WARFARE HISTORY NETWORK PRESENTS:

War in Biblical
Israel and Judah

The Assyrian Siege of Jerusalem

Joshua and the Walls of Jericho
Alexander the Great at Tyre
The Campaigns of Judas Maccabeus
 Warfare History Network Presents:

War in Biblical
Israel and Judah

3: Assault on Jericho
The Israelite army that invaded Canaan under Joshua was a veteran body of soldiers
led by a wily and experienced commander.

7: Judah Besieged
In 700 bc, an Assyrian host comes to punish the unruly.

16: Siege of Tyre

With Persian King Darius reeling in defeat in Asia Minor, Alexander the Great
turned his attention to the heavily fortified port of Tyre.

24: Judas Maccabeus

Threatened with the destruction of their culture, Jewish rebels rose in opposition
to their Syrian occupiers. An unlikely hero would lead the way.

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Assault on Jericho
THE ISRAELITE ARMY THAT INVADED CANAAN UNDER JOSHUA
WAS A VETERAN BODY OF SOLDIERS LED BY A WILY AND EXPERIENCED COMMANDER.
By Richard A. Gabriel

Contrary to popular belief, the Israelite army that assembled in Jordan in 1400
bc under Joshua’s command for the invasion of Canaan was not a rag-tag rabble
of poorly armed fugitive ex-slaves without military expe- Joshua prepared for war with the single-minded determi-
rience. Rather, it was a large force led by experienced com- nation of a man who felt that he was doing God’s will.
manders and equipped with the same weapons found in Under the militia system established by Moses, all
Egyptian and Canaanite armies of the day. It was highly Israelite males over age 20 were conscripted for military
trained and capable of executing a broad array of tactical service. As described in the Biblical text, Joshua’s army was
maneuvers, including special operations and the ability to armed with sickle-swords, long and short spears, simple
take fortified cities by storm. Its commander was a charis- bows, slings, and shields, the same infantry weapons used
matic general, a veteran of many battles who had been a by the Egyptian and Canaanite armies. The Israelite col-
soldier all his life. As he assembled his army at Shittim, umn as it departed Sinai was divided into four sections,

During their exodus from Egypt, Israelites led by Joshua defeat the Amalekites at Rephidim. Moses, with his hands held up by Aaron and Hur to
insure victory, watch the battle from a hill. Following this victory, Joshua began the conquest of Canaan.
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 3
each subdivided into three sections—the same general
organization as an Egyptian army. The column included
reconnaissance units, heavy spear infantry, light infantry,
archers, and slingers.
Joshua’s army was composed of melumedey milchamah,
or veteran soldiers. The army’s range of tactical maneu-
vers and operational capabilities was impressive; it
included tactical reconnaissance, forced night marches
over rugged terrain, ambush, tactical surprise, concentra-
tion of forces, enticement, decoys, deception, coordination
of divided forces, tactical communication, indirect
approaches, feints, diversionary movements, lethal pur-
suit, and storming fortified cities.
Having been ordered to begin the invasion of Canaan,
Joshua sent two spies to conduct a reconnaissance of the
objective before committing the army to cross the Jordan
River. Once inside Jericho, the scouts rested at the house
of a prostitute named Rahab. The choice of locations was
sound spy craft. Not only were such places ready sources
of loose talk, but they were one of the few locations inside
a small city where strangers could appear without raising
questions. Nevertheless, the king of Jericho’s counterin-
telligence agents detected the spies’ presence the night they
arrived, and the king demanded that Rahab turn over the
spies. Rahab lied to the king’s agents, telling them that
the Israelites had left the city around dusk when, in fact,
she had hidden them on her roof. In return for her coop-
eration, the Israelites agreed to spare Rahab and her fam-
ily when Jericho was attacked.
Jericho’s inner and outer walls were made of casement
and divided by cross chambers that could be filled with
rubble for strength or left unfilled and used for apart-
ments, storage rooms and stables. Rahab’s house was
located in the outer wall. Before escaping, the Israelite
spies instructed Rahab to tie a crimson cord to her win-
dow so that the Israelites attacking the town would know
that Rahab’s house and its occupants were to be spared
the slaughter. The scouts returned to Shittim and informed
Joshua of the low state of morale in Jericho. Convinced
that he held the psychological advantage, Joshua ordered
the army to prepare to cross the Jordan.
Three days later, Joshua gave the order to attempt the
crossing. He ordered his priests to take up the Ark of the
Covenant and lead the people to the river bank. Even at
full flood, the river is little more than a wide stream, never
more than 90 to 100 feet across, its channel usually no
more than 10 feet wide, meandering from bank to bank.
Placing a line of large stones upstream, the Israelites con-
A mounted Joshua, drawing his sword, leads the Israelite forces be-
sieging Jericho in this 19th-century engraving.
structed a platform of rocks along the river’s bottom by
piling one stone atop another until the bridge was wide
and long enough to cross the ford.
Joshua was concerned about the stones left behind in
the river. After the crossing, he instructed one man from
each of the 12 tribes to go to where the priests stood on
dry land in the middle of the Jordan and carry the stones
to Gilgal, the next place of encampment, where he placed
them in a sacred circle. Other men were sent back to the
river to gather more stones for a platform within the circle
upon which the Ark of the Covenant was placed. Joshua’s
order to remove the stones seems to have been intended
to destroy the crossing point into Canaan and to convey
the message to his own forces that there was no turning
back.
On the eve of the attack on Jericho, Joshua made his
own reconnaissance before the battle. Then he had the
army form a column with an armed guard before and
behind the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant and
march once around the city in complete silence. The silent
march was repeated for six consecutive days. At daybreak
on the seventh day, the column assembled again and began
its now familiar march. This time, however, it marched
around the city seven times. On the seventh circuit,
according to the Biblical account: “The priests blew the
trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trum-
pets, the people gave a tremendous shout. The wall col-
lapsed on the spot. The people went up into the city, every
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 4

Joshua’s trumpeters surround an improbably European-looking city
of Jericho in this 15th-century painting. The Ark of the Covenant is
directly behind them.
man straight ahead, and took the city.”
The Biblical story of the fall of Jericho, when analyzed
from a military perspective, reveals Joshua’s brilliant tac-
tical mind. The text uses the Hebrew term sabbotem to
describe the movement of the column at Jericho. Taken in
context, the term does not mean “to march around,” but
more precisely “to encircle.” It is unclear if the column
marched around the city or if the city was simply encircled
by the Israelite army. Jericho was fortified by about 900
feet of perimeter wall. If the Israelite army of 8,000 men
encircled Jericho, it did so in a formation where each man
occupied two feet of ground in a phalanx six men deep.
But why did Joshua order the army to appear each day
and encircle the city, presumably standing silently in place
for hours only to withdraw to its camp each night without
attacking? The answer may be that Joshua was attempting
to weaken the will of the enemy by playing upon the fear
and uncertainty that the Israelite scouts had reported ear-
lier. Jericho’s defenders had refused to engage him at the
Jordan, when they would have had the tactical advantage.
Nor did they attack when he was camped at Gilgal. When
Joshua moved into position to attack the city, he found it
shut up tight. The enemy commander had shown himself
to be timid and nonaggressive. Joshua’s repeated encir-
clement at Jericho was designed to increase the enemy
commander’s uncertainty and to heighten fears within the
garrison.
In the end, of course, the city still had to be taken by
force. If we do not take the text literally that “the walls
collapsed on the spot,” and understand it to mean merely
that resistance suddenly collapsed, then what did Joshua
do to make the resistance collapse so suddenly? The large
Israelite army assaulting a small city of only 500 defenders
could easily have overcome the walls with scaling ladders
at any time during the six days. Why, then, did Joshua
wait until the seventh day?
Part of the answer was to weaken the resolve of the
defenders. But another reason had to do with Rahab the
prostitute. When the Israelite scouts left Rahab, they had
instructed her to “tie this length of crimson cord to the
window through which you let us down.” Tied to the win-
dow, the crimson cord would only be visible from outside
the city wall, making it useless as an indicator of the loca-
tion to Israelite soldiers ravaging the city from inside the
walls. The crimson cord marked the window through
which elite Israelite troops could enter the city undetected.
The dust and confusion caused by the Israelite army as it
marched around the city was a distraction to permit small
numbers of Israelite special-operations troops to enter the
city through Rahab’s window. A few men at a time could
have climbed up into Rahab’s house using the army’s
demonstration outside the wall as a distraction. Once
inside the house, the men waited for the signal to strike.
When the great roar from the army accompanied by the
blast of the trumpets signaled the start of the Israelite
attack, the special forces went into action. When the infil-
trators emerged from their hiding place, they attacked the
main gate from the inside, overpowered the guard, and
threw it open to the sudden rush of the attacking Israelite
army. They then cleared a section of the wall in short
order, making it easy for the troops below to scale it with
their ladders. With similar attacks occurring all along the
perimeter wall, a considerable number of troops could
have successfully scaled the cleared wall in a matter of
minutes. The defense collapsed quickly, perhaps tempting
the Biblical author to employ the metaphor that “the walls
collapsed on the spot.”
Jericho was the first Israelite objective in Canaan, and
Joshua put the city to the sword, commanding his troops
to slay “everything that breathed.” Men, women, chil-
dren, and animals were killed on the spot and the city was
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 5
With Jericho’s walls breeched, the inhabitants were slain and the
city burned to the ground.
burned to the ground. But was there a valid military rea-
son to destroy Jericho? The answer is concealed in the
more fundamental question: Why attack Jericho at all?
Perhaps it was because Jericho commanded the
approaches to the central Judean highlands that were
Joshua’s ultimate objective. But it is inaccurate to say that
Jericho commanded the approaches to the central Judean
ridge. There were several approaches north and south of
the city that Joshua could have used. With its modest size
and small garrison, Jericho would have presented no sig-
nificant threat to the Israelite rear, even if it had been
bypassed. Why go through the trouble of attacking a city
that was not going to be used for Israelite resettlement?
Part of the reason was hygienic. In ancient times Jericho
already had a reputation for being an unhealthy place. Its
water supply depended on a single well, Elisha’s Well,
located below the city. Archaeological investigations have
uncovered evidence of bulinus truncatus in its water, the
tiny snail that carries the parasite for schistosomiasis, or
“snail fever,” which is still endemic to Egypt and Iraq.
This prompted Joshua to place a curse on the city and
anyone who attempted to rebuild it.
Arab workers uncover the city wall of the ancient Jericho during an
archaeological expedition in the 1930s.
But if Joshua knew that Jericho was a pesthole and did
not intend to settle Israelites there, why attack it at all?
The reason was psychological. Joshua’s was a war of
extermination, and Jericho was destroyed with utter ruth-
lessness to strike fear in the minds of the rulers and inhab-
itants of other cities that Joshua planned to attack. By any
military calculation, Jericho was a “soft” target. It was
attacked and destroyed as part of Joshua’s campaign of
psychological warfare to terrify his enemies. Jericho was
the first battle fought on Canaan’s soil, and Joshua
wanted to make certain that the first combat in the Prom-
ised Land was a success. Nothing so excites an army as a
successful bloodletting, and nothing rattles the nerve of
one’s enemies like a bloody example of the gruesome fate
that awaits them as well. In these respects, Joshua demon-
strated his intuitive understanding of the psychology of
war and provided a textbook example of how to use spe-
cial forces successfully. •
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 6
 National Geographic
Judah Beseiged
IN 700 BC, AN ASSYRIAN HOST COMES TO PUNISH THE UNRULY.
By Eric Niderost

