Amaziah, 9th King of Judah and son Uzziah, and 11th king Jotham: All of House of David

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

9.Amaziah:  9th King of Judah, reigned from (796-780  BCE) He succeeded his father, Joash, on his assassination, and put his murderers to death.  He executed the officials who murdered his father, Joash, but spared their children in accordance with the Law of Moses.

He reigned for 29 years.   His mother was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem, and his son and successor was Azariah (also known as Uzziah).

 He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, though not wholeheartedly like King David, and he left the local high places intact. 

 Amaziah pursued a vigorous policy and gained a victory over Edom, but challenging Samaria, was heavily defeated and held prisoner  for a time. Conflict with Israel: Emboldened by his victory, he challenged King Jehoash (or Joash) of Israel to war. Judah was routed at Beth-shemesh, Amaziah was captured, and Jehoash broke down 600 feet of Jerusalem's wall and plundered the Temple and royal palace.

  Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and was founded in 880 BCE by King Omri of Israel on a hill bought from Shemer (Kings 16:24).  The site, 7 miles NW of Shechem (Nablus) was on an isolated elevation dominating a wide countryside. It was  close to Judah.   The city occupied 25 acres.  

“So Edom came out against them with many men and with a strong hand” (Numbers 20:20, NKJV).[i] In response to their evil, we read, “Says the Lord. Yet Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage for the jackals of the wilderness” (Malachi 1:2-3). “And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, While Israel does valiantly. Out of Jacob One shall have dominion, And destroy the remains of the city” (Numbers 24:18-19). Jacob becomes the House of David who rule Judah.

Edomite Campaign: He defeated 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt and captured Sela (renaming it Joktheel), but later brought back Edomite idols to worship.

The Edomites continued to attack Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, looting the First Temple at the time of its destruction and blocking the escape of the Jewish people, causing many to die. Interestingly, it is believed that the Edomites were eventually forced to convert to Judaism by John Hyrcanus (Maccabean leader, 2nd century B.C.). King Herod is considered one of their descendants, as is the prophet Obadiah. It is also believed that descendants from Edom settled in Rome. Thus, the current exile of the Jewish people instigated by the Roman Empire is called “the Exile of Edom.”

Death: After living 15 years past Jehoash's death, a conspiracy formed against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish, where assassins tracked and killed him. He was killed in a palace revolution.
His body was brought back on horseback and buried with his ancestors in the City of David.

10. The King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy, by Rembrandt, 1635.
 Uzziah/Azariah 10th king of Judah (780-740 BCE)  succeeding to the throne at the age of 16,  (also called Azariah) was the 10th king of the ancient Kingdom of Judah, reigning for 52 years from approximately (780 to 740 BCE.) 
Family: Son of King Amaziah and Jecoliah of Jerusalem; father of Jotham.  Contemporaries: Prophets Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah. Alternate Name: Referred to as Azariah in parts of the biblical text (such as 2 Kings 15).
Military Power: Won campaigns against the Philistines (demolishing the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod), Arabs, and Meunites, and forced the Ammonites to pay tribute.  He also headed a league of kings who opposed Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria.  
Infrastructure & Fortification: Rebuilt Elath, reinforced Jerusalem's walls with towers, constructed desert cisterns, and developed early siege engines to shoot arrows and hurl stones.  Uzziah rebuilt the Red Sea Port of Elath, and under his reign, Judah reached the zenith of its development.   Economic Growth: Promoted cattle-breeding, farming, and viticulture, leading to widespread national prosperity. 
Army: Maintained a large, trained standing army of over 307,500 troops,
                                    Downfall and Death
Transgression: Grown proud of his success, Uzziah attempted to enter the Temple of Jerusalem to burn incense on the altar—a duty strictly reserved for the Levitical priests.
Divine Judgment: When he opposed the priests who confronted him, he was suddenly struck with leprosy on his forehead.  Toward the end of his life, he suffered from leprosy and had to hand over power to his son, Jotham. 
Final Years: He lived in enforced isolation outside the royal palace until his death, while his son Jotham co-governed and later succeeded him. He was buried in a nearby field rather than the royal tombs.
An inscription has been discovered  in Jerusalem relating that Uzziah's remains were transferred outside the city upon the construction of the 3rd Wall in the time of Agrippa I.                      



