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180-517: Excavations have unearthed a fortified Canaanite city of the second millennium BCE. The Phoenician town of the first millennium BCE is known both from the Hebrew Bible and Assyrian sources. Phoenician Achzib went through ups and downs during the Persian and Hellenistic periods. In early Roman times the town, known as Acdippa , was a road station. The Bordeaux Pilgrim mentions it in 333-334 CE still as

360-499: A scribal education , learning arithmetic and how to read and write in Sumerian and Akkadian . Sennacherib had several brothers and at least one sister. In addition to the older brothers who died before his birth, Sennacherib had a number of younger brothers, some of whom are mentioned as being alive as late as 670 BC, then in the service of Sennacherib's son and successor Esarhaddon . Sennacherib's only known sister, Ahat-abisha ,

540-581: A "great victory" and list several cities taken and sacked by the Assyrian army. Although Sennacherib at last got his revenge on Marduk-apla-iddina, his arch-enemy had not lived to see it, having died of natural causes before the Assyrians landed in Elam. The war then took an unexpected turn as the king of Elam, Hallutash-Inshushinak I , took advantage of the Assyrian army being so far away from home to invade Babylonia. With

720-436: A battle near the city of Eltekeh . They took the cities of Ekron and Timnah and Judah stood alone, with Sennacherib setting his sights on Jerusalem. While a portion of Sennacherib's troops prepared to blockade Jerusalem, Sennacherib himself marched on the important Judean city of Lachish . Both the blockade of Jerusalem and the siege of Lachish probably prevented further Egyptian aid from reaching Hezekiah, and intimidated

900-573: A campaign of religious propaganda. Among the elements of this campaign, he commissioned a myth in which Marduk was put on trial before Ashur , the god of Assyria. This text is fragmentary, but it seems Marduk is found guilty of some grave offense. Sennacherib described his defeat of the Babylonian rebels in the language of the Babylonian creation myth , identifying Babylon with the evil demon-goddess Tiamat and himself with Marduk. Ashur replaced Marduk in

1080-548: A capital worthy of his empire, he launched one of the most ambitious building projects in ancient history. He expanded the size of the city and constructed great city walls, numerous temples and a royal garden. His most famous work in the city is the Southwest Palace, which Sennacherib named his "Palace without Rival". After the death of his eldest son and crown prince Aššur-nādin-šumi, Sennacherib originally designated his second son Arda-Mulissu heir. He later replaced him with

1260-435: A difficult position as he had reached the height of his popularity but was powerless to do anything to his brother. To take advantage of the opportunity, Arda-Mulissu decided he needed to act quickly and take the throne by force. He concluded a "treaty of rebellion" with another of his younger brothers, Nabu-shar-usur, and on 20 October 681 BC, they attacked and killed their father in one of Nineveh's temples, possibly

1440-553: A group—if it existed—was only a small minority in early Israel, even though their story came to be claimed by all." Scholars believe Psalm 45 could have northern origins since it refers to a king marrying a foreign princess, a policy of the Omrides . Some psalms may have originated from the shrine in the northern city of Dan. These are the Sons of Korah psalms, Psalm 29 , and Psalm 68 . The city of Dan probably became an Israelite city during

1620-709: A native Babylonian who had grown up at the Assyrian court, Bel-ibni , as his vassal king of the south. Sennacherib described Bel-ibni as "a native of Babylon who grew up in my palace like a young puppy". After the Babylonian war, Sennacherib's second campaign was in the Zagros Mountains . There, he subdued the Yasubigallians , a people from east of the Tigris river, and the Kassites , a people who had ruled Babylonia centuries before. Sennacherib's third campaign, directed against

1800-616: A part of the British Mandate of Palestine in 1922. In the 1922 census of Palestine , " Al Zib " had a population of 804; 803 Muslims and 1 Christian, where the one Christian was a Roman Catholic. The population had increased in the 1931 census to 1059, all Muslims, in a total of 251 houses. The main economic sectors in the village were in fishing and agriculture, particularly fruit cultivation, which included bananas , citrus , olives, and figs. The town held four olive presses : two mechanized and two animal-drawn. Between 1927 and 1945,

1980-421: A popular figure, and some vassals secretly supported him as the heir to the throne. Sennacherib forced Arda-Mulissu to swear loyalty to Esarhaddon, but Arda-Mulissu made many appeals to his father to reinstate him as heir. Sennacherib noted the increasing popularity of Arda-Mulissu and came to fear for his designated successor, so he sent Esarhaddon to the western provinces. Esarhaddon's exile put Arda-Mulissu in

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2160-622: A population of almost 2,000. It was depopulated during the Haganah 's Operation Ben-Ami , on May 14, 1948, the last day of the British Mandate for Palestine . The sole permanent resident of Achziv since declaration of the State was Eli Avivi (1930-2018), an Israeli photographer and micronationalist who hosted visitors to the legally disputed micronation of " Akhzivland ", a small stretch of beach where he lived since 1975 until his death. Mentioned in

2340-737: A range of sources. These include the Septuagint, the Syriac language Peshitta translation, the Samaritan Pentateuch , the Dead Sea Scrolls collection, the Targum Onkelos , and quotations from rabbinic manuscripts . These sources may be older than the Masoretic Text in some cases and often differ from it. These differences have given rise to the theory that yet another text, an Urtext of

2520-577: A rejection of God's kingship; nevertheless, God permits it, and Saul of the tribe of Benjamin is anointed king. This inaugurates the united monarchy of the Kingdom of Israel . An officer in Saul's army named David achieves great militarily success. Saul tries to kill him out of jealousy, but David successfully escapes (1 Samuel 16–29). After Saul dies fighting the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 31 ; 2 Chronicles 10 ),

2700-558: A road station; Jewish sources of the Byzantine period call it Kheziv and Gesiv . There is no information about settlement at the site for the early Muslim period. The Crusaders built a new village with a castle there. During the Mamluk and Ottoman periods a modest village occupied the old tell (archaeological mound). In modern times the site was known as the Palestinian town of Az-Zeeb, with

2880-569: A special two-column form emphasizing the parallel stichs in the verses, which are a function of their poetry . Collectively, these three books are known as Sifrei Emet (an acronym of the titles in Hebrew, איוב, משלי, תהלים yields Emet אמ"ת , which is also the Hebrew for " truth "). These three books are also the only ones in Tanakh with a special system of cantillation notes that are designed to emphasize parallel stichs within verses. However,

3060-440: A stone lion in the quarter associated with Sennacherib's queen, Tashmetu-sharrat, contains hopes that the king and queen would both live healthily and long within the new palace. The text of the inscription, written in an unusually intimate way, reads: And for the queen Tashmetu-sharrat, my beloved wife, whose features Belet-ili has made more beautiful than all other women, I had a palace of love, joy and pleasure built. [...] By

3240-480: A total of 23,669 akçe . All of the revenue went to a waqf . A map by Pierre Jacotin from Napoleon's invasion of 1799 showed the village, named as Zib . British traveler James Silk Buckingham describes az-Zeeb in 1816 as a small town built on a hill near the sea with few palm trees rising above its houses. During the period of Egyptian rule in Palestine, the sheikh (chief) of az-Zeeb, Said al-Sabi, joined

3420-459: A two-front war too risky, Marduk-apla-iddina was left unchallenged for several months. In 703 BC, after the Tabal expedition had been completed, Sennacherib gathered the Assyrian army at Assur, often used as a mustering spot for campaigns against the south. The Assyrian army, led by Sennacherib's chief commander, launched an unsuccessful attack on the coalition forces near the city of Kish, bolstering

3600-449: A will to avenge his son and tiring of a city well within the borders of his empire repeatedly rebelling against his rule. According to Brinkman, Sennacherib might have lost the affection he once had for Babylon's gods because they had inspired their people to attack him. Sennacherib's own account of the destruction reads: Into my land I carried off alive Mušēzib-Marduk, king of Babylonia, together with his family and officials. I counted out

3780-489: A younger son, Esarhaddon , in 684   BC, for unknown reasons. Sennacherib ignored Arda-Mulissu's repeated appeals to be reinstated as heir, and in 681   BC, Arda-Mulissu and his brother Nabu-shar-usur murdered Sennacherib, hoping to seize power for themselves. Babylonia and the Levant welcomed his death as divine punishment , while the Assyrian heartland probably reacted with resentment and horror. Arda-Mulissu's coronation

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3960-600: Is a shortened form of the site's original ancient Canaanite / Phoenician name, Achzib . Human settlement at the site dates to as early as the 18th century BCE; and by the 10th century BCE it was a walled town. A tell excavated between 1941–44 and 1959-1964 found evidence of settlement from the Middle Bronze Age II , through the Roman period and the Early Middle Ages . Achziv was the first fortified settlement found at

