Kings of Israel and Judah

 Nadene Goldfoot             

                                                                 King Saul of Israel, son of Kish of the tribe of Benjamin , 11th century BCE.  He died in battle on Mt. Gilboa with his 3 sons. The 4th son, Ishbosheth, aka Esh-Baal, crowned by Abner, ruled over part of the country.  The Philistines took over till David fought them and won. Judah accepted David as king led to indecisive war.  Abner then backed David.  Ishbosheth was murdered by his 2 generals.  

                        King David (1000 ---960 BCE) of Israel, son of Jesse of the tribe of Judah, born in Bethlehem.  Best friend of Jonathan, 3rd son of Saul, married Saul's daughter, Michal.  Turns out that Saul was very jealous of David, his armor-bearer.  With virtues and vices, David became a religious symbol and Jewish messianic hope was attached to his descendants. 

                                                                         

The House of David of tribe of Judah started with David's rule over Israel from 1010 BCE till 970 CE.  When Solomon died in 920 BCE, Israel divided as the empire ceded from Judah.  The House of David continued on ruling Judah. It ended with Zedekiah 597-586 BCE when the Babylonians attacked and took away so much of the population in 597 BCE and 586 BCE.                         

 Israel was ruled by Jeroboam of tribe of Ephraim from 933-912 BCE. He had been Solomon's  superintendent of forced labor.  He later led the revolt of the people against this burden.  When Solomon died, he led a delegation to Solomon's son and heir, Rehoboam, asking for changes in this forced labor system and lower taxation.  Being refused, the 10 tribes ceded from the union, and it was Civil War.  The Bible is hard on Jeroboam, saying that he sinned and caused Israel to sin.  His capital was at Shechem, then moved to Transjordan's Pennel, later to Tirzah.  5 years later, 60 northern towns were ravaged by Egypt.  To compete with Jerusalem's religious center, he copied it in his manner by setting up new shrines at Bethel and Dan with a similar cult but, G-d forbid, centering on the symbols of the golden calves!!! Oy Gevalt!!!  He was not a religious man, not educated and made a mess of things.  

Assyria attacked the 10 northern tribes in 721 BCE and took away most, the best, 27,290  of the population. They replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners and/or Cutheans,(The Cuthites are mentioned in Josephus, Antiquities Book 11, Chapter 4, as "Cutheans", naming them as those who were brought from Media and Persia and "planted" in Samaria by the King of Assyria after he had conquered the 10 tribes. and they all became the ancestors of the Samaritans.  John Hyrcanus took the area in 107 BCE and razed it, but it was restored by Roman General Pompey.  Herod renamed in "Sebaste," Greek for Augusta in honor of Augustus Caesar, now called Sebastiya.  Samaria is also the name of the whole northern region of Israel.              

Israel above is named as Samaria, the name of the capital of Israel.  

The 27,290 became the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel but had been taken to Assyria and Media.  Media lies eastward of Assyria and northwest of Persia. They could be today's Iraqis, Syrians and Iranians and maybe a few Turkmenistanis. 

 It ended with King Hoshea 730-721 BCE.  This is when the Assyrians attacked them and carried off so much of the population.  Hoshea had fought against the yoke led to Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria and its capture in 721 BCE by his successor, Sargon.  Sargon then annexed the country and deported the 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media.  

                                                 

A revolt of Ashdod supported by King Hezekiah of Judah (720-692 BCE) was suppressed in 715. Judah had been ravaged but managed to hold out by receiving terms, paying tribute and ceding some land.  

Later, Assyria declined rapidly and was succeeded by Babylon.  

You wonder why they ever bothered in the first place to take someone's land, but then at the time, they think it will last forever.  They do not have the benefit of hindsight.  For that moment, they think they are heroes.  

Resource;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidic_line#/media/File:Genealogy_of_the_kings_of_Israel_and_Judah.svg

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia