I’d like to continue the summary of Jewish history that I began in the last issue.
David managed to drive the Philistines from Israel, and even managed to seize one of their five cities, Gath. David used not only Jewish troops, but also alliances and mercenaries. The Philistine threat was finally over. Cecil Roth says that this threat helped create the Jewish nation: “It had been the hammer through the blows of which the divided fragments had been welded into a whole.”1
The natural borders of Israel were tight; Israel was hemmed in between desert and sea. Hence it was often dominated by larger empires to the north and south — Egypt, Assyria, etc. One might compare Israel to Poland, which was often dominated by Germany and Russia; or one might compare Israel to Korea, which was often dominated by China, Japan, and Russia.
During David’s time, however, the Egyptian and Assyrian empires were temporarily weak, so David expanded Jewish territory. “His veterans swept all before them. He secured his frontiers by a succession of wars against neighboring states.... The authority of David was recognized from the borders of Egypt and the Gulf of Aqaba on the south, to the banks of the Euphrates on the north.”
Roth says that David wasn’t an absolute monarch. He says that the Hebrew race originated in “nomadic Aramaean tribes,” which had a “democratic feeling.” Israel didn’t have a tradition of absolutism; “we find none of the unbridled absolutism traditionally associated with the Oriental ruler.” It was believed that God resented despotism and injustice; it was believed that the ruler and the ruled were both bound by a covenant. These ideas, Roth says, led to the “constitutional idea” in modern times, “and thus played a part of immeasurable importance in shaping the destinies of mankind.”
In an earlier issue, I said that Roman philosophers distinguished between a king and a tyrant; they argued that a king’s subjects are free men, not slaves; they argued that a king is not a god, and shouldn’t bequeath power to his son. Likewise, Chinese philosophers argued that the emperor rules by the mandate of Heaven, and can lose that mandate if he abuses his power. So the early Hebrews weren’t alone in frowning on absolutism, but Roth is probably right when he says that Hebrew ideas had considerable impact on later political thinkers.
David’s conquests were not only outside Israel; he also conquered pockets of territory within Israel, pockets that had been controlled by other peoples. One such place was Jerusalem. Jerusalem was well suited to be the capital of David’s kingdom: it had a central location, it had steep cliffs on three sides, and it didn’t belong to any of the twelve tribes. David made Jerusalem a political and religious capital, and began planning a palace and a temple.
At the pinnacle of his glory, David’s fortunes began to ebb. “His sons by various wives quarreled fiercely amongst themselves, so that the royal house itself was stained with bloodshed.” David’s ambitious reform program met resistance. One of his sons, Absalom, organized a revolt, occupied Jerusalem, and drove David across the Jordan. As David tried to fight his way back to power, Absalom was killed in battle.
David died soon afterwards; he had reigned more than thirty years. He was called “the sweet singer of Israel,” but he also sank to “the lowest depths of depravity.” He was a gifted military and political leader. “David’s political ability [was] exceptional.... He had found Israel a collection of warring tribes. He left it a strong and (as it seemed for the moment) united people.”
David wisely chose Solomon, his youngest son, as his successor. Solomon managed to consolidate power, and remain on the throne for almost forty years (c. 970-931 BC). Solomon’s reign was generally peaceful. He managed to gain control of Gaza, so “the Hebrew kingdom obtained at last a foothold on the Mediterranean.” He made the most of Israel’s port on the Gulf of Aqaba. This port became an important conduit for trade between three continents — Africa, Asia, and Europe. “[Solomon’s] treasury became filled to overflowing, and the rare beasts and commodities of the Orient became familiar in Jerusalem as they had never been before.”
“A literary renaissance,” Roth writes, “followed this sudden enlargement of the horizons of the country and the rapid increase in its wealth.” Roth says that literary renaissances often occur under such circumstances; perhaps he’s thinking of the Elizabethan renaissance, and the Augustan renaissance. Like his father, Solomon seemed to have literary talent; he’s credited with writing various epigrams and proverbs.
Solomon built a grand Temple in Jerusalem; it was known as Solomon’s Temple, or the First Temple. This Temple lasted almost 400 years, before being destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian king, in 586 BC.
Meanwhile, the Jewish empire was shrinking, as subject peoples rebelled, one by one. Harmony among the twelve tribes of Israel was fraying, with northern tribes becoming restive. “On the accession of Solomon’s untried young son, Rehoboam, in 933 BC, a petition was presented for the revision of taxation; and on its rejection, a general revolt broke out.”