In the spring of 701 bc King Senake-eriba of Assyria, better known to history as

Sennacherib, embarked on a vigorous campaign to crush a coalition of vassal
states that had been raised against him. Sennacherib knew
that the glowing embers of rebellion might soon flare into
a raging conflagration, a fire that might consume his
throne. The Assyrians maintained order by making an
example of those who dared to throw off their yoke, and
this campaign would be no exception. The flames of
rebellion would be extinguished by the flow of blood.
Just now the Assyrian army was besieging Lachish, a
fortress town in the kingdom of Judah about 30 miles
southwest of Jerusalem. King Hezekiah of Judah had
been one of the ringleaders of the insurrection, proclaim-
ing his defiance by withholding tribute to Sennacherib.
The foolish Hebrew monarch had sown the wind; he
would now reap the whirlwind.
Lachish was a fortress city with a formidable array of
defenses, and its capture would be no easy task. The city
was built on a large mound, protected on three sides by
natural wadis (dry river beds). It was ringed by two
walls, each constructed of sturdy mud bricks on a stone
surface. The upper wall was the main defense, roughly

Assyrian leader Sennacherib watches from his thrown as his army overwhelms the defenses of Lachish. Once the battle was finished he turned
his mighty army against the walled city of Jerusalem, but his army would succumb to disease (or perhaps a mightier force).
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 7

Excavated in Northern Iraq, this relief shows Assyrian archers firing
on the defeners of Lachish as others use scaling ladders to assault
the walls of the city.
18 feet thick and punctuated at intervals by tall towers.
Access to the city was via a low saddle of land that
sloped up near its southwestern corner, but near the top
any would-be intruder would encounter a massive forti-
fied gate system. These fortified gates jutted out boldly at
right angles from the main wall, looming directly above
an entrance road that snaked up the saddle. The gatehouse
boasted lofty towers, and no less than three chambers with
heavy wooden doors.
But the Assyrians were masters of the siege, taking
Lachish’s powerful defenses in stride. Wooden ramps
were quickly assembled, platforms that would allow
siege engines to approach the walls. At King Sen-
nacherib’s signal, the siege engines lumbered up the
ramps, leather-covered monstrosities that offered pro-
tection for both operators and defending archers behind
their thick hides. The engines were propelled by the
back-breaking exertions of Assyrian soldiers inside,
wooden wheels creaking as they made slow but steady
progress. Each siege engine also featured a long iron-
tipped spear that functioned as a sort of battering ram.
The Judaean (or Judahite) defenders were not idle, and
as the Assyrians approached, the air was filled with mis-
siles of every description. Archers shot a steady stream of
arrows, and slingers launched a deadly barrage of stones.
When the Assyrian siege engines got close enough, defend-
ers hurled lighted torches from the battlements, flaming
brands that somersaulted through the air before colliding
with the engines in a shower of sparks.
The torches were meant to set the siege engines alight,
but the Assyrians were old hands at war and were prepared
for every circumstance. By this time some ramps were cov-
ered with burning torches, a flaming carpet that threatened
to immolate the advancing engines. Suddenly long-handled
scoops nosed from each siege engine, giant ladles that were
filled with water. When the water was poured out, the
flames sputtered and died. Soon the air was filled with the
acrid stench of smoke and burned wood.
The attack intensified, and as the siege engines neared
the walls the defenders redoubled their missile fire. Clouds
of arrows pelted down on the Assyrians, and here and
there a black-bearded soldier would be pierced by a feath-
ered shaft. Finally the siege engines were close enough to
the wall to use their metal-tipped spear/battering rams.
The rams swung back, then came forward with terrific
force, each probing head biting into the mud-brick wall
and gouging a deep hole in it.
Sennacherib watched the assault from a hill near the
southwestern fortified gate. The man who grandiloquently
styled himself “King of Assyria, King of the World” was
seated on a throne, his feet resting on an elaborately dec-
orated footstool. Two servants stood behind him with
fans, shading and cooling the royal presence from the hot
Judaean sun. He was dressed in a rich multicolor tunic
bordered with gold fringe, and his long black beard hung
down in ringlets. Sennacherib’s eyes gleamed in anticipa-
tion of the riches seized and the captives taken once the
city fell.
The king was attended by the usual array of army offi-
cers and court functionaries, and nearby were some Assyr-
ian artists taking careful notes. Sennacherib must have
been pleased, because these artists were going to carve a
series of reliefs commemorating the siege of Lachish. The
reliefs would adorn a special room in the king’s palace at
Nineveh, a place where Sennacherib could display the
booty taken from the hapless city. Every detail of the siege
had to be faithfully recorded, or the artists risked the
king’s displeasure.
Sennacherib’s attention was diverted when a message
came from King Hezekiah. The missive was one of total
surrender; indeed, the Judaean king was almost groveling
in his submission. Sennacherib had apparently sent troops
to Jerusalem while he himself was investing Lachish.
Hezekiah had few viable options; he found himself
besieged in his own capital city, and his lands overrun. He
was helpless and bereft of allies, who had been conquered
or had submitted under threat of annihilation.
Hezekiah humbled himself before the might of Assyria,
and in so doing saved his nation. “I have done wrong,”
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 8
the Judaean king confessed, “withdraw a later time. In the 10th century BC the
from me, and whatever you impose on 12 Tribes of Israel were united by King
me I will bear” (2 Kings 18:14). Satisfied, David and his son Solomon. After
Sennacherib agreed to withdraw—but Solomon’s death ca. 933 BC the kingdom
made sure the peace would be a harsh split apart into two mutually antagonis-
one. tic states. The 10 northern tribes formed
The Assyrian king afterward recorded the kingdom of Israel, with its capital
his triumph on a stone later called the eventually at Samaria. Judah and Ben-
Sennacherib prism. “As to Hezikiah, the jamin, the two southern tribes, stayed
Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid loyal to the House of David and formed
siege to his strong cities, walled forts, and the kingdom of Judah.
countless small villages, and conquered It was Israel and Judah’s misfortune to
them by means of well-stamped earth be in what scholars call the “Levant,” the
ramps and battering rams brought near coastal strip that borders the Mediter-
the walls with an attack by foot sol- ranean Sea roughly from Syria in the
diers.… Himself I made a prisoner in north to the fringes of Egypt. The coastal
Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird strip was a natural artery of trade and
in a cage....” conquest, the crossroads of continents.
Once Hezekiah submitted, the Assyrian Although possessing fertile lands, the
king goes on, “... I still increased the trib- Levant was also the gateway to Egypt,
ute and presents to me as overlord ... the “gift of the Nile,” whose fabulous
Hezekiah himself did send me, later, to wealth tempted aggressors for centuries.
Nineveh, my lordly city, together with 30 But if geography played an important
talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, pre- role in Jewish history, so did faith. While
cious stones, antimony, large cuts of red most ancient cultures were polytheistic,
stone, couches inlaid with ivory, nimedu- worshiping a pantheon of gods, the Jews
chairs inlaid with ivory, elephant hides, placed their faith in a single all-powerful
ebony wood, boxwood, and all kinds of deity called Yahweh. Whether called
TOP: King Hezekiah, depicted in a
valuable treasures, his own daughters Yahweh, Jehovah or simply God,
17th century painting. ABOVE: Sen-
and concubines....” nacherib’s march of conquest. His monotheism was the Jewish gift to the
The Bible’s account of Hezekiah’s trib- route south met with victory after world. The state of Judah may have been
ute differs in detail, not substance. In 2 victory until he reached the walls of small, but its capital was Jerusalem, the
Kings 18:14 we read that Sennacherib Jerusalem. City of David. Jerusalem not only had
demanded three hundred talents of silver political significance, it was the site of
and 30 talents of gold. In today’s terms, that would still Solomon’s Temple, Yahweh’s house and the focal point
be 10 metric tons of silver and one metric ton of gold. In of Jewish worship.
order to pay the tribute Hezekiah not only had to deplete Both Judah and Israel had turbulent histories. Some
his treasury, but strip even the gold ornamentation from pages of the Bible are filled with a grim chronicle of polit-
the Temple. ical strife, bloodshed, and religious apostasy. At times
Hezekiah’s last-minute obeisance had won Judah a paganism was rife, and the people worshiped foreign gods
reprieve, but there was little time for rejoicing. The king and goddesses. Great prophets of Yahweh like Amos and
had to consider his future course of action with great care. Isaiah called them back to repentance, warning of dire
One misstep might mean the total extinction of Judah. consequences if they continued to stray.
Sennacherib’s campaign and Hezekiah’s subsequent sub- While Judah and Israel were wracked with dissention
mission came against a backdrop of intrigue and conquest and internecine strife, a new power was arising in the east,
that lasted more than a century. along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Assyria’s sturdy
Geography and faith have shaped the destiny of the peo- peasants made good soldiers, disciplined and brave, and
ple known to the Old Testament as Hebrews, or Jews to the adoption of iron weapons made them formidable foes.

