would briefly notice three eclipses which seem to confirm the 
same. The time of Sennacherib’s reign — the contemporary of 
Hezekiah, B.C. 726 — 698 — lias been confirmed by the record of 
an eclipse in an inscription at Nineveh, which says, respecting 
the commencement of his reign : “In the month Tisri (answering 
to our September) the moon was eclipsed, and the moon emerged 
from the shadow while the sun was rising .” On referring to the 
celebrated French work, “ L’Art de Verifier les Dates,” I find 
there was a total eclipse of the moon September 12th, B.C. 721, 
at six a.m. mean time for Nineveh ; and inasmuch as this eclipse 
Fulfils all the conditions required by the inscription, we can 
scarcely doubt but that it refers to the one which was visible at 
Nineveh in the commencement of Sennacherib’s reign; and 
which agrees with the chronology of Scripture in making him 
thereby the contemporary of Hezekiah. 
57. Again in the year answering to B.C. 809, when Pur-el- 
salke, according to the Assyrian Canon, was high priest of 
Nineveh, mention is made of “ the sun having been eclipsed in 
the month of Sivain (June) ” of that year, which is confirmed 
by the Astronomical tables which mark a solar eclipse as hav- 
ing been visible at Nineveh on the day which answers to our 
June 13th, B.C. 809. 
58. The third eclipse mentioned in the Canon is that which 
occurred in the year of Assur-nasir-habil’s accession, B.C. 930 ; 
and accords with the Astronomical tables, which give a solar 
eclipse, visible at Nineveh, on June 2nd of that year. And a 
mention is also made in that year of the death of Ahab, King 
of Israel, which took place, according to the Hebrew chro- 
nology, B.C. 900, during the high priesthood of Dayan-Assur, 
the thirtieth in succession from Assur-nasir-habil , his year of 
office must have answered to B.C. 900; in which we have a 
striking confirmation of the chronology which places the build- 
ing of Solomon’s Temple B.C. 1014, and the death of Ahab, 
which is dependent on that date, B.C. 900 ; instead of lowering 
it, as some have proposed to do, by a period of twenty-five years, 
the effect of which would be to date Ahab’s twenty-two years’ 
reign, B.C. 887 — 765, and to deny his being contemporary with 
Dayan-Assur, the High Priest of Nineveh, according to the 
Assyrian Canon, as explained by the solar eclipse of B.C. 930.* 
59. Both Mr. Bosanquet and Mr. Parker, however, rest 
their conclusions respecting chronology upon what they consider 
to be its perfect agreement with that deducible from Scripture. 
For a full account of the Assyrian Canon, see M. Oppert’s papers in 
the Revue Archeologiquc for 1868 , pp. 808 et seq. 