4140-574: Is clear that the blockade of Jerusalem ended without significant fighting, how it was resolved and what stopped Sennacherib's massive army from overwhelming the city is uncertain. The Biblical account of the end of Sennacherib's attack on Jerusalem holds that though Hezekiah's soldiers manned the walls of the city, ready to defend it against the Assyrians, an entity referred to as the destroying angel , sent by Yahweh , annihilated Sennacherib's army, killing 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in front of Jerusalem's gates. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus describes

4320-723: Is consistently presented throughout the [Hebrew Scriptures] as the God who created the world, and as the only God with whom Israel is to be concerned". This special relationship between God and Israel is described in terms of covenant . As part of the covenant, God gives his people the Promised Land as an eternal possession. The God of the covenant is also a God of redemption . God liberates his people from Egypt and continually intervenes to save them from their enemies. The Tanakh imposes ethical requirements , including social justice and ritual purity (see Tumah and taharah ) . The Tanakh forbids

4500-556: Is credited as the author of at least 73 of the Biblical Psalms . His son, Solomon , is identified as the author of Book of Proverbs , Ecclesiastes , and Song of Solomon . The Hebrew Bible describes their reigns as a golden age when Israel flourished both culturally and militarily. However, there is no archeological evidence for this, and it is most likely a "retrospective extrapolation" of conditions under King Jeroboam II ( r.  781–742 BCE). Modern scholars believe that

4680-546: Is highly likely that extensive oral transmission of proverbs, stories, and songs took place during this period", and these may have been included in the Hebrew Bible. Elements of Genesis 12–50, which describes the patriarchal age , and the Book of Exodus may reflect oral traditions . In these stories, Israelite ancestors such as Jacob and Moses use trickery and deception to survive and thrive. King David ( c.  1000 BCE )

4860-498: Is likely Babylon would have been in a poor position once it fell to Sennacherib in 689 BC, having been besieged for over fifteen months. Although Sennacherib had once anxiously considered the implications of Sargon's seizure of Babylon and the role that the city's offended gods may have played in his father's downfall, his attitude towards the city had shifted by 689 BC. Ultimately, Sennacherib decided to destroy Babylon. Brinkman believed that Sennacherib's change in attitude came from

5040-457: Is located 700 m to the south. Archeological excavations have revealed that a walled city existed at the location from the Middle Bronze period. Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh ( / t ɑː ˈ n ɑː x / ; Hebrew : תַּנַ״ךְ ‎ Tanaḵ ), also known in Hebrew as Miqra ( / m iː ˈ k r ɑː / ; Hebrew : מִקְרָא ‎ Mīqrāʾ ‍ ), is

5220-511: Is mentioned in the Midrash Koheleth 12:12: Whoever brings together in his house more than twenty four books brings confusion . The original writing system of the Hebrew text was an abjad : consonants written with some applied vowel letters ( " matres lectionis " ). During the early Middle Ages , scholars known as the Masoretes created a single formalized system of vocalization . This

5400-526: Is now a museum. Achziv is an Israeli national park . Today Achziv shores are part of the Achziv-Rosh haNikra marine protected area , which is located between the city of Naharia to the south and the Israeli-Lebanon border to the north. The marine protected area has 7 kilometers of shore line and continue into the sea for another 15 kilometers west. This marine nature reserve protects the fauna and flora of

5580-413: Is roughly 2000. The Tanakh consists of twenty-four books, counting as one book each 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel , 1 Kings and 2 Kings , 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles , and Ezra–Nehemiah . The Twelve Minor Prophets ( תרי עשר ) are also counted as a single book. In Hebrew, the books are often referred to by their prominent first words . The Torah ( תּוֹרָה , literally "teaching") is also known as

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5760-680: Is roughly chronological (assuming traditional authorship). In Tiberian Masoretic codices (including the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex ), and often in old Spanish manuscripts as well, the order is Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra. This order is more thematic (e.g. the megillot are listed together). Sennacherib Sennacherib ( Neo-Assyrian Akkadian : 𒀭𒌍𒉽𒈨𒌍𒋢 , romanized:  Sîn-ahhī-erība or Sîn-aḥḥē-erība , meaning " Sîn has replaced

5940-521: Is that the blockade of Jerusalem was lifted through the intervention of a Kushite army from Egypt. The battle with the Egyptians is considered unlikely to have been an outright Assyrian defeat, especially because contemporary Babylonian chronicles, otherwise eager to mention Assyrian failures, are silent on the matter. Despite the seemingly inconclusive end to the blockade of Jerusalem, the Levantine campaign

6120-402: The 1834 peasants' rebellion against governor Ibrahim Pasha . He was arrested and exiled to Egypt by the authorities in the summer of that year because of his participation. In 1875, when Victor Guérin visited, Az-Zeeb had 500 Muslim inhabitants. Guérin noted that the hill on which it was built had formerly been surrounded by a wall, traces of which were still to be seen on the east side. By

6300-481: The Assyrian siege of Jerusalem by destroying the Assyrian army , an outright defeat is unlikely as Hezekiah submitted to Sennacherib at the end of the campaign. Contemporary records, even those written by Assyria's enemies, do not mention the Assyrians being defeated at Jerusalem. Sennacherib transferred the capital of Assyria to Nineveh , where he had spent most of his time as crown prince . To transform Nineveh into

6480-547: The Bible by its ancient name Achzib , evidence of human settlement at the site dates back to the 18th century BCE. During the Roman period (and in classical literature) the imperial authorities called it Ecdippa , Ecdeppa , or Ecdippon . By the early Middle Ages , the Arab name for the village "Az-Zeeb", or "al-Zib" ( Arabic : الزيب meaning 'trickster') was locally in common usage. Az-Zeeb

6660-742: The Masoretes added vowel markings to the text to ensure accuracy. Rabbi and Talmudic scholar Louis Ginzberg wrote in Legends of the Jews , published in 1909, that the twenty-four book canon was fixed by Ezra and the scribes in the Second Temple period . According to the Talmud , much of the Tanakh was compiled by the men of the Great Assembly ( Anshei K'nesset HaGedolah ), a task completed in 450  BCE, and it has remained unchanged ever since. The 24-book canon

6840-579: The Masoretes , currently used in Rabbinic Judaism . The terms "Hebrew Bible" or "Hebrew Canon" are frequently confused with the Masoretic Text; however, this is a medieval version and one of several texts considered authoritative by different types of Judaism throughout history . The current edition of the Masoretic Text is mostly in Biblical Hebrew , with a few passages in Biblical Aramaic (in

7020-724: The Masoretic Text , compiled by the Jewish scribes and scholars of the Early Middle Ages , comprises the Hebrew and Aramaic 24 books that they considered authoritative. The Hellenized Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria produced a Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible called "the Septuagint ", that included books later identified as the Apocrypha , while the Samaritans produced their own edition of

7200-701: The canonical collection of Hebrew scriptures, comprising the Torah , the Nevi'im , and the Ketuvim . Different branches of Judaism and Samaritanism have maintained different versions of the canon, including the 3rd-century BCE Septuagint text used in Second Temple Judaism , the Syriac Peshitta , the Samaritan Pentateuch , the Dead Sea Scrolls , and most recently the 10th-century medieval Masoretic Text compiled by

7380-538: The patriarchs : Abraham , his son Isaac , and grandson Jacob . God promises Abraham and his descendants blessing and land. The covenant God makes with Abraham is signified by male circumcision . The children of Jacob become the ancestors of the twelve tribes of Israel . Jacob's son Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, but he becomes a powerful man in Egypt. During a famine, Jacob and his family settle in Egypt. Jacob's descendants lived in Egypt for 430 years. After

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7560-592: The "Palace without Rival". During the construction process, a smaller palace was torn down, a stream of water which had been eroding parts of the palace mound was redirected and a terrace which the new palace was to stand on was erected and raised to the height of 160 layers of brick. Though many of these early inscriptions talk about the palace as if it were already completed, this was the standard way of writing about building projects in ancient Assyria. The Nineveh described in Sennacherib's earliest accounts of its renovation

7740-460: The "Pentateuch", or as the "Five Books of Moses". Printed versions (rather than scrolls) of the Torah are often called Chamisha Chumshei Torah ( חמישה חומשי תורה "Five fifth-sections of the Torah") and informally as Chumash . Nevi'im ( נְבִיאִים Nəḇīʾīm , "Prophets") is the second main division of the Tanakh, between the Torah and Ketuvim . This division includes the books which cover

7920-402: The 4th millennium BC and onward it formed an important administrative center in the north. When Sennacherib made the city his new capital it experienced one of the most ambitious building projects in ancient history, being completely transformed from the somewhat neglected state it had been in before his reign. Whereas his father's new capital, Dur-Sharrukin, was more or less an imitation of

8100-614: The 5th century BCE. This is suggested by Ezra 7 :6, which describes Ezra as "a scribe skilled in the law ( torah ) of Moses that the Lord the God of Israel had given". The Nevi'im had gained canonical status by the 2nd century BCE. There are references to the "Law and the Prophets" in the Book of Sirach , the Dead Sea Scrolls , and the New Testament . The Book of Daniel, written c.  164 BCE ,

8280-572: The Assyrian Empire. Sargon had ruled Babylonia since 710 BC, when he defeated the Chaldean tribal chief Marduk-apla-iddina II , who had taken control of the south in the aftermath of the death of Sargon's predecessor Shalmaneser V in 722 BC. Like his immediate predecessors, Sennacherib took the ruling titles of both Assyria and Babylonia when he became king, but his reign in Babylonia

8460-435: The Assyrian aristocracy, Sennacherib's art usually depicts the king towering above everyone else in his vicinity due to being mounted in a chariot. His reliefs show larger scenes, some almost from a bird's-eye point of view. There are also examples of a more naturalistic approach in the art; where colossal statues of bulls from Sargon's palace depict them with five legs so that four legs could be seen from either side and two from

8640-512: The Assyrian army on a campaign against King Gurdî of Tabal in central Anatolia . The campaign was disastrous, resulting in the defeat of the Assyrian army and the death of Sargon, whose corpse the Anatolians carried off. Sargon's death made the defeat significantly worse because the Assyrians believed the gods had punished him for some major past misdeed. In Mesopotamian mythology, the afterlife suffered by those who died in battle and were not buried

8820-406: The Assyrian army then moved systematically through southern Babylonia, where there was still organized resistance, pacifying both the tribal areas and the major cities. Sennacherib's inscriptions state that over two hundred thousand prisoners were taken. Because his previous policy of reigning as king of both Assyria and Babylonia had evidently failed, Sennacherib attempted another method, appointing

9000-413: The Babylonian and Elamite forces undetected some months prior and was not present at the final battle, instead probably being on his way from Assyria with additional troops. Once he rejoined his southern army, the war with Babylonia was already won. Soon thereafter, a revolt broke out in Elam which saw the deposition of Hallutash-Inshushinak and the rise of Kutur-Nahhunte to the throne. Determined to end

9180-469: The Babylonian chroniclers as an Assyrian retreat. In 690 BC, Humban-menanu suffered a stroke and his jaw became locked in a way that prevented him from speaking. Taking advantage of the situation, Sennacherib embarked on his final campaign against Babylon. Although the Babylonians were successful initially, that was short-lived, and in the same year, the siege of Babylon was already well underway. It

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9360-510: The Crusaders established a settlement there protected by a castle and named "Casale Huberti" and sometimes still as "Casal Humberti". Under Baldwin III , European farmers settled there sometime before 1153. Arab geographer Ibn Jubayr toured Palestine in 1182 and mentioned az-Zeeb as a large fortress with a village and adjoining lands between Acre and Tyre. In 1198, King Aimery gave a large part of

9540-607: The Euphrates and the Tigris. The latter fleet was then used to transport the Assyrian army to the city of Opis , where the ships were then pulled ashore and transported overland to a canal that linked to the Euphrates. The two fleets then combined into one and continued down to the Persian Gulf. At the head of the Persian Gulf, a storm flooded the Assyrian camp and the Assyrian soldiers had to take refuge on their ships. They then sailed across

9720-624: The Exodus , the Israelites wander in the wilderness for 40 years. God gives the Israelites the Law of Moses to guide their behavior. The law includes rules for both religious ritual and ethics (see Ethics in the Bible ) . This moral code requires justice and care for the poor, widows, and orphans. The biblical story affirms God's unconditional love for his people, but he still punishes them when they fail to live by

9900-481: The Hebrew Bible resulting from centuries of hand-copying. Scribes introduced thousands of minor changes to the biblical texts. Sometimes, these changes were by accident. At other times, scribes intentionally added clarifications or theological material. In the Middle Ages, Jewish scribes produced the Masoretic Text , which became the authoritative version of the Tanakh. Ancient Hebrew was written without vowels, but

10080-410: The Hebrew Bible were composed and edited in stages over several hundred years. According to biblical scholar John J. Collins , "It now seems clear that all the Hebrew Bible received its final shape in the postexilic, or Second Temple, period." Traditionally, Moses was considered the author of the Torah, and this part of the Tanakh achieved authoritative or canonical status first, possibly as early as

10260-562: The Hebrew Bible, but the books are arranged in different orders. The Catholic , Eastern Orthodox , Oriental Orthodox , and Assyrian churches include the Deuterocanonical books , which are not included in certain versions of the Hebrew Bible. In Islam , the Tawrat ( Arabic : توراة ) is identified not only with the Pentateuch (the five books of Moses ), but also with the other books of

10440-404: The Hebrew Bible, once existed and is the source of the versions extant today. However, such an Urtext has never been found, and which of the three commonly known versions (Septuagint, Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch) is closest to the Urtext is debated. There are many similarities between the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament . The Protestant Old Testament has the same books as

10620-421: The Hebrew Bible. Tanakh is an acronym , made from the first Hebrew letter of each of the Masoretic Text 's three traditional divisions: Torah (literally 'Instruction' or 'Law'), Nevi'im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings)—hence TaNaKh. The three-part division reflected in the acronym Tanakh is well attested in the rabbinic literature . During that period, however, Tanakh was not used. Instead,

10800-671: The Hebrew canon, but modern scholars believe there was no such authoritative council of rabbis. Between 70 and 100 CE, rabbis debated whether certain books "make the hands unclean" (meaning the books are holy and should be considered scripture), and references to fixed numbers of canonical books appear. There were several criteria for inclusion. Books had to be older than the 4th century BCE or attributed to an author who had lived before that period. The original language had to be Hebrew, and books had to be widely used. Many books considered scripture by certain Jewish communities were excluded during this time. There are various textual variants in

10980-411: The Israeli authorities to the Arab coastal town of Mazra'a . Some villagers later claimed that the Haganah had "molested or violated" a number of women. The Israeli localities of Sa'ar and Gesher HaZiv were established on the village lands in 1948 and 1949. A domed mosque from the village has since been restored and serves as a tourist site, and the house of the last mukhtar (village headman)

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11160-477: The Jacob cycle must be older than the time of King Josiah of Judah ( r.  640 – 609 BCE ), who pushed for the centralization of worship at Jerusalem. The story of Moses and the Exodus appears to also originate in the north. It existed as a self-contained story in its oral and earliest written forms, but it was connected to the patriarchal stories during the exile or post-exile periods. The account of Moses's birth ( Exodus 2 ) shows similarities to

11340-447: The New Year's festival, and in the temple of the festival he placed a symbolic pile of rubble from Babylon. In Babylonia, Sennacherib's policy spawned a deep-seated hatred amongst much of the populace. Sennacherib's goal was the complete eradication of Babylonia as a political entity. Though some northern Babylonian territories became Assyrian provinces, the Assyrians made no effort to rebuild Babylon itself, and southern chronicles from

11520-423: The Ottoman authorities. According to the 1596 tax records , it was a village in the nahiya (subdistrict) of Akka, part of Sanjak Safad with a population of 132 households and 27 bachelors and an estimated total of 875 persons. All were Muslim . The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 25% on several agricultural items including, wheat, barley, "summer crops", fruits, cotton, beehives, goats, and water buffalo;

11700-405: The Persian Gulf, a journey which Sennacherib's inscriptions indicate was difficult since repeated sacrifices were made to Ea , the god of the deep. Successfully landing on the Elamite coast, the Assyrians then hunted and attacked the Chaldean refugees, something that both Babylonian and Assyrian sources hold went well for the Assyrians. Sennacherib's account of the campaign describe the affair as

11880-406: The Talmudic tradition ascribes late authorship to all of them; two of them (Daniel and Ezra) are the only books in Tanakh with significant portions in Aramaic . The Jewish textual tradition never finalized the order of the books in Ketuvim. The Talmud gives their order as Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, Scroll of Esther, Ezra, Chronicles. This order

12060-499: The Tanakh is monotheism , worshiping one God . The Tanakh was created by the Israelites , a people who lived within the cultural and religious context of the ancient Near East . The religions of the ancient Near East were polytheistic , but the Israelites rejected polytheism in favor of monotheism. Biblical scholar Christine Hayes writes that the Hebrew Bible was "the record of [the Israelites'] religious and cultural revolution". According to biblical scholar John Barton , " YHWH

12240-571: The Tanakh, such as Exodus 15, 1 Samuel 2, and Jonah 2. Books such as Proverbs and Ecclesiastes are examples of wisdom literature . Other books are examples of prophecy . In the prophetic books, a prophet denounces evil or predicts what God will do in the future. A prophet might also describe and interpret visions. The Book of Daniel is the only book in the Tanakh usually described as apocalyptic literature . However, other books or parts of books have been called proto-apocalyptic, such as Isaiah 24–27, Joel, and Zechariah 9–14. A central theme throughout

