Calling Saul of of 3,072 Years Ago !

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                    

And Saul sent a message to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” whenever the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baRvVPg6G1Y 

King Saul was born in about 1050 BCE since we know that King David, his successor, ruled from 1010 to 970 BCE.  So we can say that Saul was a man of 4,200 generations ago being that each year is made up of 4 generations of 25 years each.  That's going back a lot of generations, and we know how different our children's music is from our generation.  We've gone from "In the Mood" to Hip-hop.  How different can you get?  I grew up with the Big Band era of World War II.  I can't even call music of today as music. We are one generation different, well, maybe two. 

David was called in to sooth King Saul's mind.  He played the lyre (small harp) and sang songs to Saul.  Music played its part then, as well. It's thought be some doctors today that Saul was suffering from depression caused by all the stress he was under.    Saul's battle against the Ammonites, as well as his last battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, was fraught with difficulty. It is postulated that Saul experienced epileptic-like fits and assumedly suffered from some kind of 'depression' as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder .

Back in the 11th century BCE, Saul became the 1st king of the Israelites who had been governed by judges from each of the 12 tribes, elders who were the natural leaders of each tribe.  The population saw that other people were being ruled by one King, and they clamored for the same, because at that time they were being threatened militarily from the Philistines and the Ammonites.  So the prophet Samuel, also another judge and in his old age,  was asked to select a king for them.  He chose Saul, and the members of his tribe were all for him as well.    He must have thought up that phrase, Better Call Saul.

Samuel came from a levitical family, meaning from the tribe of Levites that produced Moses and his brother Aaron, people who Moses chose as the Cohens or leaders of the religion.  He lived on Mt. Ephraim and at Ramah in the land of Zuph.  His mother caused him to be taken in and taught by the Nazirite group.  He became a prophet as he foretold the destruction of the House of Eli.  After the death of Eli and his sons and the  defeat of the Israelites by the Philistines at the battle of Aphek, Samuel tried to restore the traditional religious worship. 

 He lived in Ramah and judged the Israelites in the sacred towns of Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, preparing the way for national unity.  On his own,, groups of prophets were formed to guide the people.  In his old age, when external pressure grew, he acceded to the demand for a king and picked Saul.  He went to Bethlehem where he anointed David as Saul's successor.  

For roughly two centuries, Israel had existed as a loose confederation of tribes, dependent for their unity upon bonds of religious faith and covenant that were renewed periodically in cultic ceremonies at the central shrine at Shiloh. By Saul’s day, however, the tribal rallies were no match for the superior iron weapons and chariots of the Philistines, who were pressing ever deeper into the central highlands.

Saul was the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.  He was a well-to do member of the tribe.  The tribe occupied territory between Ephraim and Judah, which included Jerusalem.  On one occasion,, it was almost exterminated in a war with the other tribes as told in Judges 19-21.  The territory was a bone of contention between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah after the division of the kingdom after Solomon died, and eventually, was partitioned between the two.  Most of Benjamin's population was swallowed up with Judah after 721 BCE when the Assyrians attacked the northern 10 tribes.  

Kish was a Benjamite of the family of the Matrites (1 Samuel 9:1; 14:51;  1 Samuel 10:21), and there is some question over whether he was the brother or son of Ner (1 Chronicles 8:33 and 9:39; 1 Samuel 14:51). The question may be resolved by reading both Ner and Kish as sons of Abiel.  The Matri (plural: Matrites, Hebrew: מַּטְרִי) were one of several ancient Israelite clans from the Tribe of Benjamin. They were the clan of the family ...

Saul's first move was to at once organized a trained army and attacked their enemy, winning battles.  They had a great victory at Michmash stopped the Philistine danger, and punitive expeditions were undertaken against the Moabites, Ammonites, and Arameans.  According to the Tanakh, (Hebrew Bible), the Battle of Michmash (alternate spelling, Michmas) was fought between Israelites under Jonathan, son of King Saul and a force of Philistines at Michmash, a town east of Bethel and south of Migron in about 1025 BCE.  

When the Philistines launched a united attack,, Saul was only able to fight defensively and fell with his 3 sons including Jonathan in the battle on Mt. Gilboa.  A surviving son, Ishbosheth, was temporarily acknowledged as his successor over part of the country.  Saul's death led to the temporary domination of the Philistines, but the groundwork he laid for national unity eventually proved effective in establishing a strong and independent Israelite monarchy.  

