bet-El and a Assume a king in Samaria or deal with the loss of both in literary terms.
• Moses - Exodus story. However the historical core of the Exodus tradition is determined, it was cultivated at the two sanctuaries Bet-El and Dan ( 1 Kings 12.28  ZB ; the plural - two bull images corresponding to the two places of worship - can also be found in Ex 32.4  ZB ) and also plays a more important role with the prophets Hosea and Amos who are active in the northern kingdom than with the prophets of the south.
• Wisdom literature written in a learned environment with contacts to Egypt ( Book of Proverbs , Chapters 10–29, especially 22–24).

The writing of prophetic words is closely related to the end of the northern kingdom. Hosea and Amos as historical actors worked in the Northern Reich, but their oral teaching is no longer comprehensible. In the book of Hosea , chapters 4-9 and 10-11, a particularly ancient form of scriptural prophecy can be seen. This context of the text shows that it belongs to a transition from oral culture to written culture. It requires a lot of background knowledge from the reader and therefore remains relatively obscure.

art

Ivory carving, lotus blossoms, Samaria, Iron Age II (Harvard Semitic Museum)

Ivory Carving, Sacred Trees, Samaria, Iron Age II (Israel Museum)

Ivory carving, Horus as a child, Samaria, Iron Age II (Israel Museum)

From the interior of the Samaria residence, ivory tablets with Syrian-Phoenician and Egyptian motifs have been preserved, along with inlays from the furniture that is no longer in existence. The excavator John W. Crowfoot brought them in connection with the "house of ivory" 1 Kings 22.39  ZB . In 1932 he believed that he had stumbled upon Ahab's palace at the site of the ivory plaques. In 1938 the Crowfoots withdrew this identification and admitted that they had not found a palace building in this area. In fact, the ivory carvings were not found in situ , but in Hellenistic- Roman contexts, where they had been deposited secondarily.

The carvings show a high standard of craftsmanship using changing techniques, sometimes with colored glass inlays and gold applications. The choice of motif is committed to the Late Bronze Age and relates to the royal ideology. Since production waste was also found in Samaria, production on site seems quite possible. Ivory fragments that can be dated to the 8th century have also been found in Megiddo and Hazor. Most of the ivory carvings are likely to have been imports from Damascus due to stylistic criteria.

In Glyptik and crafts of the northern kingdom of Israel, various religious systems of symbols mixed. Egyptian motifs (sun disk, scarab , uraeus ) were particularly popular with amulets since the Late Bronze Age. In addition, the deity was represented as "Lord of the Ostriches" as well as "Lord of the Caprids ". Angelika Berlejung writes: "The Egyptian-influenced religious sun and protective power symbolism (winged beings) was received through Phoenician mediation in Israel since the 9th century (most productively in the 8th century) and thus earlier and more intensively than in Judah." . B. also found its expression in Hos 6,3-5  ZB .

One of the most important finds of the Megiddo excavation from 1903–1905 under the direction of Gottlieb Schumacher was the official seal of a high official Jeroboam II. The object is a jasper , the oval, 3.7 cm long seal surface shows a striding, roaring lion and the lettering Hebrew לשמע עבד ירבעם "(Seal) of Šēmaʿ, servant of Yārobʿām."

religion

YHWH as supreme god

The religious history of the northern Reich of Israel is closely linked to its political history. YHWH was the supreme god of the mountain farming and ranching society in central Palestine. The personal names of the upper class known from the Samaria ostraka clearly show that YHWH was the most important deity of these people. The Omrids brought the tribes together to form a territorial state, which z. B. penetrated into the East Bank. This was also associated with the spread of the YHWH cult: Mescha of Moab reported in his building inscription that in addition to his military successes against Israel, he also damaged or ended the cult of the god YHWH by looting his apparently valuable cult inventory in Nebo.

In regions that Israel only controlled politically from time to time (Jezreel Plain, Bet Shean, Galilee), it is hardly to be expected that the population will exchange their highest god Hadad / Baal for YHWH. "Whether the worship of Yhwh, as opposed to Hadad / Baal, could take root in these localities is so difficult to profile, among other things, because these gods as weather gods were closely related to one another and could also be identified with one another."

Sanctuaries and their furnishings

Biblical sources name Dan and Bet-El as nationally important YHWH shrines of the Northern Empire.

• In Dan there was a traditional spring shrine where, according to Am 8:14  ZB, an anonymous “God of Dan” was worshiped. The presence of the northern kingdom of Israel in Dan was so short that this archaeological site is of no particular importance as a source for the religious history of the northern kingdom.
• In the Iron Age II finds, Bet-El reflects the good technical standard to be expected for the Northern Empire , although luxury goods are rare - overall a rather modest place compared to the nearby Tell-en-Nasbeh . A YHWH shrine could not be identified. Therefore it is not possible to say whether it had a bull image ( 1 Kings 12.26ff.  ZB ) or a mazzebe ( Gen 28.10ff.  ZB ). It may have been outside the settlement and continued to exist after the Assyrians sacked it (cf. 2 Kings 23:15  ZB ).