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 9

Strong warrior kings provided the leadership to create an
empire, one that soon encompassed much of the ancient
Middle East. The Assyrians generally kept local native
rulers in place, demanding only obedience and a steady
flow of tribute from their conquered vassals. Sometimes,
an Assyrian official was attached to a vassal’s court, just
to keep an eye on things.
In spite of political strife and occasional religious con-
troversy, the 8th century BC was a period of general pros-
perity for both Israel and Judah. By this time both states
were tributaries of the Assyrian empire, but Israel’s con-
tinued rebellion eventually brought retribution. In 722 BC
the Israelite capital of Samaria fell after a long siege. Its
capture marked the end of the Israelite state. Those not
put to the sword or otherwise executed were deported to
Assyria, there to disappear from the pages of history as
the enigmatic “lost tribes of Israel.”
Starting with Tiglath Pilser III (744-727 bc), Assyrian
kings sought a firmer control of the “motley of nations”
that made up their disparate empire. Rebellion was ruth-
lessly crushed, often with wholesale slaughter followed by
mass deportations. Rebels were tortured, and had to
endure horrifying torments before being granted the
mercy of death. Victims were impaled on stakes, beaten
to death with iron bars, or even flayed alive. Terror
became a weapon of Assyrian policy.
Conquered nations still hoped for freedom, patiently
waiting for the chance to cast off the Assyrian yoke.
Around 727 BC (dates are disputed) Hezekiah became
King of Judah, and one of his first acts was to initiate a
program of religious reform. His father Ahaz had been
lax, with pagan cults to Baal and other deities flourishing
throughout the land. The name “Hezekiah” means
“Yahweh has strengthened,” and the new king proved it
by demanding a return to the exclusive worship of Yah-
weh. Religious scruples aside, Hezekiah must have real-
ized a return to Yahweh unified the nation in the face of
coming trials.
In 705 BC the Assyrian king Sargon II died, creating a
temporary power vacuum while his son Sennacherib took
over the reins of government. Scenting weakness, if only
for a moment, many of the subject peoples raised the ban-
ner of revolt. Precise details are sketchy, but Judah appar-
ently allied itself with the Philistine states of Ashkelon and
Ekron, as well as Sidon in Phoenicia. The Ammonites,
Moabites, and Edomites also joined the anti-Assyrian
coalition, until it seemed nearly all the Levant was in
revolt. Egypt encouraged the rebels, because its power was
Ritmeyer Archaeological Design
Jerusalem at the time of the siege. The inner wall was built to pro-
tect the City of David, while the outer wall was built to resist
Sennscherib.
in decline and it rightly feared the power of Assyria.
Sennacherib had a reputation for cruelty and arro-
gance, but he was also a ruler of ability and political
shrewdness. Judah and the other western tributary states
were on the periphery, far from the centers of Assyrian
power, as the king well recognized. Because they were
far from the Assyrian heartland, they were of less imme-
diate concern. He could deal with them in his own good
time. Merdach-baladan of Babylonia was the greater
threat, since he was much closer to Nineveh’s doorstep.
A former ruler of Babylon, Merdach-baladan took
advantage of the confusion attending Sargon’s death to
regain control of the great city.
The Assyrian king dealt with Merdach-baladan first,
launching a devastating campaign that routed the Baby-
lonian leader and sent him scurrying back into exile. Then
Sennacherib turned north, stamping out “brush fire”
revolts among the Median tribes along the Caspian Sea.
These campaigns took two or three years, but by 701 BC
the Assyrian king was ready to deal with the Levant.
Sweeping down “like a wolf on the fold,” Sennacherib
ravished the area with fire and sword. Sidon was taken,
its king, Luli, fleeing from the city in terror only to find
an ignominious death in exile.
The Assyrian army continued south, hugging the
Mediterranean coast, and it seemed nothing could stand
against it. The Philistine city of Ashkelon was captured,
its king, Sidqa, put in chains. Turning north, Sennacherib
attacked Ekron, which also was taken. Now, at last, it was
Judah’s turn. In the Sennacherib Prism the king boasts of
46 Judaean cities taken, and 200,150 people led off into
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 10
captivity, not to mention horses, mules, cattle, and other
livestock. The figures might be inflated for propaganda
purposes, but it was clear Judah had sustained a terrible
blow, a blow that a less resilient people might not have
survived.
Sennacherib accepted Hezekiah’s surrender, raised the
siege, and returned to Nineveh in triumph. There is a cur-
rent debate raging among scholars and archaeologists
whether the 701 BC siege of Jerusalem was the city’s only
brush with the Assyrians, or whether they returned a few
years later. Recently uncovered evidence points to a second
Assyrian siege, this one taking place perhaps ca. 688 BC.
King Hezekiah realized Jerusalem’s defenses had to be
strengthened if the city stood any chance of resisting an
Assyrian siege. The problem was compounded by the
city’s growth, its population swelled by refugees coming
in from conquered Israel. The matter once fueled another
debate among scholars and archaeologists, but now it has
been established that Jerusalem was expanding westward
at a steady pace. Some authorities estimate Jerusalem cov-
ered 125 acres, maybe even more, and boasted a popula-
tion of 25,000.
Time was of the essence; making Jerusalem ready to
resist the Assyrians might take years to fully implement.
Hezekiah dictated a flurry of orders to his scribes, and
soon all Jerusalem was transformed into a hive of activity.
Orders were inscribed on papyrus scrolls, then rolled up
and tied with a string. The string was held in place by a
small lump of clay called a bulla, which was imprinted
with the king’s seal. Hezekiah’s seal bore the image of a
winged beetle or scarab, together with the legend lhzqyhw
‘hdz mlk / yhdh, or “Belonging to Hezekiah, (son of)
Ahaz, King of Judah.” Such a seal would command atten-
tion and immediate obedience.
The walls of Jerusalem were one of the king’s chief con-
cerns. The main city wall dated to 1700 BC, and in spite
of repairs over the centuries it was in a delapidated con-
dition. In any case, the old wall largely protected its
ancient heart, the City of David. Jerusalem’s new growth
to the west lay outside its boundaries. In 2 Chronicles 32
the Bible notes that “Hezekiah set to work resolutely and
built up the entire wall that was broken down.” The king
also ordered the construction of additional walls, includ-
ing an outer wall that faced the Kidron valley to the east,
and enclosed the Gihon Spring within its stone embrace.
The new and vulnerable western sections of the city also
had to be protected by a wall, and work was begun at
once. The new construction was massive, a broad belt of
stone measuring 23 feet thick and about 27 feet high.
Some residents found their homes in the path of these
new walls, and had to yield “right of way.” A 210-foot
section of this wall was discovered in 1969 by archaeolo-
gist Nahman Avigad, who dubbed it the Broad Wall. Isa-
iah notes in Isaiah 22:9-10, when speaking probably of
Hezekiah, “You took note of the many breaches in the
City of David [Jerusalem] and pulled houses down to for-
tify the wall.”
With the repair of the old wall and the raising of new
ones well under way, Hezekiah could turn his attention
to even more pressing matters. Water is crucial to human
life, and an absolute necessity to a city resisting a long
siege. Jerusalem’s only source of water was the Gihon
Spring, located near the city gates. The cold, clear waters
of the spring were funneled into a pool, which in turn was
guarded by two or three towers. One of these, the Spring
Tower, stood an impressive 30 feet high.
Hezekiah’s workers restored and strengthened the tow-
ers, but the king and his advisers were still uneasy. True,
the Gihon Spring and its pool now were protected by the
new wall, and of course its looming stone towers. Yet
Hezekiah was aware of a paradox: Those towers also
were dead giveaways to an enemy, alerting him that some-
thing important was being protected. Worse still, the
Gihon Spring and its pool were near the outer gates, tra-
ditionally a city’s most vulnerable point in time of siege.
The people of Jerusalem shared the king’s anxiety, say-
ing, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find
water in abundance?” (2 Chronicles 32:5). Hezekiah and
his officers began planning something that was bold and
innovative: a tunnel that would channel Gihon’s water to
the other, western, side of the city. It would be a major
undertaking, as well as a brilliant piece of engineering for
the 8th century BC.
Two teams of diggers were employed, each starting on
opposite ends of the proposed excavation. It was hot,
sweaty, back-breaking work, but when it was completed
Hezekiah’s tunnel ran an impressive 1,750 feet. Water
now flowed from the Gihon Spring to Siloam pool on the
opposite end of the tunnel. If Sennacherib managed to
breach the wall, and even capture the Gihon and its tower
pool, Jerusalem would still not go thirsty. Since the tunnel
entrance would be concealed, Sennacherib might never
know waters still flowed to the other side of the city, safe
from Assyrian control.
These projects would take years (another argument in
favor of a second siege, because Hezekiah would simply
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 11

A view inside the tunnel dug to divert water from Gihon Spring to
Siloam pool.
not have had enough time to raise walls and excavate tun-
nels before the 701 BC assault). In any case, once prepa-
rations were complete the Judaean king could face the
future with more confidence. Now, if he played his hand
well, he might break the Assyrian chains that still held
Judah captive. Looking for allies, he found one in Pharaoh
Tirhakah, ruler of both Egypt and Ethiopia. Tirhakah, a
general who gained the Egyptian throne in 690 BC, was
apparently very lavish in his promises of aid. Hezekiah
now had an earthly ally, but he was secure in the knowl-
edge that Yahweh, the God of Israel, would also be on his
side. The Judaean king now had the courage to again
withhold tribute from the Assyrians.
Sennacherib’s reaction was one of predicable outrage.
It was obvious that this upstart Jew and his petty hill
kingdom needed to be taught a bitter lesson, a lesson
that would also be salutary for other subject peoples
straining at the yoke. Judah would be utterly destroyed,
its lands laid waste and its people slaughtered or bundled
off into captivity. No one knows what Sennacherib had
in mind for Hezekiah, but it was probably torture, then
execution by impaling or flaying alive. Perhaps Sen-
nacherib was planning a special, even more gruesome
method of execution, incensed as he was by Hezekiah’s
continued defiance of his will. There was one thing for
certain: The Judaean king was staking his own life and
the life of his nation on a bold gamble.
If the two-campaign theory is correct, and evidence
seems to point that way, Judah had 13 years to recuperate
from the first Assyrian invasion. Now, the Assyrians were
coming again, this time hoping to exact a terrible retribu-
tion. Once again Sennacherib swept down the Mediter-
ranean coast, and once again Lachish was besieged. The
Assyrians changed their tactics from their first attack on
Lachish. This time they built one great siege ramp against
the walls, instead of several smaller ones as they did in
701 BC. This great ramp was a difficult proposition, the
task made more difficult by the incessant rain of arrows
and stones coming down from the Lachish battlements.
But to the dismay of the Lachish population, the con-
struction outside advanced. Then when the ramp was
complete Sennacherib ordered a full-scale assault on the
walls. Massive siege engine/battering rams lurched for-
ward, sprayed as usual by accurate missile fire hurled
from the battlements above. Soon Assyrian battering
rams began to swing, colliding with the walls in a series
of dull, rhythmic thuds. The Assyrian crews really put
their backs into the effort, and deep fissures began to
spread from the point of each impact. The walls could
take no more, and soon much of Lachish’s southwestern
wall collapsed with a roar.
It was a signal for the Assyrian infantry to move for-
ward, clambering over the rubble of shattered wall bricks.
With its powerful bulwark gone Lachish was helpless
before the invaders, who swarmed through the city like
angry furies. Those who tried to resist were ruthlessly cut
down, until scores of bloodied corpses littered the narrow
streets. The mound of Lachish was crowned by a huge
palace-fort, which was probably the last to fall.
Their bloodlust sated, at least for the moment, bearded
Assyrian spearmen began to gather booty and herd cap-
tives out of the city. Ordinary citizens were generally
spared and ordered to gather up their belongings for the
long march to Assyria. Some of the captives—perhaps the
royal governor of Lachish and other prominent citizens—
were singled out for special treatment. Dragged outside
the city walls, they were stripped naked and impaled alive
on long poles. Others were staked to the ground and
flayed alive.
The survivors of Lachish began streaming out of their
fallen city, a melancholy procession of involuntary immi-
grants facing life in a distant and alien land. Women car-
ried sacks over their shoulders, all they could collect on
such short notice, and as they trudged barefoot through
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 12

Sennacherib looks on as his army brings siege weapons to bear
against the walls against Lachish.
the dust crying children clung to their tunics in bewilder-
ment. The children’s mournful wails were a funeral dirge
for a lost city. Judaean men led ox-drawn carts filled with
possessions and family, prodded along by the bloody
spears of watchful Assyrian guards.
The fear-numbed captives marched past the impaled vic-
tims, still writhing in agony atop their poles. A few were
brought to Sennacherib himself, and once in the royal
presence they flung themselves on the ground in supplica-
tion. No one could doubt but that Lachish was a kind of
microcosm of Jerusalem, its fate a foretaste of what would
happen to the capital of Judah if its defenses failed to repel
the invader.
During the latter stages of the siege of Lachish, Sen-
nacherib dispatched part of his army to Jerusalem. The
Jerusalem-bound force was entrusted to a trio of top aides,
the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh. The “Tar-
tan” or “Tartanu” was an army officer, a kind of field
marshal. Biblical scholars interpret “Rabsaris” and “Rab-
shakeh” in different ways. “Rabsaris” is translated “Chief
of Eunuchs,” while “Rabshakeh” is rendered “chief but-
ler,” “Chief of Staff,” or even “Vizier.” Whatever their
designations, these men were no mere palace bureaucrats
but skilled diplomats and subtle negotiators.
Meanwhile, messengers kept Hezekiah well informed
about Assyrian movements. While Lachish still held the
invaders at bay Jerusalem girded itself for battle. Stocks
of grain were gathered from the countryside and placed
inside the city. Peasant farmers and their families sought
refuge within the city’s stout double walls. Men were
issued spears and shields from the city’s well-stocked
armories and assigned places on Jerusalem’s walls. High
atop the battlements archers filled quivers with arrows,
and slingers made mounds of stones that were placed
nearby. Jerusalem’s great bronze-sheathed gates were
ordered closed, and as they came together a heavy thud
echoed over the gateway towers. The gates gave every
impression of solidity and strength—but were they up to
the fearsome pounding of an Assyrian battering ram?
Assyrian cavalrymen soon appeared, the vanguards of
the main body. Then other Assyrian units began to arrive,
and set to work pitching tents for a siege camp. The
defenders must have been awestruck at the sight of the
Assyrian army. The people of Jerusalem had had their own
brief brush with the Assyrians during the first siege 13
years before, but now the enemy was here in earnest.
Jerusalemites must have heard the stories of Assyrian con-
quest, of torture, death, and mutilation, and the tales grew
in horror with each retelling.
The Assyrians knew their reputation preceded them,
and in fact counted on it to weaken enemy resolve. While
there might have been an element of sadism involved,
Assyrians largely used slaughter, torture, and mutilation
as instruments of policy. It was a not-too-subtle—yet
effective—means of psychological warfare. There were
other forms of psychological warfare as well, and the
Assyrian commanders were about to try some of these
techniques on the people of Jerusalem.
Chariots rumbled out of the Assyrian camp, the horses
brightly caparisoned in red, blue, and gold. They halted
just outside extreme bow-shot range and a herald asked
for a parley. The Assyrians wanted to deal with Hezekiah
himself, and demanded the royal presence. Hezekiah
declined, but sent out three representatives instead: Eli-
akim, the head of the royal household; Shebnah, the
palace secretary or scribe; and Joah, the herald.
When the opposing parties met it was the Rabshakeh
who became the principal Assyrian spokesman. Fluent in
Hebrew, he began a verbal offensive just as sharp as Assyr-
ian spears. “Say to Hezekiah,” he began, “Thus says the
great king, king of Assyria: On what do you base this con-
fidence of yours? Do you think mere words are strategy
and power for war? On whom do you rely, that you have
rebelled against me? See, you are relying now on Egypt,
that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of
anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 13