11. Jotham, 11th King of Judah (740 -735 BCE) of the House of David.  Family: Son of King Uzziah (Azariah) and Queen Jerusha (daughter of Zadok); father of King Ahaz, her brother,  who was also a king of Judah, son of Jotham who ruled from 735-.720 BCE).  His reign commenced during the lifetime of his father Uzziah who had fallen sick with Leprosy.  Jotham fought and defeated the Ammonites and resisted the pressure of the king of Aram to join an anti--Assyrian alliance. 
So let us get this straight;  king 1. Jotham (740- 735 BCE) was the son of King Uzziah (780-740) and his mother was Jerusah, whose father  had a son, 2.  Ahaz  king of Judah from (735-720 BCE). King Jotham and King Ahaz were brothers.  
His kingdom was attacked by Israel and Syria, while the Edomites and Philistines harried his southern territory.  Despite the opposition of the prophet Isaiah, Ahaz sought the aid of Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria, who then invaded Syria and Israel in 733 BCE.  Judah, however, became an Assyrian vassal and was also subjected by Ahaz to Assyrian idolatry.  
Character: Described as a righteous king who "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord," unlike his father, he avoided trespassing into the Temple to burn incense. However, the general public still practiced corruption and failed to remove local high places of worship.
 His reign commenced during the lifetime of his father Uzziah who had fallen sick with Leprosy.  Jotham fought and defeated the Ammonites and resisted the pressure of the king of Aram to join an anti--Assyrian alliance.  

 Resource: 

Wikipedia

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

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descendants from Edom settled in Rome. Thus, the current exile of the Jewish people instigated by the Roman Empire is called “the Exile of Edom.”[iii]

The GLORIOUS KINGDOM OF JUDAH

Nadene Goldfoot                                              

          From one kingdom of Israel came two:  Israel and Judah, which was the largest of the tribes.  

Judah was the southerly of the two kingdoms into which Israel was divided in 933BCE after the death  of Solomon, into Israel remaining in the North from the tribe of Judah, most of their neighbor, Benjamin, and also the absorbed tribe of Simeon which was isolated.

Judah had no connection to the sea because of the fighting Philistines so didn't have a trade-route, and it occupied no more than 1/3 of the original area of the Northern Kingdom.  Therefore, it was poor and unimportant as compared with Israel.   

On the other hand, it wasn't involved with international rivalries, and its existence was more tranquil.  Partly owing to the presence in its territory of Jerusalem and its Temple, it preserved Mosaic monotheism in a purer form.  Until toward its last days, Judah's dynastic history  was more settled, the monarchy generally passing peacefully from father to son in the Davidic house, except for the usurpation of Athalia (843-37BCE), Queen of Judah from 842-836 BCE, daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.  On the death of her son, Ahaziah, who reigned only one year, she exterminated the entire royal family except for her grandson, Joash, who was saved by his aunt Jehosheba.)  Why?  

                                            

She wanted all the power and introduced the Baal cult into Judah. Baal included sacrificing people.   After she ruled for 6 years, a revolt broke out in favor of Joash, and Athaliah was put to death.  He was king (836-797 BCE), but hidden in the Temple when a child for years.  Jehoiada, the high priest in Jerusalem,    crowned Joash king, and destroyed the Baal cult, put Athaliah to death, worked as regent until Joash was 21.  The county was invaded by Hazael of Aram  who they paid off with a large indemnity.  Joash later was killed by conspirators.  Jehoiada died at age 130, buried in the royal tomb.  

After all the Israelites went through, what made them tend to adopt the deities of the local inhabitants, notwithstanding the vehement protests of the prophets?  The conflict is one of the themes of historical accounts of the Book of Kings.  They even did it later on with Christianity and the Islam.  Moses, then Joshua had spent 40 years changing the minds of 6 million people, the thought, into following something they believed came from out of their realm, the real one and only G-d.  And why not, it was such a logical way to live.  It did ask a lot from the Israelites, however, with.  

Judah had a period of political and commercial expansion under King Jehoshaphat of Judah, son of Asa, (875-851 BCE), in alliance with King Ahab (876-853 BCE) of Israel by marrying his son Jehoram to Athalia, daughter of Ahab of Israel.   It then ended badly.  Jehoshaphat had fought with Ahab against Aram (Syria)  and lost, and with Ahab's son Jehoram against King Mesha of Moab. 

