{N}THE TIME OF THE KINGS{/}

One defeat makes the Israelites realize the danger that their lack of cohesion represents against the powerfulness of the{N} philistines{/}. The nomad chiefs go to see the prophet Samuel and they demand a king. This is the beginning of the kingdom of Israel. The kings of Jerusalem clashed from the beginning with the individualism of the tribes and even more with the historical opposition between the tribes from the north and the tribes from the south. Following the death of Solomon, the kingdom of David is divided in two.

{K}THE DEFEAT OF EBEN-HA-EZER{/}
Around the year 1050 the demographic growth of the ancient nomads worried the small kingdoms of Palestine and the conflict breaks out between the philistine federation and the tribes of Israel. The book of Samuel begins with the story of the disastrous confrontation with the philistine federation of this time: {C}" ... The Philistines then drew up in battle formation. They attacked Israel... Israel was defeated. Everyone fled to his home. It was a disastrous defeat; thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel were killed. The ark of God was captured..." {/}[1S_4,1] ... [1S_4,11].

{K}THE ELDERS REQUEST A KING{/}
The Philistines, already established some two centuries ago on the southern coast, represent at that time the main danger. At the battle of Eben-Ha-Ezer the Philistines demonstrated the superiority of their weapons and the force of their union. For the nomads, so jealous of their independence, the centralization of power became a necessity and they resolved to follow the way of wisdom. This is when the election of {N}Saul{/} is made.

{K}DAVID{/}
Saul was a king of transition, but the choice of David made by God and his consecration by {N}Samuel{/} mark a decisive turn in the history of Israel. Just after ascending to the throne, David promises to restore the unity of the tribes that had just fallen apart after the death of Saul. In order to avoid any type of favoritism, he conquers the capital city, which did not figure in the official land register of any of the tribes. The city had remained until those days in the hands of the Jesuits, a branch of the great Canaanite family. David overpowers it and it becomes {N}Jerusalem{/}. The city will be the City of David as well as the City of God: therefrom his first action as king is to order that the Ark of the Covenant be brought up to the new capital.
The first years under David were dedicated to the wars that would permit him to impose himself first as the only sovereign of Israel and later as the leader of Syria and Palestine. During some years he imposes the "israelite peace" to all his neighbors. The Israelites dominate the country, mixing with the older towns and peoples, {N}Philistines{/} and overall the {N}Canaanites{/}, who will not disappear and who will recuperate power as soon as the occasion arises. If it is true that Israel imposes its law from now on, the canaanite culture still persists and the accusations made by the prophets are witnesses to the important role held by the canaanite cultures until the return from Exile upon the daily lives of the chosen people.
Among the children of David, born of different women, a fight for power erupts, until {N}Solomon{/} takes it, thanks to the support of the prophet {N}Nathan{/}, who sees in him Yahweh's loved one. But his ambition and anxiety to be important pushes him to prestigious politics: he marries foreign women, even a daughter of Pharaoh enters in the royal harem. He welcomes the {N}queen of Saba{/}, establishes allies, and does business with Minor Asia. These politics, where the taste of luxury mixed with shady deals, also attract the reproach from God and the anger of the people.
The people is tired of the hard labors ever more numerous, and of the overseer's whip; and for this reason with the death of Solomon, conflict breaks out. Before the protests and claims of the chiefs of the tribes, who went to {N}Shechem {/}to explain their cause, the young king, {N}Rehoboam, {/}hardens his position; the reaction is immediate, the schism is declared and a secession of all of the northern tribes is produced. They become united with {N}Jeroboam{/} and make Shechem their capital city.