12420-421: The Teutonic Order for 10 years. In 1261, the whole estate was sold to the Teutonic Order, in return for an annual sum for as long as Acre was in Christian hands. In 1283 the village was mentioned as part of the domain of the Crusaders, according to the hudna (truce) between the Crusaders in Acre and the Mamluk sultan Qalawun . The Arab village of Az-Zeeb was established during the later Mamluk period with

12600-466: The Torah to Moses . In later Biblical texts, such as Daniel 9:11 and Ezra 3:2, it is referred to as the " Torah (Law) of Moses ". However, the Torah itself credits Moses with writing only some specific sections. According to scholars , Moses would have lived in the 2nd millennium BCE , but this was before the development of Hebrew writing. The Torah is dated to the 1st millennium BCE after Israel and Judah had already developed as states. Nevertheless, "it

12780-410: The Torah, the Samaritan Pentateuch . According to the Dutch–Israeli biblical scholar and linguist Emanuel Tov , professor of Bible Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , both of these ancient editions of the Hebrew Bible differ significantly from the medieval Masoretic Text. In addition to the Masoretic Text, modern biblical scholars seeking to understand the history of the Hebrew Bible use

12960-484: The aid of surviving Chaldean troops, Hallutash-Inshushinak took the city of Sippar , where he also managed to capture Ashur-nadin-shumi and take him back to Elam. Ashur-nadin-shumi was then never heard from again, probably having been executed. In Ashur-nadin-shumi's place, a native Babylonian, Nergal-ushezib , became Babylon's king. Babylonian records ascribe Nergal-ushezib's rise to power to being appointed by Hallutash-Inshushinak, whereas Assyrian records state that he

13140-413: The aim of blowing up the village". Eyewitness accounts from among the villagers indicate that they mistook the incoming Israeli forces for Arab reinforcements because they had donned red and white keffiyehs , and that these forces quickly overwhelmed the local militia of 35-40 men. Many of the inhabitants fled to Lebanon or nearby villages, but many also remained in az-Zeeb until they were relocated by

13320-526: The ancient Israelites mostly originated from within Canaan. Their material culture was closely related to their Canaanite neighbors, and Hebrew was a Canaanite dialect . Archaeological evidence indicates Israel began as loosely organized tribal villages in the hill country of modern-day Israel c.  1250  – c.  1000 BCE . During crises, these tribes formed temporary alliances. The Book of Judges , written c.  600 BCE (around 500 years after

13500-465: The battle was a southern victory, the setback faced by the Assyrians would have to have been minor as Babylon was under siege in the late summer of 690 BC (and had apparently been under siege for some time at that point). The Assyrians had not marched on Babylon immediately, however, as military actions are recorded elsewhere. In 1973, the Assyriologist John A. Brinkman wrote that it was likely that

13680-448: The beginning and end of the book of Job are in the normal prose system. The five relatively short books of the Song of Songs , Ruth , Lamentations , Ecclesiastes , and Esther are collectively known as the Ḥamesh Megillot (Five Megillot). In many Jewish communities, these books are read aloud in the synagogue on particular occasions, the occasion listed below in parentheses. Besides

13860-560: The birth of Sargon of Akkad , which suggests Neo-Assyrian influence sometime after 722 BCE. While the Moses story is set in Egypt, it is used to tell both an anti-Assyrian and anti-imperial message, all while appropriating Assyrian story patterns. David M. Carr notes the possibility of an early oral tradition for the Exodus story: "To be sure, there may have been a 'Moses group,' themselves of Canaanite extraction, who experienced slavery and liberation from Egypt, but most scholars believe that such

14040-544: The blame of the fate of the temples not personally on Sennacherib himself, but on the decisions made by the temple personnel and the actions of the Assyrian people. During the destruction of the city, Sennacherib destroyed the temples and the images of the gods, except for that of Marduk, which he took to Assyria. This caused consternation in Assyria itself, where Babylon and its gods were held in high esteem. Sennacherib attempted justifying his actions to his own countrymen through

14220-442: The blockade erected around Jerusalem is different from the sieges described in Sennacherib's annals and the massive reliefs in Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, which depict the successful siege of Lachish rather than events at Jerusalem. Though the blockade of Jerusalem was not a proper siege, it is clear from all available sources that a massive Assyrian army was encamped in the city's vicinity, probably on its northern side. Though it

14400-479: The books of Daniel and Ezra ), written and printed in Aramaic square-script , which was adopted as the Hebrew alphabet after the Babylonian exile . The Tanakh includes a variety of genres, including narratives of events set in the past. The Torah ( Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy ) contains legal material. The Book of Psalms is a collection of hymns, but songs are included elsewhere in

14580-465: The books of Daniel and Ezra , and the verse Jeremiah 10:11 ). The authoritative form of the modern Hebrew Bible used in Rabbinic Judaism is the Masoretic Text (7th to 10th century CE), which consists of 24 books, divided into chapters and pesuqim (verses). The Hebrew Bible developed during the Second Temple Period , as the Jews decided which religious texts were of divine origin;

14760-547: The brothers") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 705   BC until his assassination in 681   BC. 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 his campaign in the Levant . Other events of his reign include his destruction of the city of Babylon in 689   BC and his renovation and expansion of

14940-462: The capital to Nineveh instead. One of Sennacherib's first actions as king was to rebuild a temple dedicated to the god Nergal , associated with death, disaster and war, at the city of Tarbisu. Even with this public denial in mind, Sennacherib was superstitious and spent a great deal of time asking his diviners what kind of sin Sargon could have committed to suffer the fate that he had, perhaps considering

15120-482: The captives taken after the victory was a stepson of Marduk-apla-iddina and brother of an Arab queen, Yatie , who had joined the coalition. Sennacherib then marched on Babylon. As the Assyrians appeared on the horizon, Babylon opened its gates to him, surrendering without a fight. The city was reprimanded, suffering a minor sack, though its citizens were unharmed. After a brief period of rest in Babylon, Sennacherib and

15300-480: The center of government in the Neo-Assyrian Empire, with the crown prince taking on significant administrative and political responsibilities. The vast responsibilities entrusted to Sennacherib suggests a certain degree of trust between the king and the crown prince. In reliefs depicting both Sargon and Sennacherib, they are portrayed in discussion, appearing almost as equals. As regent, Sennacherib's primary duty

15480-509: The city into his Kingdom, but King Solomon returned it to Hiram I as part of the famous pact; archaeological evidence indicates that it remained Phoenician. During the reign of the Seleucids the border was established at Rosh HaNikra , just north to Achziv, making it a border city which they called Ekdippa (Έκδιππα in Ancient Greek ) and put it under the control of Acre . Mentioned in

15660-459: The city of Halule . Humban-menanu and his commander, Humban-undasha , led the Babylonian and Elamite forces. The outcome of the Battle of Halule is unclear since the records of both sides claim a great victory. Sennacherib claims in his annals that Humban-undasha was killed and that the enemy kings fled for their lives whereas the Babylonian chronicles claim that it was the Assyrians who retreated. If

15840-519: The city proper and a large area of port facilities. To the north and south the city extended to the two nearby rivers, which the Canaanite engineers connected by a fosse , thus transforming Achzib into an island. A substantial destruction level from the beginning of the Late Bronze Age proves that even these fortifications were eventually not sufficient. A fierce conflagration ended Phase N4 and led to

16020-461: The city, he appears to have still been somewhat fearful of Babylon's ancient gods. Earlier in his account of the campaign, he specifically mentions the sanctuaries of the Babylonian deities had provided financial support to his enemies. The passage describing the seizure of the property of the gods and the destruction of some of their statues is one of the few where Sennacherib uses "my people" rather than "I". Brinkman interpreted this in 1973 as leaving

16200-509: The city, of the temples, and of the ziggurat; and I dumped these into the Araḫtu canal. I dug canals through the midst of that city, I overwhelmed it with water, I made its very foundations disappear, and I destroyed it more completely than a devastating flood. So that it might be impossible in future days to recognize the site of that city and its temples, I utterly dissolved it with water and made it like inundated land. Although Sennacherib destroyed

16380-433: The connotations of alternative expressions such as ... Hebrew Bible [and] Old Testament" without prescribing the use of either. "Hebrew" refers to the original language of the books, but it may also be taken as referring to the Jews of the Second Temple era and their descendants, who preserved the transmission of the Masoretic Text up to the present day. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic (mostly in

16560-519: The content of the Ketuvim remained fluid until the canonization process was completed in the 2nd-century CE. There is no scholarly consensus as to when the Hebrew Bible canon was fixed: some scholars argue that it was fixed by the Hasmonean dynasty , while others argue it was not fixed until the second century CE or even later. The speculated late-1st-century Council of Jamnia was once credited with fixing

