{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.
