Usher places the siege of Samaria at about B. C. 892, and Assyriologists agree in fixing the reign of Assur-natsir-pal about II. C. 883-858.
(11) Other Records. Of this king, who added new vigor to the wars against the people of Northern Syria, there are ample records. Hc levied tribute upon the conquered Hittites. "To Carchemish, in Syria, I directed my steps. The tribute due from the son of Bahiani, swift char iots, horses, silver, tin, * * * I received." (Records of the Past, iii :7o).
He passed from Carchemish "to Hazazi, the town of Lubarna of the Khatti," and levied tribute.
From these inscriptions and several others it is clear that at the time of the siege of Samaria the Hittites were still a mighty people spread over the north from Carchemish to I.ebanon, and so in the time of the siege of Samaria the Hittite chiefs were distinguished among the nations for "their swift chariots, their horses and their engines of war." The Hittites who appear for the first time in the inscriptions of Sargon I, to whom Mr. Pinches of the British Museum assigns the possible date goo B. C., do not disappear from history in the inscriptions until the time of Sargon II, B. C 717.
Lieutenant Conder says : "The veracity of the Old Testament account of the Hittite princes con temporary with Solomon had been deemed as pre senting insuperable difficulties, but the indisputable testimony of the granite rccords of Thothmes and Rameses has left no doubt of the contemporary rule of this powerful race in Northern Syria in the times of the Hebrew Judges and kings" (see Empire of the Hittites, by William Wright. D.D.,
F. R. G. S., 1886, pp. 36-123; The Hittites, A. H. Sayce, LL.D., 1888).
(12) A SummarY of the names of the individ ual Hittites mentioned in the Bible as follows is: Adah (woman), Gen. xxxvi :2.
AhiMeleCh, Sam. xxvi :6.
Bashemath, accurately Bas'math (woman) ; pos sibly a second name of Adah, Gen. xxvi :34.
Beeri (father of Judith, below), Gen. xxvi :34. Elon (father of Basinath), Gen. xxvi :34. Ephron, Gen. xxiii :to, 13, 14, etc.
&Judith (woman), Gen. xxvi :34.
rUriah, 2 SaM. Xi :3, etc.; xxiii :39, etc.
Zohar (father of Ephron), Gen. xxiii :8.
They are all susceptible of interpretation as He brew words, which would lead to the belief either that the Hittites spoke a dialect of the Aramaic or Hebrew language, or that thc words were He braized in their transference to the Bible records.
In addition to the above, Sibbechai, who in the Ilebrew text is always denominated a Hushathite, is by Josephus (Ant. vii :12, sec. 2) styled a Hittite (Smith, Bib. Dict.).