Ithobaal I is the name of a 9th-century BCE king of Tyre mentioned in the story of

Jezebel Jezebel ()"Jezebel"
(US) and

from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

of a list of the kings of Tyre put together by the Phoenician author

Menander of Ephesus Menander of Ephesus (; fl. c. early 2nd century BC) was the historian whose lost work on the history of Tyre was used by Josephus, who quotes Menander's list of kings of Tyre in his apologia for the Jews, '' Against Apion'' (1.18). "This Menan ...

(2nd century BCE).

Sources and chronology

Primary information related to Ithobaal comes from Josephus's citation of the Phoenician author Menander of Ephesus, in ''Against Apion'' i.18. Here it is said that the previous king, Phelles, “was slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two years, and lived sixty-eight years; he was succeeded by his son Badezorus ( Baal-Eser II).” Based on the work of F. M. Cross and other scholars who take 825 BC as the date of Dido's flight from her brother Pygmalion, after which she founded the city of

Carthage Carthage was an ancient city in Northern Africa, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the classic ...

in 814 BC, Ithobaal was born in 915 BC, killed King Phelles and assumed the throne in 883 BC, and died in 847 or 846 BC.

Relation to Ahab of Israel

Ithobaal held close diplomatic contacts with king Ahab of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. 1 Kings 16:31 relates that his daughter

Jezebel Jezebel ()"Jezebel"
(US) and

married Ahab (874 – 853 BC), and Phoenician influence in

Samaria Samaria (), the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron (), is used as a historical and Hebrew Bible, biblical name for the central region of the Land of Israel. It is bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is ...

and the other Israelite cities was extensive. In 1 Kings Ithobaal is labeled king of the Sidonians. At this time Tyre and Sidon were consolidated into one kingdom.

Indirect Assyrian sources

Tyre is not mentioned as an opponent of

Shalmaneser III Shalmaneser III (''Šulmānu-ašarēdu'', "the god Shulmanu is pre-eminent") was king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 859 BC to 824 BC. His long reign was a constant series of campaigns against the eastern tribes, the Babylonians, the nations o ...

at the

Battle of Qarqar The Battle of Qarqar (or Ḳarḳar) was fought in 853 BC when the army of the Neo-Assyrian Empire led by Emperor Shalmaneser III encountered an allied army of eleven kings at Qarqar led by Hadadezer, called in Assyrian ''Adad-idir'' and possib ...

in 853 BC, but twelve years later, in 841, Ithobaal's son Baal-Eser II gave tribute to the Assyrian monarch.

Doubts on historicity

For decades, it was believed Ithobaal was mentioned in the inscription found on the Ahiram sarcophagus as the titular king's heir; however, more recentReinhard G. Lehmann: ''Die Inschrift(en) des Ahirom-Sarkophags und die Schachtinschrift des Grabes V in Jbeil (Byblos)'', 2005, p. 38Reinhard G. Lehmann, Wer war Aḥīrōms Sohn (KAI 1:1)? Eine kalligraphisch-prosopographische Annäherung an eine epigraphisch offene Frage, in: V. Golinets, H. Jenni, H.-P. Mathys und S. Sarasin (Hg.), ''Neue Beiträge zur Semitistik. Fünftes Treffen der ArbeitsgemeinschaftSemitistik in der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft vom 15.–17. Februar 2012 an der Universität Basel'' (AOAT 425), Münster: Ugarit-Verlag 2015, pp. 163-180 transcriptions of the text reconstruct the heir's name as ''Pilsibaal'' and not ''Ithobaal'' — which has raised questions about Ithobaal's paternity and historicity.

Notes

References