[430] _Supra_, p. 112, _note_. I have remarked that assumptions there noticed are necessary to bring the Hebrew chronology into harmony with the Assyrian monuments and the stone of Mesha. That Ahaziah of Judah and Joram of Israel must have been slain, at the latest, in the year 843 B.C. is a necessary consequence of the fact that Jehu paid tribute to the Assyrians as early as the year 842 B.C. In the same way the Assyrian monuments prove that Ahab of Israel cannot have died before the year 853 B.C. As the Hebrew Scriptures, in the chronology of Israel, put Ahaziah with two years, and Joram with twelve years, between Ahab's death and Jehu's accession, four years must be struck out and deducted from the reign of Joram. To maintain the parallelism, the same operation must be performed with the contemporary kings of Judah, and the reign of Jehoram of Judah (for which, even if we retain the data of the Books of Kings, six years remain at the most) must be reduced from eight years to four. These four years in each kingdom will be best added to the first reigns after the division, to Jeroboam (22 + 4 = 26) and Rehoboam (17 + 4 = 21). Twelve years must be added to the reign of Omri (p. 114, _n._). The same augmentation must be made in the corresponding reign of Asa of Judah, or, rather, as the chronology of Judah from Rehoboam to Athaliah gives three years less than that from Jeroboam to Jehu, 15 years must be added to Asa instead of 12, so that his reign reaches 41 + 15 = 56, and Omri's reign 12 + 12 = 24 years. Hence Rehoboam was succeeded by Abiam not in the eighteenth, but in the twenty-second year of Jeroboam; Ahab ascended the throne not in the thirty-sixth, but in the fifty-fourth year of Asa. From these assumptions are deduced the numbers given in the text. I consider it hopeless to attempt to reconcile the divergencies in the comparisons of the two series of kings in the Books of Kings; _e. g._ that Omri should ascend the throne in the thirty-first year of Asa, and reign 12 years, while Ahab nevertheless ascends the throne in the thirty-eighth year of Asa. [431] 1 Kings xv. 16-24; 2 Chron. xvi. 1-10. [432] 1 Kings xv. 11-14; 2 Chron. xiv. 2-5. [433] 1 Kings xxii. 48; 2, viii. 20. [434] 1 Kings xxii. 49. [435] Song of Solomon vi. 4. [436] 1 Kings xv. 20. [437] 1 Kings xx. 34. [438] Nöldeke, "Inschrift des Mesa." [439] _Infra_, chap. xi. [440] 2 Kings iii. 4. [441] The inscription of Kurkh enumerates in the army of the Syrians at Karkar men from Ammon under Bahsa, the son of Ruchub (Rehob); Schrader, "Keilinschriften und A. T." s. 95. [442] 2 Kings viii. 18. [443] 1 Kings xxi. 1; xxii. 39; 2, ix. 15 ff. [444] 1 Kings xvi. 31-33; xviii. 19; 2, iii. 2. [445] 1 Kings xviii. 4-13, 17; xix. 10-14. [446] 1 Kings xvii. 9, 10. [447] 2 Kings i. 8; 1, xvii. 4-6. [448] 1 Kings xviii. 17-46.