An Assyrian archer prepares to fire, protected by the shield of a
spearman.
all who rely on him” (2 Kings 18:19-21).
No, the Rabshakeh continued, Egypt was weak, and
the Judaean army pitifully small. The Rabshakeh even
suggested, tongue in cheek, that Sennacherib would give
Hezekiah two thousand horses—if, that is, the Judaean
king could find riders for them. Up to this point the par-
ley had been conducted in Hebrew, the Judaean lan-
guage. The conference was held near the Gihon Spring,
within earshot of the walls. The Judaean delegation
respectfully requested that the talk switch to Aramaic, a
lingua franca that was spreading throughout the Levant
and was quickly becoming the language of diplomacy.
Eliakim and his companions were understandably fearful
that the Rabshakeh’s words would undermine the
morale of the soldiers listening from the battlements
above.
Taking his cue from the request, the Rabshakeh not only
refused to switch to Aramaic, but actually began to
address the soldiers on the wall directly, ignoring the offi-
cial Judaean delegation. He stepped forward and called
to the men on the battlements in a loud voice, couching
his arguments in terms he thought would appeal to the
survival instincts of the common people. “Do not let
Hezekiah deceive you,” he cried in a loud voice, but the
soldiers on the battlements maintained a stony silence.
The Rabshakeh urged the people of Jerusalem to make
peace with Sennacherib. If they submitted, they would be
spared and taken to “a land like your own, a land of grain
and wine.”
The message was clear: Even if they surrendered,
Jerusalem would be destroyed and they would be taken
into captivity. Exile was hardly an enticing prospect, but
the Rabshakeh seemed to feel that bondage in a foreign
land was preferable to death. “Choose life, not death!”
the Rabshakeh said in summation.
When the parley ended Eliakim and the others reported
back to the king. The king’s resolve momentarily left him,
and within moments he was plunged into paroxysms of
grief and despair. Rending his clothes in token of distress,
he soon replaced his royal robes with sackcloth and went
to the Temple that his ancestor Solomon had built. The
Temple was called the Bayit, literally the “House” of the
Lord. Inside the Sanctuary there was the kodesh ha-
kodashim, the “Holy of Holies,” where the sacred Ark of
the Covenant was placed. While the king was absorbed
in his devotions, his messengers sought out Isaiah the
prophet. Isaiah sent words of comfort, saying the Assyri-
ans would never take Jerusalem.
Meanwhile the Rabshakeh and his party returned to
Sennacherib to make their report, finally catching up with
him at Libnah. Flushed with victory, the Assyrian king’s
arrogance was at its height. Sennacherib dispatched
another message to Hezekiah warning him not to trust
in the power of the Hebrew God. Other gods of other
nations were unable to protect their peoples from the
wrath of the Assyrians. Why, argued Sennacherib, should
Yahweh be any different?
Meanwhile, the defenders of Jerusalem watched in grim
silence as the Assyrians made their final preparations to
invest the isolated city. Brushwood was gathered in great
quantities; this would be piled against the walls and set
ablaze, so that the searing heat would crack the masonry.
Mobile battering rams similar to the ones used so success-
fully at Lachish were readied and put into position. Assyr-
ian sappers brought in tools to excavate earth, which
would be used to build a great siege ramp. Sennacherib
was apparently unaware of Hezekiah’s tunnel; earlier, the
Rabshakeh warned the people of Jerusalem that their king
was delivering them “over to a death of famine and thirst”
(2 Chronicles 32:11). Little did the Assyrians know that
the tunnel was already supplying a steady flow of fresh
water to Siloam pool.
Would the new city defenses hold up to the fury of a full-
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 14
Typhus (or some other camp disease), here in the form of an Angel of the Lord, perhaps killed as many as 185,000 of Sennacherib’s troops.
scale attack? Luckily for Jerusalem, they were never put to
the test, because something like a miracle occurred.
According to Bible accounts an “Angel of the Lord” slew
“185,000” Assyrians in their camp. There’s been much
speculation about what happened, but poor sanitation—
a common failing in ancient times—probably sparked an
epidemic of some sort. Typhus or another disease must
have spread through the Assyrians like wildfire, decimating
their ranks and rendering the survivors weak and demor-
alized. There was nothing left to do under the circum-
stances but raise the siege and return home.
The accounts aren’t clear, but Sennacherib apparently
wasn’t with his Jerusalem army. Could it have been that
the Assyrian king was elsewhere, busy fighting Pharaoh
Tirhakah of Egypt? A recently deciphered Egyptian text
claims a military victory by Tirhakah over an unnamed
foe. Was it Sennacherib? If the Assyrians were defeated,
or at least checked, perhaps Tirhakah wasn’t such a “bro-
ken reed of a staff” after all. Certainly, a possible defeat
at the hands of the Egyptians, coupled with the Jerusalem
disaster, would make Sennacherib’s campaign a shambles.
Assyrian defeat at the hands of the Egyptians is a matter
for conjecture—but the Jerusalem debacle is a matter of
historical fact. “So King Sennacherib of Assyria left, went
home, and lived in Nineveh” (2 Kings 19:36). Thus runs
a Bible passage that laconically records the end of the cam-
paign. Yet there was no need for boastful words or rhetor-
ical flourishes. Jerusalem had been delivered from the
hands of Sennacherib, thanks in large part to Hezekiah’s
preparations and—many believed—the intervention of
Yahweh.
Sennacherib lived another seven years after the second
siege, dying by the hands of two of his sons in 681 BC. He
never returned to Judah, mute but eloquent testimony to
the defeat he had sustained there. Isaiah’s prediction of
Assyrian defeat had been fulfilled, as when he said,
“Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the king of
Assyria, He shall not come into this city [Jerusalem] or
shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield or
cast up a siege mound against it. By the way he came, by
the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this
city, says the Lord” (Kings 19:32-33). •
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 15
Siege of Tyre
WITH PERSIAN KING DARIUS REELING IN DEFEAT IN ASIA MINOR, ALEXANDER THE GREAT
TURNED HIS ATTENTION TO THE HEAVILY FORTIFIED PORT OF TYRE.
By Marc G. De Santis

It was the autumn of 333 bc and Alexander the Great stood triumphant on the
battlefield of Issus. All around him lay the corpses of his defeated enemies, the
vast host of Persian King Darius III who had been routed Achilles, too, had been young when he went off to fight
by Alexander’s Macedonian soldiers. Darius himself had at Troy. Alexander, his annotated copy of Homer’s
been forced to ignominiously flee from the field, leaving beloved Iliad always with him, sought to emulate and sur-
behind his personal treasure and even his family. The king’s pass the ancient heroes of Greek legend. Just as Achilles
wife, mother, and daughters were now in Alexander’s pos- had fought in the front rank of his Myrmidons, so too
session. Although Darius had been soundly beaten, he had did Alexander fight at the forefront of his Macedonians.
escaped capture. Alexander realized, however reluctantly, What the deified Heracles had done, he would also do. If
that he would have to march inland to deal with Darius Heracles had marched somewhere, Alexander would
once and for all. march even farther. The heroes of Greek mythology were
Alexander was very young, only 23 years old, but very real to Alexander, and served as both inspiration and

The Macedonian fleet ferries soldiers to the foot of the Tyrian battlements during the battle’s climax in this 15th century painting .
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 16
goad to his conquest of Persia and, ultimately, the entire
known world.
Alexander’s invasion had made extraordinary progress
since he had crossed the Hellespont into Asia in the spring
of 334 BC The Macedonians had defeated two major Per-
sian armies, one at the Granicus River in May 334 BC, the
other at Issus 17 months later. Several satrapies in Asia
Minor, as the Persian empire’s western provinces were
called, had fallen to Alexander. Asia Minor was now rel-
atively secure, but Alexander still faced a difficult strategic
predicament. He realized that a final accounting with Dar-
ius was impossible to avoid if he was to realize his boyhood
dream of conquering Persia. Darius had meanwhile fled to
the eastern domains of his empire, where he was busily
recruiting a new army with which to confront the upstart
Macedonian boy-king. Other Persian forces, including
their naval allies in the eastern Mediterranean—the island
kingdom of Cyprus and the Phoenician city-states of Sidon
and Tyre—were much nearer to hand, and that was the
problem. Alexander dared not venture into the interior of
southwestern Asia while the Mediterranean seaboard was
still controlled by forces loyal to the Persian king.
Problems loomed from other quarters as well. There
were still many in Greece, only recently subjugated by
Macedonia, who would be delighted to see Alexander’s
grand venture against Persia fail. The idea of a united
Hellenic assault against Persia had been debated in Greece
for many decades, but until the advent of Alexander the
Great no one had dared to attempt it. The current pan-
Hellenic war against the Persians was being led by Mace-
donia, an interesting development since Macedonia had
long been considered a rough-mannered, uncultured back-
water, its hard-drinking people deemed barely Grecian by
the more sophisticated Hellenes to the south. Under the
visionary leadership of Alexander’s father, King Philip II,
Macedonia had enforced a grudging alliance on the Greek
states. Alexander was leading that alliance on a mission to
punish the Persians for their many real or imagined trans-
gressions during previous Persian invasions of Greece some
150 years before. Yet many Greeks hated Alexander even
more than they hated the Persians, believing him to be the
chief reason for the loss of their ancient liberties.
Despite his comparative youth, Alexander was no fool.
He realized that if the remaining Persian forces in the west
could somehow combine with the disaffected faction in
Greece, he would find himself trapped in Asia with hostile
Persians to his front and rebellious Greeks to his rear. It
was imperative for Alexander to defeat, or at least neu-
tralize, the Persian navy, which operated out of the islands
and city-states of the eastern Mediterranean and even now
was openly campaigning against him in the Aegean Sea.
Alexander’s resources, however, were limited, and he
could not hope to match Darius by building a fleet to com-
pete with the Persians. Instead, Alexander decided on a
different course. Persian naval forces were heavily depend-
ent upon land bases for rest and refitting. Their war gal-
leys were crewed by large numbers of rowers and marines,
whose physical endurance was limited by the minimal
provisions they carried with them. The lightly equipped
galleys were unable to stay at sea for very long or conduct
lengthy blockades. Sooner or later they would have to
retire to port to reprovision. If Alexander could deprive
the enemy’s naval forces of their bases, he could, in effect,
defeat them without ever having to go to sea himself.
Alexander planned to win control of the seas by winning
control of the coastline.
As with all military plans, this was more easily said than
done. The western coast of Asia was dotted with many
well-fortified cities. The stoutest of all was Tyre, an
ancient Phoenician city grown rich on the strength of its
maritime commerce and formidable navy. Alexander and
his army drew up before Tyre in January 332 BC, and the
young king could not have liked what he saw. The Mace-
donians had previously taken a fortified city, Halicarnas-
sus, in Asia Minor, but Tyre was an entirely different mat-
ter. The city was built on a small island separated from
the coast by a half-mile of open water. The island had two
well-used harbors, one in the north and one in the south.
Tyre was a natural fortress improved upon by man. Its
thick walls were, in some places, 150-feet high. Having
once withstood a 13-year siege by the Babylonian King
Nebuchadnezzar, Tyre was considered impregnable by its
proud inhabitants, many of whom watched warily from
their battlements as the blond-haired monarch from the
north approached.
A delegation of leading Tyrians emerged from the city
when Alexander’s army drew close and formally greeted
the young king. They told Alexander that the people of
Tyre had decided to do whatever he might command—
within reason. Alexander needed to gain access to Tyre,
and he now devised a rather dubious excuse to do so. He
wished to enter their city, he told the Tyrians, so that he
might make a sacrifice at the ancient temple of the Tyrian
god Melqart, whom the Greeks identified with their own
god Heracles. The Tyrians, not wishing to offend their
longstanding client, King Darius, by offering too much
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 17

