Meaning of SHALMANESER

(as. “Shulmanu-asharidu”: “the god Shulman is principal”). Names of several kings of Assyria:

(a) Shalmansar I, who built, or restored, the city of Cala. He reigned between 1280-1260 BC. (conventional chronology) or 1272-1243 (revised chronology).

(b) Shalmansar III, son of Assurbanipal. He reigned approximately 860-825 BC. (858-824 BC - Courville). Energetic and persevering, he was the first of the Assyrian rulers to come into conflict with the Israelites.

From the first year of his reign, he set out on campaign, crossing the Euphrates, devastating the country of the Hittites to the Mediterranean. In addition to the expeditions he undertook north, east, and south of Nineveh, he crossed the Euphrates on several occasions.

To block his path to the west, the Syrians formed a league encompassing Damascus, Hamath and twelve kings of the coast. On some occasions there were reinforcements from troops from neighboring nations to make the coalition more solid.

At Karkar, in 853 BC, the army of Ahab, king of Israel, joined the soldiers of Damascus to fight the Assyrians (see ACAB, a).

Shalmansar claims to have won the battle of Karkar. If this was the case, he derived no advantage from this victory, because he immediately withdrew his army to Nineveh.

The king of Assyria reappeared in the west three years later, but was again stopped by the coalition. In the following year, the eleventh of his reign, he crossed the Euphrates, sacked numerous cities in the kingdom of Hamath, but was detained.

In his fourteenth year he managed to crush the coalition. In the eighteenth year, 842 B.C., he defeated Hazael of Damascus on Mount Hermon. The kings of Tyre, Sidon, and Israel (Jehu) were quick to submit and pay tribute.

Numerous monuments from the reign of Shalmansar III have been discovered, many of them well preserved. The most beautiful of them is the black obelisk preserved in the British Museum.

It is a large block of basalt measuring more than 1.80 m. high discovered in Balawat, near Nimrod, in 1845. Its four faces are covered with inscriptions and bas-reliefs representing the tributary kings who pay homage to the king, followed by numerous gifts from him.

In a particular way, Jehu, king of Israel, is seen prostrating to kiss the foot of Shalmansar; The inscription reads: "The tribute of Jehu, son of Omri: silver, gold, etc..." In reality, Omri had been the king before Jehu, and was not the father of the latter; but for a long time the Assyrians knew Israel as "the country of Omri."

About the battle of Karkar, Shalmansar said in his chronicle that he, among others, destroyed "ten thousand men of Ahab, the Israelite." It is remarkable how archaeological discoveries agree time and time again with the details of the biblical text, in this case the book of Kings.

(c) Shalmansar V was the successor of Tiglath-pileser III, and reigned between the years 727-722 BC. He began his campaigns in the year 725 BC. According to the Syrian Annals, cited by Josephus, he invaded Phenicia.

When the Assyrians approached, Sidon, Aco and the part of Tire located on the coast, shaking off the yoke of maritime Tire (built on an island), recognized the sovereignty of the king of Assyria; He withdrew, and then returned to attack the Tyrians on his island.

These dispersed the Assyrian ships, manned by Phoenicians. Shalmansar withdrew, but left a large army on the coast that blockaded the island of Tire for five years (Ant. 9:14, 2); This blockade ended with the submission of Tire to Sargon.

Hoshea, king of Israel and tributary to Shalmansar as he had been to his predecessor, leaned on So, king of Egypt, and refused to pay tribute to the king of Assyria. It is possible that he would have been encouraged by Tyre's resistance.

Shalmansar had Hosea taken to Arbela (in Galilee), laying siege to Samaria afterward; this capital held out for three years before surrendering to the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:1-6; 18:9, 10).