Eclipses and the darkened sky

Eclipses frightened the ancient world, where they were read as omens; Jeremiah tells Israel not to be “terrified by the signs in the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:2). Babylonian scribes recorded them for centuries. The Bible never describes an eclipse outright, but the prophets speak of the sun going down at noon (Amos 8:9) and of the moon turned “to blood” (Joel 2:31), as a fully eclipsed moon turns a dull red. By one view such pictures draw on eclipses; by another, on the hot desert wind, whose dust can darken the sun.

One eclipse matters greatly for dating. The Assyrians named each year after an official, and their list notes an eclipse of the sun in the year of Bur-Sagale, in the month Simanu. Astronomers compute it as the eclipse of June 15, 763 BC. With that year fixed, the Assyrian list from about 891 to 648 BC falls into place, and through Assyrian records that name kings of Israel, such as Ahab and Jehu, so do many dates of the kings of Israel and Judah. Amos spoke in the reign of Jeroboam II (Amos 1:1), and some scholars link his darkness at noon to this eclipse; others doubt it.