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 greatest interest is it to

learn from these monuments the political motives which prompted the strange and sudden alliance proposed by Ahab to

Ben-hadad (a name amply confirmed b y the monuments), after the battle of Aphek (1 Kings 20:26 -34). In passing we

may notice that in a fragmentary inscription of Asarhaddon, this Aphek, situated east of the lake of Galilee, and a little

aside from the great road between Damascus and Samaria, is named as the border-city of Samaria.

Similarly, the mention of thirty-two kings allied with Ben-hadad in his campaign against Israel (1 Kings 20:1), is so far

borne out by the Assyrian monuments, that in the campaigns of Assyria against Syria Ben-hadad is always described as

fighting in conjunction with a number of allied Syrian princes.191

From these inscriptions we also learn that the growing power of Assyria threatened to overwhelm - as it afterwards did

­ both Syria and the smaller principalities connected with it. A politician like Ahab must have felt the danger

threatening his kingdom of Samaria from the advancing power of Assyria. If Ben-hadad had endeavored to strengthen

himself by the subjugation of Samaria, Ahab, in the hour of his triumph, desired, by an alliance with the now humbled

Ben-hadad, to place Syria as a kind of bulwark between himself and the king of Assyria. This explains the motive of

Ahab, who had no real trust in the might and deliverance of Jehovah, but looked to political comb inations for safety, in

allowing to go out of his hand the man whom Jehovah "appointed to utter destruction" (1 Kings 20:42).

Another circumstance connected with the treaty of Aphek, not recorded in the Bible, and only known from the Assyrian

monuments, casts light on this prophetic announcement of judgment to Ahab: "Therefore thy life shall be for his life,

and thy people for his people." From the monuments we learn, in illustration of the alliance between Ben-hadad and

Ahab, and of the punishment threatened upon it, that in the battle of Karkar, or Aroer, in which the Assyrian monarch

Shalmaneser II. So completely defeated Syria, the forces of Ahab, to the number of not fewer than 2000 chariots and

10,000 men, had fought on the side of Ben-hadad. As we read of 14,000 or, in another inscription,192 of 20,500 of the

allies as having been slain in this battle,  193 we perceive the fulfillment of the Divine threatening upon that alliance (1

Kings 20:42).

At the same time we may also learn that many things mentioned in Scripture which, with our present means of

knowledge, seem strange and inexplicable, may become plain, and be fully confirmed, by further information derived

from independent sources.

The battle of Karkar was not the only engagement in which the forces of Syria met, and were defeated by, those of

Assyria. It was fought in the sixth year of the reign of Shalmaneser. Another successful campaign is chronicled as

having been undertaken in the eleventh year of the same reign, when Shalmaneser records that for the ninth time he

crossed the Euphrates; and yet another, in the fourteenth year of his reign, when at the head of 120,000 men he crossed

the river at its high flood. Two inferences may, for our present purpose, be made from these notices. The defeat of

Ahab's forces, when fighting in conjunction with Ben-hadad, will account for the cessation of the alliance entered into

after the battle of Aphek. Again, the repeated defeat of Ben-hadad by Assyria will explain how Ahab took heart of

grace, and in company with Jehoshaphat undertook that fatal expedition against Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings 22), in which

literally the "life" of Ahab went for that of him whom, from short -sighted political motives, he had spared (1 Kings

20:42). Lastly, these repeated wars between Assyria and Syria, of which the Assyrian monarch would naturally only

record the successful engagements, help us to understand the phrase by which Naaman, captain 194 of the host of Syria,

is introduced as he "by whom the LORD had given deliverance [perhaps "victory"] unto Syria"195 (2 Kings 5:1).

The expression just quoted seems to forbid the application of the words to the victory of Ben-hadad over Ahab,196

although the Rabbis imagine that the fatal arrow by which Ahab was smitten came from the bow of Naaman.