Besides warring, Saul worked on their Israelite religion that Moses had handed down to them and worked on purifying it, such as getting rid of witchcraft.  He did run into disagreements with Prophet Samuel, though, who ended up selecting David to take over the kingship. 

 Now, Moses  was born in 1391 BCE and Saul was born in about 1050 BCE, which was 341 years before, or 1,364 generations before by our enumerating standards of today.  Judaism was new, and I can see how they would have disagreements back then, in the period of the formation of Judaism.

Kish the Benjaminite was not only the father of Saul, first king of the first Israelite Commonwealth.  He was also a herder who cared about his animals.  Kish sent Saul to find them and, on the way, Saul, a head taller than anyone, attracted the attention of a group of young maidens.  He was a handsome young man and the young ladies kept him talking for a while. All he wanted to achieve was the return home of his father’s donkeys, and while in the area, he wished to meet Samuel the Prophet (pictured).  Although Samuel told him that Kish’s animals had been found, Samuel had other ideas for Kish’s son and crowned him King of Israel.

In those days, it was very important to know who your father was, as it was part of your name; Saul ben Kish (Saul, son of Kish).  Last names hadn't been invented yet.  This way, if Saul was used as a name by many others, they could tell which family this one was from, and that was important, too.  So when writing history, the son of was most always mentioned, especially with common names. 

Jonathan was the oldest son of King Saul.  He was very brave fighting against the Philistines in their wars and this made him  very popular with his own people.  They even saved him from death after he had unwittingly  incurred the death penalty (I Sam.13-14). 

Jonathan's devoted friendship with David, whom he defended against his father's anger, became well known.  When he died in battle with his father, Saul, David was so upset that he wrote his famous lament (II Sam.1:17-27.) 

 Oh precious One of Israel--upon your heights lie the slain! How have the mighty fallen!.....Saul and Jonathan,, beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death not parted.  They were swifter than eagles, stronger than lions.  Oh daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who would clothe you in scarlet with finery, who would place golden jewelry upon your clothing, how have the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle--Jonathan, slain upon your heights?  I am distressed over you, my brother Jonathan, you were so pleasant to me!  Your love was more wondrous to me than the love of women!  How have the mighty fallen and the weapons of war gone to waste?  

So sad that their descendants are still crying out this lament today, I'm sure.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saul-king-of-Israel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrites_(family)

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652967/

http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0259-94222012000100009#:~:text=Saul's%20battle%20against%20the%20Ammonites,%2Dtraumatic%20stress%20disorder%20(cf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baRvVPg6G1Y  Lyre music being played.  

 

Searching For Bene Israel's Entrance Into Afghanistan's Land from Assyrians in 721 BCE: 2,740 years Ago

Nadene Goldfoot                                       

Afghanistan Shah Shujah Durrani Sadozai -Reigned in 1800

The Assyrians, led by Sennacherib,  attacked Northern Israel's 10 Tribes of Israel and took them away to far distant eastern lands of theirs in 721 BCE 2,740 years ago.   The virtual destruction of Israel left the southern kingdom, Judah, to fend for itself among warring Near Eastern kingdoms.  
                                              

Assyrians 

 Eventually some of the 10 tribes  arrived in what is today's Afghanistan and Pakistan.  They were not heard of again after the attack. To  the two remaining tribes, Judah and some of Benjamin who were left behind,  they were lost forever, even possibly presumed dead.  Now, with modern science, we find that many are alive and known to the world as the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of India.  They have maintained their own culture, language, and have staked out their own major piece of land among these countries.  

We know the history of the southern tribes who continued to live in Judah until they, too were taken away, this time by the next group, the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzer, who were the conquerors of the Assyrians who attacked Judah in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE.  Jews were kept in Babylonia but some started to return in 538 BCE with permission from their king.  That means that at the least, they had been captives for 48 years, which is about 2 generations in length. 
                                                      

Jews returning from Babylon going home to Jerusalem.

 They came back finding that Babylonians had filled in their spaces with foreigners living in their land.  That was the way of those days; people were kidnapped, taken away only to be replaced by that country's unwanted and troublesome people.  Killings happened on the battlefield, but people were like machines.  They could be forced to work and do things for you that you didn't want to do.  The kidnapped were sort of like that year's model washing machine.  They were valuable.  
                                                                       

Afghani nomads living today as they may have 3,000 years ago in tents. 

