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“For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ
Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
(Romans
8:2)
Israel
– Biblical Kingdom- Britannica
Israel, either of two political units that are described in
the Hebrew Bible: the united kingdom of Israel under the kings Saul, David, and
Solomon; or the northern kingdom of Israel, including the territories of the 10
northern tribes (i.e., all except Judah and part of Benjamin), which was
established as the result of a revolt led by Jeroboam I. The southern kingdom,
ruled by the Davidic dynasty, was thereafter referred to as Judah.
Extrabiblical accounts attest to the existence of the Davidic dynasty and of
the northern kingdom of Israel. Based on correspondences between biblical and
extrabiblical texts, scholars date the united monarchy of ancient Israel to
about 1020–922 BCE, although others doubt the historicity of the polity because
of differences in the interpretation of certain texts. The northern kingdom
lasted from 922 until its defeat and exile at the hands of the Neo-Assyrian
empire in 722/721.
In the Bible
Much of the information about the kingdom of Israel comes
from the Hebrew Bible. Most scholars date the initial phase of compilation of
the biblical text to the mid-6th century BCE and attribute its collection and
editing to scribes in Jerusalem. The history of the kingdom of Israel was
therefore written centuries after the events in question and by people who
lived in Judah, Israel’s sister kingdom that was at various times ally and
enemy. Because of this, modern historians approach the text cautiously, taking
into account the authors’ biases and distance from the events.
The united monarchy
According to the biblical account, the kingdom of Israel
begins when the prophet Samuel makes Saul, the son of Kish and a member of the
Israelite tribe of Benjamin, king of the league of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Saul’s main accomplishments as king are in the sphere of military defense. With
his son Jonathan and an army composed largely of volunteers, he wins
significant victories over the Philistines and succeeds in driving them out of
the central hills. A successful campaign against the Amalekites in the south is
also reported (1 Samuel 15). There is no evidence in the text, however, that
Saul makes any appreciable changes in the nation’s internal structures. The
only royal official named in the accounts is the military commander Abner,
Saul’s cousin.
The relationship between Samuel and Saul sours because of
Saul’s religious failures—presumption in offering unauthorized sacrifice before
battle and a reluctance to destroy the best of the spoils gained in Amalek.
Samuel’s rejection of Saul, which is complete and irrevocable, withdraws from
the king the religious sanctions essential for popular support and Saul’s own
mental well-being. Adding to the problems of Saul’s final days, the Philistines
mount new attacks on the Israelites. At no time strong enough to deliver a
final blow to the persistent enemy, Saul gathers his forces at Mount Gilboa in
an effort to cut off their drive into the Valley of Jezreel. A vivid story in 1
Samuel 28 relates how, on the eve of the fateful battle, Saul seeks, through a
necromancer at Endor, some word of encouragement from the dead Samuel. The
oracle of Samuel’s ghost, however, can only foretell the doom awaiting on the
following day—the defeat of the Israelite forces and the death of Saul and his
sons. The Israelites, once again confronted by the desperate conditions
prevailing at Saul’s accession to the throne, have to look to a new deliverer.
They find that deliverer in David. After executing an
Amalekite who claims to have killed Saul, David begins to consolidate his
position as the successor to the former king. He is proclaimed king of the
tribe of Judah in Hebron while Ishbosheth, Saul’s eldest surviving son, reigns
over all of the other Israelite tribes, and a long war of attrition develops
between the two dynastic houses. Ishbosheth’s position becomes exceedingly
insecure following the death of his general, Abner. He is eventually beheaded
by his own courtiers, whom David, in turn, executes for murdering the last
ruler of the house of Saul. David makes a covenant with the elders of the
tribes of Israel and is then anointed as king over all of Israel. He next
conquers the Jebusite (Canaanite) stronghold of Jerusalem, which he makes the
capital of the new united kingdom. He selects this city as his new capital
because it is a neutral site, and neither the northerners nor the southerners
are adverse to the selection.
David goes on to decisively defeat the Philistines and
annex their chief city. He further expands his territory, conquering nearby
kingdoms, including Aram (based in Damascus), Zobah (northeast toward the
Euphrates River), Edom (south toward the Arabian Desert), Moab (east of the
Dead Sea), and Ammon (east of the Jordan River).
