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connection with it. Lastly, we must remember that the chronology of the Bible is in
some parts involved in considerable difficulties, partly for the reasons just stated,
partly from the different modes of calculating time, and partly also from errors of
transcription which would easily creep into the copying of Hebrew numerals, which
are marked by letters. Keeping in view these cautions, the neglect of which has led to
many false inferences, we have no hesitation in saying, that hitherto all modern
historical discoveries have only tended to confirm the Scripture narrative.
Turning to these extraneous sources for information on the earlier history of Judah
and Israel under the Kings, we have here, first, the Egyptian monuments, especially
those on the walls of the Temple of Karnak, which record the invasion of Judah and
Jerusalem by Shishak, described in 1 Kings 14:25, 26, and 2 Chronicles 12. Pictorial
representations of this campaign are accompanied by mention of the very names of
the conquered Jewish cities.^190
But with the death of Shishak, the power of Egypt for a time decayed. In its stead
that of Assyria reasserted itself. From that time onwards its monuments more or less
continuously cast light on the history of Israel. Just as in the Biblical narrative, so in
the Assyrian records of that time, Syria occupies a most important place. It will be
remembered that that country had recovered its independence in the reign of
Solomon, having been wrested by Rezon from the sovereignty of Judah (1 Kings
11:23-25). Thus far we perceive a general parallelism in the outlines of this history.
But the Assyrian record leaves a strange impression on the mind, as we recall the
importance of Omri, as having been the second if not the real founder of the
Israelitish kingdom, the builder of its capital, and the monarch who gave its
permanent direction alike to the political and the religious history of Israel. For the
common designation for the land of Israel is "the land of Omri," "the land Omri," or
"the land of the house of Omri." We regard it as a further indication of the political
importance attached to that king when Jehu is designated as "the son of Omri." This
could not have been from ignorance of the actual history, since the name of Ahab
occurs on the monuments of Assyria, although (if correctly read) in a connection
which does not quite agree with our ordinary chronology. Further illustration comes
to us from the Assyrian monuments, both of certain phases in the Biblical history of
Ahab, and of the explanatory words with which the account of Naaman's healing is
introduced: "Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man
with his master, and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given deliverance unto
Syria" (2 Kings 5:1).
Each of these statements requires some further explanation. As regards the history of
Ahab, we note incidentally that the name Ethbaal (1 Kings 16:31) as that of a
Sidonian king, occurs also on the Assyrian monuments, just as does Sarepta (1 Kings
17:9, 10), as being a Phoenician town, situate between Tyre and Sidon. But of
(^)