Jonah is one of the prophets that lived under the shadow of Assyria, we know that because he was sent to Nineveh. Nineveh was one of the three great Assyrian cities and it became the capitol. Jonah, son of Amittai is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25 in conjunction with Jeroboam II. This grandson of Jehu comes to power at the time of Amaziah and Uzziah. Jonah’s prophecy concerned Israel (northern kingdom) getting territory back. I wanted to see which Assyrian king he could have proclaimed his message too.
Amaziah (796–767 BCE) ruled for 29 years and his son Uzziah ruled for 52 years; Jeroboam II ruled for 41 years and started in the middle of Amaziah’s rule. To frame this with the Book of Isaiah, Hezekiah, king of Judah, was 716–687 BCE. These are the four Assyrian kings that are mentioned from this time period.
- Shalmaneser IV 783 – 773 BCE (2 Kings 17:3,4 and 18:9 – In the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel.)
- There are two other kings not mentioned by name in the Bible in-between these two.
- Tiglath-Pileser III 745 – 727 BCE – 2 Kings 15:29 and 16:10 – In the time of Pekah king of Israel (Isaiah 7+8); King Ahaz – 1 Chronicles 5:26 (historical account of deportation); 2 Chronicles 28:20 – Pul gave Ahaz trouble.
- Sargon II 722 – 705 BCE (Isaiah 20:1 – Had Ashdod attacked.)
- Sennacherib 705 – 681 BCE 2 Kings 18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them; (NIV) see 2 Chronicles 32:1, Isaiah 36:1, Isaiah 37:9. He is given credit for making Nineveh the political capitol while the other cities were religious and military centers, but had been the capitol at one time.
We do not know how old Jonah was, so it seems that between Shalmaneser and Pul are the most likely kings.
I have seen an Iron Age documentary where the narrator took two events (many years apart) from Assyria’s history to tie them to Jonah. Many documentaries use places or events in describing things in the Fertile Cresent and suggest that they influenced Biblical narratives.
