Divided Monarchy: Nothern
and Southern Kingdom
By Anthony Wanjohi
The Divided Kingdom and Kingdom of Judah
Alone periods in the Bible are an essential but often neglected study,
(Pfeiffer, 1967). A basic knowledge of these periods of Jewish history is
necessary to an understanding of the prophets of the Old Testament and their
message.
All dates of the reigns of the kings
of Judah and Israel are from Tetley, (2005). The
Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, new rev. ed. (Tetley, 2005). Thiele has
interpreted the confusing chronological data in Kings and Chronicles
meticulously, noting the various methods used by the recorders of the events.
Thus some brief notes regarding the chronology of the kings
of Judah and Israel are included in the end notes(Tetley, 2005). There are many factors in determining
the chronology set forth in the scriptures, and a comprehensive explanation is
too intricate and involved to be included in this study. As noted above the
Hebrew year does not correspond to our calendar year; ascension year and
non-ascension year methods were used at different times in both kingdoms; in
addition, the regnal years were calculated from
Nisan-to-Nisan (springtime, March/April) in Israel, while the Tishri-to-Tishri
year (fall, September/October) was used in Judah. Nevertheless, the
records of the kings of Judah and Israel were kept with
great accuracy and precision by those recorders of Hebrew history, and every
reign in each kingdom is in the order of the sequence with which the rulers
ascended the throne, (Tetley, 2005).
2.0 Kings of the Division Era
JEROBOAM (930-909 BC): Jeroboam
reigned for 22 years after Solomon's death. Son of Nebat;
was one of King Solomon's officials in charge of laborers, but rebelled against
Solomon when the prophet Ahijah told him that God was
going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hands.
NADAB (909-908 BC): Son of Jeroboam; reigned
only 2 years. He continued to do all the evil that his father had begun. Nadab was murdered by Baasha
while besieging a Philistine town.
BAASHA (908-886 BC): Baasha
reigned for 24 years. Son of Ahijah (of the tribe of
Issachar, not the prophet Ahijah), Baasha became the first self-appointed king of Israel.
ELAH (886-885 BC): Son of Baasha;
reigned only 2 years. Elah continued to worship idols
as his father had done, and led Israel into greater sin. He was
murdered while getting drunk at a friend's house by Zimri,
who then became king..
ZIMRI (885 BC): He had been one of Elah's officials, in charge of his chariots he reined for
only 7 days.
OMRI (885-874 BC): Omri
had been the commander of the Israelite army when he was proclaimed king. After
Zimri burned the palace down, Omri
established the city of Samaria as the new capital of Israel, He
co-reigned with Tibni for about five years, then Tibni died and Omri had sole
reign for about 7 more years; so Omri reigned for a
total of 12 years. Early in his reign, Omri sought to
strengthen his ties to Phonecia, perhaps to assist
him in overthrowing Tibni (Tetley, 2005).
TIBNI (885-880 BC) Tibni,
the son of Ginath, never had sole reign; he
co-reigned with Omri for about 5 years until he died.
It is not clear whether his death was from natural causes or the result of the
military struggle for control of the kingdom, (Tetley, 2005).
Son of Omri: Ahab
reigned 22 years and did more evil than all before him. Married Jezebel,
daughter of the king of the Siddonians, who
introduced Baal worship, a practice totally condemned by the prophets Elijah
and Elisha (Tetley, 2005).
AHAZIAH - 853-852: Son of Ahab; reigned for 2
years. Ahaziah did all the evils of his father and
mother, and worshipped Baal, (Tetley, 2005).
JORAM also called JEHORAM: c.852-841 BC: He
reigned for 12 years. He did evil, although not as much as his parents had
done, because he got rid of the sacred Baal-stone in the temple his father had
made, (Tetley, 2005).