Meeting with leaders of Tyre, Alexander the Great hoped to capture
the city without the use of force. Alexander is shown in this detail
of a 17th century fresco depicting his life.
hospitality to Alexander, politely declined. It was a time
of high religious festival in Tyre, and allowing Alexander
entry into the city might be construed as quasi-official
acknowledgment of his overlordship. The Tyrians sug-
gested instead that Alexander make his sacrifice to Her-
acles in the Old City, which was opposite the island on
the mainland. They would happily obey all his other
commands, the Tyrians said, but they would not allow
either Persians or Macedonians to enter their city while
the outcome of their war was still in doubt.
Alexander was enraged when he heard the Tyrian
refusal. He quickly summoned his leading officers to his
tent and began making plans to lay siege to the city. With
his matchless charisma, he soon instilled in his soldiers a
fierce desire to take Tyre. Somewhat conveniently,
Alexander claimed to have had a dream in which Hera-
cles took him by the hand and led him into Tyre. Natu-
rally, Aristander, the king’s court seer, regarded this as a
favorable omen. Nevertheless, good omens aside, per-
suading his men to besiege Tyre and successfully achiev-
ing its downfall were two very different things. Situated
as it was upon an island, Tyre was protected by a natural
moat, and the water was 18 feet deep where it came clos-
est to the Phoenician shoreline. Moreover, the Persian
navy, a large component of which was provided by Tyre
itself, was still in overall command of the sea. Taking a
fortified city was never easy, and Tyre would be a partic-
ularly tough nut to crack.
The awesome Macedonian phalanx, bristling with rank
upon rank of warriors armed with long pikes, was the ulti-
mate refinement of the ancient Hoplite phalanx. Unlike
the Greek city-states that had developed the formidable
fighting formation, Alexander supplemented the phalanx
with support troops of all kinds, fielding perhaps the first
truly integrated combined-arms force. Most prominent
among these was Alexander’s elite cavalry, which spear-
headed the awesome striking power of the Macedonian
army. Alexander’s preferred tactic was to advance his pha-
lanx along a broad front and fix the enemy in place while
he, at the head of his cavalry, struck furiously at the heart
of the enemy line. This hammer-and-anvil approach had
brought Alexander victory after victory, most recently at
Issus. At Tyre, however, such tactics were subject to
change. This would not be a battle fought on an open
plain, but rather a siege of a strongly fortified city. Here
the phalanx formation was useless, and Alexander some-
how had to find a way into Tyre before his soldiers’ fight-
ing ability could make a difference.
Alexander did have some factors working in his favor.
The Macedonian army was unprecedented in the Greek
world in many ways, not least of which was its formidable
siege train. A powerful arsenal of siege machines was
something of an innovation in Greek warmaking. The ear-
lier armies of the city-states had rarely been equipped to
take fortified places, and they usually had contented them-
selves with merely ravaging the surrounding territory.
Alexander, by contrast, brought a new and frightening
potency to siege warfare. Presaging his relentless and ruth-
less approach to war, Alexander made use of a wide range
of equipment, including arrow launchers, rock throwers,
and siege towers. Along with their combat engineering
skills, these weapons allowed the Macedonians to attack
even the best-defended fortifications.
Alexander’s siege machines were also made distinctive
by their ingenious construction. The Macedonian siege
train included a remarkable array of different types of
arrow and stone projectors, which were the primary
artillery used by Alexander’s army. With the invention of
gunpowder still far in the future, Alexander’s engineers
had to rely on the use of muscle and mechanical power to
throw arrows or stones over long distances. The Mace-
donian catapult used for this task was akin to a gigantic
crossbow. It differed from the crossbow in that the
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 18
mechanical energy used to launch its projectiles was stored
not in the arms of the bow, but in thick bands of twisted
animal sinew. The sinew was strong and elastic, and these
properties allowed it to store energy in a relatively compact
space. Two bundles of sinew cord, one on each side of the
weapon, were mounted upright, perpendicular to the pro-
jectile. By means of levers, the operator of the weapon
would twist the bundles of sinew cord along their longitu-
dinal axis. This process, known as torsion, stored energy
in the twisted cords of sinew until they were taut. Upon
release, the bundles of sinew would unwind, transferring
the stored energy by means of two arms embedded within
the bundles to a bow string, which then hurled the projec-
tile forward. While this type of mechanical artillery lacked
the flash and bang of gunpowder-loaded cannon, it
nonetheless proved quite useful in ancient sieges. It had
greater range than a man-powered bow, and as some of
the stone projectiles weighed over 30 pounds, could also
hit harder. Such weapons would play a significant role dur-
ing the coming siege.
As to the day-to-day conduct of the siege, the first prob- Alexander’s Macedonians built two separate earthen causeways
(moles) to transport their siege machines to the very gates of Tyre.
lem that confronted Alexander was simply how to get at,
and through, the walls of Tyre. They were far away from
the mainland, and over water 18 feet deep. Alexander a stockade was put up around mole’s perimeter.
ordered the construction of a stone and earthen causeway, In response, the Tyrians built a fireship, a vessel loaded
or mole, to be built from the mainland out to the city. The with combustible materials and covered with pitch and
Macedonians chose the shorter but deeper route, and brimstone. From the yard-arms of the masts they hung
began to fill in the channel with stones and wood. The large pots of flammable substances. A heavy ballast was
buildings of Old Tyre were ruthlessly dismantled to pro- placed in the stern, which caused the bow of the ship to
vide material for the proposed causeway. rise out of the water. When a favorable wind arose, Tyrian
As the construction of the mole progressed, the Tyrians triremes (oared ships) towed the fireship out of the harbor
sailed out of their safe harbor and taunted the laboring and ran it aground on the mole. The sailors on board the
Macedonians. They asked the workers if they were trying fireship tossed their torches into the vessel and leaped
to challenge Poseidon, the ancient god of the sea, by build- away, swimming safely back to the city. The ship quickly
ing their mole across the water. As the mole came closer became engulfed in a mighty conflagration as the flamma-
to the city, however, the Tyrians lost their swagger and ble materials packed on board ignited. The hanging pots
began to take the threat more seriously. As the mole came spilled their contents onto the mole when the flames caused
within range of Tyre’s walls, the Macedonian soldiers the masts to collapse. Meanwhile, the crews on the other
were hit with numerous missiles launched from Tyrian Tyrian vessels remained nearby and showered the siege
war galleys. Since the Tyrian ships had nothing to fear towers with missiles, thereby preventing the Macedonians
from enemy galleys, they were able to approach quite from getting close enough to fight the flames. When the
close to the mole and strike the Macedonians at various towers themselves began to burn, a general sortie of Tyrian
spots, making continuation of the construction work ships struck the mole at all points. The Tyrians knocked
impossible. In response, Alexander had his soldiers build down the stockade around the mole and destroyed all the
two siege towers and cover them with wet hides to protect Macdeonian siege engines positioned on it.
against enemy fire arrows. On the tops of these towers The Tyrian attack was a bitter blow for Alexander, who
the Macedonians placed artillery to retaliate against the watched in disgust as his mole and the expensive siege
Tyrian war galleys that came too close. At the same time, equipment on it went up in flames. The young king, how-

