The World of the Old Testament

The lands that would become Israel were set precariously between the imperial powers who vied for supremacy in the Bronze Age Near East. Megiddo was the site of a great battle in which Thutmose III of Egypt defeated a Canaanite confederation in the 15th century BCE, the probable basis for the Biblical Armageddon. The Hittites had come to prominence in 1531 BCE with a dramatic raid on the city of Babylon, effectively ending the old Babylonian Empire. The resulting power vacuum in Mesopotamia was filled by the Kassites until their demise at the hands of the Elamites. In 1274 BCE, the Hittites and Ramses II of Egypt fought one another to stalemate at Kadesh, in the greatest ever chariot battle. Before Kadesh, the Hittites had reduced the once powerful Mitanni to a vassal state – thereafter, the Hittites would in turn be eclipsed during the Bronze Age collapse of polities throughout the region, with the Assyrians emerging as the new superpower.