A northerner named Jeroboam was proclaimed king, dividing the kingdom into two parts, two kingdoms.2 Ten northern tribes followed Jeroboam, forming the Kingdom of Israel (sometimes called Samaria). Only two southern tribes remained loyal to Rehoboam, Judah and Benjamin; these southern tribes were called the Kingdom of Judah.
One might compare this split to the secession of the southern states of the U.S. But while the U.S. was only split for about five years, the Jewish realm was split for about 200 years. The days of conquest and expansion were over; “the strength of the country was wasted in internecine warfare.” Despite the split into two Jewish kingdoms, “the literature of the period consistently represents the people as one.”
For his new northern kingdom, Jeroboam created new temples, and a new religious calendar. In his new temples, he set up golden calves (gold-plated bull-statues). “The inevitable effect was to lessen the sternness of the monotheistic conception, and to modify the national distinctiveness.”
One of the noteworthy kings of the northern realm was Omri, who came to power in 887 BC. The northern kingdom is sometimes called The House of Omri. Omri moved the capital from Shechem to Samaria, hence the nation is sometimes called The Kingdom of Samaria. Omri allied himself to the Phoenicians; Omri’s son Ahab married Jezebel, daughter of a Phoenician king, the King of Tyre.
During Ahab’s reign, the northern kingdom strayed from Jewish tradition. Roth speaks of, “the importation from Tyre of the Baal (Melkart) worship in its grossest forms, with its accompaniment of human sacrifice. Queen Jezebel introduced ideas of absolutism completely alien to the traditional Hebraic conception of monarchy.”
The Assyrian army drove toward Syria and Palestine. Ahab joined a large alliance, which managed to check the Assyrian advance. This large alliance included an Arab king, the first mention of Arabs in recorded history (the king’s name was Gindibu, and his kingdom was at the northwestern edge of the Arabian peninsula, in what is now Jordan; the first mention of Jews in recorded history is from about 1210 BC, on an Egyptian stele, the Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele).
Ahab died in 853 BC. He was succeeded by one son, then another son, while Jezebel continued to wield power. The royal family was unpopular, and finally the “most dashing” of Samaria’s generals, Jehu, seized power. “The dynasty of Omri was entirely wiped out, and the followers of Baal-worship were relentlessly exterminated in a massacre long remembered with horror by the people at large.”
The dynasty begun by Jehu lasted for 100 years. The Phoenician alliance was dissolved, and the effort to build an anti-Assyria coalition was abandoned. Instead, the Kingdom of Samaria tried to develop friendly relations with Assyria. This was viewed as a hostile act by the Syrian state based at Damascus. Damascus marched against Samaria, and various border peoples joined the assault. Samaria was in full retreat, until Assyria marched on Damascus in 805 BC.
Jeroboam II ruled the Kingdom of Israel/Samaria from 785 BC to 745 BC. Assyria was quiet, and the economy flourished. The Kingdom of Israel/Samaria expanded, and controlled the trade routes that David and Solomon once controlled. “We read of summer and winter residences; of houses of ebony and houses of ivory.”
Zechariah, the son of Jeroboam II, was assassinated in 744 BC. This was the start of a time of trouble and tumult. “During the course of the next ten years, five rulers succeeded one another on the throne, only one of whom died a natural death.” To make matters worse, Assyria went on the offensive again; the Assyrian king, Tiglath Pileser III, demanded tribute from the Kingdom of Israel/Samaria (Roth calls him the “greatest of Assyrian sovereigns”).
The tribute was paid, but a few years later, Israel joined another coalition against Assyria, prompting Assyria to attack Israel. Assyria seized Israel’s northern provinces, and deported the population, beginning the series of Assyrian and Babylonian deportations that culminated with the Babylonian Exile of 586 BC. When people were deported, Assyria often replaced them with its own people. I’m reminded of Stalin’s deportations of Crimean Tatars and other peoples.
When Assyria marched against the coalition, Assyria besieged Damascus, Israel’s old foe and occasional coalition-partner. Damascus was captured in 732 BC, after a two-year siege.