What would our sons of Jacob come across in the Afghanistan land?   It probably took them several years to make their way from Israel to Afghanistan.  
From Jerusalem to Kabul is 1,965 miles or 3,262.36 km.  Kabul is 2 hours 30 minutes ahead of Jerusalem in time.  If they traveled by camel almost 3,000 years ago it would have taken years to get to Kabul, I would think.  They would have traveled on the SILK ROAD, possibly trading all along the way.  

"The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300-1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) extending from present-day northwest Pakistan to present-day northwest India and present-day northeast Afghanistan.  An Indus Valley site has been found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan.   Apart from Shortughai, Mundigak is another known site.   There are several other smaller IVC sites to be found in Afghanistan as well."

"The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex became prominent in the southwest region between 2200 and 1700 BCE (approximately). The city of Balkh (Bactra) was founded about this time (c. 2000–1500 BCE). It is possible that the BMAC may have been an Indo-European culture, perhaps the Proto-Indo-Aryans. But the standard model holds the arrival of Indo-Aryans to have been in the Late Harappan which gave rise to the Vedic civilization of the Early Iron Age."

    "Assyria (/əˈsɪəriə/), also called the Assyrian Empire, was a Mesopotamian kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. It existed as a state from perhaps as early as the 25th century BC in the form of the Assur city-state, until its collapse between 612 BCE and 609 BCE, spanning the Early to Middle Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age."
                                                   

Cyrus of Persia

" The region of nowadays Afghanistan came under Median rule for a short time." The Medes, sons of Japheth, son of Noah of the Bible, cooperated with the Babylonians in the 6th century BCE but were defeated by Cyrus of Persia.  Their country was called Media.  Japheth was promised wide territories in his father's blessing.  he was the father of 14 different people, people of the Indo-European language group, living from the Caucasus to the Aegean Sea.  

   It was Cyrus II, King of Persia who died in 529 BCE who overran the Babylonian Empire which included Eretz Yisrael (Israel).  It was he who in 538 BCE allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  Read in (Ezra 1:1-44; and (II Chronicles 36:22-23 about it of the Bible).  The Jewish exiles thought  that he was wonderful, a Divine agent.  

Afghanistan fell to the Achaemenid Empire after it was conquered by Darius I of Persia. This Darius reigned from 522-486 BCE and had inherited the throne of Cyrus.  At the beginning of his reign, he permitted Zerubbabel and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to work on the reconstruction of the Temple of Solomon, creating the 2nd Temple of Solomon.  It's also thought that Cyrus could have been King Ahasueros and Darius, the son, actually a Jew.  He would have had Queen Esther as his mother.  The thought is that they were so nice and thoughtful to the Jews, that maybe they were related and were Esther's family.  Esther was well known to the Jews of the Persian Empire.  

Note that Cyrus and Darius played most important parts in the lives of Jews in Judah as well as here in Afghanistan though neither knew of the other.  

Alexander the Great arrived in the area of Afghanistan in 330 BCE after defeating Darius III of Persia a year earlier at the Battle of Gaugamela. The Pashtuns "  probably mixed with other peoples, including possibly the Kushans, the Hephthalites or White Huns, Arabs, Mughals, and others who passed through the area. Specifically, Pashtuns in the Kandahar region have a tradition that they are descended from the Greco-Macedonian troops of Alexander the Great, who invaded the area in 330 BCE.

Alexander's  army faced very strong resistance in the Afghan tribal areas where he is said to have commented that Afghanistan is "easy to march into, hard to march out of. Although his expedition through Afghanistan was brief, Alexander left behind a Hellenic cultural influence that lasted several centuries. Several great cities were built in the region named "Alexandria," including: Alexandria-of-the-Arians (modern-day Herat); Alexandria-on-the-Tarnak (near Kandahar); Alexandria-ad-Caucasum (near Begram, at Bordj-i-Abdullah); and finally, Alexandria-Eschate (near Kojend), in the north. After Alexander's death, his loosely connected empire was divided. Seleucus, a Macedonian officer during Alexander's campaign, declared himself ruler of his own Seleucid Empire, encompassing Persia and Afghanistan."  