Solomon follows his father David as king. Solomon
consolidates his position by ruthlessly liquidating his opponents upon his
accession to the throne. Once rid of his foes, he establishes his friends in
the key posts of the military, governmental, and religious institutions.
Solomon also reinforces his position through military strength. In addition to
infantry, he has at his disposal impressive chariotry and cavalry. The eighth
chapter of 2 Chronicles recounts Solomon’s successful expansion far beyond
Damascus, including military operations in Hamath and building Tadmor
(Palmyra). His aim is the control of a great overland trading route. To
consolidate his interests in the province, he plants Israelite colonies to look
after military, administrative, and commercial matters. Such colonies, often
including cities in which chariots and provisions were kept, are in the long
tradition of combining mercantile and military personnel to take care of their
sovereign’s trading interests far from home.
Solomon becomes an ambitious builder of public works and
supporter of trade. The demand for fortresses and garrison cities throughout
his homeland and empire make it necessary for Solomon to embark on a vast
building program, and the prosperity of the kingdom makes such a program
possible. He is especially lavish with his capital, Jerusalem, where he erected
a city wall, the royal palace, and the first famous Temple. Around Jerusalem
(but not in the Holy City itself), he builds facilities, including shrines, for
the main groups of foreigners on trading missions in Israel. Located as it was
at the crossroads of both overland and maritime trade routes within the Middle
East, Solomon’s empire is predominantly commercial in nature and trade increases
to its greatest extent during his reign. One particularly celebrated episode in
the reign of Solomon is the visit of the Queen of Sheba, who comes to see if
Solomon is truly as wise as his fame suggests and brings large amounts of
balsam, gold, and precious stones from her kingdom. Biblical legend makes much
of a romance between the queen and Solomon, and his granting her “all that she
desired, whatever she asked” (1 Kings 10:13) has been interpreted to include a
child.
The northern kingdom
After Solomon’s death his son Rehoboam is crowned king in
Shechem, a city in the north of the kingdom where Joshua, who several
generations before led the Israelite conquest of Canaan, had assembled all the
tribes of Israel. There the people present their grievances against Solomon’s
oppressive domestic policies. Instead of lightening their loads, Rehoboam
announces that he plans to add to them, causing all of the tribes apart from
Judah and Benjamin to turn away from him and force him to flee to Jerusalem,
which was in the hands of the tribe of Judah in the south. The other 10 tribes
of Israel then make Jeroboam, a former corvée overseer under Solomon, king.
With Rehoboam in control of Jerusalem, Jeroboam establishes his capital at
Shechem and, to counteract the political influence of the sanctuary of the
house of David at Jerusalem, establishes the bull cults of Bethel and Dan. The
inevitable war between Jeroboam and Rehoboam seems to have gone at first in
favor of the south, but the power of Judah is checked by an Egyptian invasion
under Shishak (Sheshonk), who marches on Jerusalem and loots the temple and
palace.
Jeroboam is succeeded by his son Nadab, who reigns for two
years before he is overthrown by Baasha, who decimates the house of Jeroboam.
Reigning for 24 years, Baasha (who “[does] what was evil in the sight of the
Lord” like all of the northern kings) has to concern himself not only with
charismatic leaders who were traditionally powerful in the north but also with
the rising power of anti-monarchical prophets, such as Jehu, who prophesy the
end of the house of Baasha (chapter 16). Elah, Baasha’s son, rules for only two
years before he is assassinated while in a drunken state by Zimri, a chariot
commander. Zimri goes on to exterminate all of the members of the house of
Baasha and reigns for the brief period of seven days. He is besieged in the
citadel at Tirzah by Omri, commander of the army. Zimri burns to death in the
king’s house.
Omri becomes the next king and moves the capital from
Shechem to the city he founds, Samaria. Little more is said about Omri’s reign,
although that of his son Ahab is the subject of several chapters in the first
book of Kings. Much of the account of Ahab’s reign focuses on his promotion of
the worship of the Canaanite god Baal at the encouragement of his Sidonian wife
Jezebel, although his martial endeavors are also covered.