In the court at Samaria, Egypt often tried to make trouble for Assyria, and disrupt any cooperation between Israel and Assyria. Now Egypt persuaded the king of Israel/Samaria to withhold tribute promised to Assyria; Egypt enticed Israel with an offer of military aid. The tribute was withheld, Assyria invaded, Egypt’s aid failed to materialize. The capital, Samaria, was besieged for three years, captured in 721 BC, and “razed to the ground.” The “wealthier citizens were deported to distant parts of the empire,” and new peoples were brought in. These new peoples inter-married with Jews, and a new race arose, known as Samaritans.
As mentioned before, the northern kingdom of Israel/Samaria had ten tribes, while the southern kingdom of Judah had two tribes. Those deported from the northern kingdom became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel, or the Ten Lost Tribes. Israel/Samaria was no longer a Jewish kingdom, or only partly so. “It was in the kingdom of Judah that all that was truly characteristic and vital in the national consciousness was henceforth concentrated.”
Judah was much smaller than Israel/Samaria, in both territory and population. The main trade routes went through Israel/Samaria, but not through Judah. So the big empires like Assyria and Egypt usually ignored Judah. Roth says that all of Palestine is about the size of Wales (or Massachusetts); Judah is the size of only a few counties (in Wales or Massachusetts). But Judah was “the nursery of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion.”
After the split between north and south in 933 BC, the two kingdoms sought outside help. Israel/Samaria persuaded Egypt to take its side, so an Egyptian army marched against Judah’s capital, Jerusalem, “and had to be bought off by a heavy bribe.” Then Judah persuaded Damascus to take its side. “It was the old story of a foreign invasion... invited in the first instance by domestic dissension.”
Around 850 BC, the northern and southern kingdoms had a rapprochement, and the son of the southern king, Jehoram, married the daughter of the northern king, Athaliah. The northern king, Ahab, fought with his son-in-law against Damascus, then they fought together against Moab.
Jehoram was succeeded by his son, Ahaziah. After a short reign, Ahaziah died and the Queen-mother, Athaliah, seized power and killed potential rivals, including her own grandchildren. Athaliah kept power for six years, then she was killed in a revolt, and succeeded by “the youthful Jehoash (Joash), a seven-year-old son of Ahaziah who had escaped the butchery.”
The new regime removed foreign gods, introduced by Athaliah; Roth says, “The Baal-worship introduced by Athaliah was suppressed.” Solomon’s Temple (the First Temple) was restored. Damascus invaded and had to be bought off.
Meanwhile, little Judah had become subservient to its big brother, Israel/Samaria; Roth writes, “[Judah] seems to have become tributary to Samaria.” Around 780 BC, Judah’s king, Amaziah, tried to throw off the northern yoke, but Israel/Samaria proved too strong for Judah; Jerusalem was “captured and despoiled.” This debacle led to a “palace revolution,” and the murder of Amaziah.
Amaziah was succeeded by his son Uzziah, who reigned for some forty years, until 740 BC. During these years, Judah continued subservient to Israel/Samaria, but both kingdoms expanded and prospered.
When Israel/Samaria allied with Damascus against Assyria, Judah refused to join the alliance. So around 730 BC, Israel and Damascus marched on Jerusalem, prompting Judah to seek help from (of all people) Assyria. So Judah saved itself, but became a tributary of Assyria.
Hezekiah was the King of Judah from about 720 BC to 692 BC. For many years, he stayed neutral in the rivalry between Assyria and Egypt, declining to join a pro-Egypt coalition. But when a new king, Sennacherib, ascended the Assyrian throne in 705 BC, there were widespread revolts, and Hezekiah finally joined the pro-Egypt coalition.
Before 705 BC, Hezekiah probably anticipated that a clash would come eventually. He prepared Jerusalem for a siege, channeling the nearby Gihon Spring through a tunnel and into a cistern in Jerusalem. The cistern is called the Pool of Siloam; an inscription describing the project was found in 1880 in the tunnel, and is now in an Istanbul Museum; the inscription is known as the Siloam inscription. Israel has repeatedly tried to have the inscription repatriated.
When Sennacherib (Assyria’s new king) marched south, he overcame several Phoenician cities, several Philistine cities, and an Egyptian army. Then he invaded Judah. Most of the cities of Judah decided that resistance was pointless, and opened their gates to the invader. But one of the largest cities in Judah, Lachish, closed its gates and resisted.
