Mesopotamia Anatolia wars Old Babylon and the Hittites Kingdom (1894-1620 BC) | History of God ep10
Channel: Christian Perspective
Date: 2021-03-14

To support Christian Perspective Channel
Paypal: https://paypal.me/christianperspective?country.x=CA&locale.x=en_US


This is episode 10 in a series about the bible and history called the History of God.

In this video we will map out Old Babylon and the Hittite kingdom which took place from (1894-1595)bc. This was the first international trade war in recorded history Between Anatolia and Mesopotamia Babylonians and Hittites The name Babel  Bab-ilim means  Babylon.
 While the region around Sumer was weak and at war a young Amurru prince named Sumu-Abum (1894-1881) took control of the city of Babylon.His successor, Sumu-lael (1880-1845) continued construction of the wall. During his reign the king of Eshnunna built fortifications to defend a crossing point on the Euphrates river in order to protect a trade route. The kings of Babylon Assur and Larsa erected a barricade together to block him. The next three kings of Babylon, Sabium (1844-1831)  Apil-sin (1831-1813)  Sin-muballit (1812-1793) continued to expand Babylon gradually over the next 50 years preparing for the greatest king of the Old Babylon dynasty, Hammurabi (1792-1750) the great lawgiver of Babylon.
 The Hammurabi law code was discovered in the city of Suza in 1901 and is now in the Louvre in Paris. Hamurrabi’s law code was practiced for centuries after the fall of Old Babylon and became a foundation for structure of law that still exists today. 
 Hammarubi then took the city of Isin from Rim-sin, the King of Larsa. Rim-sin had enjoyed a 60 year rule. Hammurabi then took Uruk, He paused to set up military bases and temples, then advanced again each time, and then moved forwards eventually subjugating the entire land of Sumer. He took the title ‘king of Sumer and Akkad’. He then turned his attention to subjugating Elam who was weakened from fighting with Eshnunna. 
 After this he faced down a coalition of Eshnuuna, Assur and Gudeans defeating them all ending the kingdom of Eshnunna and subjugating the other two to pay him tribute money. 
 The ancient Hittites were descendants of Heth a Canaanite named in the table of nations of the bible, we covered the Table of Nations in Episode 7. The ancient Hittites were later replaced by Indo-Europeans who migrated down through the Cacasaus region. The Hurrians eventually populated out the sons of Heth and became the new Hittites. This transition happened in the days of the Hittite kingdom. Old Hittite kingdom 1680-1450.
 Their country was called Hatti and the capital city was Hattusus. Hatti was made up of small fortified city states. 
           There were another group of people called Mitanni. They are related to the Hurrians and they settled in upper Mesopotamia. 
 The most powerful city of the Hittites was a northern city called Kussara. When the Hurrians became too much of a threat, king Pithanas moved his people from Kussara and founded the city of Kanesh. The son of king Pithanas who was named Anittas ended up attacking and destroying the city of Hattusas in about 1750BC. He also placed a curse over the city against anyone who would build there. King Anittas greatly expanded his kingdom and became known as ’the great king’. His curse over the city of Hattusas was legendary. He sowed weeds over it and he said “ Whoever becomes king after me and settles Hattusas again, may the Stormgod of Heaven smite him!” This happened at about the time of the death of Hammurabi.
  There was a nation of warriors being assembled from the Iranean plateau who were named Kassites. There was growing war between Hittites and Amurru over trade through Aleppo. Since the northern route had been cut off by Hurrian bandits the southern route through Aleppo and on to Egypt and Africa had become much more important. 
 When Hammurabi died he was suceeded by his son Sansu-iluna (1749-1712).  A descendant of the last king of Isin began a war of independence to break Sumer away from Babylonian control. His alliance rallied all of the cities south of Nippur to join the fight. The Babylonian forces could never actually defeat them because they would attack and then retreat into the swamp lands at the mouth of the Euphrates. 

 He is called Labarnas II by historians because he is the son of Labarnas but he called himself Hattusilis (Labarnas II) (1650-1620). Labarnas II inherited a great kingdom but the Hurrians in the east were making trade with the Assyrians impossible. He moved his capital from Kanesh to the cursed city of Hattusas and named himself Hattusilis which means “man of Hattusas” This is believed to be the word that Hittite is derived from. The city of Hattusas is a well fortified natural fortress.