A Note on the Personal Name Amon
(2 Kings 21,19-26 - 2 Chr 33,21-25)

The reign of Amon (2 Kgs 21,19-26 || 2 Chr 33,21-25) has attracted a significant degree of interest from biblical historians over the years, mainly because of its laconic description of the young king’s assassination which leaves us completely in the dark as to the precise circumstances of this event and the situation that provoked it¹. Amon is also remarkable in that he appears to have an Egyptian name². We are not, however, offered any biographical information about him other than that he was 22 years old when he ascended the throne and that his mother, Meshullemeth, came from Jotbah (probably at-Taba, 30 km north of Aqaba)³. Amon’s succession is usually dated to 642/641 BCE: Assuming the chronology and the given age of Amon as 22 years to be correct, this would mean that he was born in 664/663 BCE⁴.

Amon’s father Manasseh, in contrast to Hezekiah, is generally reckoned to have been a loyal Assyrian vassal⁵. Indeed, Manasseh probably had very little choice in the matter given that he inherited a state comprised of little more than Jerusalem and its immediate environs⁶. The survival of Judah in any form depended on the good behaviour of its king, and Manasseh seems to have managed to recover much of the territory lost to Judah following Hezekiah’s ill-fated rebellion⁷. Manasseh’s loyalty to Assyria is demonstrated well enough in the Assyrian annals of Esarhaddon (681-668 BCE) which state that Manasseh and 21 other kings of Hatti (Syria-Palestine) were forced to provide building materials for Esarhaddon’s new palace and transport them to Nineveh (ANET 291). Manasseh also accompanied Esarhaddon’s successor on his first campaign against Tirhakah in Egypt in 667 BCE. The annals of Ashurbanipal state that ‘During my march (to Egypt), 22 kings from the seashore, the islands and the mainland, servants who belong to me, brought heavy gifts (tвmartu) to me and kissed my feet. I made these kings accompany my army over the land-as well as (over) the sea-route with their armed forces...’ (ANET 294). The names of these 22 kings are listed in Cylinder C, and among them is ‘Manasseh (Mi-in-si-e), King of Judah (Ia-ъ-di)’.

Despite the success of this campaign, Assyria’s hold over Egypt was challenged again three years later by Tirhakah’s son Tanwetamani (664-656 BCE), who captured Memphis. The response of Assyria was swift and brutal. In 663 BCE, Ashurbanipal attacked Egypt and took Tanwetamani’s capital, Thebes (Egyptian: Ni); Hebrew: Nwom)f )On⁸. The Assyrian annals make no mention this time of aid from vassal states; rather they stress the speed with which the Assyrian king reacted to the new insurrection (‘URdamane heard of the approach of my expedition [only when] I had [already] set foot on Egyptian territory’ [ANET 295]) — probably there was no time for a ceremonial progression through Syria-Palestine, although it is entirely likely that Assyria’s vassals (including Judah?) on the route of Ashurbanipal’s march were called on to render military aid once more. The fall of Thebes to Ashurbanipal in 663 BCE at any rate seems to have impressed Judahite contemporaries: Nah 3,8-10 preserves the memory of this event, predicting that one day Nineveh itself would fall as did Thebes.

Even if Manasseh himself was not fighting with his Assyrian overlord against a city called Nwm) )n in 663 BCE, the fact that he chose to call the son born to him in this year Nwm)f suggests a relationship between these events. For Ashurbanipal, the second Egyptian campaign was a critical moment in his reign, and confirmed his status (if only temporarily) as undisputed ruler of the known world. What better way for Manasseh, who had campaigned with Ashurbanipal against Tanwetamani’s father Tirhakah, to flatter his master than to name the child who would be his eventual heir after the site of Ashurbanipal’s latest military triumph⁹?

SUMMARY

Manasseh’s son Amon (Heb. Nwm)) has what appears to be an Egyptian name. This article argues that Manasseh, who fought alongside Ashurbanipal on his first campaign in Egypt in 667 BCE, named the son born to him during Ashurbanipal’s second campaign in 663 BCE as a flattering commemoration of his overlord’s capture of the rebel capital Thebes (Heb. Nwm) )n) in that year.