In their building policy, apart from a chapel in Samaria, the Omrids do not seem to have attached particular importance to city temples, and the cult at extra-urban sanctuaries ("cult heights") is archaeologically inconceivable. An exception is the temple in Bet-Shean, Stratum V, which probably shows a local type of temple (three aisles with pillar construction and rear adjoining rooms).

The cult "YHWH and his Asherah ", documented epigraphically ( Pithos A from Kuntillet ʿAdschrud , late 9th / early 8th century) for the Samaria residence, has not been confirmed by the archaeological research of Samaria. The Nimrud prism of Sargon II mentions that when Samaria was taken by the Assyrians there were anthropomorphic cult statuettes in the YHWH shrine there, which the Assyrians took with them: “Reckoned 27,280 people together with [their] trucks and the gods, their helpers I [as] prey. "

Religious community after 720 BC Chr.

Benedikt Hensel comes to the thesis, mainly based on the archaeological findings, that the northern Reich of Israel did not go under any differently than the southern Reich of Judah around 140 years later. In doing so, he contradicts an older research opinion, according to which the population of the northern empire disappeared from history , while the population of the southern empire managed to continue to exist as a social and religious community even after the loss of its own statehood. According to Hensel, religious, cultural and ethnic continuities remained in both populations until the Persian period . That is why the YHWH monotheism was developed in two differently contoured, regional forms. The relationship between the two groups was not characterized by deep conflicts, but was a coexistence, the tangible product of which was the jointly created Pentateuch , a "compromise document of the cult communities of Goryim and Zion ." Only since the Ptolemaic period (3rd / 2nd century BC .) conflicts between Samaritans and Jews are palpable, which then also shaped the historical construction of Flavius ​​Josephus . Josephus projected the circumstances of his own time back into the Persian period.

Impact history

Israel: from Iron Age state to religious community

"That was the end. Or maybe not? In a surprising turn of history, Israel was back a short time later, but not as a kingdom, but as an ideal concept. "

With this formulation, Israel Finkelstein points out that the self-designation "Israel" after the end of the political actor in 722/720 BC. Was almost free for new content. When Jerusalem fell around 140 years after Samaria, "Israel" was the common identity that linked Jews in exile in Babylon with the people who remained in Eretz Israel . The Israel that was constituted after exile had its center in the Jerusalem temple . This program was consistently carried out by the authors of the chronicle books in the Persian and early Hellenistic periods. These are a classic example of the Rewritten Bible phenomenon . The authors rewrote the books of the kings in such a way that the history of the northern kingdom was faded out: what does not have Jerusalem as the center is not Israel in the real sense for the chronicle. At the time the chronicle books were written, this was also meant as an invitation to the Samaritans to orientate themselves to Jerusalem.

Bad kings

The biblical books of the kings are considered part of the Deuteronomistic History . They rate all kings of the northern empire negatively because they would all have acted in continuity with the "sin of Jeroboam", ie the first king of the northern empire , Jeroboam I , became an illegitimate YHWH cult in Bet-El and Dan, which was initiated after the "division of the empire" assigned ( 1 Kings 12 : 1ff.  ZB ; 2 Kings 17 : 1ff.  ZB ), while the only legitimate place for YHWH worship is the Jerusalem temple . Historically, Dan was outside the territory that Jeroboam I controlled. Under Jeroboam II , the last important ruler of the Northern Empire, these two places belonged to the Northern Empire. It is possible that a reminder of this king's religious policy measures was projected far back into the past as the "sin of Jeroboam" and discredited every king in the northern kingdom.

Omri, the founder of the dynasty, remains in the royal books completely in the shadow of his son and successor Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Of course, Ahab is not interested in his contribution to the anti-Assyrian coalition in the Battle of Qarqar, but in his dispute with the prophet Elijah . For the biblical narrator, Elijah is a contender for the sole veneration of YHWH and thus a critic of the royal couple in Samaria. The historical figure of Elijah can hardly be grasped, “at the beginning of the formation of tradition there seems to have been a miracle worker and rainmaker who only became a paradigm for a Yhwh prophet in the course of the […] history of reception, whose word was fulfilled in every case. "( Jan Christian Gertz )

Ahab and Jezebel

The end of Captain Ahab (book illustration by Isaac Walton Taber: Moby Dick, or: The Whale , New York 1902)

The Ahab material was received little post-biblically; the big exception to this is Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick . Not only is Ahab, the captain of the wrecked ship Pequot , avowedly related to the king of Israel of the same name; The first-person narrator, Ishmael, is informed of the downfall of the Pequot through a series of dark omens and prophecies . A torn prophet, who calls himself Elijah, warns him before departure, and as the last unlucky oracle in this series, the Pequot meets the whaler The Jeroboam , who has to stay at a distance due to an infectious disease on board; communication between the two ships is repeatedly interrupted and finally breaks off.

In the Jesuit drama of the 16th century, Ahab and Jezebel stand for Protestantism ; the other side saw in Jezebel a code for the papacy in Rome. The literary figure Jezebel was received far more frequently than Ahab. If Ahab is mentioned at all alongside Jezebel, he is a weak king manipulated by his wife. Jezebel has been the archetype of the dangerous, evil queen since ancient times and into modern times . Elizabeth I , Maria Stuart , Caterina de 'Medici were identified as Jezebel by their critics.