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 19

ever, would not admit defeat, and he immediately began
construction of second, wider mole that could hold more
towers. Whole trees were dumped into the water to fill up
the depth, while Alexander’s engineers went to work
building new siege engines.
Realizing that as long as the Tyrians held command of
the sea he would have a terrible time trying to reach the
city and breach its walls, Alexander left with his guards
and some light infantry and made for the nearby town of
Sidon, where he requisitioned a number of that city’s
triremes. At the same time, two other Phoenician kings,
Gerostratus of Aradus and Enylus of Byblos, guessing
which way the fortunes of war would probably go,
deserted the Persian fleet and came over to Alexander with
their ships. Cyprus, awed by the news of Alexander’s vic-
tory at the Issus, sent a fleet of 120 vessels to join him,
while Rhodes and several other minor powers also sent
ships to aid Alexander. Soon the king had amassed a for-
midable fleet numbering over 250 vessels.
Returning to Tyre, Alexander moved against the city
with his newfound fleet, and the Tyrians, daunted by the
size of the enemy force, hung back, blocking the harbor
mouths with their galleys. Seeing that the Tyrians would
not take the bait and sail out from their city, and not
wishing to try and force his way into the well-guarded
harbors, Alexander stationed the Cypriot fleet outside
the northern harbor and the Phoenicians ships outside
the southern. With the Tyrians thus effectively bottled
up in their harbor, work on the mole could continue
unimpeded.
Newly built siege engines were brought onto the mole,
while other weapons were put aboard ships and moored
nearby. The Tyrians countered with wooden towers
mounted on top of their battlements.
At length, the Macedonians launched a major assault
against the 150-foot-high walls. Tyrian artillery was
frightfully effective, causing the Macedonian ships to hang
back from supporting the attack. The Tyrians tossed so
many large stones that they became an underwater hazard
to Macedonian ships attempting to get close to the city.
Alexander had his ships try to hoist the stones out of the
water with ropes, but Tyrian ships closed with the attackers
and cut the anchoring cables of the Macedonian galleys,
making it impossible for them to gain the leverage needed
to extract the stones from the water. Alexander countered
by sending other ships to protect the ones engaged in
removing the stones, but the crafty Tyrians responded by
sending divers to cut the anchor cables. The Macedonians
in turn replaced their cables with chains, which the divers
could make no impression on. Ultimately, the Macedo-
nians succeeded in pulling the stones out of the water by
means of cranes, and dropping them into deeper water,
where they would not be a danger.
The Tyrians were greatly alarmed at this development,
especially since the mole now extended almost to the walls
of the city. Accordingly, they planned a surprise attack
against the Cypriot fleet blocking the northern harbor.
They placed sails across the mouth of the harbor so that
they could man their vessels in secret. At midday, when
the Cypriot sailors were reprovisioning and Alexander
had retired to his tent for his usual noon rest, the Tyrians
sallied forth with 13 war galleys, each carrying the best
crews and marines the city could muster. Emerging quietly
from the northern harbor, not daring even to mark time
for the rowers for fear of being overheard, the Tyrians fell
upon the unsuspecting Cypriots.
Some of the moored Cypriot vessels were entirely empty
of crew, while others were just being remanned when the
attack began. A number of Cypriot ships were quickly
destroyed, but Alexander, who had arisen unexpectedly,
pulled together all the ships he could summon. Most of
these he sent to block the northern harbor to prevent the
Tyrians from sending out reinforcements. With the
remainder he sailed forth to strike at the attacking Tyrian
vessels. The Tyrians high on the battlements saw Alexan-
der’s force swinging around the city to attack their war-
ships. They attempted to alert their compatriots of the
impending attack, but no one could hear them over the
din of battle. Somehow, the Tyrians managed to signal
their ships that Alexander was approaching, and the war
galleys desperately made for the harbor. Most were caught
by Alexander’s ships and badly damaged or captured, but
a few managed to escape. Many of the Tyrian marines,
seeing that their ships were trapped, jumped into the sea
and swam back to the city.
Construction of the mole continued unceasingly until it
finally reached Tyre’s walls. Alexander brought up his siege
engines, hoping to hammer out an opening in the Tyrian
defenses, but the walls were well made, and the Macedon-
ian weapons did little damage. Alexander put other engines
aboard ships and sailed around the island, seeking a weak
spot. He had little success until he reached the southern
wall. There he managed to crack the wall with missiles,
causing a large section to collapse and open a breach. As
usual, Alexander, was in the lead, throwing a boarding
bridge from the ship into the breach. The Tyrians fought
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 20
back with all the fury of the demonically possessed and
managed to drive off the Macedonian attackers.
Everywhere along the walls the Tyrians repulsed the
Macedonians with a combination of near-suicidal brav-
ery and ingenuity, hurling pots of fire and missiles of all
kinds at the enemy. Fighting desperately, the Tyrians used
every conceivable device and artifice to keep the Mace-
donians from breaching the walls. Bags filled with sea-
weed were placed on the outsides of the walls to lessen
the impact of stones striking them. When the Macedo-
nians approached the walls with their siege towers and
threw their the bridges across the top, the Tyrians coura-
geously stepped onto the bridges and traded blows with
the Macedonians. Other Tyrians dropped fishing nets
onto the Macedonians as they clambered across the
boarding bridges, causing them to fall to their deaths.
The defenders also heated sand to a red-hot temperature
and released the material into the air. As it drifted down-
ward it found its way under the armor and clothes of
Alexander’s troops, clinging to the skin and horribly
burning the Macdeonians. In their frenzy the Tyrians
killed a number of Macedonian prisoners on their battle-
ments, in full view of their aghast compatriots. The Mace-
donians would show no mercy now.
The outcome of the seven-month siege hung in the bal-
ance. The Macedonian attackers were exhausted by their
physical and emotional exertions, and Alexander con-
templated discontinuing the siege and moving on to
Egypt. He soon rejected this course, however, thinking it
shameful to leave the operation and its weapons in Tyrian
possession. Instead, Alexander let his men rest for two
days before issuing the call for one more push. On July
30, 332 BC, the seer Aristander had divined that the
omens for taking Tyre were favorable and that the city
would fall before the month was out. Aristander’s pre-
diction was greeted with widespread derision since it was
already the 30th of the month. Not wishing to allow the
visionary’s prophecies to lose credence, Alexander simply
declared that the date was really the 28th. The king stood
before his assembled men and called on them to follow
him yet again into battle.
One more massive assault was made on Tyre’s defenses.
The entire Macedonian fleet sortied against Tyre from the
sea, while Alexander brought up his most devastating
engines, mounted on galleys, to a weak point in the city’s
walls. There a section of wall was hammered down, and
the siege engines were ordered to withdraw. Two other
war galleys carrying boarding bridges now rowed forward
An ancient marble relief from the 5th century bc depicts oarsmen
rowing a Trireme, such as those used to assault Tyre.
and lowered the bridges onto the breach. Followed by
some of his best troops, Alexander dashed across one
bridge and stood on the island. He ordered his ships to
beach themselves wherever they could and throw up as
many arrows and missiles as possible to distract the
defenders. Alexander and his men soon gained possession
of a section of wall and seized control of several towers.
Then Alexander made his way to the royal palace and
pushed into the lower city.
Meanwhile, the Phoenician fleets sortied successfully
into the southern harbor, and the Cypriot fleet fought its
way through the Tyrian defenses into the northern harbor.
Here the harbor was only lightly defended, and the Cypri-
ots quickly captured that portion of the city.
The main force of Tyrians abandoned the wall once it had
been taken by Macedonians and made a last stand at the
inner city’s Shrine of Agenor. The Macedonian soldiers,
filled with anger and frustration at the lengthy siege and
the memory of their executed comrades, slaughtered the
Tyrian defenders in huge numbers. The soldiers’ blood was
up, and the Macedonians ran wild in a brutal release of
pent-up fury. Young girls and boys took shelter in the tem-
ples, hoping for pity from the conquerors, but Tyrian men
of military age stood firm, fighting to the last in the door-
ways or on the rooftops of their homes. In the end, some
8,000 Tyrians were slain in the sack of the city; Macedonian
losses were placed at the implausibly low figure of 400.
Alexander, despite his typical bloodlust, gave pardons
to a number of high Tyrian officials. Among these were
King Azemilcus and a group of Carthaginian envoys who
had sought refuge in the Temple of Heracles where they
had come to make a sacrifice to Melqart/Heracles, just as
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 21
Alexander had originally wished to do. Apart from these
fortunate few, however, the fate of the Tyrians was swift
and brutal. Almost all of the other survivors, some 30,000
in all, were rounded up and sold as slaves.
At the end of the sack, with his men exhausted from the
killing, Alexander was still filled with rage. He had
another 2,000 Tyrians crucified along the beach outside
the wretched city. Furious at the Tyrians for daring to
defend their own city, Alexander let his anger cloud his
judgment. This was the dark side to Alexander’s heroic
style of leadership. If an opponent put up a brave fight
and then submitted to Alexander, the king was likely to
be chivalrous and pardon his foe. If, on the other hand,
the enemy continued to thwart him, especially by provok-
ing a prolonged siege, Alexander was often murderous.
Tyre would not be the last of Alexander’s atrocities.
During the siege of Tyre, Darius had written to Alexan-
der offering the Macedonian king all of his empire west
of the Euphrates River, $300 million in gold talents, and
the hand of his daughter in exchange for peace and the
safe return of the royal family captured at Issus. Alexander
refused, saying that Darius merely offered him what he
had already won in battle. If he wanted to marry Darius’s
daughter, he could already do so without the king’s long-
distance approval. Alexander had come to Asia to inflict
righteous vengeance upon the Persians for their invasion
of Greece 150 years before. If Darius wanted his family
members back, Alexander continued, then he should come
in person to ask for their return. Finally, said Alexander, Alexander surveys the grisly scene outside besieged Tyre.
the Persian king should not consider himself his equal,
and he should address all future correspondence to of Gaza were sold into slavery, and the city was repopu-
Alexander as the Lord of Asia. There would be no stop- lated with settlers loyal to Alexander who were imported
ping the Macedonian juggernaut short of defeat in battle. from neighboring areas. Egypt would soon fall to the
For Alexander, the way to Egypt was almost clear. After Macedonians and with it the last of Persia’s bases on the
Tyre, just one obstacle lay in Alexander’s path: the city of Mediterranean.
Gaza, 150 miles south on the Mediterranean coast. There One last, horrific scene remained to be played out.
the Persian-appointed governor, a eunuch named Batis, Alexander had the unfortunate Batis stripped naked and
had the temerity to resist Alexander. Once again, Alexan- leather thongs strung cruelly through his ankles. Then the
der laid siege to an enemy city. The Macedonians built a king had Batis tied to his chariot and dragged him around
250-foot-high mound at the southern wall of the city upon the walls of Gaza until he was dead, just as Achilles had
which they set their siege engines, which had been trans- desecrated Hector’s corpse in the Iliad. In this way Alexan-
ported there by sea, atop the mound. After three months der, who often emulated the best of the Homer’s heroes,
of continual bombardment, Alexander led an assault on now openly replicated their worst. As the historian Robin
the devastated city. Gaza fell after putting up a stiff fight. Lane Fox has concluded, Alexander may have been a
Alexander, his will again denied and suffering from a romantic at heart, but “a romantic must not be romanti-
painful wound to the shoulder inflicted by a Gazan cata- cized, for he is seldom compassionate.” •
pult, was livid. Like the Tyrians before them, the residents

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 22

 Waterloo. Normandy. Agincourt. Gettysburg.
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Judas Maccabeus
THREATENED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR CULTURE, JEWISH REBELS ROSE IN
OPPOSITION TO THEIR SYRIAN OCCUPIERS. AN UNLIKELY HERO WOULD LEAD THE WAY.
By Kelly Bell

By 167 bc, when a full-scale revolt erupted in Judea, it had been more than 400
years since an organized Jewish army had taken up arms against an enemy. In
586 bc, the valiant defenders of Jerusalem had fought a childless in 323 bc.
hopeless battle against a massive Babylonian invasion At first, the changeover in occupying forces had little
force. After that, the only Jewish warriors were those occa- effect on the Jews, who remained free to practice nominal
sional mercenaries who enlisted for pay in the causes of self-government and, most importantly, their faith, under
other nations. The Judean revolt’s roots went back to 198 their new ruler, Antiochus III. Tolerant administration had
bc, when Syria’s Seleucid dynasty forcibly took Palestine always been the policy of the Ptolemies, and generations
from its previous rulers—the Egyptian Ptolemies. Both of Judeans had become accustomed to benign overlords.
these Gentile factions were descended from Greek generals But upon the death of Antiochus III and the ascension of
(Seleucus and Ptolemy) who had inherited the regions 200 his son Antiochus IV Epiphanes in 175 BC, intolerance and
years earlier after their master, Alexander the Great, died tension began to grow in the Jewish homeland.