{K}A RELIGIOUS SCHISM{/}
The political rupture that had just taken place was going to also produce a religious schism: {C}Jeroboam thought, the kingdom could return to the house of David. Should this people go up to offer sacrifices in Yahweh's House in Jerusalem, their heart would turn again to their master, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and go back to him. Jeroboam also built temples on high places, appointing priests who were not from the Levites. Jeroboam also appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month in imitation of the feast in Judah, and he himself offered sacrifices on the altar{/} [1K_12,26] - [1K_12,27] [1K_12,31] - [1K_12,32].
In fact, it is true that in spite of the existence of provincial sanctuaries like the one in Arad discovered in the course of some archeological excavations north of Bersheba, Jerusalem's temple, constructed by Solomon, represented for the Israelites, both those from the north and the south, a true pole of attraction, a central focus. So it was a real danger to the authority of the kings of Israel.
In the future and exactly during two centuries, Israel will be divided into two enemy kingdoms. To the north is the one called the Kingdom of Israel, which was more extensive and powerful; and to the south the descendents of David who were settled in Jerusalem reigned over a nation much more modest, formed essentially of the tribe of Judah and that was called by that name: the Kingdom of Judah. This one, however, is the one that will occupy the first place in the Bible.

{K}1. THE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL{/}
Dragging with him the ten tribes of Israel, Jeroboam became the sovereign of a kingdom, which was much more important than the one in the south, which had regrouped around Jerusalem. From then on, the{C} Kingdom of Israel,{/} or simply {C}Israel{/} will be designated in the texts in diverse manners. This northern kingdom grouped the territories of central Palestine which had jealously guarded the memory of its patriarch Israel-Jacob; it was called also {C}Ephraim,{/} due to the importance of this tribe in the new kingdom; {C}Kingdom of Samaria{/} or Samaria because of the name of the capital city that king Omri will give it.

{K}SHECHEM, TIRZAH, SAMARIA{/}
In the beginning {N}Jeroboam{/} keeps Shechem as the capital city of his kingdom, but soon he had to abandon it. In fact, already in the first years of his reign, the danger from Egypt made him abandon the ancient city where for the first time Abraham had erected an altar to Yahweh (Gen 12,7). The pharaoh Chechonq, after seizing several strongholds in the kingdom of Judah, had imposed upon Rehoboam a heavy tribute; his troops now were going through the lands of Israel; Jeroboam then crossed the Jordan and put himself in safety behind the river, installing himself in {N}Penuel{/}. When the danger passed, he returned to West Bank, but he did not go back to Shechem, but chose Tirzah as his capital city in the mountains of Ephraim.
A military takeover and the burning of the royal palace brought about a new change of the capital: {C}Omri began to reign over Israel. He reigned for twelve years, six years of which he reigned in Tirzah. Then he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver. He built a city and called it Samaria, after Shemer, the owner of the hill{/} [1K_16,23] - [1K_16,24].
The choice of {N}Omri{/} was calculated: Tirzah, constructed at the source of one of the torrents that descends from the central bed of the Jordan, had no other exit than one towards the semi-nomadic territories of Transjordania: they had to get away from their isolation and aim towards other horizons.
More powerful and richer than the kingdom of Judah, Israel should have been able to experience better luck; but in spite of some greater monarchs such as Omri, {N}Acab{/}, and in the last decades, {N}Jeroboam II{/}, the intrigues and numerous takeovers (nine in something more than two centuries) made coherent politics impossible. Besides this, the kingdom of Israel had to repel on several occasions the attacks of the Arameans from {N}Damascus{/} that represented a terrible threat to their northeastern borders.
The books of the Bible, written or totally revised in the rival kingdom of Judah, are very partial when they talk about the kings of Israel. They do not betray the truth however when they show the preponderant influence of the canaanite culture and the local cults with the {N}Baals{/} and the {N}Astartes{/}, although they do give the impression of looking down on their separated brothers and sisters, the Israelites from the north. In spite of everything, they attributed a place of honor to the traditions and the documents that referred to the two exceptional prophets that were in this country: {N}Elijah{/} and {N}Elisha{/}.