Ahab fights off an attempt by Ben-hadad II, king of Aram,
to take over Israel early in his reign. The marriage of Ahab’s daughter (or
sister) Athaliah to the son of the king of Judah cements peaceful relations
with the southern kingdom. Israel maintains a close relationship with Judah
under the reign of Ahab’s son Jehoram, with Judah aiding in an unsuccessful
attempt to subdue a revolt of Moab against Israel. As his father before him,
Jehoram endeavors to recover Ramoth-gilead from Hazael, Ben-hadad’s successor.
Jehoram is aided in this campaign by his nephew Ahaziah. After Jehoram is
wounded he retires to Jezreel in Judah. During his convalescence a revolution
takes place and Jehu, who was a commander of chariots under Ahab and Jehoram,
is anointed king at Ramoth-gilead. He then puts to death all the members of
Ahab’s family, including Jehoram, Jezebel, and Ahaziah, and wipes out the Baal
cult in Israel.
During the reigns of Jehu and his son Jehoahaz, parts of
Israel are taken over by Aram under the kings Hazael and his son Ben-hadad III.
The situation reverses when Jehoahaz’s son Jehoash takes the throne and retakes
several Israelite cities from Ben-hadad. Jehoash leads Israel in war against
Judah. He sacks Jerusalem and plunders the temple and palace. His son and
successor Jeroboam II likewise strengthens Israel, expanding the kingdom to its
previous borders at Hamath (Hama) and the Dead Sea.
Israel’s fortunes turn after the death of Jeroboam II. His
son Zechariah reigns for only six months before being overthrown by Shallum,
the son of Jabesh. Shallum rules for even less time—only a single month—before
being killed by Menahem, the son of Gadi. The reigns of Menahem; his son,
Pekahiah; Pekah, an officer under Pekahiah who overthrows the king; and Hoshea,
who becomes king after conspiring against Pekah, are dominated by the threat of
Assyria. Menahem pays large sums of money to the Assyrian king Pul in order to
maintain his country. Pekah loses several major cities to Tiglath-pileser, who
exiles their populations. Hoshea reigns independently at Samaria before
becoming subservient to Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria. However, after
Shalmaneser discovers Hoshea’s part in a conspiracy against Assyria, the king
lays siege to Samaria for three years. When he captures Samaria the king exiles
the population to Assyria, ending the kingdom of Israel.
Other sources on ancient Israel
Historical accounts
References to Israel or to particular Israelite kings have
been found in a number of ancient texts. Below is an overview of some of the
most prominent sources for the ancient kingdom of Israel outside of the Hebrew
Bible.
Merneptah Stele
The earliest widely accepted mention of the name Israel
comes from an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah dating to about
1205 BCE. The hieroglyphic inscription describes Merneptah’s campaigns in
Palestine, the region just northeast of Egypt where the Israelites later established
their kingdom, and lists the cities and peoples the king conquered there. One
of its final lines states that “Israel is laid waste, its seed is no more.”
Based on the use of determinatives—signs that specify the category of certain
words—Israel in this period, about two centuries before Saul in the biblical
tradition, was likely a nomadic people group.
Tel Dan Stele
In 1993 archaeologists discovered a fragmentary Aramaic
inscription at the site of Tel Dan in modern Israel. The inscription recounts
the campaigns of an Aramaean king against his neighbors to the south, in which
he claims to have killed a king of Israel whose name ends in -ram as well as
another person whose name ends in -iahu who was king of bytdwd. The majority of
researchers read this word as beth David (“house of David”), indicating the
king was a member of David’s dynasty. However, a minority of scholars reject
this reading and suggest that it might be the name of a place, akin to
Bethlehem and Bethsaida. Scholars who take bytdwd to refer to the Davidic
dynasty generally reconstruct the names in the inscription to be Jehoram, son
of Ahab, king of Israel, and Ahaziah, son of Jehoram, king of the house of
David. They further argue that the inscription belongs to the Syrian king
Hazael, whose exploits are recorded in the Hebrew Bible.
Moabite Stone
The authenticity of the Moabite Stone was the subject of
much debate in the decades after its 1868 appearance. The story of its
procurement—featuring rival Bedouin tribes, the political maneuvering of both
Prussia and France, and the involvement of at least one well-known antiquities
forger—made a number of researchers doubtful that the supposedly ancient object
was genuine. However, a 1945 paper by W.F. Albright arguing for the stone’s
authenticity settled the matter for the majority of scholars. While some
scholars still consider the object a modern forgery, the majority believe it to
be real.