Judas Maccabeus pursues new Syrian commander Timotheus in a wood engraving after Gustave Doré.
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 24
Syrian troops under King Antiochus IV plunder Jerusalem in this 15th-century illustration.
Caught between hostile Egypt to the south and the
looming proximity of Rome to the northwest, the Syrians
also faced threats from the ambitious Medes and Parthi-
ans to the southeast. The situation instilled a great deal of
understandable uneasiness in Antiochus IV, who realized
that with its proximity to Egypt and its commanding
heights overlooking the vital coastal trade route, Judea
had to be strongly secured for strategic reasons. He
resolved to do this via the arbitrary imposition of Greek
ritual and culture on its Jewish inhabitants in an attempt
to establish a common language and the practice of overall
Grecian civilization to create unity in his empire. This
attempt to force paganism on the Jews would prove to be
a mortal mistake.
Issuing orders for the Hellenization of Judea in 168 BC,
Antiochus departed to attack the Egyptians, apparently
never considering the possibility of armed resistance from
the long-sedate Jews. The Jews, however, were implacably
devoted to their god Jehovah, and the majority of them
considered idolatry inconceivable. Tensions rose. Apart
from their centuries of docility, however, the Jews were
hampered in their resistance by their relatively sparse num-
bers. The population of Judea at the time was 250,000 at
most, with only a fraction of these being able-bodied young
men. This too may have led to the seeming casualness on
the emperor’s part when he enforced idolatry upon his pre-
sumably meek subjects. Things were about to go terribly
wrong.
When Antiochus laid siege to Alexandria, Italian emis-
saries quickly informed him that if he did not desist,
Roman intervention would immediately ensue. Saddled
with such a preponderance of enemies, he wisely yielded,
broke off his investment, and withdrew along the coastal
highway. By this time, defiant Jews had already rioted in
Jerusalem. Learning of this, a humiliated and worried
Antiochus was delighted by what he saw as a glittering
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 25
opportunity to salvage the prestige lost in the abortive
Egyptian campaign. Here was a war he could claim, how-
ever implausibly, was forced upon him by an enemy that
he could easily crush. Afterward, he could trumpet this
victory to the seemingly endless array of bellicose neigh-
bors, who might think twice before attacking him.
Antiochus dispatched one of his most competent gener-
als, Apollonius, to quell the Jewish insurrection. The
Seleucid troops massacred most of the Jewish population
of Jerusalem, burned revered documents containing
Mosaic law, and threw young mothers and their newly
circumcised infant sons to their deaths from city walls.
They also looted the temple and desecrated its holy sanc-
tuary by converting it into a shrine to Zeus. Word spread
swiftly. In his overconfidence, Antiochus overlooked the
fact that the army he had sent against the Jews was not of
the highest caliber. These troops were not led by inspiring
campaigners like Alexander, nor were they the well-
trained, well-equipped, and well-motivated legions of
Rome. Instead, they were a motley aggregation of con-
scripts and mercenaries whose abilities and incentives var-
ied greatly. Most had little field experience in the phalanx
and cavalry tactics devised earlier by the Greeks. The
Seleucid force also contained some Jewish soldiers of for-
tune who were as infuriated at the Syrians as were the
insurgents. These men quickly defected to the rebels and
contributed their crucial experience and military training
to the patriot cause.
After bloodily securing Jerusalem, Antiochus sent his
forces into the unfamiliar Judean hill country to finish the
task of Hellenization. An officer named Apelles led a
patrol into the village of Modiin and ordered the local
priest, Mattathias, to blasphemously sacrifice a pig, which
Jews regard as an unclean creature. When Mattathias
refused to comply, another Jew offered to perform the sac-
rilege, whereupon the aged holy man whipped out a dag-
ger and killed both the traitor and Apelles. Mattathias’s
five sons incited the townspeople to rise against the
invaders and wiped them out, marking the first in a
lengthy string of reverses for the Seleucids in what came
to be called the Maccabean Revolt.
Leading his small band of about 200 people (with per-
haps 50 fighting men) into the easily defended Gophna
Hills, Mattathias commenced training the peasants in the
guerrilla tactics he realized were their only hope against
the mighty Seleucid empire. Since no Syrians had escaped
Modiin, it took time for their main force to learn of their
comrades’ demise. (Or perhaps they assumed the missing
unit had simply deserted, a not uncommon practice for
this particular army.) In any case, it took a year for the
invaders to react. By this time, Mattathias had died and
had been succeeded by his middle son, Judas (also called
Judah). The Jews had productively spent the hiatus train-
ing, recruiting, and gathering information. Judas con-
structed an efficient intelligence-gathering apparatus while
sending out agents to spread word of the revolt, enlist new
men, and collect whatever weapons could be found or
fashioned.
Apart from a few rusty heirlooms, arms were few. Judas
would have to make do with modified farm implements
until up-to-date weapons could be captured. If early bat-
tles could be won, he reasoned, the enemies’ swords,
armor, catapults, spears, javelins, bows, slings, shields,
and battering rams would be a windfall. Until then, Judas
realized, he would have to move slowly. He had his
steadily growing forces ambush and annihilate Seleucid
patrols, amassing a new arsenal in the process. He also
spent a great deal of time with his lieutenants, formulating
unconventional tactics for which his dogmatic opponents
would be unprepared. The Maccabees’ hit-and-run tactics
increased their fighting strength and kept the Seleucids
befuddled, off balance, and generally in retreat. As the
surrounding countryside slowly came under Jewish con-
trol, the Syrian garrison in Jerusalem was isolated and in
danger of being overwhelmed or simply starved into sub-
mission. When word of the grave situation reached Apol-
lonius at his headquarters in neighboring Samaria, he
moved tardily to intervene.
It was time for Judas and his men to mount their first
major field operation. The Seleucids’ favored battle tactic
was the phalanx. Heavily armored infantry would draw
together in a tight formation, as if on parade, with the
men in each line shoulder to shoulder and closely follow-
ing the rank in front of them. The smallest phalanxes con-
tained 2,000 men spread over an area 120 yards wide by
15 yards deep. The warriors in the first five lines held their
spears horizontally, while the 11 lines following them held
theirs aloft, essentially in reserve for those rare occasions
when they were needed. Flank protection was provided
by cavalry and less heavily armed infantry. It was a pow-
erful but unwieldy formation that compromised the ele-
ment of surprise.
Raised and trained in this traditional method exclu-
sively, the Syrians had never considered the benefits of
interfering with an opponent’s deployment or altering
their tactics to exploit battlefield circumstances. Since
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 26
these head-on shoving matches were the only stratagem
they had ever used, the possibility of fighting in any other
fashion never occurred to them. Judas and his comrades,
on the other hand, had never waged any kind of large-
scale combat before, and they were careful to consider
all options. For the invaders, an unconventional test of
nerves was looming.
Sometime in 166 BC, Apollonius’s 2,000-man expedition
advanced on Jerusalem via the mountainous route from
Samaria. Skirting the Jews’ Gophna stronghold to the
west, the Seleucids passed through terrain marked by
craggy defiles and canyons perfect for ambush, but since
they had never heard of an ambush, they did not guard
against one now. Dividing his 600 men into four units,
Judas deployed at Nahal el-Haramiah a few miles north-
east of his headquarters. Blithely unaware of the suicidal
blunder they were committing, the Syrians marched in
orderly rows into a narrow passage flanked by hundreds
of well-trained and highly motivated Jewish warriors.
It was late afternoon when a sealing unit fell upon the
vanguard of the column, causing great confusion and
havoc. Troops to the rear could not see what was going Pitched battle between Maccabees and Bacchides, from a 15th-cen-
on and continued to press forward, bunching the regiment tury French translation of Flavius Josephus’s Antiquites Judaiques.
into a mass of flailing, panicky men unable to comprehend
what was happening to them. The valley’s eastern slope Jerusalem. After combining their forces, they would fan
came alive with the main Judean force, which smashed out into the countryside in a sweeping search-and-destroy
into the Seleucid flank while the third and fourth attacking campaign against the Jewish rebels.
units moved in from the north and east. Jewish archers Hoping to elude detection, Seron made for the city via
killed Apollonius; and his leaderless, trapped, and totally a secondary route through the pass at Beth Horon. Jewish
confused men were left to fend for themselves in a type of lookouts immediately noticed, however, and Judah pre-
battle they had not known existed. In short order, the Syr- pared to take full advantage of a handy bottleneck he
ian forces were wiped out en masse, and their weapons knew along the trail. The 1,000-man Maccabean army
and equipment fell into the rebels’ eager hands. prepared to destroy the invaders. The ascent to the pass
The smashing victory provided the Maccabees with a was flanked by steep slopes perfect for ambush, and Seron
crucial boost in confidence. They began to think of out- took the precaution of having his command file through
right independence rather than mere survival. The Judean with long gaps in individual units, making the entire col-
army was swelling, and its commander was far superior umn over a mile long and impossible to trap in its entirety
to his counterpart, General Seron, who was overconfident inside the canyon.
and all too eager to reach the trouble spot, crush the inso- Armed with the sword he had taken from Apollonius’s
lent band of renegades, and boost his own standing in the corpse, Judas personally led the sealing unit that attacked
army. Seron had a low opinion of Apollonius’s ability and and decimated the Seleucid vanguard and made a point
saw his incompetence as the sole reason for his defeat, not of quickly killing the general. Seron was one of the first
considering the possibility that Judas and his officers were men to die in the engagement, as Jewish archers on both
brilliantly adaptable. The only apparent adjustment Seron slopes unleashed a lethal volley from their bows and
made was to march his force along the Mediterranean slings. As the column’s leading elements staggered back
shore with its broad coastal plain, thus precluding in disorder, the Jews attacked with their recently won
ambush. Turning inland in the vicinity of Jaffa, the Seleu- swords. Again seized by fear, shock, and utter bewilder-
cids passed Lod en route to their surrounded comrades in ment, the Syrians hastily retreated, leaving behind 800

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 27

dead and the bulk of their equipment. As the rear elements
turned and fled, the rebels took up the chase, pursuing
them to the coastal plain and killing many more Syrians.
When news of the triumph spread through the hills,
Judas’s army expanded to more than 6,000 men, with
recruits streaming in from all parts of Judea. Antiochus
finally comprehended that his opponent was a natural mil-
itary genius, gifted in the uses of opportunity, terrain, sur-
prise, morale, and confidence. Judas’s veterans were also
doing a masterful job of training the mass of newcomers
in using the latest batch of captured armaments.
At this point, an unrelated civil war broke out in the
eastern region of the Seleucid Empire. Word of Seron’s
fate reached Antiochus as he was preparing to quash this
mutiny and replenish his dwindling financial reserves. He
elected to go ahead with his domestic mission and entrust
dealing with the Judeans to his relative, Lysias. However,
he had a problem always associated with a two-front
war—limited manpower. A substantial percentage of the
Syrian forces earmarked for the domestic unrest had to
be siphoned off to Judea.
Lysias’s military experience was limited, but it did not
take an Alexander to understand the emperor’s instruc-
tions to his embarking kinsman: “Uproot and destroy the
strength of Israel and the remnant of Judea. Blot out all
memory of them in the place. Settle strangers in the terri-
tory and allot the land to the settlers.” Lysias, perhaps Judea, overlooking vital coastal trade routes and bordering power-
wisely, did not deign to lead the expedition himself. He ful Egypt, was strategically vital to Syria. It had been 400 years
gave the task to Generals Ptolemy, Nicanor, and Gorgias. since Judean Jews last rebelled.
Setting out in the spring of 165 BC, the Syrian force num-
bered about 20,000 men. Pitching an enormous base who anticipated a bonanza of merchandise after the
camp at Emmaus in the foothills just above the Ajalon expected defeat of the Jewish insurgents. Apart from chains
valley, the triumvirate felt certain they would not be taken and whips, the slavers also brought hefty amounts of gold
unaware in a narrow canyon. They were determined to and silver in preparation for setting up a lucrative market.
engage their opponent on open ground, without giving The camp was becoming a richer prize by the hour.
adequate thought or preparation to the enemy’s already Judas and his brothers Simon, Johanan, and Jonathan
well-established adaptability. commanded four 1,500-man brigades, which they assem-
Judas had organized his army into smaller, more man- bled at Mizpah on the road to Beth Horon immediately
ageable units able to fight independently in a somewhat northwest of Jerusalem. After confirming the enemy’s
more conventional manner. The Syrians would not be fac- position, Judas moved his headquarters to a hilly area near
ing a strictly irregular force this time, but a well-trained Latrun. The opposing camps were now within eyesight of
and well-motivated professional army fighting for its sur- each other, and the rebels decided to let their foes make
vival against opponents who were there for no other rea- the first move. They could see from the swarming patrols
son than to obey orders. While both sides were making and bustling activity that the Syrians were preparing to
last-minute preparations, the Seleucids were unexpectedly attack first anyway.
reinforced by a number of fresh troops from Idumea, just Gorgias intended to surprise the Jews by assaulting them
south of Judea. The sprawling bivouac was further at night, but the Maccabean espionage network made sure
crowded by masses of camp followers and slave traders that its commander in chief was forewarned, and he

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 28

quickly devised a countermeasure. Ordering a number of
bonfires lit, Judas gave Syrian scouts the impression that
his camp was fully manned, while he withdrew the bulk
of his troops and left a skeleton crew to tend the fires and
act as decoys. When Gorgias’s 6,000-man force surged
into the Jews’ former positions, it found only the rear
guard, which fled into the Shaar Hagai valley. In the dark-
ness, the Seleucids predictably mistook this small band for
the main body of revolutionaries and set out in pursuit
through the narrow defile, where they were bushwhacked
by 1,500 waiting warriors.
Judas had positioned another 1,500 men north of the
Syrian camp to assault it from the rear when he and his
remaining 3,000 soldiers launched their planned daybreak
attack, but the enemy had its own spy ring and was alerted
to the rebels’ approach. Judas was stunned to find the
opposing army fully prepared for battle, drawn up in its
phalanx on the plain in front of its camp at daybreak.
With the critical element of surprise gone, Judas again
called upon his resourcefulness and divided his com-
mand into three 1,000-man battalions to strike the Seleu-
cids in their vulnerable western flank. While one of these
groups engaged the covering cavalry, the other two
assailed the enemy formation from the side. Fortunately
for the Jews, the bristling phalanx was facing south, and
they had appeared to the west. Had they come up The Triumph of Judas Maccabeus, by famed artist Peter Paul
Rubens, captures the legendary allure of the Jewish rebel leader.
directly in front of it, they probably would have been
unable to make their countermove without the Syrians
noticing and turning to face them. As it was, the Seleu- looting—Gorgias had not yet been finished off. Setting
cids, still knowing just one way to fight, began to yield fire to the camp, the Jewish warriors sent thick columns
in bloody hand-to-hand combat. of smoke aloft, drawing Gorgias’s attention away from
There were still some 12,000 soldiers in the Emmaus the small force harassing him. Fearing that they would
encampment. These had not expected to have to fight that soon be caught between two bodies of expert, determined
day, assuming that Gorgias’s phalanx would shield them warriors, the remaining Syrians succumbed to fear and
from the enemy. When the sound of the battle reached the joined the mass flight to the seacoast, hotly chased by the
1,500 Jewish troops to the north, they assumed that their entire Judean army. The rebels, meanwhile, helped them-
camp was under assault and charged down from their hid- selves to the copious treasures of the enemy encampment,
den position. This attack caught the numerically superior including another cache of weapons and other equipment.
Syrians completely off guard, and the Seleucid forces were Things looked bleak for the Jews’ reeling overlords.
thrown into disarray. By this point, the phalanx was col- Lysias survived the destruction at Emmaeus, made it back
lapsing and its survivors were retreating in terror to the to Antioch, and wasted no time in raising another force
presumed safety of their base. But upon reaching it, they to resume the conflict. Still hoping to join forces with his
were caught up in grisly pandemonium and cut to pieces Jerusalem garrison, Lysias again set out along the
among stampeding horses, freight-carrying elephants, and coastal route, but this time he bypassed the lethal uplands
terrified slave traders and their entourages. and approached through friendly territory, turning north
After the Jews had killed 3,000 of Nicanor’s men, the and setting up camp at Beth Zur in southernmost Judea.
remnant fled toward the coast. With remarkable presence Intending to march his force of 24,000 men to Jerusalem
of mind, Judas forbade his men to pursue them or begin and establish it as an impregnable nerve center for his