16740-564: The covenant. God leads Israel into the Promised Land of Canaan , which they conquer after five years. For the next 470 years, the Israelites were led by judges . In time, a new enemy emerged called the Philistines . They continued to trouble Israel when the prophet Samuel was judge (1 Samuel 4:1–7:1). When Samuel grew old, the people requested that he choose a king because Samuel's sons were corrupt and they wanted to be like other nations ( 1 Samuel 8 ). The Tanakh presents this negatively as

16920-487: The empire of Sargon's imagery. Raising the level of the courtyard made images that Sargon had created at the temple in Assur invisible. When Sargon's wife Ataliya died, she was buried hastily and in the same coffin as another woman, the queen of the previous king Tiglath-Pileser. Sargon is never mentioned in Sennacherib's inscriptions. Sargon II's death in the battle and the disappearance of his body inspired rebellions across

17100-479: The events it describes), portrays Israel as a grouping of decentralized tribes, and the Song of Deborah in Judges 5 may reflect older oral traditions. It features archaic elements of Hebrew and a tribal list that identifies Israel exclusively with the northern tribes. By the 9th or 8th centuries BCE, the scribal culture of Samaria and Judah was sufficiently developed to produce biblical texts. The Kingdom of Samaria

17280-481: The exploitation of widows, orphans, and other vulnerable groups. In addition, the Tanakh condemns murder, theft, bribery, corruption, deceitful trading, adultery, incest, bestiality, and homosexual acts. Another theme of the Tanakh is theodicy , showing that God is just even though evil and suffering are present in the world. The Tanakh begins with the Genesis creation narrative . Genesis 12–50 traces Israelite origins to

17460-487: The flight of the Elamites, Babylonia did not surrender to Sennacherib. The rebel Shuzubu, hunted by Sennacherib in his 700 BC invasion of the south, had resurfaced under the name Mushezib-Marduk and, seemingly without foreign support, acceded to the throne of Babylon. As he was king by 692 BC, but not described in Assyrian sources as "revolting" until 691 BC, it is possible that his rule was initially accepted by Sennacherib. There

17640-615: The front, Sennacherib's bulls all have four legs. Sennacherib constructed beautiful gardens at his new palace, importing various plants and herbs from throughout his empire and beyond. Cotton plants may have been imported from as far away as India . Some suggest the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon , one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World , were actually these gardens in Nineveh. Eckhart Frahm considers this idea unlikely on account of

17820-501: The glory attached to military victories. In any event, Sennacherib never took action against Sargon or attempted to usurp the throne despite being more than old enough to become king himself. By the time Sennacherib became king, the Neo-Assyrian Empire had been the dominant power in the Near East for over thirty years, chiefly due to its well-trained and large army, superior to that of any other contemporary kingdom. Though Babylonia to

18000-551: The god by undergoing the traditional Babylonian coronation ritual. In angry response to this disrespect, revolts a month apart in 704 or 703 BC overthrew Sennacherib's rule in the south. First, a Babylonian by the name of Marduk-zakir-shumi II took the throne, but Marduk-apla-iddina, the same Chaldean warlord who had seized control of the city once before and had warred against Sennacherib's father, deposed him after just two or four weeks. Marduk-apla-iddina rallied large portions of Babylonia's people to fight for him, both

18180-607: The houses erected using the stones of the destroyed Crusader castle; and thrived throughout the Ottoman rule. There are descriptions of the castle and village by Arab chroniclers in the 12th and 13th centuries, just prior to and during the rule of the Mamluks in the region. In the early 16th century, az-Zeeb was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire and its inhabitants cultivated various crops and raised livestock on which they paid taxes to

18360-464: The impressive royal gardens in Babylon itself. Besides the palace, Sennacherib oversaw other building projects at Nineveh. He built a large second palace at the city's southern mound, which served as an arsenal to store military equipment and as permanent quarters for part of the Assyrian standing army. Numerous temples were built and restored, many of them on the Kuyunjik mound (where the Southwest Palace

18540-638: The income from Az-Zeeb to the Teutonic Order . In 1226, Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi described az-Zeeb as a large village on the coast whose name was also pronounced "az-Zaib". In 1232 it was the site of the Battle of Casal Imbert between German and French Crusaders as part of the War of the Lombards . In 1253 King Henry gave the whole estate of Casal Imbert to John of Ibelin . Shortly after, in 1256, John of Ibelin leased Az-Zeeb and all its dependant villages to

18720-465: The inscriptions as being made of precious metals remain missing. The roof of the palace was constructed with cypress and cedar recovered from the mountains in the west, and the palace was illuminated through multiple windows and decorated with silver and bronze pegs on the inside and glazed bricks on the outside. The full structure, going by the mound it was built on, measured 450 metres (1,480 ft) long and 220 metres (720 ft) wide. An inscription on

18900-434: The intended heir to the entire Neo-Assyrian Empire. In the years that followed, Babylonia stayed relatively quiet, with no chronicles recording any significant activity. In the meantime, Sennacherib campaigned elsewhere. His fifth campaign in 699 BC involved a series of raids against the villages around the foot of Mount Judi , located to the northeast of Nineveh. Sennacherib's generals led other small campaigns without

19080-547: The king of Tyre and Sidon . Sennacherib's arch-enemy Marduk-apla-iddina encouraged the anti-Assyrian sentiment among some of the empire's western vassals. He corresponded with and sent gifts to western rulers like Hezekiah, probably hoping to assemble a vast anti-Assyrian alliance. In 701 BC, Sennacherib first moved to attack the Syro-Hittite and Phoenician cities in the north. Like many rulers of these cities had done before and would do again, Luli fled rather than face

19260-453: The king present, including a 698 BC expedition against Kirua , an Assyrian governor revolting in Cilicia , and a 695 BC campaign against the city of Tegarama . In 694 BC, Sennacherib invaded Elam, with the explicit goal of the campaign being to root out Marduk-apla-iddina and the other Chaldean refugees. In preparation for his attack on Elam, Sennacherib assembled two great fleets on

19440-506: The kingdom is divided between his son Eshbaal and David (David ruled his tribe of Judah and Eshbaal ruled the rest). After Eshbaal's assassination, David was anointed king over all of Israel ( 2 Samuel 2–5). David captures the Jebusite city of Jerusalem ( 2 Samuel 5 :6–7) and makes it his capital. Jerusalem's location between Judah in the southern hills and the northern Israelite tribes made it an ideal location from which to rule over all

19620-503: The kingdoms and city-states in the Levant , is very well-documented compared to many other events in the ancient Near East and is the best-documented event in the history of Israel during the First Temple period . In 705 BC, Hezekiah , the king of Judah , had stopped paying his annual tribute to the Assyrians and began pursuing a markedly aggressive foreign policy, probably inspired by

19800-420: The kings of other smaller states in the region. The siege of Lachish, which ended in the city's destruction, was so lengthy that the defenders eventually began using arrowheads made of bone rather than metal, which had run out. To take the city, the Assyrians constructed a great siege mound, a ramp made of earth and stone, to reach the top of Lachish's walls. After they had destroyed the city, the Assyrians deported

19980-511: The last great Assyrian capital, Nineveh . Although Sennacherib was one of the most powerful and wide-ranging Assyrian kings, he faced considerable difficulty in controlling Babylonia , which formed the southern portion of his empire. Many of Sennacherib's Babylonian troubles stemmed from the Chaldean tribal chief Marduk-apla-iddina II , who had been Babylon's king until Sennacherib's father defeated him. Shortly after Sennacherib inherited

20160-478: The late 19th century, most of the village houses were built of stone, a mosque and a clinic had been established, and the residents cultivated olives , figs , mulberries , and pomegranates . The population consisted of about 400 Muslims. In 1882, the Ottomans established an elementary school in az-Zeeb. A population list from about 1887 showed that Kh. ez Zib had about 730 inhabitants, all Muslim. Az-Zeeb became

20340-411: The legitimacy of the coalition. However, Sennacherib also realized that the anti-Assyrian forces were divided and led his entire army to engage and destroy the portion of the army encamped at Kutha. Thereafter, he moved to attack the contingent at Kish, winning this second battle as well. Fearing for his life, Marduk-apla-iddina had already fled the battlefield. Sennacherib's inscriptions state that among

20520-507: The location of Achziv in regards to historical borders of Israel. At the end of the Roman era, a pottery workshop was located there. By the Early Middle Ages , Arab geographers were referring to the area as "az-Zeeb". With the arrival of the Crusaders and after the fall of Acre in 1104, "Casal Imbertia" or "Lambertie" was established there. During the Crusader era, it expanded and became

20700-419: The main centre of a large estate with the same name, Casal Imbert. Lefiegre , Le Quiebre and La Gabassie were all part of this estate. The site was commonly known as " Casale Umberti ," or Casal Humberti (after Hubert of Pacy who held the casale ), and it is documented in 1108. Az-Zeeb (meaning "trickster"), is first mentioned in Crusader sources in 1123 as a village belonging to Hubert of Pacy. In 1146,

