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The Palace of the Kings of Israel—in the Bible and Archaeology

Samaria’s Iron Age palace

What did the palace of the kings of ancient Israel look like?

In the Bible, King Ahab’s palace is called an “ivory house” (2 Kings 22:39). We know from other Biblical passages that Ahab—and successive kings of the northern kingdom of Israel—ruled from Samaria. Ahab’s father, King Omri, had established Samaria as his capital and built an elaborate palace there in the ninth century B.C.E. In his lifetime, King Ahab further adorned the palace with intricately carved ivories.

Archaeology has uncovered some of these ivories, as well as the palace itself. Rupert Chapman—formerly of the British Museum, London—examines the Israelite kings’ palace at Samaria in his article “Samaria—Capital of Israel,” published in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. According to the archaeological remains of this structure and textual clues from the Bible, Chapman identifies the palace as a bit hilani, a kind of palace popular in the northern Levant during the Iron Age.

Since a bit hilani must contain a window (or windows) for its name to make sense, some scholars have proposed that the window(s) in question were clerestory windows (windows near the ceiling). However, Chapman has another interpretation. He believes that the bit hilani’s window referred to a “Window of Appearances” above the palace’s entrance. From this window, kings and queens would show themselves to the people standing below. This is akin to what the royal family still does from Buckingham Palace’s balcony.

If Chapman’s interpretation is correct, then the Israelite kings’ palace at Samaria is the best example of a bit hilani in the southern Levant. Indeed it may be the only one.

This identification also sheds light on Queen Jezebel’s death as recounted in 2 Kings 9:30–37. When Jezebel (who, at this point, is the widow of King Ahab) hears that Jehu, who had usurped the throne, is approaching the palace, she “painted her eyes, and adorned her head, and looked out of the window” (2 Kings 9:30). At Jehu’s command, Jezebel is thrown from this “window” and killed. Now we can better envision this scene as taking place at a “Window of Appearances.”

Learn more about the archaeology of Samaria and the palace of the Israelite kings in Rupert Chapman’s article “Samaria—Capital of Israel” in the September/October 2017 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.