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Photo: Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University The clay impression from a seal of a servant of the Israelite King Jeroboam II (8th century BC). Photo: Tel Aviv University The Megiddo Seal The Samaria Ostraca testify to prosperity during the time of Jeroboam, and provide information about the administration of the Northern Kingdom during this period. They discovered that only two scribes wrote these ostraca, and both were located in Samaria, rather than the countryside, indicating a palace bureaucracy during the reign of Jeroboam II. 5 Some scholars have suggested the ostraca may come from the reigns of two kings, Joash/Jehoash and then his son, Jeroboam, or may have been from the reign of Joash/Jeohash while Jeroboam was younger or serving as co-regent.Ī recent study by a multi-disciplinary team at Tel Aviv university used new image processing and computer learning techniques to analyze 39 of the Samaria ostraca. 4 They contain receipts of shipments of wine and oil in and around Samaria in the 9 th, 10 th, and 15 th years of a king, likely Jeroboam II. Both the archaeological stratum in which they were discovered, and the style of the paleo-Hebrew script indicate they were written in the 8 th century BC. In 1910, a group of more than 100 ostraca (pottery fragments with ink inscriptions) were discovered in excavations at Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom. The last half of the ninth century was most unlike the period of expansion and economic growth that Jeroboam fostered, and the stability that he established would be unknown after his death.” 3 The Samaria Ostraca Beaten down so that they were like “dust at threshing time,” the apostate rulers of Israel ultimately sought out even the Lord for salvation (2 Kgs 13:7). The half-century before him witnessed the most violent and trying time of persecution Israel had ever faced. Jeroboam’s rule stands in stark contrast to that of his predecessors and successors. “No king of Israel ruled longer than Jeroboam II, and no dynasty had as many monarchs sit on the throne as did that of Jeroboam’s forebear, Jehu. Photo : Todd Bolen summarizes Jeroboam’s kingdom this way: The grain silo at Megiddo which was likely constructed during the reign of Jeroboam II. Two spiral staircases lead to the bottom of the silo. It is 11 meters in diameter and 7 meters deep and would have stored 450 cubic meters of grain. A massive grain silo dating to the time of Jeroboam is prominent at Megiddo. A storehouse at Samaria was a collection point for oil and wine flowing throughout the kingdom, as evidenced by the Samaria Ostraca (see below). Jeroboam’s kingdom not only expanded in territory, it grew in prosperity. 2 It is interesting to note that Jeroboam expanded the northern border to Lebo-hamath, the same boundary marking the extent of Solomon’s kingdom(1 Ki 8:65). Image: Scripture records that Jeroboam, “ restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. For the LORD saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel.” (2 Ki 14:45-46)Īssyrian raids had weakened the Aramean kingdom to the north, creating favorable conditions for Jeroboam to restore the northern border of Israel.