Biblically Compatible Archaeology and Geography

    by   Damien F. Mackey     Haman , formerly an apostate King of Judah, was not out to annihilate the entire Jewish race. He was bent upon destroying only those like his Yahwistic foe, Mordecai, who were working towards the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem.     The standard view goes something like this:   Hundreds of years later, Saul nearly fulfills the command by killing all Amalekite men, women, and children. But he spares their king, who keeps his people barely alive by having a child. Many more generations later, one of his descendants, the villain Haman, goes on to develop a plot to kill all the Jews living in exile under a Persian ruler. The lesson, when read literally, is clear: Saul’s failure to kill every Amalekite posed an existential threat to the Jewish people.   We have just read that King Saul of Israel, defying the terrible herem ( חֵרֶם cherem ) command of the Lord to wipe out the Am...

  by   Damien F. Mackey   Proposed king and setting   Here it will be tentatively suggested that the hitherto unknown Zakir (or Zaccur), king of Hamath and Lu'ash (Laish/Dan?), was the very last ruler of the Jehu-ide dynasty, King Zechariah (or Zachariah) of Israel (c. 750 BC, conventional dating: Thiele).   This scenario immediately fits in various convincing ways.   The name Zakir (Zaccur) is a very good match for the Hebrew Zechariah (Zachariah): Zechariah | The amazing name Zechariah: meaning and etymology “ The name Zechariah: Summary …. Related names • Via  זכר  ( zakar ):  Zaccai ,  Zaccheus ,  Zaccur ,  Zacharias ,  Zecher ,  Zichri ….   The roughly estimated date for the Zakir Stele accords tolerably well with c. 750 BC, the conventional date for King Zechariah: Stele of Zakkur - Wikipedia “The  Stele of Zakkur  (or  Zakir ) is a royal  stele  o...

    “Jehoash was known for “his might” (2 Kings 14:15), and his kingdom expanded northward with his victory over the Aramaeans and to the south with his victory over Judah. Evidence for this expansion was discovered at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, a fortress that acted as a cultic site on the southern border of Judah”. Bryan Windle     Bryan Windle wrote (August 13, 2021): King Jehoash: An Archaeological Biography – Bible Archaeology Report   King Jehoash: An Archaeological Biography   Jehoash was the second of four kings who descended from  Jehu  to reign as king of Israel (Jehoahaz, Jehoash,  Jeroboam II , and Zechariah); he ruled from ca. 798-782 BC. 1  The Bible summarizes his reign this way:   In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned sixteen years. He also did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from a...

    by    Damien F. Mackey     A potential Babylonian name for Daniel’s Belteshazzar – amongst various possibilities – would be, say, Nabû-bul-li ṭ -su (Nabu-bullitsu), somewhat imperfectly transliterated as Belteshazzar. The name Nabu - bullitsu can be found listed e.g. in the Index (p. 159) of Sir W. Budge’s “Babylonian Life and History”.     Introduction   What are we looking for here?   Essentially, in the case of the historical Daniel, we would be hoping to find a governor of (the province of) Babylon, of very long floruit, at the time of King Nebuchednezzar ‘the Great’, the Chaldean (c. 600 BC). He ought to have a Belteshazzar like name (Daniel 1:7).   My revision will allow for this governor to be identified amongst the various alter egos that I have proposed for King Nebuchednezzar - great identities such as Esarhaddon; Ashurbanipal (and the like-named Ashurnasirpal); and Nabonidus. ...