20880-491: The new crown prince. Arda-Mulissu held the position of the heir apparent for several years until 684 BC when Sennacherib suddenly replaced him with his younger brother Esarhaddon. The reason for Arda-Mulissu's sudden dismissal is unknown, but it is clear from contemporary inscriptions that he was very disappointed. Esarhaddon's influential mother, Naqi'a , may have played a role in convincing Sennacherib to choose Esarhaddon as heir. Despite his dismissal, Arda-Mulissu remained

21060-499: The northern marshes of Babylonia in an attempt to find and capture Shuzubu, but they failed. Sennacherib then hunted for Marduk-apla-iddina, a hunt so intense the Chaldean escaped on boats with his people across the Persian Gulf, taking refuge in the Elamite city of Nagitu . Victorious, Sennacherib attempted yet another method to govern Babylonia and appointed his son Ashur-nadin-shumi to reign as Babylonian vassal king. Ashur-nadin-shumi

21240-463: The one dedicated to Sîn. The murder of Sennacherib, ruler of one of the world's strongest empires at the time, shocked his contemporaries. People throughout the Near East received the news with strong emotions and mixed feelings. The denizens of the Levant and Babylonia celebrated the news and proclaimed the act as divine punishment because of Sennacherib's brutal campaigns against them, while in Assyria

21420-406: The open revolts of two tribal leaders: Shuzubu (who later became Babylonian king under the name Mushezib-Marduk ) and Marduk-apla-iddina, now an elderly man. One of Sennacherib's first measures was to remove Bel-ibni from the Babylonian throne, either because of incompetence or complicity, and he was brought back to Assyria, whereafter he is not heard of again in the sources. The Assyrians searched

21600-460: The operation as an Assyrian failure due to a "multitude of field-mice " descending upon the Assyrian camp, devouring crucial material such as quivers and bowstrings, leaving the Assyrians unarmed and causing them to flee. It is possible that the story of the mice infestation is an allusion to some kind of disease striking the Assyrian camp, possibly the septicemic plague . An alternative hypothesis, first advanced by journalist Henry T. Aubin in 2001,

21780-479: The operation may lead one to believe that Sennacherib was present in person, this is never explicitly stated and reliefs depicting the campaign show Sennacherib seated on a throne in Lachish instead of overseeing the preparations for an assault on Jerusalem. According to the biblical account, the Assyrian envoys to Hezekiah returned to Sennacherib to find him engaged in a struggle with the city of Libnah . The account of

21960-419: The order of Ashur, father of the gods, and heavenly queen Ishtar may we both live long in health and happiness in this palace and enjoy wellbeing to the full! Though probably conceived as a structure like the palace Sargon built at Dur-Sharrukin, Sennacherib's palace, and especially the artwork featured within it, shows some differences. Though Sargon's reliefs usually show the king as close to other members of

22140-479: The possibility that he had offended Babylon's deities by taking control of the city. A text, though probably written after Sennacherib's death, says he proclaimed he was investigating the nature of a "sin" committed by his father. A minor 704 BC campaign (unmentioned in Sennacherib's later historical accounts), led by Sennacherib's magnates rather than the king himself, was sent against Gurdî in Tabal to avenge Sargon. Sennacherib spent much time and effort to rid

22320-421: The previous capital of Nimrud, Sennacherib intended to make Nineveh into a city whose magnificence and size astonished the civilized world. The earliest inscriptions discussing the building project at Nineveh date to 702 BC and concern the construction of the Southwest Palace, a large residence constructed in the southwestern part of the citadel. Sennacherib called this palace the ekallu ša šānina la išu ,

22500-408: The proper title was Mikra (or Miqra , מקרא, meaning reading or that which is read ) because the biblical texts were read publicly. The acronym 'Tanakh' is first recorded in the medieval era. Mikra continues to be used in Hebrew to this day, alongside Tanakh, to refer to the Hebrew scriptures. In modern spoken Hebrew , they are interchangeable. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of

22680-533: The railroad bridge over the creek at Achziv in an operation known as Night of the Bridges . A monument to the 14 soldiers killed there was erected on the site. Just before the official end to Mandate rule on May 14, 1948 and the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War , az-Zeeb was captured by the Haganah 's Carmeli Brigade , being one of the main places targeted in Operation Ben-Ami . According to Haganah accounts,

22860-441: The recent wave of anti-Assyrian rebellions across the empire. After conspiring with Egypt (then under Kushite rule) and Sidqia , an anti-Assyrian king of the city of Ashkelon , to garner support, Hezekiah attacked Philistine cities loyal to Assyria and captured the Assyrian vassal Padi , king of Ekron , and imprisoned him in his capital, Jerusalem . In the northern Levant, former Assyrian vassal cities rallied around Luli ,

23040-593: The reign of King Jeroboam II (781–742   BCE). Before then, it belonged to Aram , and Psalm 20 is nearly identical to an Aramaic psalm found in the 4th century BCE Papyrus Amherst 63 . The author of the Books of Kings likely lived in Jerusalem. The text shows a clear bias favoring Judah, where God's worship was centralized in Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Samaria is portrayed as a godless breakaway region whose rulers refuse to worship at Jerusalem. The books that make up

23220-532: The residents immediately "fled upon the appearance of Jewish forces, and the Haganah command decided to hold on to [it]." However, Israeli historian Benny Morris states that the Haganah had a "long account" with az-Zeeb because it was a center of Arab attacks on Jews and that most of the inhabitants fled after the village was hit with a mortar barrage by the Haganah. Morris writes that two Haganah companies reported in mid-May 1948 that they were "attacking al Zib with

23400-574: The revelation at Sinai , since it is impossible to read the original text without pronunciations and cantillation pauses. The combination of a text ( מקרא mikra ), pronunciation ( ניקוד niqqud ) and cantillation ( טעמים te`amim ) enable the reader to understand both the simple meaning and the nuances in sentence flow of the text. The number of distinct words in the Hebrew Bible is 8,679, of which 1,480 are hapax legomena , words or expressions that occur only once. The number of distinct Semitic roots , on which many of these biblical words are based,

23580-529: The site by archaeologists. In the Middle Bronze IIA (MBIIA), remains are found at Phase N5 with features including child burials in storage jars below floors. At the transition from MBIIA to MBIIB, the settlement was subject to a violent destruction. In the Middle Bronze IIB (MBIIB), Phase N4 was part of a large Canaanite port city. The massive ramparts, some 4.5 m (15 ft) high, protected

23760-582: The site. Prior to the Assyrian invasion of Achziv under Sennacherib , in the late 8th-century BCE, Achziv and Akko belonged to the king of Sidon , and were considered Hittite territory. Achzib is mentioned in the Book of Joshua (19:29) and Book of Judges (1:31) as a town assigned to the tribe of Asher in the Hebrew Bible , but the Asherites did not manage to conquer it from the Phoenicians: According to Biblical history , King David added

23940-506: The south had also once been a large kingdom, it was typically weaker than its northern neighbor during this period, due to internal divisions and the lack of a well-organized army. The population of Babylonia was divided into various ethnic groups with different priorities and ideals. Though old native Babylonians ruled most of the cities, such as Kish , Ur , Uruk , Borsippa , Nippur , and Babylon itself, Chaldean tribes led by chieftains who often squabbled with each other dominated most of

24120-462: The southern Levant was not as easily suppressed, forcing Sennacherib to invade the region. The Assyrians began by taking Ashkelon and defeating Sidqia. They then besieged and took numerous cities, including Beth-Dagon , Joppa , Banai-Barqa , and Azjuru . As the Assyrians were preparing to retake Ekron, Hezekiah's ally, Egypt, intervened in the conflict. The Assyrians defeated the Egyptian expedition in

24300-493: The southern city of Uruk. Nergal-ushezib was frightened by this development and called on the Elamites for aid. Just seven days after taking Uruk, the Assyrians and Babylonians met in battle at Nippur, where the Assyrians won a decisive victory; routing the Elamite-Babylonian army and capturing Nergal-ushezib, finally free from their entrapped position in the south. Through some unknown means, Sennacherib had managed to slip by

24480-493: The southerners won the battle, though probably suffering many casualties, since both of Sennacherib's enemies still remained on their respective thrones after the fighting. In 1982, Assyriologist Louis D. Levine wrote that the battle was probably an Assyrian victory, though not a decisive one and that though the southerners had been defeated and fled, the Assyrian advance on Babylon itself was temporarily halted. The Assyrian army's diversion from its course could then be interpreted by

24660-488: The southernmost land. The Arameans lived on the fringes of settled land and were notorious for plundering surrounding territories. Because of the infighting of these three major groups, Babylonia often represented an appealing target for Assyrian campaigns. The two kingdoms had competed since the rise of the Middle Assyrian Empire in the 14th century BC, and in the 8th century BC, the Assyrians consistently gained