   Alexander was also the king of Macedonia from 336-323 BCE.  He was also liked very much by the Jews.  He visited Jerusalem and was kind to the high priest (a Cohen) who was Jaddua, and gave privileges to the Jews of Judah and Jews outside the land as well.  This was reported by Josephus, and really not believed.  People thought he never did visit Jerusalem. Nevertheless, there were many Jews named "Alexander," both 1st and last names, so he must have carried on the tradition of being nice to Jews when their suppressor.   

The area was divided into several provinces including:   Aria (Herat); Arachosia (Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, and Quetta); Bactriana (Balkh); Sattagydia (Ghazni); and Gandhara (Kabul, Jalalabad, Peshawar)
   

The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was founded when Diodotus I, the satrap of Bactria (and probably the surrounding provinces) seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BCE. Greco-Bactria continued until c. 130 BCE, when Eucratides' son, King Heliocles I, was defeated and driven out of Bactria by the Yuezhi tribes. It is thought that his dynasty continued to rule in Kabul and Alexandria of the Caucasus until 70 BCE when King Hermaeus was defeated by the Yuezhi.

One of Demetrius' successors, Menander I, brought the Indo-Greek Kingdom to its height between 165–130 BCE, expanding the kingdom in Afghanistan and Pakistan to even larger proportions than Demetrius. After Menander's death, the Indo-Greeks steadily declined and the last Indo-Greek king was defeated in c. 10 CE."

"The territory fell to the Mauryan Empire, which was led by Chandragupta Maurya. The Mauryas introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to the region, and were planning to capture more territory of Central Asia until they faced local Greco-Bactrian forces. Seleucus is said to have reached a peace treaty with Chandragupta by giving control of the territory south of the Hindu Kush to the Mauryas upon intermarriage and 500 elephants."

For a period, the land belonged to the Sassanids;   much of modern-day Afghanistan was part of the Persian Sasanian Empire, since Shapur I extended his authority eastwards into Afghanistan and the previously autonomous Kushanswere obliged to accept his suzerainty."

In 642 CE, Rashidun Arabs had conquered most of West Asia from the Sassanids and Byzantines, and from the western city of Herat they introduced the religion of Islam as they entered new cities. Afghanistan at that period had a number of different independent rulers, depending on the area. Ancestors of Abū Ḥanīfa, including his father, were from the Kabul region.

The early Arab forces did not fully explore Afghanistan due to attacks by the mountain tribes. Much of the eastern parts of the country remained independent, as part of the Hindu Shahi kingdoms of Kabul and Gandhara, which lasted that way until the forces of the Muslim Saffarid dynasty followed by the Ghaznavids conquered them
                                                        

OTTOMAN EMPIRE OF TURKEY 1515-1917:  400 years to be lost by Turkey because they sided with the Axis Power-Germany-in World War I.  Their land was divided up by the Allies who won.  

                                                   

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Dost Mohammad Khan (Pashto: دوست محمد خان‎, December 23, 1793 – June 9, 1863) was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he became Emir of Afghanistan from 1826 to 1839 and then from 1843 to 1863. An ethnic Pashtun, he was the 11th son of Sardar Payendah Khan (chief of the Barakzai tribe) who was killed in 1799 by Zaman Shah Durrani. Dost Mohammad's grandfather was Hajji Jamal Khan.

The Musahiban family started with his older brother, Sultan Muhammad Khan, nicknamed "Telai", meaning "golden", a nickname he was given because of his love of fine clothing. This brother was the ruler of Peshawar.

Bārakzai (Pashto: بارکزی‎, bārakzay, plur. bārakzī) is the name of a Pashtun tribe from present-day, Kandahar, Afghanistan. '"Barakzai" is a common name among the Pashtuns and it means "son of Barak" in Pashto. There are seven distinct Pashtun tribes named Barakzai, with the Zirak branch of the Durrani tribe being the most important and largest tribe with over 4 million people.

                                                                       

1st king of Afghanistan, Amanullah Khan 1919-1929
 His brother was Inayatullah Khan who ruled for 3 days before the rebellion.
Inayatullah had taken over when Amanullah Khan abdicated.  

Afghanistan became a constitutional monarchy in 1926, and had been the Emirate of Afghanistan  It's 1st king was Amanullah Khan.  This honor came after he had been on the throne already for 7 years.  "He was the first Afghan ruler who attempted to modernize Afghanistan on Western designs. However, he did not succeed in this because of a popular uprising by Habibullah Kalakani and his followers.