Mesha wound up regaining the land he had lost and captured the land of Reuben and part of Gad.  He inscribed his victories on the MOABITE STONE.   Jehoshaphat tried to revive sea commerce, but his crafts were wrecked at Ezion-Geber (I Kings 22).  The Bible praises his piety.  

Hezekiah (720-692 BCE) and Josiah (637-608 BCE) were associated with period of religious revival.  

An Assyrian expansion, which had overwhelmed the Northern Kingdom of Israel,  was checked  before the walls of Jerusalem in 701 BCE.                         

Gedaliah was from a noble Jewish family, but appointed governor by the Babylonians.  He ruled over the population which remained in Judah after the destruction of the 1st Temple in 586 BCE.  he set up the seat of his administration at Mizpah but after that was murdered by the commander Ishmael ben Nethaniah and his followers who were apparently planning a revolt against Babylon in concert with the neighboring powers.  After the assassination, Gedaliah's supporters fled to Egypt.  (II Kins,25:25-26;  Jer.41) This destroyed any hope of holding a Jewish community together in Palestine after the Babylonian conquest.  

                          Babylonian Exile 

                                                 

Destruction of Jerusalem: The Babylonians breached the city, completely destroying Jerusalem, the royal palace, and Solomon's Temple in 586 BCE.

However,  the city of Jerusalem and state both lost the battle with the Babylonians in 586 BCE, when large numbers of the people were deported. This is considered THE END of JUDAH.   They tried to keep the state going under Gedaliah, a member of the former Royal House, but Gedaliah was assassinated in 582 BCE. 

The descendants of the exiles in Babylonia continued to cherish their national and religious ideals (By the rivers of Babylon...)  so steadfastly as to make possible the renewal of Jewish life after 539 BCE in the area of the former kingdom of Judah.  

                    The return to Judah from the exile

Cyrus the Great, the king of Persia, allowed the Jews to return to their homeland after conquering the Babylonian Empire. The Edict of Cyrus:  In 539 BCE, Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. In 538 BCE, he issued an official decree (the Edict of Cyrus) that permitted the exiled Jewish people to travel back to Jerusalem and Judea. He also gave back the sacred gold and silver temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had stolen.

Judeans became known as "Jews" following the Babylonian exile in the 6th century BCE and throughout the Second Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE), as the term Yehudi (originally meaning a member of the Tribe or Kingdom of Judah) broadened from a geographic descriptor into a general term for the entire surviving Israelite people.

In contrast to its relative political obscurity, the intellectual and spiritual life of Judah was extraordinarily rich.  It was there that most of the canonical prophets carried on their activity, great parts of the Bible were composed and the essential traditions of Judaism were developed and preserved.  

The 70-Year Prophecy: The Hebrew Bible frequently cites a 70-year duration for the exile (as prophesied by Jeremiah). This is often calculated from the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BCE until the completion or dedication of the second Temple in 516 BCE (the 70 years of "indignation" on Jerusalem), or from initial deportations around 605/586 BCE to Cyrus the Great's decree and the first return in 538/536 BCE.
Actual Captivity Duration: If measured strictly from the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE to the Cyrus decree allowing the return in 538 BCE, the main captivity lasted about 48 years. 
Phased Return: The return under Persian rule did not happen all at once. It occurred in multiple waves starting under leaders like Sheshbazzar and Zerubbabel in the 530s BCE, continuing with Ezra in 458/457 BCE, and Nehemiah later on.
Samaria (Hebrew name: Shomron) capital of the northern kingdom of Israel founded in 880 BCE by King Omri who  bought it from a man named Shemer (I Kings 16-24).  Now the name applies to the entire northern region of the central highlands of what was named Palestine by the Romans, now called Samaria.  
Resource;
The Stone Edition, the Torah
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

Jewish Traders and Their Affects In The World

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

            During the Stone Age, people traded goods through a barter system, exchanging one item for another. Trade was a significant change that occurred when people began to settle in towns and villages and develop a surplus of food and other resources. Eretz Yisrael was created from Canaan, and Abraham headed there with niece/wife Sarah and family.  This would be today's Syria from 15th to 13th century BCE along the coast of  Eretz Yisrael, called Palestine after 135 CE.  People lived in  small city-states then.                                     

 Abram and Sarai, as they were first called, came from Ur of the Chaldees,  on the Euphrates River, an ancient Babylonian city full of interesting man-made items.  Abram's journey took him first to Haran, a trading town of NW  Mesopotamia, also the center of a moon cult.  There was a Habiru (Hebrew?) settlement there as well.   You can be sure that they must be on a trading quest, meeting people and trading with them till they arrive at  their destination, Hebron (Kiriath-Arba) , which became part of Judah.  It used to be a city under control by the Hittites.  Abraham bought a plot of land here, the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron in which to bury Sarah, and himself when the time came.                                            

Trading would have gone on between the people neighboring Eretz Yisrael.  Trading would have started when they saw what Judeans used and made and needed. Trading practices must have started early in stone age periods.   The history of trade is the evolution of commerce over time, from local exchanges to global interactions. Trade has been a part of human existence for over 100,000 years, and has played an important role in the development of civilizations                                        

                                        Turkey (Anatolia) Greece and Israel 

The Philistines were a Mediterranean people most likely originating from Asia Minor.  Asia Minor is now part of Turkey. Asia Minor, also known as Anatolia, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up most of Turkey's land area.  They also came from   Greek locations that were fairly close by via the sea.  They came in different time periods. 

     Gerar, a  Nahal (River) and Negev Desert.  

One group arrived in the pare-patriarchal period and settled South of Beersheba in Gerar where they came into conflict with Abraham and his son, Isaac.  Gerar is a city and region in the Hebrew Bible that appears in the Book of Genesis and the Second Book of Chronicles:  Gerar, in Hebrew meaning "lodging-place, was a Philistine town and district in whatis today south central Israel, mentioned in the bible.  Gerar was also a Philistine town in the Negev,  south of Gaza and near the Mediterranean coast.  It was a reference   point for the southern end of the Canaanites territory.    Abraham and Isaac lived here.(Gen.chs.20,26) Abraham traveled here during a famine and presents Sarah as hissister to avoid being killed by the locals.   (The Negev or Negeb is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba)

                                                                                       

Another group came from Crete, an island off of the shores of Greece after being driven out of Egypt by Rameses III in 1194 BCE.  They then seized the southerncoastal area of Eretz Yisrael where they founded 5 principalities:  Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron, and Gath.    Gaza stands to this day but with Palestinian Arabs.  It's 2 miles from the sea. 

Commercially, it was noted for its black pottery and in Nabatean times was an entrepot of trade passing from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Entrepot trade, also known as transhipment, is a type of international trade where goods are imported into a country and then re-exported without being distributed within the importing country.

                                        In the 12th century  BCE,  Gaza was captured by the Philistines and taken over and  was used for the       Temple of Dagon, god of the soil and plant-growth and widely worshipped in the Middle Eastern countries.    

By nature, they were a fighting people, not traders.  They dominated parts of Judah in the period of the Judges when they would have interaction with the people, around 1220 to 1950.    

From the time of Herodotus, Greeks called Eretz Yisrael after the Philistines; the Syrian Palaestina.  Under Hadrian,  the Romans gave the name officially to the former land of Judah.                      

Shalmaneser , king of Assyria, (860-825 BCE) held a siege of Samaria, part of Israel;  and Sargon, his successor, captured it  in 721 BCE.  He then annexed the country and deported  27,290 Israelitesto Assyria, which had been an aggressive kingdom by the 20th century BCE expanding rapidly in the 13th -10th centuries, no doubt through trading peopleand goods.                                   

Jews were leaving Eretz Yisrael for trading before the Greek and Roman invasions.They went to Rome first, and Spain for trade, possibly decided by the rabbi they werefollowing  into safety.  

