Ben-Hadad I (), son of
Tabrimmon and grandson of
Hezion, was king of
Aram-Damascus
Aram-Damascus ( ) was an Arameans, Aramean polity that existed from the late-12th century BCE until 732 BCE, and was centred around the city of Damascus in the Southern Levant. Alongside various tribal lands, it was bounded in its later years b ...
between 885 BCE and 865 BCE. Ben-Hadad I was reportedly a contemporary of kings
Baasha of the
Kingdom of Israel and
Asa of the
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...
.
According to the biblical
book of Kings, Asa called on Ben-Hadad I to aid him in attacking northern Israel while Baasha restricted access to
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
through border fortifications. Ben-Hadad took the towns of "Ijon,
Dan,
Abel-beth-maachah, and all
Chinneroth, with all the land of
Naphtali
According to the Book of Genesis, Naphtali (; ) was the sixth son of Jacob, the second of his two sons with Bilhah. He was the founder of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali.
Some biblical commentators have suggested that the name ''Naphtali'' ma ...
" (). This acquisition gave Aram-Damascus control of the trade route to southern
Phoenicia
Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...
. By the time of the reign of Ahab, the area was back in Israelite hands.
According to the archaeologist
William Foxwell Albright, the
Melqart stele should be attributed to Ben-Hadad I. However,
Kenneth Kitchen disagrees and states that there is no actual evidence that connects that stele to this particular king.
See also
*
Aramean kings
References
External links
9th-century BC Aramean kings
Kings of Aram-Damascus
9th-century BC deaths
Year of birth unknown
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