                                                        

King Mohammed Nadir Shah, father of
the last King of Afghanistan, Mohammed Zahir Shah.
He would be descended from Kish of the Tribe of Benjamin
from Israel's 12 Lost Tribes.
Born Mohammad Nadir Khan
April 9, 1883-November 8, 1933.  

Amanullah Khan had a Minister of War, Mohammed Nadir.  He returned from India and his British-supported armies sacked Kabul.  This forced Habibullah Kalakani, the leader of the tribal rebellion who had taken power and had reinstated the Emirate,   to ask for a truce.  

 On 14 January 1929, Amanullah abdicated and fled to neighbouring British India whilst the country went into a short civil war. From British India, he went to Europe where he died in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1960."

                                              

Mohammed Nadir executed Kalakani, reinstated the kingdom, and was proclaimed King of Afghanistan on October 1929 and went onto revert the reformist path of Amanullah Khan.
                                                         

SON;  LAST KING OF AFGHANISTAN
MOHAMMED ZAHIR SHAH

 His son succeeded him who was Mohammed Zahir Shah who ruled from 1929 to 1933.  His rule started in 1933 and lasted for 39 years.  Under him, the Afghan government sought relationships with the Soviet Union, France, United Kingdom and the United States.  On September 27, 1934, the Kingdom of Afghanistan joined THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.  It was Zahir Shah who descended from Kish of the Tribe of Benjamin, one of the 12 tribes of Israel.   His reign ended in 1973.  

During World War II Afghanistan remained neutral and their diplomatic policy was of non-alignment.  

                                                         

Malala is from Pakistan.  She was shot and almost died
because she was in school trying to get an education. Women
in Saudi Arabia are getting educated.  Why not
in Pakistan?   

   He was overthrown by his own cousin, Mohammed Daoud Khan who established the Republican Afghan government.  Mohammed Daoud was Prime Minister at the time (1929 to 1946), worked hard to develop modern industries and education in the country.  It looks like not all were on board for girls to get an education.  They never reached that point of a higher understanding for girls.  

Afghanistan  became a Kingdom again in 1919 under Amanullah Khan I. That Kingdom  eventually came to an end in 1973 when the country became a Republic under Mohammed Daoud Khan.

Mohammed Daoud Khan or Daud Khan was the 5th Prime Minister of Afghanistan from 1953 to 1963 and later the President of Afghanistan. Prince Daoud was born in Kabul, the eldest son of the diplomat HRH Prince Mohammed Aziz Khan (1877–1933) (an older half-brother of King Mohammed Nadir Shah) and his wife, Khurshid Begum.
He could probably claim descent from Kish, too.   Afghanistan had experienced several coups since 1973, when the Afghan monarchy was overthrown by Daud Khan, who was sympathetic to Soviet overtures.

There are about 50 million Pashtos in the world with about 14 million in Afghanistan.  The Pashtuns are the world's largest segmentary lineage ethnic group. Estimates of the number of Pashtun tribes and clans range from about 350 to over 400. There have been many notable Pashtun people throughout history: Ahmad Shah Durrani is regarded as the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan, while Bacha Khan was a Pashtun independence activist against the rule of the British Raj. Some others include Malala Yousafzai, Shah Rukh Khan, Zarine Khan, Imran Khan, Farhad Darya, Zakir Husain, Hamid Karzai, Mullah Mohammed Omar, and Ashraf Ghani.  How many claim descent from Israel's 10 northern tribes?  

Today we have about 14,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan.  "The attacks of September 11, 2001 surprised many Americans; the decision a month later to wage a war in Afghanistan, to end the ability of the government to offer safe haven to Al Qaeda, may have seemed equally surprising. "  Al Qaeda is a terrorist group.  So is the Taliban.  

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Resource:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-haplogroup-we-be.html
https://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com/2018/09/what-haplogroup-do-pashtuns-be.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyrian_siege_of_Jerusalem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dost_Mohammad_Khan_(Emir_of_Afghanistan)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shah_Shujah_Durrani_Sadozai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanullah_Khan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Afghanistan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barakzai
https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/mohammed-zahir-shah-6876.php
https://www.quora.com/Who-was-first-king-of-Afghanistan
https://www.quora.com/What-do-the-Jews-think-of-the-Pashtuns-of-Afghanistan-who-according-to-some-studies-are-lost-tribes-of-Israel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pashtuns

Pashtuns Originated From King Saul of Israel

Nadene Goldfoot                             

Wonders of the modern age; I just found out this is photoshopped.
I thought it was an actual group of Pashtuns visiting Jerusalem some time back,
maybe in the 70s.  To me it's still a wonderful picture.  Hope it comes
true one of these days when Pashtun tourists will visit.  

