David and Middle Assyria

In a prior post I defended Ussher’s timeline of the Divided Kingdom, putting the death of Solomon in 975 rather than 930 BC.. 

I have now observed that Middle Assyrian history synchronizes well with that. 

First for context, prior to the Omrid period, I do think one thing the Assyrians could have called the Israelites is Aramean.  The Israelites called themselves Arameans in certain contexts as seen in Deuteronomy 26:5, and I think the Assyrians may have used it for all Semites of the Western Levant. 

Tigaleth-Pileser I from 1114-1076 BC had secured control as far south-west as Phoenicia, and it’s noted that new polities were forming among the Arameans, these could be Zobah, Hamath, Damascus and Israel under Saul.

Asshur-bel-kala was King of Assyria from 1073-1056 BC, during his reign Assyria lost a lot of that territory to Arameans.  

These Arameans could be David himself if you take a Maximalist interpretation of how far David conquered, if you believe the Euphrates mentioned in 2 Samuel 8:3/2 Chronicles 18:3 is the Mesopotamian Euphrates.  I have argued for maybe that but definitely every Euphrates reference from the time of Abraham through Joshua being either the Litani or the Orontes, but in order for this Davidic reference to be the Litani it’d have be referring to David conquering all the way north to the source of the Litani and further since Berothai is identified with a city just south of Baalbek.  

It is perhaps more likely these are displaced Arameans migrating into Mesopotamia after David conquered Hadadezer of Zobah. These Aramean Hordes would continue to be noted under the following Assyrian Kings l their contemporaries in Babylon. 

Asshur-rabi II alone refers to a singular King of the Aram, he would be contemporary with Solomon who built Tadmor(Palmyra) and Baalath in Syria. But the King he referred to could have been Rezon of 1 Kings 11:23. 

This weakness of Assyria in dealing with Arameans would continue until Tigaleth-PIleser II 966-935 BC contemporary with the last yeas of Solomon, the reigns of Rehoboam and Jeroboam into the time of Asa. 

His successor Ashur-dan II from 955-914 BC made the real first success in pushing back the Arameans. He was contemporary with Asa down to the second year of Jehoshaphat. During Asa’s later reign when Benhadad of Damascus first became a problem for Israel and Judah, he could be looking to claim Israelite territory because of what’s lost to the Northeast to Assyria. 

Ussher’s dates for Omri are 920-918 BC. So this makes it plausible the first contact between Assyria and Northern Israel was under Omri explaining why Assyria identified that kingdom with Omri consistently going forward. Though Omri founding Samaria as the primary capital city going forward may also be enough reason to explain why he’d be viewed as the founder. 

Adad-nirari III reigned from 911-891 BC. His reign corresponds to a rise in prominence of the Phoenician sea trading empires. That fits him being a contemporary of Ahab in Ussher's chronology who was married to Jezebel the daughter of one of Tyre’s most powerful kings.