The remains of Jezebel ( Gustave Doré , 1866)

In addition to the Jezebel image in literature, art and music, there is a component that was reinforced by the Revelation of John in the New Testament: Jezebel as a sexually aggressive woman ( Rev. 2:20  ZB , cf. 2 Kings 9:22  ZB ). In the early Christian community of Thyatira there was a prophetess who (like Paul of Tarsus ) considered the consumption of meat that came from slaughter in pagan temples acceptable. The biblical seer John branded this liberal attitude as idolatry. By naming the prophetess from Thyatira with the name Jezebel, he expressed that she plays the same role of seductress in the Christian community there as Queen Jezebel in the northern kingdom of Israel. The name Jezebel became a "synonym for religious and sexually unapproved behavior". That determined the further history of the impact.

In the United States, African-American female slaves were often given the name Jezebel (Jezebel) by their masters . By thus labeling them as sexually dangerous, rape by white men seemed excusable. Corresponding Jezebel figures can also be found in American trivial literature of the 19th century. In the 20th century, Jezebel / Jezebel became a positive figure in artistic countercultures . Mostly she is seen as a victim of oppressive sexual norms. The story of Jezebel, as it is presented in the biblical books of kings, is not received. An exception is the song Jezebel (1994, from the album When the Kite String Pops ) by the band Acid Bath , which refers to the bloody end of the Israelite queen ( 2 Kings 9.35  ZB ): “… how she cries in agony as her fingers are cut off ... "

Research history

The consensus of the older research was that after the death of Solomon the great Davidic-Solomonic empire broke up into a northern kingdom of Israel and a southern kingdom of Judah (1 Kings 12). This so-called division of the empire in 926 was considered the first fixed date in Israel's history. According to this hypothesis, Israel and Judah took over a hereditary mass of state structures (court, financial administration and armed forces) from Solomon's great empire and were therefore virtually at eye level as neighboring states, mostly as competitors, occasionally as allies. The southern empire was politically more stable than the northern empire. Dynasties could only have established themselves here for a short period of time, which were eliminated again by bloody upheavals. Another symptom of a lack of stability was that there were initially changing residences of the northern kingdom kings (Shechem, Pnuel, Tirza) before Samaria became a permanent royal city. In addition, the population of the northern empire was characterized by a high proportion of Canaanites with "their own political, legal, social and religious views". In order to integrate these people, King Ahab in particular promoted syncretism or tolerated the "Baal religion".

The majority of today's experts no longer support the Großreich hypothesis. Jerusalem was too small as a place and too weak economically to be able to rule northern Palestine from here. But all attempts at a historical reconstruction of the Solomon's era have in common that "the lack of extra-biblical sources cannot be remedied by imagination," says Angelika Berlejung, summarizing the problem. "As of the Davidic kingdom, there is no archaeological and epigraphic trace of the Solomonic Empire."

Hayim Tadmor (1969)

The Israeli ancient orientalist Hayim Tadmor put the Omrid time under the title “The time of the close alliance”. Their main characteristic is the unity of the brother states Israel and Judah, reinforced by a royal marriage. This resulted in peace and prosperity. The urbanization progressed. The northern Reich of Israel expanded territorially and gained weight in international politics. The establishment of Samaria documented Omri's strength and independence. King Ahab took a diplomatic initiative to work with Hamat and Damascus to counter the looming Assyrian threat. Ahab's contribution to the anti-Assyrian coalition at the Battle of Qarqar demonstrated Israel's economic and military strength. It was primarily King Joram's military failures that, from Tadmor's point of view, brought about the end of the dynasty. When the military failures were accompanied by an economic crisis caused by a drought, the army, led by Jehu, mutinied. Jehu's rebellion was successful in eliminating foreign influences on Israel, albeit at a high price. A 40-year decline followed. Isolated in terms of foreign policy, Israel faced its enemy Aram-Damascus alone, and Jehu's son Jehoahaz was no more than an Aramaic vassal. Paradoxically, of all people, the Assyrians came to the aid of Israel against the Arameans. After the defeat of Damascus, Israel, as its successor, was able to assume the role of the leading state in the Syrian-Palestinian region. The reign of Jeroboam II meant "certainly the most important time in the history of the northern empire", even if the biblical books of kings only briefly describe it. Jeroboam II gained territories in Bashan , Hauran and North Gilead, followed by intensive Israelite settlement activity in these regions. With Israel controlling an important trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia, the economy also flourished. Archeology confirms this picture of prosperity with the excavation finds from Samaria, but the biblical book of Amos also makes it clear that social differences intensified and the period of stability after Jeroboam's reign ended.

