Truth you can trace
Empires and rulers of the Old Testament world
The powers the Bible's story runs through: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome.
Assyria
- Empire
Assyria: the empire
Assyria takes its name from its first capital, the city of Asshur on the western bank of the Tigris; its great later capital was Nineveh, opposite modern Mosul (ISBE, "Assyria," I–II).
2 Kings 17:6 · Isaiah 10:5
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Tiglath-pileser III: the empire-builder
3).
2 Kings 15:29 · 2 Kings 16:7 · 1 Chronicles 5:26
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Shalmaneser V: the siege of Samaria
Shalmaneser V (reigned 727–722 BC) succeeded Tiglath-pileser (ISBE, "Shalmaneser").
2 Kings 17:3 · 2 Kings 18:9
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Sargon II: the fall of the northern kingdom
Sargon II (reigned 722–705 BC) is named only once in the Old Testament, Isaiah 20:1, where he sends his commander (the Tartan) against Ashdod, yet he is the "king of Assyria" behind one of the Bible's hinge events…
Isaiah 20:1 · 2 Kings 17:6
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Sennacherib: the siege of Jerusalem that failed
Sennacherib (reigned 705–681 BC), Sargon's son, launched the campaign against King Hezekiah of Judah in 701 BC that Scripture narrates at length in 2 Kings 18:13–19:37 and Isaiah 36–37 (ISBE, "Sennacherib").
2 Kings 18:13 · 2 Kings 19:35 · Isaiah 36:1
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Egypt
- Empire
Egypt: the empire
Egypt is the empire the Old Testament knows longest.
1 Kings 9:16 · 1 Kings 14:25 · 2 Kings 23:29
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Shishak: the plunder of the temple
Shishak (Sheshonk I of the monuments, reigned c. 945 BC) founded Egypt's XXIInd Dynasty and was, the ISBE says, "a warlike prince [who] cherished dreams of Asiatic dominion" (ISBE, "Shishak").
1 Kings 11:40 · 1 Kings 14:25 · 2 Chronicles 12:9
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Pharaoh Neco: the death of Josiah
Pharaoh Neco II (reigned 610–595 BC, XXVIth Dynasty) marched north to seize a share of the collapsing Assyrian empire.
2 Kings 23:29 · 2 Chronicles 35:22 · 2 Kings 24:7
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Tirhakah: Egypt against Assyria
Tirhakah (Taharqa, of the Cushite/Ethiopian XXVth Dynasty) is the "king of Ethiopia" whose advance against Sennacherib gave Hezekiah's Jerusalem a reprieve (2 Kings 19:9; Isaiah 37:9).
2 Kings 19:9 · Isaiah 37:9
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Hophra: the ally who did not come
Hophra (Apries, reigned 589–570 BC), grandson of Neco, is the pharaoh Zedekiah of Judah turned to when he broke his oath to Babylon (Ezekiel 17:15).
Jeremiah 44:30 · Ezekiel 17:15 · Jeremiah 37:5
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Babylon
- Empire
Babylon: the empire
The Babylon of the exile is the Chaldean, or neo-Babylonian, empire, a short, brilliant power founded by Nabopolassar in 626 BC as Assyria collapsed, and brought to its height by his son Nebuchadnezzar (ISBE…
2 Kings 25:1 · Jeremiah 25:11 · Daniel 4:30
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Merodach-baladan: the embassy to Hezekiah
Merodach-baladan (Berodach-baladan in 2 Kings 20:12) was a Chaldean prince who seized Babylon and fought Assyria for thirty years before Nabopolassar's dynasty (ISBE, "Merodach-baladan"; "Babylonia").
2 Kings 20:12 · Isaiah 39:1
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Nebuchadnezzar: the conqueror of Judah
Nebuchadnezzar II (reigned 605–562 BC, older works, the ISBE among them, give 604–561, counting from his first full regnal year rather than his accession) is, the ISBE says…
2 Kings 24:10 · Daniel 4:30 · Jeremiah 52:12
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Belshazzar: the night Babylon fell
Daniel 5 sets Babylon's fall at the feast of Belshazzar, whom it calls "king" and "son" of Nebuchadnezzar (5:1; 5:11; 5:30).
Daniel 5:1 · Daniel 5:30
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Evil-merodach: kindness to a captive king
Evil-merodach (Amel-Marduk, reigned 562–560 BC; older works give c. 561–560), Nebuchadnezzar's son and successor, ends the books of Kings and Jeremiah on a quiet, hopeful note…
2 Kings 25:27 · Jeremiah 52:31
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Persia
- Empire
Persia: the empire
Persia, the Achaemenid empire, is the last of the four powers, and the one that reversed the exile.
2 Chronicles 36:22 · Ezra 1:1
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Cyrus: the shepherd who sent them home
Cyrus the Great (reigned to 530 BC) took Babylon in 539 BC and, the next year, issued the decree that let the Jewish exiles return and rebuild the temple, restoring the vessels Nebuchadnezzar had carried off…
Ezra 1:1 · Isaiah 44:28 · Isaiah 45:1
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Darius: which Darius?
The Old Testament names more than one Darius, and the 1915 ISBE keeps them apart.
Daniel 5:31 · Daniel 6:1 · Ezra 6:1
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Ahasuerus (Xerxes): the king of Esther
Ahasuerus is the Hebrew form of Xerxes; the ISBE says "there seems to be little reasonable doubt" that the Ahasuerus of Esther is Xerxes I (reigned 485–465 BC), the king who launched the great failed invasion of Greece…
Esther 1:1 · Esther 1:3
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Artaxerxes: the king of Ezra and Nehemiah
Artaxerxes I (Longimanus, reigned 465–424 BC), son of Xerxes, is, the ISBE says "all are agreed", the king at whose court Ezra and Nehemiah served (Ezra 7; Nehemiah 2).
Ezra 7:1 · Nehemiah 2:1
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