The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria

114 paolo merlo

4.3 The Account of a Battle

among the Old aramaic inscriptions, only the fragmentary inscription
discovered at tel Dan (Kai 310) includes a brief account of a military
campaign. though heavily damaged, the remains of lines 3–9 preserve
some interesting details.15
after recording a previous unfair attack by a hostile enemy (cf. 3.3
below), the unnamed author of this inscription (perhaps King hazael)
relates the divine intervention that enthroned him and helped him
conquer his enemies: “hadad made me king... and hadad went before
me... and i killed [seven]ty kings... .” (Kai 310: 4–6). in this account the
narrator makes use of some literary commonplaces such as the interven-
tion of the national god marching ahead of the king in battle, and the
hyperbole of slaying “seventy” hostile kings.

4.4 The Just War

according to ancient Near eastern religious ideology, war should only be
carried out to re-establish justice and order if they had been disrupted
by an unfair king. at the beginning of the tel Dan stele inscription (Kai
310), the king who wrote the inscription (perhaps hazael) refers to a for-
mer treaty (violated?) by an unnamed king of israel who carried out a
military attack against a country ruled by his father. after the god hadad
had made him king, he could send out a military expedition to restore
the previous situation. the story of this battle meets the literary pattern
of the “just war” because the enemy, the king of israel, sinned by violating
a previous oath and performing an unjust attack against “the land of my
father” (line 4).16 this story also demonstrates a clear propagandistic func-
tion, justifying the military attack of the aramaean king against Dan.

4.5 The Miraculous Deliverance from a Siege

in his inscription (Kai 202), Zakkur, King of hamath, tells us how
Baʿalšamayin put him on the throne and how the god saved him from
an attack by a coalition of seventeen rulers of his vicinity led by the king

15 On the literary nature of this account, cf. parker 1997: 58f. On conquest narratives in
the ancient Near east, cf. Younger 1990.
16 in the Moabite Mesha inscription, too, the enemy (i.e., the israelite king) is accused
of having engaged in a hostile occupation: “Omri oppressed Moab for many days... and
his son succeeded him, and he also said: i will oppress Moab” (Kai 181: 5–6).