24840-453: The stony reefs and the sandy beach environments. It is the only marine protected area in Israel in which the maximum depth is deeper than 850 meters Remnants of ancient Achziv, now known as Tel Achziv, are located on a sandstone mound between two streams, Kziv on the north and Shaal on the south, close to the border with Lebanon. An ancient port was located on the coast, and another secondary port

25020-408: The survivors to the Assyrian Empire, forcing some of them to work on Sennacherib's building projects, and others to serve in the king's personal guard. Sennacherib's account of what happened at Jerusalem begins with "As for Hezekiah ... like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city. I barricaded him with outposts, and exit from the gate of his city I made taboo for him." Thus, Jerusalem

25200-462: The target of most of his military campaigns and had caused the death of his son, he destroyed the city in 689   BC. In the Levantine War, the states in the southern Levant, especially the Kingdom of Judah under King Hezekiah , were not subdued as easily as those in the north. The Assyrians thus invaded Judah. Though the biblical narrative holds that divine intervention by an angel ended

25380-661: The term Hebrew Bible (or Hebrew Scriptures ) as a substitute for less-neutral terms with Jewish or Christian connotations (e.g., Tanakh or Old Testament ). The Society of Biblical Literature 's Handbook of Style , which is the standard for major academic journals like the Harvard Theological Review and conservative Protestant journals like the Bibliotheca Sacra and the Westminster Theological Journal , suggests that authors "be aware of

25560-420: The threat of Elam, Sennacherib retook the city of Der, occupied by Elam during the previous conflict, and advanced into northern Elam. Kutur-Nahhunte could not organize an efficient defense against the Assyrians and refused to fight them, instead fleeing to the mountain city of Haidalu . Shortly thereafter, the severe weather forced Sennacherib to retreat and return home. Despite the defeat of Nergal-ushezib and

25740-450: The three poetic books and the five scrolls, the remaining books in Ketuvim are Daniel , Ezra–Nehemiah and Chronicles . Although there is no formal grouping for these books in the Jewish tradition, they nevertheless share a number of distinguishing characteristics: their narratives all openly describe relatively late events (i.e. the Babylonian captivity and the subsequent restoration of Zion);

25920-539: The throne from Tiglath-Pileser's other son Shalmaneser V . Sennacherib was probably born c.   745 BC in Nimrud. If Sargon was the son of Tiglath-Pileser and not a non-dynastic usurper, Sennacherib would have grown up in the royal palace at Nimrud and spent most of his youth there. Sargon continued to live in Nimrud long after he had become king, leaving the city in 710 BC to reside at Babylon , and later at his new capital, Dur-Sharrukin , in 706 BC. By

26100-713: The throne in 705   BC, Marduk-apla-iddina retook Babylon and allied with the Elamites . Though Sennacherib reclaimed the south in 700   BC, Marduk-apla-iddina continued to trouble him, probably instigating Assyrian vassals in the Levant to rebel, leading to the Levantine War of 701 BC, and himself warring against Bel-ibni , Sennacherib's vassal king in Babylonia. After the Babylonians and Elamites captured and executed Sennacherib's eldest son Aššur-nādin-šumi , whom Sennacherib had proclaimed as his new vassal king in Babylon, Sennacherib campaigned in both regions, subduing Elam. Because Babylon, well within his own territory, had been

26280-429: The time Sargon moved to Babylon, Sennacherib, who served as the crown prince and designated heir, had already left Nimrud, living in a residence at Nineveh . Nineveh had been the designated seat of the Assyrian crown prince since the reign of Tiglath-Pileser. As crown prince, Sennacherib also owned an estate at Tarbisu . The royal educator, Hunnî, would have educated Sennacherib and his siblings. They probably received

26460-653: The time from the entrance of the Israelites into the Land of Israel until the Babylonian captivity of Judah (the "period of prophecy" ). Their distribution is not chronological, but substantive. The Former Prophets ( נביאים ראשונים Nevi'im Rishonim ): The Latter Prophets ( נביאים אחרונים Nevi'im Aharonim ): The Twelve Minor Prophets ( תרי עשר , Trei Asar , "The Twelve"), which are considered one book: Kəṯūḇīm ( כְּתוּבִים , "Writings") consists of eleven books. In Masoretic manuscripts (and some printed editions), Psalms, Proverbs and Job are presented in

26640-420: The time refer to the era as the "kingless" period when there was no king in the land. After the final war with Babylon, Sennacherib dedicated his time to improving his new capital at Nineveh rather than embarking on large military campaigns. Nineveh had been an important city in northern Mesopotamia for millennia. The oldest traces of human settlement at its location are from the 7th millennium BC, and from

26820-637: The transition to the MBIIC/LBI in Phase N3. By the 1000 BCE, Achziv was a prosperous and fortified Phoenician town. Conquered by the Assyrian empire in the 8th century BCE, however, it was subsequently ruled by the Persians during the rule of the Roman Empire . Positioned on a passage between the plain of Acre and the city of Tyre , Achzib was an important road station. Between the 10th and 6th centuries BCE, it

27000-618: The tribes. He further increased Jerusalem's importance by bringing the Ark of the Covenant there from Shiloh ( 2 Samuel 6 ). David's son Solomon built the First Temple in Jerusalem. After Solomon's death, the united kingdom split into the northern Kingdom of Israel (also known as the Kingdom of Samaria) with its capital at Samaria and the southern Kingdom of Judah with its capital at Jerusalem. The Kingdom of Samaria survived for 200 years until it

27180-427: The tribute that he had failed to send to Nineveh from 705 to 701 BC. He was also forced to release the imprisoned king of Ekron, Padi, and Sennacherib granted substantial portions of Judah's land to the neighboring kingdoms of Gaza , Ashdod and Ekron . By 700 BC, the situation in Babylonia had once again deteriorated to such an extent that Sennacherib had to invade and reassert his control. Bel-ibni now faced

27360-402: The upper hand. Babylon's internal and external weakness led to its conquest by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 729 BC. During the expansion of Assyria into a major empire, the Assyrians had conquered various neighboring kingdoms, either annexing them as Assyrian provinces or turning them into vassal states. Because the Assyrians venerated the long history and culture of Babylon, it

27540-457: The urban Babylonians and the tribal Chaldeans, and he also enlisted troops from the neighboring civilization of Elam , in modern-day south-western Iran. Though assembling all these forces took time, Sennacherib reacted slowly to these developments, which allowed Marduk-apla-iddina to station large contingents at the cities of Kutha and Kish. Portions of the Assyrian army were away in Tabal in 704 BC. Because Sennacherib might have considered

27720-463: The village's annual fish catch was 16 metric tons. In the 1945 statistics , the population of Az Zeeb was 1,910, all Muslims, with a total land area of 12,607 dunams. Of this, 2,973 dunams were used for citrus and bananas; 1,989 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards; 4,425 were for cereals ; while 62 dunams were built-up (urban) areas. The population of the village in 1945 was 1,910. In 1946, The Jewish Resistance Movement attempted to blow up

27900-409: The wealth of that city—silver, gold, precious stones, property and goods—into the hands of my people; and they took it as their own. The hands of my people laid hold of the gods dwelling there and smashed them; they took their property and goods. I destroyed the city and its houses, from foundation to parapet; I devastated and burned them. I razed the brick and earthenwork of the outer and inner wall of

28080-522: The wrath of the Assyrians, escaping by boat until he was beyond Sennacherib's reach. In his stead, Sennacherib proclaimed a noble by the name Ethbaal as the new king of Sidon and his vassal and oversaw the submission of many of the surrounding cities to his rule. Faced with a massive Assyrian army nearby, many of the Levantine rulers, including Budu-ilu of Ammon , Kamusu-nadbi of Moab , Mitinti of Ashdod and Aya-ramu of Edom , quickly submitted to Sennacherib to avoid retribution. The resistance in

28260-557: The writings of Pseudo-Scylax , the site likely regained some importance in Hellenistic times. A maritime city named Cziv, nine miles (14 km) north of Acre, is mentioned by Josephus Flavius and later by Eusebius . Achziv (Cheziv) is mentioned in Jewish rabbinic writings , for example Midrash Vayikra Rabba 37:4. Additionally, Achziv is mentioned in the Babylonian Talmud, and by the relating Middle Age commentators, concerning

28440-469: Was a city which at that point only existed in his imagination. By 700 BC the walls of the Southwest Palace's throne room were being constructed, followed shortly by the many reliefs to be displayed within it. The final step in the palace's construction was the erection of colossal statues depicting bulls and lions, characteristic of Late Assyrian architecture. Though such stone statues have been excavated at Nineveh, similar colossal statues mentioned in

