Siege of Azekah

Last updated
Siege of Azekah
Part of Sennacherib's campaign in Judah
K6205 Rawlinson and Smith Azekah Inscription.jpg
Azekah Inscription
Date701 BCE
Location
Result

Assyrian victory

  • Azekah captured
Belligerents
Map of Assyria.png Neo-Assyrian Empire Kingdom of Judah
Commanders and leaders
Sennacherib Unknown
Strength
UnknownUnknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown Heavy

The siege of Azekah was a battle between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah. It preceded the Siege of Lachish, making it the first known clash between the two kingdoms during Sennacherib's campaign in Judah. The most important source for the battle is the Azekah Inscription. The battle is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible.

Contents

Background

Several kingdoms in the Levant ceased to pay taxes to the Assyrian King, Sennacherib; as a result, he set out on a campaign to once again subjugate the rebelling kingdoms, among them the Jewish Kingdom of Judah led by King Hezekiah. After defeating the rebels of Ekron in Philistia he set out to subjugate Judah and in his way to Jerusalem he came across Azekah, among the most important Jewish cities.

Battlefield

Azekah was a walled settlement situated on a hill, typical of important Jewish cities at the time.

Order of battle

The Assyrian army

The Assyrian Army was the most formidable fighting force of its time and was divided mostly into three different categories:

The Jewish army

The Jewish military force was dwarfed compared to the large, professional Assyrian army. Jewish forces mostly included local militias and mercenaries. There were barely any cavalrymen and chariots in the Jewish army, which mostly included infantry, either for close combat (spearmen) or long range combat (archers); they were also significantly less organized than the Assyrians.

The battle

The battle is depicted in the Azekah Inscription, in which Sennacherib mentions some details about the battle. He mentions that he used battering rams to bring down the walls which was followed by close quarters combat between the opposing sides' infantry. Afterwards, Sennacherib ordered his cavalry to charge into the city, leading many of the defenders to rout.

Sennacherib then looted and razed the city.

Aftermath

After the destruction and looting of Azekah, Sennacherib led his army further into Judah, which he once again commanded during the Siege of Lachish.

Ancient sources

Azekah Inscription

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hezekiah</span> King of Judah

Hezekiah, or Ezekias, was the son of Ahaz and the 13th king of Judah according to the Hebrew Bible.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sennacherib</span> King of Assyria

Sennacherib was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from the death of his father Sargon II in 705 BC to his own death 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 the last great Assyrian capital, Nineveh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tel Lachish</span> Biblical city and an archeological site in Israel

Lachish was an ancient Canaanite and Israelite city in the Shephelah region of Israel, on the South bank of the Lakhish River, mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible. The current tell (ruin) by that name, known as Tel Lachish or Tell ed-Duweir ,, has been identified with the biblical Lachish. Today, it is an Israeli national park operated and maintained by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority. The park was established on lands of the depopulated Palestinian village of Qobebet Ibn ‘Awwad which was north of the Tel. It lies near the present-day moshav of Lakhish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Gaugamela</span> Major battle of the Wars of Alexander the Great (331 BC)

The Battle of Gaugamela, also called the Battle of Arbela took place in 331 BC between the forces of the Army of Macedon under Alexander the Great and the Persian Army under King Darius III. It was the second and final battle between the two kings, and is considered to be the final blow to the Achaemenid Empire, resulting in its complete conquest by Alexander.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Thymbra</span> 6th-century BC battle between the Lydian Kingdom and the Achaemenid Persian Empire

The Battle of Thymbra was the decisive battle in the war between Croesus of the Lydian Kingdom and Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid Empire. Cyrus, after he had pursued Croesus into Lydia after the drawn Battle of Pteria, met the remains of Croesus' partially-disbanded army in battle on the plain north of Sardis in December 547 BC. Croesus' army was about twice as large and had been reinforced with many new men, but Cyrus still utterly defeated it. That proved to be decisive, and after the 14-day Siege of Sardis, the city and possibly its king fell, and Lydia was conquered by the Persians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azekah</span> Ruins of an ancient town in Israel

Azekah was an ancient town in the Shfela guarding the upper reaches of the Valley of Elah, about 26 km (16 mi) northwest of Hebron.

Ancient warfare is war that was conducted from the beginning of recorded history to the end of the ancient period. The difference between prehistoric and ancient warfare is more organization oriented than technology oriented. The development of first city-states, and then empires, allowed warfare to change dramatically. Beginning in Mesopotamia, states produced sufficient agricultural surplus. This allowed full-time ruling elites and military commanders to emerge. While the bulk of military forces were still farmers, the society could portion off each year. Thus, organized armies developed for the first time. These new armies were able to help states grow in size and become increasingly centralized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assyrian siege of Jerusalem</span> Conflict between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah, c. 701 BCE

The Assyriansiege of Jerusalem was a failed siege of Jerusalem, then capital of the Kingdom of Judah, carried out by Sennacherib, king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The siege concluded Sennacharib's campaign in the Levant, in which he attacked the fortified cities and devastated the countryside of Judah in a campaign of subjugation. Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, but failed to capture it — it is the only city mentioned as being besieged on Sennacherib's Prism, of which the capture is not mentioned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 1:10</span> Tenth verse of the first chapter in the Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 1:10 is the tenth verse of the first chapter in the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the father of Jesus, is listed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew 1:9</span>

Matthew 1:9 is the ninth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the Bible. The verse is part of the non-synoptic section where the genealogy of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, is listed, or on non-Pauline interpretations the genealogy of Jesus. The purpose of the genealogy is to show descent from the line of kings, in particular David, as the Messiah was predicted to be the son of David, and descendant of Abraham.

The Hellenistic armies is the term applied to the armies of the successor kingdoms of the Hellenistic period. The Hellenistic armies emerged after the death of Alexander the Great when his vast empire was split between his successors, also known as the Diadochi. During the Wars of the Diadochi, the Macedonian army under Philip II and Alexander gradually adopted new units and tactics, further developing Macedonian warfare and improving on the tactics used in the Classical era. The armies of the Diadochi bear few differences from those of Alexander, but during the era of the Epigonoi, the differences were obvious, favoring numbers over quality and weight over maneuverability. The limited availability of Greek conscripts in the east led to an increasing dependence on mercenary forces, whereas in the west, Hellenistic armies were continuously involved in wars, which soon exhausted local manpower, paving the way for Roman supremacy. The major Hellenistic states were the Seleucid Empire, Ptolemaic Egypt and the Antigonid kingdom (Macedonia). Smaller states included Attalid Pergamum, Pontus, Epirus, the Achaean League, the Aetolian League, Syracuse, and other states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military history of the Neo-Assyrian Empire</span>

The Neo-Assyrian Empire arose in the 10th century BC. Ashurnasirpal II is credited for utilizing sound strategy in his wars of conquest. While aiming to secure defensible frontiers, he would launch raids further inland against his opponents as a means of securing economic benefit, as he did when campaigning in the Levant. The result meant that the economic prosperity of the region would fuel the Assyrian war machine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Lachish</span> Neo-Assyrian Empires siege and conquest of the town of Lachish in 701 BCE

The siege of Lachish was the Neo-Assyrian Empire's siege and conquest of the town of Lachish in 701 BCE. The siege is documented in several sources including the Hebrew Bible, Assyrian documents and in the Lachish relief, a well-preserved series of reliefs which once decorated the Assyrian king Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh.

Jewish military history focuses on the military aspect of history of the Jewish people from ancient times until the modern age.

Sennacherib's Annals are the annals of the Assyrian king Sennacherib. They are found inscribed on a number of artifacts, and the final versions were found in three clay prisms inscribed with the same text: the Taylor Prism is in the British Museum, the Oriental Institute Prism in the Oriental Institute of Chicago, and the Jerusalem Prism is in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lachish reliefs</span>

The Lachish reliefs are a set of Assyrian palace reliefs narrating the story of the Assyrian victory over the kingdom of Judah during the siege of Lachish in 701 BCE. Carved between 700 and 681 BCE, as a decoration of the South-West Palace of Sennacherib in Nineveh, the relief is today in the British Museum in London, and was included as item 21 in the BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects by the museum's former director Neil MacGregor. The palace room, where the relief was discovered in 1845–1847, was fully covered with the "Lachish relief" and was 12 metres (39 ft) wide and 5.10 metres (16.7 ft) long. The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal sequence was found in the same palace.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2 Kings 18</span> 2 Kings, chapter 18

2 Kings 18 is the eighteenth chapter of the second part of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the Second Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. This chapter records the events during the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, a part of the section comprising 2 Kings 18:1 to 20:21, with a parallel version in Isaiah 36–39.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2 Kings 19</span> 2 Kings, chapter 19

2 Kings 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the second part of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the Second Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BC, with a supplement added in the sixth century BC. This chapter records the invasion of Assyrian to Judah during the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, a part of the section comprising 2 Kings 18:1 to 20:21, with a parallel version in Isaiah 36–39.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2 Chronicles 32</span> Second Book of Chronicles, chapter 32

2 Chronicles 32 is the thirty-second chapter of the Second Book of Chronicles the Old Testament in the Christian Bible or of the second part of the Books of Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible. The book is compiled from older sources by an unknown person or group, designated by modern scholars as "the Chronicler", and had the final shape established in late fifth or fourth century BCE. This chapter belongs to the section focusing on the kingdom of Judah until its destruction by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar and the beginning of restoration under Cyrus the Great of Persia. The focus of this chapter is the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sennacherib's campaign in the Levant</span>

Sennacherib's campaign in the Levant in 701 BCE was a military campaign undertaken by the Neo-Assyrian Empire to bring the region back under control following a rebellion against Assyrian rule in 705 BCE. After the death of Sargon II, Sennacherib’s father, a number of states in the Levant renounced their allegiance to Assyria. The rebellion involved several small states: Sidon and Ashkelon and Byblos, Ashdod, Ammon, Moab, and Edom who then submitted to the payment of tribute to Assyria. Most notably, Hezekiah of Judah, encouraged by Egypt, joined the rebellion and was subsequently invaded by the Assyrians who captured most of the cities and towns in the region. Hezekiah was trapped in Jerusalem by an Assyrian army and the surrounding lands were given to Assyrian vassals in Ekron, Gaza, and Ashdod, however, the city was not taken and Hezekiah was allowed to remain on his throne as an Assyrian vassal after paying a large tribute. The events of the campaign in Judah are famously related in the Bible which culminate in an “angel of the Lord” striking down 185,000 Assyrians outside the gates of Jerusalem prompting Sennacherib’s return to Nineveh.

References