In 701 BC, Lachish was overrun and sacked. “2,600 years later, there were found the remains of 1,500 human bodies which were thrown at this time through a hole in the roof of a tomb-chamber.” Sennacherib seemed to take pride in the capture of Lachish; he decorated his palace at Nineveh with reliefs depicting the capture of Lachish; these reliefs are now in the British Museum. Below is a relief depicting residents of Lachish going into exile, with their children and belongings:
Having overcome Lachish, the Assyrians marched on Jerusalem. Sennacherib boasted that King Hezekiah was shut up in Jerusalem “like a caged bird.”
| But some unexplained cause [Roth writes] led to a change of Assyrian policy. Peace was hastily concluded with Egypt, and the army entrenched before Jerusalem was withdrawn. The capital, and the state, were saved.... Later generations could ascribe this deliverance to nothing less than supernatural intervention. |
In his poem “The Destruction of Sennacherib,” Byron wrote,
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee....
And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur [i.e., Assyria] are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
Byron depicts the withdrawal of Sennacherib’s army as the destruction of Sennacherib’s army.
Soon the Assyrians took the offensive again, and in 671 BC, Sennacherib’s son, Esarhaddon, finally realized the Assyrian dream of conquering Egypt. Below is a map of the Assyrian Empire (in orange), and the Assyrian homeland (in red).
The two Jewish kingdoms continued paying tribute to Assyria; they also served in Assyrian armies, and worked on Assyrian building projects. Assyrian religion made its way into Jerusalem; “human sacrifice was practiced; and fashionable alien cults were introduced into the Temple of Jerusalem itself.”
Around 625 BC, under a king named Josiah, there was a “patriotic reaction” in the Kingdom of Judah; foreign religion was expelled, and the old Mosaic code was promulgated with new fervor. (In its narrow form, the Mosaic code is the Ten Commandments; in its expanded form, the Mosaic code is the Book of Deuteronomy.)
Around 610 BC, the time seemed ripe to break free from Assyria. Assyria was on the defensive, struggling to resist “Scythian and Cimmerian hordes from the north.” The Babylonians had risen up against Assyria, and seized their chief cities, Ashur and Nineveh. The Egyptians, however, were at this time vassals of Assyria, so they began marching north through Palestine, to help Assyria. King Josiah of Judah tried to obstruct their march, and was killed.
Roth says that Josiah was succeeded by his second son, because the people preferred the second son to the first son; Roth calls this “a striking illustration of the essentially democratic character of the Hebrew monarchy.” This second son, Jehoahaz, continued his father’s policy of standing up to Assyria/Egypt. Jehoahaz was promptly captured by the Egyptians and sent to Egypt in chains. He was succeeded by his elder brother, Jehoiakim, who did the bidding of Assyria/Egypt.
In 605 BC, a Babylonian prince, Nebuchadnezzar, was victorious in Mesopotamia against the Egyptians and the Assyrians. Nebuchadnezzar was now “the military colossus who bestrode the Middle East.”
When the Babylonians invaded Palestine, Jehoiakim was killed. His son, Jehoiachin, realized that the Kingdom of Judah was no match for the armies of Nebuchadnezzar, so he came out from Jerusalem with his retinue, and threw himself at the mercy of Nebuchadnezzar. “He was dispatched in triumph to Babylon, together with thousands of the nobility, the priesthood, and the middle-class population, as well as the treasures both of the Temple and of the royal palace.” It was 597 BC; this is called the First Babylonian Deportation.
Nebuchadnezzar allowed the Kingdom of Judah a measure of independence. Zedekiah, the King of Judah, began listening to talk of a coalition of southern kingdoms, including Egypt. When Zedekiah joined the coalition, and thumbed his nose at Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian army marched on Jerusalem.
For once, the Egyptians kept their promise of aid, but they were no match for the Babylonians. For six months, the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem. Finally they breached the walls, and burned the city. “A large proportion of the population was led captive to Babylonia, in pursuance of the deliberate policy which the new Empire had inherited from its Assyrian precursor. Only the rural population (or some of it) was allowed to remain.” It was 586 BC; this is called the Second Babylonian Deportation. Below is a map of the deportation (the Babylonian Exile):
© L. James Hammond 2024
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| Footnotes | |
| 1. | A Short History of the Jewish People (1948), Ch. 2, #3, p. 18, available at archive.org. This sentence was deleted in some later editions. back |
| 2. | This Jeroboam ruled from 933 BC to 912 BC. Another Jeroboam, known as Jeroboam II, was the king of Israel/Samaria from 785 BC to 745 BC. back |