Antonius H. Gunneweg (1989)

While Judah had a relatively good time in the first decades after the hypothetical division of the empire, albeit reduced from a large state to a small state, the history of the northern empire was initially crisis- ridden for the Protestant Old Testament scholar Antonius H. Gunneweg from Bonn . The territory shrank, because the Arameans now controlled areas which, according to the Great Empire hypothesis, had previously been ruled by Solomon. A turning point was the reign of Omri, whom Gunneweg praised as a prudent and energetic statesman. Omri had succeeded in bringing the previously stronger southern kingdom of Judah under the dominance of the north. Gunneweg's presentation of the history of the northern empire, based on the great empire of Solomon and the division of the empire, now converges on the history of this state, which manages without both hypotheses. Gunneweg also paid tribute to the success of the anti-Assyrian coalition in the Battle of Qarqar and ascribed a leadership role to Ahab in this alliance.

A conservative-Yahwist opposition has formed in the population against the “modern” religious policy of the Omrids, recognizable behind the legends of the prophets around Elijah and Elisha , the Rechabites (for Gunneweg a kind of order that cultivated old nomadic ideals), but above all in Jehu's revolution, which was religiously motivated. With his fanaticism for the traditional YHWH faith, Jehu had isolated Israel in foreign policy. The consequences are illustrated by the depiction on the black obelisk: “Jehu the Bloody pays his tribute in Proskynesis before the Assyrian Great King.” When the Aramaic Assyrians paid tribute, but they temporarily did not expand further west, a balance of power was once again established . The prophets Amos , Hosea and Isaiah would have “looked deeper and recognized the deadly dangers” during this period of economic prosperity, namely the polarization between rich and poor. Her criticism of it was in a qualified way a “ sermon ”, which prefigures the “ kerygma of the cross and resurrection .” (That the Old Testament scholar Gunneweg was influenced by Rudolf Bultmann's theology is evident here.) Gunneweg reconstructs the events immediately before the fall of Samaria so that Hoschea was actually the man of Assur on the throne in Samaria, his participation in the uprising an act of desperation or only apparent cooperation. The Assyrians arrested him in advance of the siege. But even without the king, the fortress of Samaria held out against the overwhelming forces of the Assyrian army for three years before it finally fell. After that, the population of the northern kingdom was by deportations " brought into line " was while Ahaz succeeded by Judah to keep his country from total submission to the Assyrians, a cautious maneuvering, however, "in world history". Because "from now on Judah will represent Israel."

literature

• Angelika Berlejung : History and religious history of ancient Israel . In: Jan Christian Gertz (Hrsg.): Basic information Old Testament. An introduction to Old Testament literature, religion, and history . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 6th, revised and expanded edition, Göttingen 2019, ISBN 978-3-8252-5086-7 , pp. 59–192.
• Israel Finkelstein , Neil Asher Silberman : No Trumpets Before Jericho. The Archaeological Truth About the Bible. (Original: The Bible Unearthed, Archeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origins of its Sacred Texts , New York 2001) Beck, Munich 2002 / dtv 2004, ISBN 3-423-34151-3 .
• Israel Finkelstein: The Forgotten Kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible . (Original: The Forgotten Kingdom, The Archeology and History of Northern Israel. ) Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66960-6 .
• Israel Finkelstein, Oded Lipschits : Omride Architecture in Moab . In: Journal of the German Palestine Association, Volume 126, No. 1, 2010, pp. 29–42. ( pdf; 2.4 MB ).
• Christian Outrage : History of Israel . 2nd, expanded and revised edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-17-035420-3 .
• Lester L. Grabbe (Ed.): Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty . Bloomsbury T&T Clark, London / New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-567-04540-9 .
• Lester L. Grabbe: Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? 2nd edition, Bloomsbury T&T Clark, London / New York 2017, ISBN 978-0-567-67043-4 .
• Reinhard Gregor Kratz : Historical and biblical Israel: three overviews of the Old Testament . 2nd, revised and expanded edition Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017, ISBN 978-3-16-155125-3 .
• Nadav Na'aman : Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors: Interaction and Counteraction . Collected Essays, Volume 1. Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2005, ISBN 1-57506-108-2 .
• Nadav Na'aman: Royal Inscription versus Prophetic Story, Mesha's Rebellion according to Biblical and Moabite Historiography . In: Lester L. Grabbe (Ed.): Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty . Bloomsbury T&T Clark, London / New York 2007, pp. 145-183 ( pdf; 8.9 MB ).
• Hermann Michael Niemann : Royal Samaria - Capital or Residence? or: The Foundation of the City of Samaria by Sargon II. In: Lester L. Grabbe (Ed.): Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty . Bloomsbury T&T Clark, London / New York 2007, pp. 184–207 ( pdf; 351 kB ).
• Hermann Michael Niemann: "Israeli chariot and its driver" (2 Kings 2.12): New considerations on the military and economic policy of the Omrids . In: Susanne Gillmayr-Bucher, Annett Giercke, Christina Nießen (eds.): A heart as wide as the sand on the seashore . Festschrift for Georg Hentschel. (= Erfurt Theological Studies. Volume 90), Würzburg 2006, pp. 15–35 ( pdf; 1.5 MB ).
• Bernd U. Schipper : History of Israel in antiquity . Beck, Munich 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72686-6 , pp. 34–54.
• Barbara Schmitz : History of Israel . 2nd, updated edition, Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-8252-3547-5 .
• Omer Sergi: The Battle of Ramoth-Gilead and the Fall of the Omrid Dynasty: Attempt at Historical Reconstruction . In: Manfred Oeming , Petr Sláma (Ed.): A king like all the nations ?: Kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the Bible and history . LIT Verlag, Vienna / Zurich 2015, ISBN 978-3-643-90674-8 , pp. 33–50.
• Omer Sergi, Manfred Oeming , Izaak J. de Hulster (Eds.): In Search for Aram and Israel: Politics, Culture, and Identity . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-16-153803-2 .
• Ron E. Tappy: The Archeology of Israelite Samaria , Volume 1: Early Iron Age through the Ninth Century BCE (= Harvard Semitic Studies . Volume 44). Brill, Leiden 1992, ISBN 978-1-55540-770-4 .
• Ron E. Tappy: The Archeology of Israelite Samaria , Volume 2: The Eighth Century BCE (= Harvard Semitic Studies . Volume 50). Eisenbrauns, Winona Lake 2001, ISBN 978-1-57506-916-6 .
• David Ussishkin: Samaria, Jezreel, and Megiddo: Royal Centers of Omri and Ahab . In: Lester L. Grabbe (Ed.): Ahab Agonistes: The Rise and Fall of the Omri Dynasty . Bloomsbury T&T Clark, London / New York 2007, pp. 293-309. ( pdf; 3.2 MB ).