There is a strong tradition, oral and written, that some of today's Pashtuns of Afghanistan came from King Saul, Israel's very first king.  We find this in a book published in 1635 titled MAHSAN-I-AFGHANI.  " Today, several Afghan tribes including the Durrani, Yussafzai, Afridi and Pashtun believe they are decedents of King Saul. They call themselves Bani-Israel, similar to the Hebrew, B'nai Israel, meaning the children of Israel. Even some Muslim scholars and writers accept this. The exiled Afghan Royal family also traces its roots to ancient Israel, the tribe of Benjamin specifically. As evidence, they cite Makhzan-i-Afghani , a chronicle published in 1635, in the time of King Jahangir by Khawaja Nimatullah of Herat.
                                                    

King Saul died in battle with his son, Jonathan

The traditional story is that it all started with Saul being chosen as king from the tribe of Benjamin.  Saul was the son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin.  The prophet, Samuel, was a seer, a man of vision and highly trusted by his people who had no king over them.  Instead, they relied on regional leaders to advised their people who relied on their memories of the rules handed down in their families from Moses, leader of the Israelites out of bondage of 400 years from Egypt who had lived in Canaan previously to their enslavement.
                                                         

Samuel annointing David as king 

Countries surrounding them had kings.  They clamoured for a king, too, so Samuel set out to seek the perfect king.  He had been on of those regional advisors himself,  called judges, and turned out to Israel's last one, being he chose the replacement for all of them in existence then.  Samuel himself came from a Levitical family living on Mt. Ephraim and in Ramah in the land of Zuph;  men of the tribe of Levi who were those special descendants of Aaron serving in the Temple as the Cohens or priests.  His mother was a special woman, one of those who had trouble conceiving in the first place.  She had consecrated him before he was born to serve G-d as a Nazirite who would serve the sanctuary at Shiloh.  This was in the days before Jerusalem became the capital, sometime around 1500 BCE.  Samuel served as a Judge in Ramah and worked in Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh.  Was his judgement always infallible?  Evidently not always.
                                                                         

The Israelites were being threatened by the Philistines and the Ammonites and a leader was needed to fight them off.  Samuel saw the leadership qualities that Saul had and chose him to be the king.  Saul immediately chose men already quite well trained and had himself an army.  They defeated their enemies.  At Michmash they had a spectacular victory stopping the Philistine danger. 
                                             

Moabites practiced human sacrifice

         

Ammonite battle

 Saul and the army took on punitive expeditions against the Moabites, Ammonites and Arameans.  

As for the Israelite religion at that point in time, he worked on purifying it to regain its Mosaic rulings, which they were falling away from by believing in witchcraft, a prevailing belief surrounding them in other lands.  
                                                  

Young David made a name for himself taking on
the Philistine giant, Goliath and outwitting him, killed him
with his sling and a stone landing on his head between the eyes.

However, he and the prophet Samuel did not always see eye to eye, and friction between them grew.  A young man named David had joined Saul's royal court and he was the problem.  He was the youngest son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, who was the grandson of Ruth and Boaz.  He lived in Bethlehem.  Boaz was a wealthy man with much property.  
                                                     
At age 25, David had become the armor-bearer for King Saul.  He was the best friend of Saul's son, Jonathan.  David showed what a great and clever soldier he was in battle and eventually wound up marrying Jonathan's sister, Michal.  Saul was becoming slightly paranoid, becoming jealous of the attention that David was getting, both from his own family members and from others in the court.  His jealousy became so bad that David recognized it, causing him to leave the court and join up with Achish, king of Gath, shown on the map above, a little king in Judah.  He hoped this would be a cooling off period for Saul to calm down. 
                                                     

 Besides the jealousy, Saul suffered from some ailment like seizures that was taking a toll on him physically.  This had been a time when David would calm him down with his harp playing and singing.  It hadn't been happening with David in Gath.  David thought that Saul might be missing him more for that then being driven from him through his jealousy.  Note David's hair.  He was said to be a gingy (red haired).  