NOTES

¹ Various reconstructions of the causes of Amon’s untimely death have been suggested: (i) Amon may have been assassinated at the behest of a newly resurgent Egypt as a result of his pro-Assyrian policy (A. MALAMAT, "The Historical Background of the Assassination of Amon, King of Judah", IEJ 3 [1953] 26-29), (ii) Amon may have been murdered by one of his elder siblings, disappointed at being passed over in the line of succession (M. COGAN – H. TADMOR, II Kings [AB 11; New York 1988] 276), (iii) The assassination was sponsored by a Yahwist faction wishing to see a revival of the Hezekian reform (E. NIELSEN, "Political Conditions and Cultural Developments in Israel and Judah During the Reign of Manasseh", Proceedings of the Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem 1967) I, 103-106. Without further evidence, the question must remain open, however.

² Elsewhere, the name appears in 1 Kgs 22,26 || 2 Chr 33,22, where a certain Amon (Nmo)f) is mentioned as governor of Samaria during the reign of Ahab. However, the LXX of this text reads Sem(m)hr / Em(m)hr, a fact which led B. STADE, "Der Name der Stadt Samarien und seine Herkunft", ZAW 5 (1885) 173-175, to conclude that we should read rme)f forNmo)f in this particular location. The name also occurs in the phrase ‘children of Amon’ (Nwm) ynb) in Neh 7,59 referring to a group of those who returned to Judah under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua. However, doubt is also cast on the authenticity of this Amon, since the same group of returnees are referred to in the parallel text in Ezra 2,57 as the ‘children of Ami’ (ymi)f ynb). This leaves 2 Kgs 21,19-26//2 Chr 33,21-26 as the only location where the reading Nwm) is certain. I am unable to locate any discussion of a Hebrew etymology for the name in scholarly works. However, if one does accept the preexistence of a Hebrew name ‘Amon’, a derivation from the root Nm) ‘establish, confirm, support’ would seem likely (and, arguably, would render a meaning appropriate for a male child who would continue the family line). No material difference is made to the thesis of this article whether or not the preexistence of the name is accepted.

³ J. GRAY, I & II Kings. A Commentary (OTL; Philadelphia 1976) 711; G.W. AHLSTRЦM, The History of Ancient Palestine from the Palaeolithic Period to Alexander’s Conquest (JSOTSS 146; Sheffield 1993) 734.

⁴ Among those who adopt the later date are E. STERN, "Israel at the Close of the Period of the Monarchy: An Archaeological Survey", BA 38 (1975) 28, and AHLSTRЦM, The History of Ancient Palestine, 739.

⁵ A few scholars, influenced by the account of Manasseh’s reign in 2 Chronicles 33, maintain the possibility of a revolt by Manasseh, most likely in the context of the general uprising against Ashurbanipal inspired by his brother Shamash-shum-ukin in 652 BCE (E. L. EHRLICH, "Der Aufenthalt des Kцnigs Manasse in Babylon", TZ 21 [1965] 281-286; J. BRIGHT, A History of Israel [Philadelphia ³1981] 311, 341). M. COGAN, Imperialism and Religion. Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.E. (SBLMS 19; Missoula 1974) 69, suggests that Manasseh may have joined an earlier rebellion of 22 western kings in 671 BCE which was put down by Esarhaddon during a previous campaign against Egypt. As NIELSEN, "The Reign of Manasseh", 104, observes however, had such an event occurred and Manasseh suffered capture and punishment, there seems little reason why the Deuteronomist would have ignored it.

⁶ R. NELSON, "Realpolitik in Judah (687-609 BCE)", Scripture in Context II. More Essays on the Comparative Method (eds. W.W. HALLO – J.C. MOYER – L.G. PERDUE) (Winona Lake 1989) 181.

⁷ AHLSTRЦM, The History of Ancient Palestine, 735; C.D. EVANS, "Manasseh, King of Judah", ABD IV, 497.

⁸ AHLSTRЦM, ibid., 747.

⁹ Even if the Hebrew name Amon was already in existence by this time, its use may still have been suggested to Manasseh by news of the fall of Thebes.