Ilu-Kabkabu as Biblical Rehob
by
Damien F. Mackey
“Moreover, David defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah,
when he went to restore his monument at the Euphrates River”.
2 Samuel 8:3
As with Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky’s radical downwards revision of the el-Amarna age from the c. C14th BC to the Divided Kingdom period of Israel, in the c. C9th BC, the validity of Dean Hickman’s re-location of King Hammurabi from a conventionally precarious C18th BC all the way down to the C10th BC era of King Solomon is confirmed by some impressive bibico-historical synchronisms. See e.g. my:
An excellent pairing that Hickman picked up in his new context was the combination from the Second Book of Samuel of “Hadadezer” and his father “Rehob” (or Rekhob), with the historical Shamsi-Adad 1 and his father, Ilu-kabkabu (or Ila-kabkabu).
Taken on its own, Hickman’s proposed identification of the poorly known Ilu-kabkabu with the even lesser known Rehob, would not be worth much at all. But, in a context of multi-identifications, it has its value.
The biblical Rehob appears to be unknown apart from the above quote, “Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah”.
About Ilu-kabkabu we know this little bit more (http://thesaurus.babylon-software.com/Ila-Kabkabu#!!TMEVPV7M3X):
- Ila-kabkabu is … mentioned as the father of another Assyrian king, Shamshi-Adad I. However, Shamshi-Adad I did not inherit the Assyrian throne from his father but was an Amorite conqueror. His father, Ila-kabkabu, was king not of Assyria, but of Terqa in Syria, and ruled in the time of Iagitlim of Mari. According to the Mari Eponyms Chronicle, Ila-kabkabu seized Shuprum in a certain year (possibly 18th century BC) [sic], and Shamshi-Adad “entered his father’s house”, i.e. succeeded him as king of Terqa, in the following year.:163Shamshi-Adad subsequently conquered a wide territory and became king of Assyria, where he founded a dynasty. [End of quote]
A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
AMAIC_Final_Thesis_2009.pdf(Volume One, p. 46):
Courville’s re-location of Hammurabi to the approximate time of Joshua and the Conquest is still fairly “liquid” chronologically, as it seems to me, without his having been able to establish any plausible syncretisms beyond those already known for Hammurabi (e.g. with Shamsi-Adad I and Zimri-Lim). Revisionist Hickman on the other hand, despite his radical lowering of the Hammurabic era even beyond the standard [Velikovsky’s timescale], by about seven centuries to the time of kings David and Solomon (c. C10th
BC), has been able to propose and develop what are to my way of thinking some promising syncretisms, e.g. between David’s Syrian foe, Hadadezer, and Shamsi-Adad I (c. 1809-1776 BC, conventional dates), with the latter’s father Ilu-kabkabu being the biblical Rekhob, father of Hadadezer (2 Samuel 8:3);127 and between Iarim-Lim and the
biblical Joram (var. Hadoram), son of To’i, and prince of Hamath (cf. 2 Samuel 8:10 & 1
Chronicles 18:10).
‘The Dating of Hammurabi’. 127 Ibid. In n. 21, Hickman explains how Ilu-kabkabu can also be rendered in Sumerian as Uru-kabkabu (Rekhob).
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