{K}THE FINAL HOURS{/}
In the end, the awakening of {N}Assyria{/} caused the ruin of the kingdom of Israel. With Ashurbanipal II weaponry had made considerable progress, they possessed war machinery of laying siege capable of conquering the strongest and most fortified cities, horse soldiers had replaced chariots, and detachments of bowmen and lance throwers made up the force of the foot soldiers. {N}Pekah{/}, who reigned then in the kingdom in the north, was unaware enough to establish a coalition with Damascus against {N}Tiglath-pileser{/}: this cost him half of his kingdom. Hoshea some years later, committed the same mistake. The assyrian {N}Shalmaneser{/}, arrested him, invaded the whole country and besieged Samaria. {C}In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria, exiled the Israelites to Ashur and made them settle in Halah{/} (2Kgs 17,6). In the year 721, the kingdom of Israel had ended its existence, their territory formed four assyrian provinces: Meggido, Dor, Galaad and Samaria. 

{K}THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH{/}
When {N}Rehoboam{/} returned to Jerusalem fleeing from rebel tribes, he found himself at the head of an amputated kingdom, which was going to follow the same road, either as an ally or as an enemy of its neighbor to the north, Israel. Contrary to what happened there, this kingdom never changed its capital city, keeping the city that David had given them. This kingdom will appear in the texts with the names of {C}Kingdom of Judah{/} or {C}Judah{/}, and sometimes {C}Jerusalem{/}, designating in these cases the capital city to the whole kingdom.

{K}JUDAH, THE KINGDOM OF THE PROMISE{/}
Just as any royal lineage, the house of David will have its great sovereigns and its pitiful monarchs, it will live hours of glory and moments of misery and humiliation, but unlike any other it will bring with itself a divine promise. This is why it will last throughout the centuries and will find its coronation in the universal reign of Jesus. Through the voice of the prophet {N}Nathan{/}, God had committed himself to the family of David, and God is faithful to his promises: the dynastic stability was the first sign of this. Irrefutable proof of this faithfulness is also found in the takeover of the kingship of {N}Athaliah {/}(841-835).
Daughter of Acab, king of Israel, of phoenician origin through her mother {N}Jezabel{/}, Athaliah thought she had massacred all the descendents of the king, but the youngest was saved [2K_11,1] - [2K_11,3]. When the little prince was seven years old the high priest organized a conspiracy. The child was crowned king and the grandmother, condemned to death: the dynasty of David recuperated its rights.

{K}JUDAH IN THE ARCANES OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS {/}
The promise of God did not impede Jerusalem from knowing all the swayings of history. After returning to Jerusalem, after the schism of Shechem, Rehoboam began to prepare for an expedition against the tribes of the north in order to put them once again under his authority, but the prophet Semaya made him see reason: the king renounced his project. A short time later the Egyptians, under the command of the pharaoh Chechonq I (950-929) embarked upon a campaign against Judah, during which the Temple and the royal palace were stripped of all their riches; in this way the fragility of the kingdom was discovered. When two centuries later the kings of Samaria and of {N}Damascus{/} wanted to compromise Jerusalem in a coalition against Assyria (734), Ahaz, who reigned then in Judah, refused, listening to the wise advice of the prophet Isaiah; which was lucky for him since he had only to pay a heavy tribute, but the allies all lost their kingdoms.

{K}HEZEKIAH {/}
The hour arrived for Assyria as well: while on one side the more and more numerous exterior threats kept the armies of Nineveh in check, on the other side, the crisis in the palace shook up the power with each change in the king. The kingdoms which had been subdued and reduced to provinces of the assyrian empire took advantage of this circumstance in order to shook off the yoke of oppression: the most active ones in the rebellion were evidently Egypt and Babylon. Hezekiah thought it best to become allies with the rebels, counting especially on the support of the pharaoh; but it went badly. {C}In the fourteenth year of Hezekiah's reign, Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came up and invaded Judah; he laid siege to all the fortified cities and seized all of them. Hezekiah, king of Judah, sent a message to Sennacherib who was in Lachish: "I have acted badly, stop your attack and I will do whatever you demand of me". The king demanded that Hezekiah give a contribution of three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold. Hezekiah then handed over to him all the money that was found in the House of Yahweh, and in the treasuries of the royal palace. It was at that time that Hezekiah ordered that the gold sheets, with which he himself had adorned the doorposts, be stripped from the gates of the House of Yahweh, and given to the king of Assyria{/} [2K_18,13] - [2K_18,16].
{N}Sennacherib{/} (705-681) returned again with the intention, it seems, of finishing off with Jerusalem; it was then when the king who was advised by the prophet Isaiah, refused to surrender and God, responding to his prayer, miraculously intervened. Since he had to go and aid to suffocate the rebellion in Egypt, Sennacherib hurriedly lifted the siege of the Holy City. He would never return to the land of Judah: ten years later, his two sons beheaded him in Nineveh in the temple of his god Nisroch.