28620-597: Was a prosperous town, with public buildings and tombs with Phoenician inscriptions , attesting to the identity of its inhabitants at the time. Conquered by the Assyrians in 701 BCE and listed in Sennacherib's Annals as Ak-zi-bi , the continuation of Phoenician settlement through this period and during the decline endured during the Persian period , is evidenced in 5th and 4th century BCE Phoenician inscriptions that were found at

28800-429: Was also a change in rulership in Elam, where Kutur-Nahhunte was deposed in favor of Humban-menanu , who began assembling the anti-Assyrian coalition once more. Mushezib-Marduk ensured Humban-menanu's support by bribing him. The Assyrian records considered Humban-menanu's decision to support Babylonia to be unintelligent, describing him as a "man without any sense or judgement". Sennacherib met his enemies in battle near

28980-439: Was also titled māru rēštû , a title that could be interpreted either as the "pre-eminent son" or the "firstborn son". His appointment as king of Babylon and the new title suggests that Ashur-nadin-shumi was being groomed to succeed Sennacherib as the king of Assyria upon his death. If māru rēštû means "pre-eminent" such a title would befit only the crown prince, and if it means "firstborn", this also suggests that Ashur-nadin-shumi

29160-401: Was another of Sargon's wives, Ra'īmâ ; a stele from Assur (once the capital of Assyria ), discovered in 1913, specifically refers to her as the "mother of Sennacherib". Ra'īmâ's existence is a recent discovery, based on a 2014 reading of the inscription on the stele. Sargon claimed he was himself the son of the earlier king Tiglath-Pileser III , but this is uncertain as Sargon usurped

29340-520: Was blockaded in some capacity, though the lack of massive military activities and appropriate equipment meant that it was probably not a full siege. According to the Biblical narrative, a senior Assyrian official with the title Rabshakeh stood in front of the city's walls and demanded its surrender, threatening that the Judeans would 'eat feces and drink urine' during the siege. Although the Assyrian account of

29520-458: Was chiefly done by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher , in the Tiberias school, based on the oral tradition for reading the Tanakh, hence the name Tiberian vocalization . It also included some innovations of Ben Naftali and the Babylonian exiles . Despite the comparatively late process of codification, some traditional sources and some Orthodox Jews hold the pronunciation and cantillation to derive from

29700-424: Was chosen by the Babylonians themselves. The Assyrian army, by now surrounded by the Elamites in southern Babylonia, managed to kill the son of Hallutash-Inshushinak in a skirmish but remained trapped for at least nine months. Wishing to consolidate his position as king, Nergal-ushezib took advantage of the situation and captured and plundered the city of Nippur. Some months later, the Assyrians attacked and captured

29880-614: Was conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. The Kingdom of Judah survived for longer, but it was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. The Temple was destroyed, and many Judeans were exiled to Babylon . In 539 BCE, Babylon was conquered by Cyrus the Great of Persia, who allowed the exiles to return to Judah . Between 520 and 515 BCE, the Temple was rebuilt (see Second Temple ) . Religious tradition ascribes authorship of

30060-595: Was emotional in a sense; Neo-Assyrian inscriptions implicitly gender the two countries, calling Assyria the metaphorical "husband" and Babylon its "wife". In the words of the Assyriologist Eckart Frahm, "the Assyrians were in love with Babylon, but also wished to dominate her". Though Babylon was respected as the well-spring of civilization, it was expected to remain passive in political matters, something that Assyria's "Babylonian bride" repeatedly refused to be. In 705 BC, Sargon, probably in his sixties, led

30240-414: Was largely an Assyrian victory. After the Assyrians had seized many of Judah's most important fortified cities and destroyed several towns and villages, Hezekiah realized that his anti-Assyrian activities had been disastrous military and political miscalculations and accordingly submitted to the Assyrians once more. He was forced to pay a heavier tribute than previously, probably along with a heavy penalty and

30420-465: Was less stable. Unlike Sargon and previous Babylonian rulers, who had proclaimed themselves as shakkanakku ( viceroys ) of Babylon, in reverence for the city's deity Marduk (who was considered Babylon's formal "king"), Sennacherib explicitly proclaimed himself as Babylon's king. Furthermore, he did not "take the hand" of the Statue of Marduk , the physical representation of the deity, and thus did not honor

30600-445: Was located), including a temple dedicated to the god Sîn (invoked in the king's own name). Sennacherib also massively expanded the city to the south and erected enormous new city walls, surrounded by a moat, up to 25 metres (82 ft) high and 15 metres (49 ft) thick. When his eldest son and original crown prince, Ashur-nadin-shumi, disappeared, presumably executed, Sennacherib selected his eldest surviving son, Arda-Mulissu , as

30780-455: Was married off to Ambaris, the king of Tabal , but probably returned to Assyria after Sargon's first successful campaign against Tabal. Sennacherib's name, Sîn-aḥḥē-erība , means " Sîn (the moon-god) has replaced the brothers" in Akkadian. The name probably derives from Sennacherib not being Sargon's first son, but all his older brothers being dead by the time he was born. In Hebrew , his name

30960-545: Was more powerful and culturally advanced than the Kingdom of Judah. It also featured multiple cultic sites, including the sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan . Scholars estimate that the Jacob tradition (Genesis 25–35) was first written down in the 8th century BCE and probably originated in the north because the stories occur there. Based on the prominence given to the sanctuary at Bethel (Genesis 28), these stories were likely preserved and written down at that religious center. This means

31140-529: Was not grouped with the Prophets presumably because the Nevi'im collection was already fixed by this time. The Ketuvim was the last part of the Tanakh to achieve canonical status. The prologue to the Book of Sirach mentions "other writings" along with the Law and Prophets but does not specify the content. The Gospel of Luke refers to "the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms" ( Luke 24 :44). These references suggest that

31320-482: Was postponed, and Esarhaddon raised an army and seized Nineveh, installing himself as king as intended by Sennacherib. Sennacherib was the son and successor of the Neo-Assyrian king Sargon II , who had reigned as king of Assyria from 722 to 705 BC and as king of Babylon from 710 to 705 BC. The identity of Sennacherib's mother is uncertain. Historically, the most popular view has been that Sennacherib

31500-443: Was preserved as a full kingdom, either ruled by an appointed client king, or by the Assyrian king in a personal union . The relationship between Assyria and Babylonia was similar to the relationship between Greece and Rome in later centuries; much of Assyria's culture, texts and traditions had been imported from the south. Assyria and Babylonia also shared the same language ( Akkadian ). The relationship between Assyria and Babylon

31680-459: Was rendered as Snḥryb and in Aramaic it was Šnḥ’ryb . According to a 670 BC document, it was illegal to give the name Sennacherib (then the former king) to a commoner in Assyria, as it was considered sacrilege. As crown prince, Sennacherib exercised royal power with his father, or alone as a substitute while Sargon was away campaigning. During Sargon's longer absences from the Assyrian heartland, Sennacherib's residence would have served as

31860-682: Was terrible, being doomed to suffer like beggars for eternity. Sennacherib was about 35 years old when he ascended to the Assyrian throne in August of 705 BC. He had a great deal of experience with how to rule the empire because of his long tenure as crown prince. His reaction to his father's fate was to distance himself from Sargon. Frahm characterized Sennacherib's reaction as "one of almost complete denial", writing that Sennacherib "apparently felt unable to acknowledge and mentally deal with what had happened to Sargon". Sennacherib immediately abandoned Sargon's great new capital city, Dur-Sharrukin, and moved

32040-490: Was the heir. In most cases the Assyrians followed the principle of primogeniture , wherein the oldest son inherits. More evidence in favor of Ashur-nadin-shumi being the crown prince is Sennacherib's construction of a palace for him at the city of Assur, something Sennacherib would also do for the later crown prince Esarhaddon. As an Assyrian king of Babylon, Ashur-nadin-shumi's position was politically important and highly delicate and would have granted him valuable experience as

32220-486: Was the son of Sargon's wife Ataliya , although this is now considered unlikely. To have been Sennacherib's mother, Ataliya would have had to be born around the year 760 BC, at the latest, and lived to at least 692 BC, as a "queen mother" is attested in that year, but Ataliya's grave at Nimrud , which was discovered in the 1980s, indicates she was 35 years old at most when she died. The Assyriologist Josette Elayi considers it more plausible Sennacherib's mother

32400-831: Was to maintain relations with Assyrian governors and generals and oversee the empire's vast military intelligence network. Sennacherib oversaw domestic affairs and often informed Sargon of the progress being made on building projects throughout the empire. Sargon also assigned him to the reception and distribution of audience gifts and tribute. After distributing such financial resources, Sennacherib sent letters to his father to inform him of his decisions. A letter to his father indicates that Sennacherib respected him and that they were on friendly terms. He never disobeyed his father, and his letters indicate he knew Sargon well and wanted to please him. For unknown reasons, Sargon never took him on his military campaigns. Elayi believes that Sennacherib may have resented his father for this as he missed out on

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