David returned to Israel after Saul and 3 of his sons had been defeated and killed at battle over Mt. Gilboa.  He settled in Hebron and then declared himself King of Judah.  Saul's general was Abner, a cousin of his.  Abner's father was Ner, and Ner and Kish were brothers, sons of Abiel.   At first, Saul's general, Abner, sided with Eshbaal , AKA Ish-Bosheth b: 11th century BCE)  Saul's 4th son who Saul had crowned king by Abner when in Mahanaim.  Eshbaal was Saul's only son to fight that lived to fight in the battle of Gilboa.
                                                    

King David

With Abner now siding with David as their king, the country found itself in an indecisive war between the 2 crowned kings.  General Abner continued to side with David.  Eshbaal was then murdered by 2 of his own generals, Baanah and Rechab.  King David had these 2 generals executed for regicide.  David had become the favorite king of all time.  In those days, family was important.  It's surprising that Abner turned against Saul, showing that Saul did have enough problems to cause a cousin to side with an out of family king instead. 

Saul's son, Jonathan, had a son named Mephibosheth.  When King Saul and his sons had died in battle at Mt. Gilboa, Mephibosheth was only 5 years old.  His nurse grabbed him when she heard of his father and grandfather's deaths and started to run for cover, as the custom in those days was to slaughter the remaining descendants by the new conqueror.  She unfortunately dropped Mephibosheth who fell on his leg so bad that it caused him to be lame.  In those days they didn't know how to set bones properly, evidently.  David treated Mephibosheth well, honoring Saul and his former best friend, Jonathan in that way.  Jonathan had always defended David against his father Saul's anger.  

Supposedly, King Saul had a son called Jeremiah.  This could be one we know of but going by another name due to changes in languages.  Jeremiah was said to have a son called Afghana.  Jeremiah died at the same time that King Saul died in battle with Jonathan.  Afghana was raised by King David and remained in the royal court during King Solomon's reign according to the story.  
                                                                                 

To me, Jonathan and Jeremiah sound like the same person.  Mephibosheth and Afghana also sound like the same people, as Mephibosheth was also raised by King David in his court.  As for living through King Solomon's reign, let's look at birth dates.  
     David ruled from 1010 to 970 BCE  His son,
    Solomon ruled from 961 to 920 BCE.  
    Mephibosheth was 5 when Jonathan was killed.  From 1010 to 961 was 49 years.  Mephibosheth could have been at least 54 years old to have reached the period of Solomon's reign.  So it's possible that this could have been Afghana of the legend.   
                                                        

About 400 years later, the Afghana family descendants had to flee to a land called Gur, which was in central Afghanistan.  They lived and traded with their neighbors and by the year of 662, when Islam arrived after Mohammad had died in 632, the sons of Israel in Gur converted to Islam with 7 representatives of the Afghanis.  The leader of the sons of Israel was called Kish.  This was, as you remember, the name of Saul's father.  This shows that they carried their history with them at least orally to have named someone Kish.  Remarkably, the leadership quality of the family was carried with them as well through their DNA.  

According to the oral tradition, Muhammad had rewarded this family for their converting and was given the added responsibility of spreading Islam among all the Afghanis.  Kish's Hebrew name had been changed to Arab-a Rashid by Mohammad.  All this is recorded by Rabbi Marvin Tokayer. 

Tokayer added that he had met a tribe in the Khyber Pass area of Afghanistan with several names of the Bible's Joseph-first son of Jacob and Rachel.  He knew of Yusufzai (Joseph) and Yusufuzi (children of Joseph) and Yusafzad.  Their tradition is that they were carried away from their ancient homeland, wrote Tokayer.   
                                                                                 

We know that Joseph wound up in Egypt but was not part of the 10 lost tribes of Israel taken by the Assyrians in 721 BCE to become our legend of the 10 LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL.  However, his 2 sons inherited his land and were given their shares by Moses and Joshua.  They were Manasseh and Ephraim.  Could it be that these Afghanis were from Joseph's 2 sons?  Very possible as they were from the 10 northern tribes attacked and taken by the Assyrians.  
                                                     

According to Wikipedia, the name, KABUL, is taken from the biblical story of Cain and Abel; the Cain is the K sound and Abul is from Abel.  It also says its origin is Persian.  "Kabul (Persian: کابل‎, translit. Kābol, Pashto: کابل‎, translit. Kābəl) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, located in the eastern section of the country. It is also a municipality, forming part of the greater Kabul Province. According to estimates in 2015, the population of Kabul is 4.635 million, which includes all the major ethnic groups of Afghanistan. Rapid urbanization had made Kabul the world's 75th largest city."  "Afghanistan, also called Khorasan or Khurasan in medieval Muslim and Hebrew sources, has a Jewish history that may date back 2,700 years to the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian exile."