{K}THE PROPHETS{/}
The history of the kingdom of Judah would not have had more than a very limited significance if the four centuries of its history, from King David around the year 1000 until the Exile in the year 587, had not been the time of the prophets, or at least the most important prophets. And precisely, it was in the books of the prophets where the most significant events of this history were kept. Even when their testimony and calls did not succeed in detaining the slow but unavoidable decadence of the small kingdom of Jerusalem, they were the ones, on the other hand, that turned the covenant sealed in the Sinai and the promises of God into a spiritual force deeply rooted in the people of Israel. Without them, it would be impossible to understand the continuous returns of Israel to the Covenant that God had at the same time offered and imposed on them.
The first manifestations of this flame that remained alive during the worst moments were the Great Passover in the time of {N}Hezekiah{/} and the reform of {N}Josiah{/}. Later, it will be the extraordinary adventure of the return from Exile. And finally it will be the apostolate among the pagans, which prepared the evangelization of the world. But here, the best thing is to read the holy books. 

{K}THE GREAT PASSOVER{/}
It was the time, before or after the year 700, when the prophet {N}Isaiah{/} pronounced his oracles and did not hesitate to directly intervene in royal politics. Even when it may have seemed that the prophets spoke without often being heard, they and their fraternities exercised a powerful influence. The second book of Chronicles attributes very important reform work at the religious level to king {N}Hezekiah{/}. And the most important manifestation of this renovation was the Great Passover that was celebrated in Jerusalem around the year 700. The people of Judah, fully aware of the disasters that had brought the kingdom of Samaria to ruin, understood that it was necessary to return to their origins. Many priests of the kingdom of the north had taken refuge in Jerusalem and they took part in this effort that tried to regulate the whole life of the people by the law of Moses, adapted to the circumstances of that epoch. It was then probably, when Deuteronomy began being written, whose discovery eighty years later would be the origin of the Reform of Josiah.
However this religious awakening did not last more than some few years. Then came the very long reign of {N}Manasseh{/}, who simply wanted to follow the easiest course. The preponderance of Assyria was felt even in religious matters and this is how, once again, imported religions took the place of the worship of Yahweh, even in his own temple. After Manasseh came his son Amon, who followed his father's steps and ended up being assassinated by the military. Then, just as in the days of Athaliah, the holiest elements of "the people of the country", meaning the middle class in Jerusalem, put a check on the conspirators and sat a son of the deceased on the throne, a child named Josiah.

{K}THE REFORM OF JOSIAH{/}
After the death of the persecuting kings, the faithful awoke slowly. A chance event contributed to stimulate this awakening which was yet quite timid: it was the discovery in a corner of the Temple of the Book of Law, which was, in reality, the first edition of {N}Deuteronomy{/}. In the Book of Kings the report on this event is told as being decisive.
While they were working on the repair of the Temple, the high priest Hilkiah informed the scribe Shaphan: {C}I have found the Book of the Law in the House of Yahweh.{/} Then the scribe announced to the king: {C}the priest Hilkiah had turned over a book to me...{/} then he read it aloud to the king. When the king had heard the contents of the book, he tore his garments. He ordered: {C}Go and consult Yahweh about the threats in this book which you have found. {/}[2K_22,3] - [2K_22,13]
It was the year 622. From then on, Josiah, who was twenty-six years old, devoted himself to reform his life and that of his people.
Taking advantage of the decadence of the assyrian empire, Josiah embarks upon the reconquest of the territory of Israel that had become an assyrian province over one hundred years earlier. There he destroyed the provincial sanctuaries more or less suspicious of syncretism and he tore down their idols. Josiah reinforced the predominance of the clergy of Jerusalem. Before, all the Levites participated in the priesthood, but from here forward, only the Levites of Jerusalem, who were considered to be descendents of Aaron, would be the priests like he was; others who were reinserted after the elimination of the temples in the provinces would simply be Levites, in the service of the Temple.