The inscription on the Moabite Stone recounts the deeds of
King Mesha of Moab, who took a number of Moabite cities back from Israel. In
his description of his victories, Mesha states that it was Omri who had
initially conquered the cities. Scholars who accept the stele as authentic thus
see it as evidence for the veracity of the biblical account of Omri and his
subjugation of Moab. The Mesha Stele describes how King Mesha overthrew
Israelite rule over the country, which had been established by Omri.
Assyrian accounts
The Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III in
the British Museum
The Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III in
the British Museum
In the early first millennium BCE, the ancient Middle East
saw the rise of Assyria from one of several regional powers to an empire
spanning much of the region. Although the ascent of the Neo-Assyrian empire
would eventually lead to ancient Israel’s destruction, the records of its
various kings give historians a better look into the history of the region than
they would have otherwise. The earliest mention of the kingdom comes from an
inscription of Shalmaneser III found at Kurkh (Üçtepe, Turkey), in which the
king mentions Ahab the Israelite as a member of an anti-Assyrian coalition who
controlled 2,000 chariots and 10,000 soldiers in a battle against Shalmaneser
in 853/852. This example marks the only occurrence of the term “Israel” in the
known corpus of Assyrian texts.
Omri seems to have loomed large in the Assyrian
imagination. In the Black Obelisk, Shalmaneser lists the military victories he
achieved in the first 31 years of his reign. In one section he describes the
tribute he received in 841 from Jehu (Akkadian: Iaua), son of Omri, who
scholars interpret as the Jehu who appears in the Hebrew Bible. The designation
of “son of Omri” is alternatively taken as a mistake or deceit on the part of
the Assyrians or as gentilic term meaning something like “citizen of the land
of Omri.” Indeed, later Assyrian kings frequently referred to Israel as the
House of Omri, marked with the determinative sign for a land or region. Their
inscriptions also attest to the importance of Samaria, as they use the name to
refer to both the city and the region. Such terms appear in records in the
reigns of Adad-nirari III, Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmaneser V, and Sargon II.
Archaeology and the kingdom of Israel
Archaeologists debate the extent to which the material
remains of ancient Israel can be attributed to the people and events described
in the Bible. Some archaeologists believe that monumental constructions found
at sites such as Megiddo and Gezer, which the Hebrew Bible states were built in
whole or in part by King Solomon, should be viewed as evidence of a strong
united monarchy under the Davidic kings. Others disagree, pointing to a lack of
extrabiblical evidence that such structures should be attributed to Solomon or
his descendants. Some such scholars see the united monarchy and its kings as
representing a mythical golden age rather than historical reality. The
archaeologist Israel Finkelstein argues that David and Solomon were local
chieftains who ruled the area around Jerusalem and that the impressive
constructions found in northern cities were the work of the powerful Omride
dynasty. Finkelstein also suggests that they, and not the Davidic dynasty, were
the kings ruling over a united monarchy in the region.
Israel in the Hebrew Bible’s divided monarchy period is
both attested in a number of documents in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE and
better understood archaeologically. Archaeological remains show a kingdom with
a centralized administration that was able to muster both materials and
laborers for its monumental building projects. Fortified palaces appear at both
Samaria and Jezreel. Finely made pottery, figurines, and carved objects show
the cultural influence of the Phoenician city of Tyre in the region. Its trade
connections went as far as Cyprus and Greece. Canaanite religion continued at
least in parts of the region, and archaeologists have found evidence of the
worship of Yahweh along with a consort named Asherah (who was traditionally the
consort of the god El).
A number of Israelite cities show evidence of the endemic
warfare of the period. Large settlements were constructed to withstand attacks,
with massive fortifications and sophisticated systems for providing water to
the population in times of siege. Destruction layers dating to Tiglath-pileser
III’s 732 conquest of the region have been found at many sites, including Dan,
Hazor, Beit Sheʾan, Megiddo, and Dor. After Tiglath-pileser’s campaign
these sites were abandoned or occupied by a limited number of squatters.
Teagan Wolter The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica