Azekah Inscription
Discovered: Library of Ashurbanipal (1850)
From: (c. 700 BC)
Current Home: British Museum
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Azekah, under the control of Judah, became a strategic stronghold under the Davidic monarchy. It is listed in 2 Chronicles 11:9 as one of the cities that King Rehoboam fortified. In the eighth century BC, the Assyrians dominated the Middle East. The northern kingdom of Israel had already beentaken captive, and near the end of the eighth century, Assyria returned under the rule of King Sennacherib to squash the Judahite kingdom, ruled at the time by King Hezekiah.
Azekah Inscription tablets are several Akkadian cuneiform tablets, discovered in 1903 by Henry Rawlinson in the Library of Ashurbanipal, Initially scholars believed that the one tablet belonged to the military campaign of Tiglath-pileser III, while another tablet belonged to the military campaign of Sargon II. While some argue that the joined text now refers to the Sennacherib’s second campaign in 689 BC, most scholars still maintain the campaigns are those of Sargon II.
The relevance for biblical studies is that the tablets reportedly mention the Assyrian attack by Sennacherib against Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and the conquest of Azekah (2 Kings 18-19, 2 Chronicles 32).
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