{K}THE DEATH OF THE JUST ONE AND THE RETURN OF THE IMPIOUS KINGS{/}
Josiah{/}, the holy king of reform, died a victim of a political mistake. For a long time Israel had served as a stopper between Egypt and Assyria. When Babylon began to seriously threaten the assyrian power, the Pharaoh, preoccupied with the dynamism of this new "great power" wanted to go help the weakened Assyria, having forgotten about his previous antagonism. Josiah did not want him to carry out his plan because he only wanted the definitive ruin of Assyria in order to carry out his project of reunifying the ancient kingdom of David. He did not look favorably on an intervention from Egypt as an arbitrator in the conflicts of the Near East. The meeting of {N}Neco{/} II and Josiah took place in {N}Meggido{/}, where Josiah was mortally wounded [2K_23,29] - [2K_23,30]. This was the year 609.
How had God been able to permit that Josiah die, the holy king who had brought about such reforms? That scandal profoundly marked jewish reflection afterwards as well as some paragraphs of the New Testament.
With Josiah dead, the kingdom did not have any orientation. His son Jehoahaz was brought to the throne for only be taken prisoner by the Pharaoh, who replaced him with one of his brothers and changed his name to Jehoiakim [2K_33,1] - [2K_34,1].

{K}THE RUIN OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH{/}
Due to his delay in Judea, the help from the Pharaoh arrived too late to the assyrian; when he showed up one fine day in the year 605 at {N}Carchemish{/}, where Ashurbanipal, the last sovereign of Assyria, was holding and trying to put back together the relieves of his kingdom, the pharaoh was swept away by the men of the young {N}Nabuchodonosor{/}, who had just replaced his father Nabopolasar in the throne of Babylon. In spite of this humiliating failure, neither the egyptian princes nor the young kings that had just passed from the yoke of Nineveh to the one from Babylon, accepted that the prestigious country of the Nile could have lost its past glory. In Jerusalem the pro-egyptian party imposed itself in the royal family and between the chiefs of the army, and the wise men like {N}Jeremiah{/} became suspect of complicity with the Chileans.
The unavoidable drama took place ten years later. When Psammetichus II took the throne in the year 593, he attracted the small states that poorly supported the yoke of Babylon: Judah, already subjected to a heavy tribute, formed part of the conspirators.

{K}DISPERSED AMONG NATIONS{/}
Before the imminence of the chaldean danger, which was becoming more distressful every day, many decided to abandon the country and go to Egypt. In this way they reinitiated a Diaspora movement that had started with the invasion of the kingdom of the north by the Assyrians at the end of the eighth century. They surrendered rapidly to the temptation of assimilation and sincretism; a good example of it was the Elephantine community in Higher Egypt. According to the manuscripts found on the island, this was a military colony positioned there by the pharaohs to defend the southern border of the empire. Putting aside the prescriptions of the Deuteronomy that turn the Temple of Jerusalem into the only place of worship of Israel, those Jews who had taken refuge in Egypt built a temple where they worshiped Yahweh as well as other divinities such as Eschem-Bethel, Herem-Bethel, or Anat-Bethel. Yet this did not stop them from celebrating the great traditional festivals of Israel. Uprooted from their people, devoid of a true support for their faith, these colonials were absorbed by the paganism that surrounded them and their traces disappeared during the first years of the fourth century B.C.