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 29

forces throughout the region, Lysias began fanning out
his troops in all directions from the Holy City, stamping
out rebel resistance as it was encountered. The flaw with
this scenario was that there was no way to reach Jerusalem
without traversing the highlands, and the Jews had massed
in the ravine-bisected region around Hirbet Beth Heiran.
Judas divided his troops into four units of varying size,
with 5,000 men held in reserve. As the Hellenist columns
filed through yet another of Judea’s treacherous canyons,
they were once again ripe for the slaughter. Lysias had
impatiently pulled together a large body of mercenaries
and untested, poorly trained conscripts with the intention
of overwhelming the revolt through sheer force of num-
bers. The size of his force made it easy for the Maccabees
to track as it tramped conspicuously along the flat coastal
plain. Lysias set himself up for disaster when he turned
inland and entered the hill country after establishing a
base camp on the upland border.
Trudging uphill under the weight of their armor and
weapons, the Seleucids were totally vulnerable when
3,000 screaming Jews charged from a just-bypassed gully.
The unprepared, unmotivated invaders at the head of the
column quickly broke and commenced streaming back
the way they had come. The mass flight panicked the fol-
lowing units, which were then assailed from both sides of
the canyon by two 1,000-man Jewish columns. There Maccabean troops attack a Syrian caparisoned elephant at the Bat-
were still 8,000 Syrians in the base camp, and to engage tle of Beth Zur in 162 bc. Engraving after Gustave Doré.
them Judas had set aside the 5,000-man reserve force.
However, the encamped Syrians immediately took to their another punitive expedition. There was a hiatus in the
collective heels as the decimated advance units fled war, and Judas spent the lull proclaiming to his country-
through their midst with hordes of shrieking Jews in eager men their independence and restoring freedom of worship.
pursuit. By the time the Jewish warriors reached the There was still the matter of the obtuse Jerusalem gar-
enemy bivouac, they found no enemies left to fight—they rison, whose members had spent the past few months for-
had all stampeded south to the relative security of the tifying themselves and stocking their stronghold with
Idumean city of Hebron. food, water, and weapons while Judas was occupied else-
Judas decided not to chase his beaten enemies into hos- where. Part of the Syrian force was entrenched in a
tile territory. He had already killed 5,000 of them in yet fortress called the Acra, and the Jewish patriots attacked
another military disaster for the unfortunate Antiochus. this position soon after entering the city following Lysias’s
With his keen analytical mind, Judas realized that his lat- defeat. While fighting was still in progress, holy men
est victory had been made much easier than it might have entered the temple, restored it, and removed the pagan
been simply because his counterpart had allowed anger, profanations. The Talmud records that after the priests
impatience, arrogance, and fear goad him into acting consecrated and rededicated the sanctuary in 164 BC, a
without adequate preparations. The rebel warlord cor- one-day supply of oil burned for eight days. This miracle
rectly assumed that his enemy would not yet give up the marked the beginning of the festival of Hanukkah.
fight. The Seleucids were certain to reach out to a more Syrian forces elsewhere in the area, unwilling to confront
capable commander and send him into Judea with another the Maccabees in pitched combat, assaulted unarmed
formidable army. But racked by an internal power strug- civilians in Galilee and Gilead, east of the Jordan River.
gle, the Syrian regime was in no position to embark on Dispatching to Galilee a 3,000-man rescue expedition

WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 30

commanded by his brother Simon, Judas took another
8,000 men, forded the Jordan, and embarked for Gilead
through the Trans-Jordan desert. Simon quickly defeated
a small enemy force, rescued prisoners, and returned with
them to Judea. Meanwhile, Judas concentrated on a string
of fortified towns east of the Golan Heights. Starting with
Bostra, he invested and overwhelmed each settlement’s
Hellenist occupiers until coming at last to Dathema, which
was under siege by Seleucid and Idumean troops who
were scaling the outer walls. Slicing into the surprised
besiegers from the rear, Judas quickly put them to flight.
He next made an exploratory foray to the northwest
and engaged the new Syrian commander, Timotheus, who
counterattacked out of the city of Raphon. Judas not only
turned back this thrust, but also captured and sacked the
city. Having delivered the persecuted Jews of Gilead, he
fought his way back through hostile territory and returned
to Judea. At about this time, word arrived in Judea of the
death of Antiochus and a resultant power struggle
between his son Antiochus V Eupator and the late ruler’s
regent, Phillip. Realizing the already weakened Seleucid
Empire was in turmoil, Judas decided to take advantage
of his captured siege equipment and invest the Syrian-held
fortress at Acra.
The next Maccabean attack on the bastion came early
in 162 BC. The defenders fought it off, aided by the sizable
contingent of Hellenist Jews within the fort who were fear-
ful of being executed as traitors should they be captured
alive. After the initial storming attempt, Judas reassembled
his soldiers into siege positions to compel a slower but
inevitable surrender. Syrian agents escaped from Acra and
made their way back to Antioch, where they begged Lysias
to relieve the embattled defenders.
The Maccabees had not expected Lysias to leave his cap-
ital until after settling with Phillip, but Phillip was off cam-
paigning against Lysias’s forces in the east and was
momentarily out of the way. Mustering an army of 30,000
heavily armed men and 30 war elephants, Lysias set out
for Jerusalem via the same route he had taken the last
time, approaching from the south. This army attacked the
border town of Beth Zur, forcing Judas to leave off besieg-
ing Acra and hurry to meet the unanticipated threat. Evi-
dently thinking that the best way to surprise his enemies
was to act conventionally, Judas did not attempt to relieve
Beth Zur, but instead took up positions 12 miles south of
Jerusalem at Beth Zecharia. After securing Beth Zur,
Lysias marched out to meet his longtime nemesis. Having
ruefully learned his lesson, he deployed units on the flank-
ing high ground to screen him from any more avalanches
of screaming rebels cascading onto unguarded flanks.
For the first time, the Maccabees were fighting a defen-
sive battle. It was an unfamiliar sensation, and the hulk-
ing, armored elephants unnerved them. In desperation,
Judas’s younger brother Eleazar ducked under one of the
behemoths and thrust his sword into the animal’s chest,
killing it. The pachyderm fell and crushed the young war-
rior—the first of Judas’s siblings to die in combat. The
Syrians were finally fighting the kind of battle for which
they had been trained, and they pressed irresistibly for-
ward, crushing the Jews by force of numbers.
Ignoring any pangs of pride or wounded ego, Judas
wisely ordered retreat. Electing to not try and defend
Jerusalem with his battered army, he stopped just long
enough to fortify the Temple Mount before withdrawing
to Gophna. When they entered the city, the invaders
immediately assailed the temple garrison, but they were
bloodily repulsed. The insurgents were praying the Seleu-
cids would not learn of a serious shortage of food and
other supplies that was endangering the entire revolution,
and faraway upheavals again came to the Jews’ aid.
Messengers informed Lysias that Phillip was en route
back to Antioch, fully intending to take over the govern-
ment. On the brink of his sorely needed and unexpected
victory, the Seleucid leader was trapped in a dilemma, but
he devised an ingenious solution. Realizing that the revo-
lutionaries would be unaware of the situation with Phillip,
he offered a truce to the surprised Judas, promising a
degree of autonomy and religious freedom. After the Mac-
cabees accepted the terms, Lysias hurried back to Antioch,
crushed Phillip’s forces, and consolidated his position as
Seleucid ruler—briefly.
Emperor-to-be Antiochus V Eupator was just nine years
old in 162 BC when his cousin Demetrius was freed by the
Romans, who had been holding him as a political hostage,
and returned to Antioch. Demetrius quickly gained pop-
ular support, seized power, and executed Lysias and the
young Antiochus. Demetrius reimposed the oppression in
Judea, and the Maccabees, who had ruefully sworn off
conventional tactics, resumed their irregular resistance,
ambushing and routing a large Syrian force commanded
by General Nicanor just north of Jerusalem in the spring
of 161 BC. Nicanor’s head and hands were hung from the
temple gate.
Following this impressive showing, Judas cleverly nego-
tiated a treaty of alliance with Rome that recognized
Judea as an independent state. For the first time since
WAR IN BIBLICAL ISRAEL AND JUDAH 31
 before the Babylonian exile, the Jews had their own sov-
ereign nation. Demetrius feared a Rome-supported Judea
might induce another of his inherited enemies, Egypt, to
join the alliance and invade his empire through Judea.
Basing his actions on reports that the Maccabean army
was disbanding, Demetrius dispatched a 24,000-man
expedition in the spring of 160 BC. Sure enough, Judas
was unable to mobilize more than 3,000 troops. Joining
battle at Elasa, about six miles east of Beth Horon, the
armies clashed briefly before the Jewish warriors, demor-
alized by the eight-to-one odds, broke and fled, leaving
their peerless commander with just 800 valiant veterans.
Leading his small band in a desperate charge on the
enemy’s right flank, Judas killed a great number of Seleu-
cids but failed in the crucial objective of killing their com-
mander, General Bacchides. Instead, Judas and his little
group of loyalists were wiped out.
It had taken the Syrians far too long, but in Bacchides
they finally found a leader capable of concocting viable
strategy and instilling needed flexibility into Syrian for-
mations. Considering the overpowering numerical advan-
tage the Syrians enjoyed in that April clash, it could be
said the Maccabees were drawn into a trap even if they
realized it from the beginning, for they could not afford
to allow this pagan multitude to rampage unchecked
throughout Judea. Confronting it when they did, before
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they had time to assemble sufficient soldiers, was unavoid-
able—and fatal.
For no small reason, Judas was called “the Hammer.”
His unparalleled battlefield adaptability, proficiency in
exploiting an enemy’s mistakes, ability to fight at night,
and effective use of terrain, surprise, and espionage made
him the bane of succeeding Seleucid commanders. After
Judas’s death, his brothers Jonathan and Simon eventually
achieved the Judean dream of religious and political inde-
pendence. It was the first time in recorded history that a
subject people had won a revolutionary war for religious
freedom.
Because he fought in just one poorly chronicled war,
Judas Maccabeus has largely been lost among the giant
shadows cast by Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar,
Genghis Khan, Napoleon Bonaparte, Shaka Zulu, and
other great conquerors. Unlike them, Judas was a man of
noble motives who fought because he had no other choice.
Unfettered by outmoded convention, he taught himself
and his followers to fight via methods too subtle to be
perceived by their powerful but outmoded adversaries.
Today’s high-tech military strategists would be well served
to study the humble partisan leader of long ago, who
wanted nothing more for himself and his people than to
be allowed to live and worship in peace. •
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