(24 years instead of 12), _i.e._ a period which agrees with the importance of this reign among the Moabites and the Assyrians; Ahab reigned from 875-853 B.C. According to 1 Kings xvi. 31, Ahab took Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal the king of the Sidonians to wife. If this Ethbaal of Sidon is identical with the Ithobal of Tyre in Josephus, the chronology deduced from our assumptions would not be impossible. Granted the assertion of Josephus that the twelfth year of Hiram king of Tyre is the fourth year of Solomon (990 B.C.), Hiram's accession would fall in the year 1001 B.C.; according to Josephus, Ithobal ascended the throne of Tyre 85 years after Hiram's accession, when he had slain Pheles. He lived according to the same authority 68 years and reigned 32 years, _i.e._ from 916-884 B.C. Ahab, either before or after the year of his accession (875), might very well have taken the daughter of this prince to wife. And if we assume that the statement of Appian, that Carthage was in existence 700 years before her destruction by the Romans, _i.e._ was founded in the year 846 B.C., the 143-2/3 or 144 years of Josephus between the building of the temple and the foundation of Carthage, reckoned backwards from 846 B.C., lead us to the year 990 B.C. for the building of the temple. [209] Now Beit-Rima, north-east of the later Lydda. [210] 1 Sam. iii. 1, 19. [211] 1 Sam. xiii. 19-23, from the older account. [212] 1 Sam. x. 5, 6; xix. 20-24. [213] Compare the division of the corpse by the Levite, above, p. 96.