                                                      

I note that Afghanistan was on the Silk Road to China from Europe.
Jews became traders on this Silk Road connecting Jerusalem to Rome this way. 

Saul was a nice village on a mountain of Afghanistan.  It was located near Gardez, a town east of Ghazni in Afghanistan.  In 1080, Rabbi Moses ibn Ezra mentioned that he found 40,000 Jews paying tribute to Ghazni.  Benjamin of Tudela in the 12th century, a well known Jewish historian, counted 80,000 Jews living there.  It looks like Jews had moved there after being threatened by Islamic conversion who had been living in Arabia.  They must have found refuge there even though the land itself had become Muslim.  Like most Muslim states, though Jews were treated as 2nd class citizens, there were ways of staying alive, with better chances than staying in the Christian countries of that period.
                                                   

I note that in 1096, 16 years later, Jews in European towns were massacred by German Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem.  
1099, 19 years later, the whole Jewish community in Jerusalem was massacred by the Crusaders.  

Previously, Jews of the Byzantine Empire were forcibly converted to Christianity in 640, 721 and 873, so for those 3 centuries Jews were threatened by conversions to others' Christian religion.  Those dates just stand out as some of the worst experiences they had.  The threat hung over them like a black cloud.  

It's amazing to me now that the tables have turned.  Christianity is now the more accepting religion, at least not threatening our lives, while Islam has taken the turn and some of them have turned into ISIS, killing everyone, Jews, Christians and even many Muslims not adhering to their horrible way of worshipping G-d mixed in with a lot of bloody killings.  

  From 1115 to 1215, there was another Jewish community in Firoz Koh that thrived which was located between Herat and Kabu.  We know because stone tablet with Hebrew inscriptions dated back to then.  This was told to us by Alden Oreck.  I wonder if they were head stones from a grave yard.  

Then something terrible happened.  Genghis Khan invaded Afghanistan in 1222.  The Jewish communities were reduced to isolated pockets, probably those high in the mountains.  Shortly after that, all Jews were expulsed from England in 1290.  Was there a connection?  Was it the vibes in the air we breathe?  Word does get around, even without the internet.  
                                                      

Pashtuns living in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India
families remembering their history of coming from Saul and Benjamin,
tribes taken by Assyrians long ago, still practicing some long ago
customs such as candles on Friday nights.  There were about 9 million
Pathans living in Afghganistan.  When Jews lived here, they
unfortunately were not at the point of mixing with the Pashtuns or
curious about this shared history as we are today.  I suppose
as the saying goes, there is a time and place for everything to happen.  

In 1948 Israel became a state after waiting for the moment for 2,000 years.  5,000 Jews were living in Afghanistan then, and Muslims everywhere turned against their Jewish population on or after May 14th, the day it was announced in the United Nations.  Most were forced to emigrate to Israel, whether they had hoped to or not.  Some even opted to go to New York, USA in the early 1950s because of the change in Afghanistan's attitude towards Jews.  Zabon Simintov found himself being the only Jew who remained there.  Even Al Jazeera wrote about him.  
Update: late Saturday night-1/5/19.  
David commented:  The Royal Afgan Family of Zahir Shah is descendant from Kish Family of Binyamin..  



Resource: Shavei Israel site, on Afghanistan and Pashtuns;  HAISTAN
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/afghanistan-virtual-jewish-history-tour
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
Tanach, the Stone Edition
Book:  THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL-THE LOST AND THE DISPERSED by Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail.  
http://www.cbs.gov.il/statistical/statistical60_eng.pdf from Israel
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/17/israel-lost-tribes-pashtun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlLlVUdOmvA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPuvEj2KmRo&fbclid=IwAR2yuAzIZ7cKPPvJ2ep2rG6qMgT8eEAfcAebTpHaGtnmlIVMe4OasXG5xCk interview of Dr. Shalva Weil