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Israel Museum: Royal fortress gate .
2. ↑ In the Iron Age I, Palestine had a village culture with chiefdoms. In the Iron Age IIA, people began to live in cities again (reurbanization), and their kings ruled over tribes or tribal alliances. The Iron Age IIB brought further progress: urban societies that were politically organized as states. Cf. Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 100.
3. ↑ Barbara Schmitz: Geschichte Israels , Paderborn 2015, p. 73.
4. ↑ Barbara Schmitz: Geschichte Israels , Paderborn 2015, p. 74.
5. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 204–206.
6. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 208 f.
7. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 210 f. 257 f.
   For the Joasch inscription see also: Tobias Hürter: Archeology: Handfestes für den Faith. In: Zeit Online . January 23, 2003, accessed February 9, 2020 . 
8. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 211. 255 f.
9. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The archaeological truth about the Bible, 2nd edition dtv Munich 2005, p. 175.
10. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 227 f. One argument for this is that the story of God's judgment on the Carmel 1 Kings 18,19,20  example assumes that the kings of Israel ruled this mountain range north of Dor; if so, the Carmel would have separated Dor from the Phoenician cities, which speaks in favor of Israeli control of the port city.
11. ^ Israel Finkelstein: The forgotten kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible , Munich 2014, p. 153.
12. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 201, 212.
13. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 202.
14. ↑ Andreas Fuchs: Was the New Assyrian Empire a military state? In: Burkhard Meißner, Oliver Schmitt, Michael Sommer (eds.): War - Society - Institutions. Contributions to a comparative war history , Berlin 2005. pp. 35–60, here p. 38. ( PDF )
15. ↑ Andreas Fuchs: Was the New Assyrian Empire a military state? In: Burkhard Meißner, Oliver Schmitt, Michael Sommer (eds.): War - Society - Institutions. Contributions to a comparative war history , Berlin 2005. pp. 35–60, here p. 39 f. ( PDF )
16. ↑ Barbara Schmitz: Geschichte Israels , Paderborn 2015, p. 75.
17. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 101 f. 1 Kings 14 : 25-28  ZB presents it differently, but is of less value as a historical source than the Egyptian texts.
18. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The archaeological truth about the Bible, 2nd edition dtv Munich 2005, p. 180 f.
19. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and Religious History of Ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 105 and note 74.
20. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 212 f.
21. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 215.
22. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 104 f.
23. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 106 f.
24. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 228.
25. ↑ Thomas Wagner:  Ahab. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
26. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 228. 235–240.
27. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 240.
28. ^ ^{A b} Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 230.
29. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 231.
30. ↑ David Ussishkin: Samaria, Jezreel, and Megiddo: Royal Centers of Omri and Ahab , London / New York 2007, p. 306.
31. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 232.
32. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The archaeological truth about the Bible, 2nd edition dtv Munich 2005, pp. 202–209.
33. ^ ^{A b} Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 264.
34. ↑ Wolfgang Zwickel : The pillar construction: horse stable, market hall, warehouse or barrack? In: World and Environment of the Bible No. 50 (4/2008), pp. 72–75.
35. ↑ Israel Finkelstein, Oded Lipschits: Omride Architecture in Moab , 2010, pp. 32–34. Cf. Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 232.
36. ↑ Andreas Fuchs: Was the New Assyrian Empire a military state? In: Burkhard Meißner, Oliver Schmitt, Michael Sommer (eds.): War - Society - Institutions. Contributions to a comparative war history , Berlin 2005. pp. 35–60, here p. 40. ( PDF )
37. ↑ Nadav Na'aman: Ahab's Chariot Force at the Battle of Qarqar . In: Ancient Israel and Its Neighbors . Winona Lake 2005, pp. 1-12. Hermann Michael Niemann: "Wagen Israels und seine (e) Lenker" (2 Kings 2.12): New considerations on the military and economic policy of the Omrids , Würzburg 2006, pp. 17-19. What should be neglected here is that Judah may also have placed a military contingent under Ahab's leadership, because as a poor mountain state, Judah could hardly have any chariots.
38. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The archaeological truth about the Bible, 2nd edition dtv Munich 2005, p. 197 f.
39. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and Religious History of Ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 107.
40. ↑ Omer Sergi: The Battle of Ramoth-Gilead and the Fall of the Omrid Dynasty: An Attempt at a Historical Reconstruction , 2015, p. 47.
41. ↑ Omer Sergi: The Battle of Ramoth-Gilead and the Fall of the Omrid Dynasty: Attempt at a Historical Reconstruction , 2015, p. 47 f.
42. ↑ Omer Sergi: The Battle of Ramoth-Gilead and the Fall of the Omrid Dynasty: An Attempt at a Historical Reconstruction , 2015, p. 49.
43. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 201, 249.
44. ↑ ^{a b} Jonathan Robker:  Inscription from Tel Dan. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
45. ↑ Historical text book on the Old Testament . (HTAT) No. 113, p. 264.
46. ↑ Jonathan Robker:  Jehu. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
47. ↑ Omer Sergi: The Battle of Ramoth-Gilead and the Fall of the Omrid Dynasty: An Attempt at a Historical Reconstruction , 2015, p. 49.
48. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 208.
49. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 252.
50. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 108.
51. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 254 f.
52. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 257.
53. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 108 f. Israel Finkelstein: The Forgotten Kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible , Munich 2014, p. 138.
54. ^ Israel Finkelstein: The forgotten kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible , Munich 2014, p. 156 f. Christian Outrage: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 243 f.
55. ↑ Barbara Schmitz: Geschichte Israels , Paderborn 2015, p. 93 f. The theologian Albrecht Alt discovered the alleged course of the war by analyzing the Bible text Hos 5,8  EU - Hos 6,6  EU . From today's exegetical point of view, in the years 738–733 there was “a bundle of […] events, causes and interests in the interplay of forces between Aram, Israel and Judah in the same period of the Assyrian western expansion.” ( Reinhard Gregor Kratz : Knowledge of God in the Hoseabuch . In: Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche , March 1997, pp. 1–24, here p. 4, quoted from: Melanie Köhlmoos : Bet-El - memories of a city. Perspectives of the Old Testament Bet-El tradition . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, p. 134.)
56. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and Religious History of Ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 110.
57. ^ Hermann Michael Niemann: Royal Samaria - Capital or Residence? or: The Foundation of the City of Samaria by Sargon II. , London / New York 2007, p. 196.
58. ^ Hermann Michael Niemann: Royal Samaria - Capital or Residence? or: The Foundation of the City of Samaria by Sargon II. , London / New York 2007, p. 202 f.
59. ↑ Andreas Fuchs: Was the New Assyrian Empire a military state? In: Burkhard Meißner, Oliver Schmitt, Michael Sommer (eds.): War - Society - Institutions. Contributions to a comparative war history , Berlin 2005. pp. 35–60, here p. 44. 52. ( PDF )
60. ↑ Manfred Weippert: Israel to Israel: The Assyrian Provinces and the Deportees (8th / 7th centuries) . In: Historisches Textbuch zum Alten Testament , Göttingen 2010, pp. 310–325, here p. 310 f.
61. ↑ Benedikt Hensel: Juda and Samaria: On the relationship between two post-exilic Yahwisms (= research on the Old Testament . Volume 110). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2016, p. 99.
62. ↑ Manfred Weippert: Israel to Israel: The Assyrian Provinces and the Deportees (8th / 7th centuries) . In: Historisches Textbuch zum Alten Testament , Göttingen 2010, pp. 310–325, here p. 311.
63. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 1101.
64. ↑ Christoph Levin: The royal ritual in Israel and Judah . In: Christoph Levin, Reinhard Müller (Hrsg.): Legitimation of rule in the Middle Eastern realms of the Iron Age. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2017, pp. 231–260, here p. 234. ( PDF )
65. ^ Hermann Michael Niemann: "Wagen Israels und sein (e) Lenker" (2 Kings 2.12): New considerations on the military and economic policy of the Omrids , Würzburg 2006, p. 24.
66. ^ Israel Finkelstein: The forgotten kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible , Munich 2014, p. 155 f.
67. ↑ Baruch Halpern :  Megiddo . In: Religion Past and Present (RGG). 4th edition. Volume 5, Mohr-Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, Sp. 990-992.
68. ^ Israel Finkelstein: The forgotten kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible , Munich 2014, p. 152 f. Christian Outrage: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 229.
69. ↑ Barbara Schmitz: Geschichte Israels , Paderborn 2015, pp. 87–91, quotation p. 91.
70. ^ Israel Finkelstein: The forgotten kingdom. Israel and the hidden origins of the Bible , Munich 2014, p. 156 f. Christian Outrage: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 243 f.
71. ↑ Erhard Blum: The ancient Aramaic wall inscriptions from Tell Deir 'Alla and their institutional context . In: Ludger Lieb (Ed.): Metatexte. Tales of written artefacts in Old Testament and medieval literature (= Materiale Textkulturen . Volume 15). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2016, pp. 21–52, here pp. 36–41. ( PDF )
72. ↑ Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröder: The emergence of the Bible. From the first texts to the scriptures . CH Beck, Munich 2019, p. 104 f.
73. ↑ Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröder: The emergence of the Bible. From the first texts to the scriptures . CH Beck, Munich 2019, p. 112 f. Samuel L. Terrien: The Psalms: Strophic Structure and Theological Commentary . Eerdmans, Grand Rapids 2003, p. 367 f. Claude F. Mariottini describes the psalm as “Jezebel's wedding song”, cf. Claude F. Mariottini: Rereading the Biblical Text: Searching for Meaning and Understanding . Wipf & Stock, Eugene 2013, pp. 93–98.
74. ↑ Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröder: The emergence of the Bible. From the first texts to the scriptures . CH Beck, Munich 2019, pp. 105-107.
75. ↑ Detlef Jericke: The location information in the book Genesis: A historical-topographical and literary-topographical commentary . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2013, p. 227.
76. ↑ Kristin Weingart: Tribal people - state people - people of God? Studies on the Use of the Israel Name in the Old Testament . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2014, pp. 259–261.
77. ↑ Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröder: The emergence of the Bible. From the first texts to the scriptures . CH Beck, Munich 2019, pp. 107–112.
78. ↑ Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröder: The emergence of the Bible. From the first texts to the scriptures . CH Beck, Munich 2019, p. 118.
79. ↑ Konrad Schmid: Rear Prophets (Nebiim) . In: Jan Christian Gertz (Hrsg.): Basic information Old Testament. An introduction to Old Testament literature, religion, and history . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 6th, revised and expanded edition Göttingen 2019, pp. 313–412, here pp. 376–378. Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröder: The Origin of the Bible. From the first texts to the scriptures . CH Beck, Munich 2019, p. 128 f.
80. ^ The Israel Museum, Collections: Furniture Inlay, sacred tree .
81. ^ The Israel Museum, Collections: Furniture inlay: Horus the child .
82. ^ Israel Finkelstein, Neil Asher Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The archaeological truth about the Bible, 2nd edition dtv Munich 2005, pp. 198–201.
83. ^ Ron E. Tappy: The Eighth Century BCE , Winona Lake 2001, pp. 491-495.
84. ↑ This is the largest hoard of Levantine ivory work, as most of these luxury objects came to Assyria in the course of the Assyrian expansion. The ivory works that were discovered in campaigns between 1908 and 1935 in Samaria were only published in a small selection in the final report of 1938 and were then distributed among various museums and collections. A research project at the University of Bern aims to document and evaluate all ivory finds from Samaria. See University of Bern, Institute for Archaeological Sciences: The Ivory Carvings from Samaria . See also Meindest Dijkstra: The Ivory Beds and Houses of Samaria in Amos . In: Izaak J. de Hulster, Joel M. LeMon (Eds.): Image, Text, Exegesis: Iconographic Interpretation and the Hebrew Bible . Bloomsbury T&T Clark, London / New York 2014, pp. 178-195 ( PDF ).
85. ↑ Irene J. Winter: On Art in the Ancient Near East , Volume 1: Of the First Millennium BCE Brill, Leiden 2010, pp. 311-316.
86. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 137 f.
87. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and Religious History of Ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 136.
88. ↑ HTAT No. 228, p. 377 f. See Gottlieb Schumacher, Carl Watzinger : Tell el Mutesellim; Report on 1903-1905 with support from SR. Majesty of the German Emperor and the German Orient Society organized by the German Association for the Exploration of Palestine . Leipzig 1929, pp. 64 f., And Lawrence J. Mykytiuk: Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 BCE Brill, Leiden 2004, pp. 133-139. The official seal was lost on the way to Istanbul; The decisive factor is a bronze cast of the seal impression made before the transport, which is in the Rockefeller Museum.
89. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 132 f.
90. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and Religious History of Ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 134. After evaluating the Hoseabuch from the Northern Reich , Szabolcs-Ferencz Kató comes to the conclusion that there is a "mix of ideas of God": YHWH has features of a weather god , Creator god ( El ) and sun god , but with predominant weather god characteristics. Cf. Szabolcs-Ferencz Kató: Jhwh: the weather god Hoseas ?: The "original" character of Jhwhs based on the Hosea book (= scientific monographs on the Old and New Testament . Volume 158). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2019, p. 267.
91. ↑ Melanie Köhlmoos: Bet-El - memories of a city. Perspectives of the Old Testament Bet-El Tradition . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, p. 71.
92. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel . Göttingen 2019, p. 135.
93. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel . Göttingen 2019, p. 137.
94. ↑ HTAT No. 151, p. 301.
95. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel . Göttingen 2019, p. 135. This does not seem to have been a literary topos ; In this context it is interesting that the Septuagint ( Antiochene text ) in 4 Kgt 18.34 puts the rhetorical question in the mouth of the representative of the Assyrian king: “And where are the gods of the land of Samaria? Did you save Samaria from my hand? ”( Septuaginta German , edited by Wolfgang Kraus and Martin Karrer, Stuttgart 2009, p. 471).
96. ↑ Benedikt Hensel: Juda and Samaria: On the relationship between two post-exilic Yahwisms (= research on the Old Testament . Volume 110). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2016, p. 413.
97. ↑ Israel Finkelstein: The Forgotten Kingdom: Israel and the Hidden Origins of the Bible . Munich 2014, p. 176.
98. ^ Markus Witte : Writings (Ketubim) . In: Jan Christian Gertz (Hrsg.): Basic information Old Testament. An introduction to Old Testament literature, religion, and history . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 6th, revised and expanded edition Göttingen 2019, pp. 414–535, here pp. 527–533. Konrad Schmid, Jens Schröter: The Origin of the Bible . Munich 2019, p. 203 f.