According to historical evidence, Jews likely traveled to Greece for trade before the time of Alexander the Great, with some records indicating a Jewish presence in Greece dating back to the Babylonian exile, even though these communities were likely small and scattered before Alexander's conquests established a more significant Jewish presence in the region.   Jews were in Spain (Sepharad) from the period of the destruction of the 1st Temple of Solomon in 597 BCE by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia.  The history of the Jews in Greece can be traced back to at least the fourth century BCE. The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited Greece are the Romaniotes, also known as "Greek Jews."                                            

            Part of Arch of Titus, proof of Romans invading and stealing goods from the Temple in 70 CE before they burnt down Temple and Jerusalem.  It shows how Jews, taken as slaves, were forced to carry their holy articles from the Temple for the greedy Romans.              

Jews were in Rome in 139 BCE as Judeans.  The first century B.C. in Rome corresponds with the last decades of the Roman Republic and the start of the rule of Rome by emperors.  It was an exciting era dominated by strong men, like Julius Caesar, Sulla, Marius, Pompey the Great, and Augustus Caesar, and civil wars.                                                            

      Whoops!    Silk Roads!  many ways to get there.  One leaves from Gaza.  

The Silk Road trade brought Jews to Kaifeng, China in the early 12th century (1100 CE). For 800 years this community maintained both economic and religious contact with the rest of world Jewry, which in turn allowed them to maintain their own Jewish practices.  The Silk Road was a transportation hub that connected China and the Mediterranean region, and it played a significant role in the history of Jewish people:                                                           Jewish merchants

• Jewish merchants traveled the Silk Road as early as the 9th century, and may have been involved in forming the basis for some Jewish communities. Jewish traders from Persia and Western Europe began to settle in China in the 8th century, and a Persian-speaking Jewish community settled in Kaifeng in the 12th century. This community maintained economic and religious ties with the rest of the Jewish world for 800 years. Jews may have arrived in India as early as the 1st century CE, and a large Jewish community developed in the port city of Cochin. After the Sasanian ruler Cyrus freed the Jewish population in 559 B.C.E., many Jews chose to stay in Iran and created Jewish settlements along the Silk Road. There was a large Jewish population in Afghanistan, especially in the north near the trade routes. 

  

                                                                 Genetic connection
• Genetic analysis suggests that there is a direct genetic connection between Jews and Chinese, with some Eastern Eurasian haplogroups shared between the two groups. The Silk Road is experiencing a renaissance, with the World Tourism Organization promoting international tourism ventures along the road.  Many male Jews have the Y haplotype of J1, or J2.  Many women have the Mt haplotype of K.  
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• Jews were in China from Persia in about 1000 CE.  They had a community at KAI FENG FU  and became completely assimilated to Chinese customs and mores.  They disappeared at the end of the 18th century.  In the 19th century, Jews from Baghdad lived in Hong Kong and Shanghai.  Even during WWII, a few Jews managed to escape to a Chinese city for refuge.  They weren't persecuted over religion and being forced to convert or harmed for being Jewish.  

  

  
  
• As Germany ended their use of the Jewish people and forced them to leave, they sought out other hopeful places for homes in eastern Europe.  
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• Lithuania  had Jews living there from 1321.  1492's Spanish Inquisition caused Jews to flee for their lives.  10,000 Jews  entered Lithuania in Vilna, Grodno and Kovno by 1495.  They soon monopolized foreign trade.  They would not convert, so the Jewish badge was forced upon them to wear from 1566 to 1572. 
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•  Jews lived in Poland since the 9th century (800s).  Their 1st Jewish settler came from either West Germany, Bohemia, or the south of the kingdom of Kiev and the Byzantine Empires, and were reinforced by KHAZAR elements.  They would have been traders, who in the Dark Ages helped to open up the area to civilizing influences.  According to legend, the 1st  charter was granted in 905.  Polish coins of the 12th-13th centuries struck by Jewish mint-masters bear Hebrew inscriptions, thus showing the significance of the Jews in economic life.  

Many countries invited Jews to come and live in order to have someone deal with the needed trading businesses. Jews have had a significant presence in European cities and countries since the fall of the Roman Empire, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, and Russia, mainly to help out the kings by loaning money or doing foreign trade.

 Jews were literate and had experience.  After they brought success to the emperor or king,  they were often discarded;  no longer needed.  

Resource:

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-jews-became-merchants.html

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://www.southwesternrugsdepot.com/history-native-american-baskets/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Greece#:~:text=The%20history%20of%20the

%20Jews,least%20the%20fourth%20century%20BCE.

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