Josiah's Revolt against Assyria

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more than five years longer (to 628 B.C.),1 and in 1944 W. H. Dubberstein, chiefly on the basis of a datum from Berossus, showed that he scarcely can have ruled more than two years longer (to 631 B.C.).' Dubberstein further pointed out by another ingenious combination a possibility that Sin-'ar-iskun came to the throne of Assyria in 629 B.C.,13 in which case the chronology is fixed: AViar-bNn-apal 669-633 A~Air-etel-ilani 633-629 Sin-um-liir 629 Sin-'ar-iskun 629-612 political movements in Judah in the latter part of the seventh century B.c. sensitively reflect the progressive decline of Assyrian authority. murder of Amon, king of Judah, represented, perhaps, an attempt on the part of the radical anti-Assyrian party to throw off the yoke of Assyria (ca. 640 B.c.).4 However, the more moderate group gained control of the situation and placed the legitimate heir of David on the throne. boyking's advisers now proceeded more cautiously, yet to judge from later events, with carefully laid plans to regain the independence of Judah and the restoration of the old Davidic state. With the finding of the Deuteronomic Code in the eighteenth year of his reign (622 B.C.), Josiah launched a full-scale politico-religious program for the re-establishment of the Davidic kingdom, as has been emphasized by the Alt school.5 This revolt coincides precisely with the end of the last vestige of Assyrian control in Babylonia (assuming Dubberstein's proposed chronology to be correct). By 623 B.C. recognition of Sin-'ar-iskun had ceased even in Nippur, probably the last foothold of Assyria in Babylonia.6 At this time Nabopolassar had thoroughly consolidated his power in the south and was poised to invade Assyria itself. It is not unlikely that Josiah made common cause with the I A. Poebel, The Assyrian King List from Khorsabad, JNES, II (1943), 88-90. end of the reign of Sin-gar-ikun is fixed by the Babylonian Chronicle to the year 612 B.c. A minimal reign of twelve years is attested for this king (Poebel, p. 90, n. 35). Four years are attested for the reign of AIMir-etel-ilini, but only the accession year of the intervening king, Sin-gumligir.