99. ^ Christian Frevel: History of Israel . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2018, p. 264 f. See Klaus Koenen:  Bethel (place). In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific biblical lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff .: “If the excavation findings are correct, the biblical statements about Bethel in the 10th century should be in any case be a fiction, for which the question then arises of where to locate it. [...] It could rather come from the 8th century - around the time of the bloom under Jeroboam II - and be understood as a projection of current conditions in the time of Jeroboam I. It would then aim, with legitimizing interest, to derive these relationships from the time the state was founded. "
100. ↑ Jan Christian Gertz: Torah and front prophets . In: Jan Christian Gertz (Hrsg.): Basic information Old Testament. An introduction to Old Testament literature, religion, and history . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 6th, revised and expanded edition Göttingen 2019, pp. 193–312, here pp. 302–306, quotation p. 306.
101. ^ Carolyn L. Karcher: A Jonah's Warning to America in Moby-Dick . In: Harold Bloom (Ed.): Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Updated edition . New York 2007, pp. 67-92, here pp. 81 f.
102. ↑ ^{a b c} Agnethe Siquans: Art. Jezebel IV. Christianity . In: Christine Helmer, Steven L. McKenzie et al. (Eds.): Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception . Volume 14: Jesus - Kairos . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, col. 254 f.
103. ↑ Jens W. Taeger: Well-founded silence. Paul and the Pauline tradition in the Apocalypse of John . In: Michael Trowitzsch (ed.): Paulus, Apostle Jesu Christi. Festschrift for Günter Klein on his 70th birthday . Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 1998, pp. 187-206, here p. 196.
104. ↑ Renate Jost:  Jezebel. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (Eds.): The Scientific Biblical Lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff.
105. ^ Brian W. Nail: Art. Jezebel VII. Music . In: Christine Helmer, Steven L. McKenzie et al. (Eds.): Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception . Volume 14: Jesus - Kairos . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, col. 260 f.
106. ↑ Werner H. Schmidt : Introduction to the Old Testament . Fourth expanded edition, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1989, p. 8.
107. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginning to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present . Sixth, revised and expanded edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 101.
108. ↑ Werner H. Schmidt: Introduction to the Old Testament , Berlin / New York 1989, p. 20 f.
109. ^ Israel Finkelstein , Neil Asher Silberman: No Trumpets Before Jericho. The archaeological truth about the Bible, 2nd edition dtv Munich 2005, p. 170 f.
110. ↑ Angelika Berlejung: History and religious history of ancient Israel , Göttingen 2019, p. 103 f.
111. ↑ Hayim Tadmor: The Time of the First Temple, the Babylonian Captivity, and the Restoration . In: Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people: from the beginnings to the present . CHBeck, 5th edition Munich 2007, pp. 115–230, here p. 147. (Hebrew original edition: Dvir, Tel Aviv 1969)
112. ↑ Hayim Tadmor: The Time of the First Temple, the Babylonian Captivity, and the Restoration . In: Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people: from the beginnings to the present , pp. 115–230, here p. 154.
113. ↑ Hayim Tadmor: The Time of the First Temple, the Babylonian Captivity, and the Restoration . In: Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people: from the beginnings to the present , pp. 115–230, here p. 160.
114. ↑ Hayim Tadmor: The Time of the First Temple, the Babylonian Captivity, and the Restoration . In: Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson (ed.): History of the Jewish people: from the beginnings to the present , p. 115–230, here p. 161. Tadmor justifies the existence of these Israelite settlements with 1 Chr 5 : 1–17  For example , by assuming that this text contains a list of the population from the time of Jeroboam II.
115. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginnings to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present , Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 101.
116. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginnings to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present , Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 105.
117. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginnings to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present , Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 106 f.
118. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginnings to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present , Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 109.
119. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginnings to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present , Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 112.
120. ^ Antonius H. Gunneweg: History of Israel. From the beginnings to Bar Kochba and from Theodor Herzl to the present , Stuttgart / Berlin / Cologne 1989, p. 114.

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