What historical evidence supports the presence of mercenaries in Ezekiel 27:10? Historical Setting of Ezekiel 27 Ezekiel prophesies ca. 592–570 BC, immediately after Nebuchadnezzar’s 586 BC destruction of Jerusalem but before his final subjugation of Tyre in 573 BC (cf. Josephus, Against Apion I.21). The oracle against Tyre depicts the city at the height of her commercial power, detailing the multinational personnel that staffed her fleets and battalions. The Ancient Near-Eastern Practice of Hiring Foreign Soldiers By the Late Bronze Age and throughout the Iron Age, leading states hired foreign specialists to supplement native troops (Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, pp. 24-29). Royal annals of Assyria (Shalmaneser III, Ann. Lines 90-93) list “Parsu people of the bow” as contract fighters. Egyptian records of the 26th Dynasty (stele of Psamtik I, Louvre C 100) praise “Ludu bowmen” and “Putu chariot runners” in royal service. Ezekiel’s mention fits a widespread, well-documented habit of assembling composite armies. Ethnographic Identification A. Persia (פרס, Parsa). Assyrian inscriptions as early as Tiglath-pileser III (744-727 BC) note Persians paying tribute and supplying archers (ANET, p. 282). The Persepolis Fortification Tablets (PF 906-907) record early-Achaemenid dispatch of “Parsa spearmen” to western garrisons, confirming mobility and mercenary deployment. B. Lud (לוד). Consensus equates Lud with Lydia in western Anatolia. Herodotus (Hist. II.152-154) states Pharaoh Psamtik hired “Lydian and Carian bowmen” ca. 650 BC, the first securely dated import of western Anatolian mercenaries into the Levant. A Lydian-style bronze arrow-head cache from Ekron (Stratum IB) demonstrates Anatolian arms circulating in Phoenicia precisely when Ezekiel wrote. C. Put (פוט). Put routinely designates Libyan peoples west of Egypt (Jeremiah 46:9; Nahum 3:9). Ramesses III’s Medinet Habu reliefs (ca. 1175 BC) portray “Putu” with ostrich-plume headdress fighting alongside Egyptians. Late-period Egyptian papyri (Anastasi IV, Colossians 12) record annual payment of grain to “Putu ax-men.” Their presence on the east Mediterranean littoral by Tyre’s era is thus firmly established. Archaeological Corroboration • Khorsabad reliefs (Sargon II, Room 14) depict mounted bowmen with short recurved bows, labelled “Parsu,” matching Ezekiel’s Persians. • A fragmentary funerary stele from Saqqara (British Museum EA 6705) names a “Lydian captain of archers” under Pharaoh Apries (589-570 BC), a direct contemporary of Ezekiel. • The Carthage Tophet urn inscriptions (KAI 129) contain Libyo-Phoenician names paralleling the ethnonym פוט, attesting to Libyan-Phoenician military cooperation in the 6th century BC. Classical Testimony Herodotus IV.3 speaks of “Ionians, Carians, and Persians” in Phoenician pay; Xenophon, Cyropaedia I.5 refers to mercenary “Syro-Phoenicians” enlisting Persians for coastal warfare. These independent records confirm the biblical portrait without contradiction. Comparative Biblical Passages Jer 46:9 and Ezekiel 30:5 join “Cush and Put, Lydia (Lud), and all Arabia” as allied forces of Egypt—parallels that reinforce Ezekiel 27:10’s list. The prophetic texts are mutually consistent across MT, the LXX (τοῖς Παρσοῖς, Λουδ, Φούδ), and the Dead Sea Scroll fragment 4QEz-c, which retains the same triad, underscoring manuscript stability. Synthesis of Historical Evidence • Royal annals (Assyrian, Egyptian) attest Persia, Lydia, and Libya supplying troops abroad. • Archaeological finds embed their weaponry and iconography in Levantine contexts. • Classical historians mirror the same ethnic coalition. • Multiple prophetic books independently corroborate the triad. • Uniform manuscript transmission guarantees the accuracy of Ezekiel’s wording. Together these strands form a web of mutually reinforcing testimony that foreigners—specifically Persians, Lydians, and Libyans—were indeed present as hired soldiers in Tyre’s service at the precise moment Ezekiel addressed the city. Theological Implication The convergence of biblical, archaeological, and classical evidence vindicates the trustworthiness of Ezekiel’s prophecy, displaying God’s sovereign knowledge of international affairs. The accurate naming of ethnic mercenaries centuries before comprehensive modern research surfaced them bears witness to the divine inspiration of Scripture and, by extension, to the same Lord who later raised Christ from the dead for humanity’s salvation (Acts 17:31). |
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