JEHU - 841-814 BC: Not the prophet Jehu, this
Jehu was the son of Jehoshaphat, who was the son of Nimshi, not the Jehoshaphat
who had been king of Judah. Jehu was a commander in Jorams's army, and was
anointed by God to become king of Israel, and to destroy the house of Ahab
because of his wickedness (Tetley, 2005).
JEHOAHAZ - 814-798 BC: Son of Jehu; reigned 17
years. At the time Jehoahaz became king, Israel was beginning its
decline under the forces of Aram {Syria}. Jehoahaz did evil in the
eyes of the Lord, leading the people in wickedness as Jeroboam had done,
(Tetley, 2005)
JEHOASH: - 798-782 BC: Son of Jehoahaz; reigned
16 years. He continued in all the evils of his fathers. Jehoash was challenged
by Amaziah, king of Judah, whose victory over the Edomites
went to his head and made him arrogant, (Tetley, 2005).
JEROBOAM II: - 793-753 BC: This son of Jehoash
reigned 41 years. He continued to commit all the sins of his fathers, and was
rebuked by the prophets Hosea and Amos, (Tetley, 2005).
ZECHARIAH: - 753 BC: Son of Jeroboam II,
Zechariah continued to do evil as his ancestors had done. He reigned for only 6
months when he was publicly attacked and murdered by Shallum, a son of Jabesh,
who then succeeded him as king, (Tetley, 2005).
SHALLUM - 752 BC: Son of Jabesh; murdered
Zechariah to obtain the throne for himself, but reigned for only a month before
he was likewise murdered by Menahem, son of Gadi, (Tetley, 2005).
MENAHEM - 752-742 BC: Son of Gadi; reigned 10
years. Menahem was probably a military commander,
PEKAHIAH - 742-740 BC: Son of Menahem; reigned
for 2 years. Continued to do evil, as his father had done; not once during his
reign did he turn away from these sins, (Tetley, 2005).
PEKAH -752-732 BC Son of Remaliah;
assassinated Pekahiah to obtain the throne; his total
reign was 20 years.
HOSHEA - 732-722
BC Son of Elah; murdered Pekah
to obtain the throne, and then reigned 9 years (Tetley, 2005).
3.0 The Politics in the
Divided Monarchy
When the children of Israel entered
and occupied Canaan, the Promised Land, they were a loose confederation of
tribes held together by their common ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, (Philip, 1998). Governed by tribal leaders or judges for a period
of time, the tribes eventually united forming a monarchy. Saul, from the tribe
of Benjamin, was selected by God and anointed by Samuel, the prophet, priest
and judge, to be king.
When Saul disobeyed God’s instructions, God
chose David, a shepherd youth from the tribe of Judah, to rule the kingdom
after the death of Saul. David was an administrator and statesman who organized
the religious worship and founded a political dynasty, (Pfeiffer, 1967).
He was a poet and musician–“the sweet psalmist of Israel” (II Sam.
23:1) and a skilled harpist. As a soldier and warrior, he expanded the borders
of the kingdom and forged a simple agrarian society into a nation, (Pfeiffer,
1967).
David’s son and successor Solomon reigned over
an industrial empire stretching from the River Euphrates in the north to
the River of Egypt in the south (I Kings 4:21; Pfeiffer, 1967).
The peace and prosperity he inherited from his father David enabled him to
engage in extensive building projects, the most notable being the temple
in Jerusalem. Solomon’s fame and wisdom spread abroad, and his wealth and
riches exceeded that of all the kings of the earth (II Chron. 9:22).
However, in his old age Solomon became idolatrous due to the influence of his
many foreign wives, and God determined to rend the kingdom from his son,
(Pfeiffer, 1967).
When Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, became king, the
ten northern tribes revolted establishing the northern kingdom
of Israel and appointing Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, as their king. The
two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, known as
the kingdom of Judah, remained loyal to Rehoboam and the Davidic
dynasty. The kingdom divided in 931/30 B. C. and lasted slightly more than two
hundred years until 723/22 B. C. when the northern kingdom of Israel was
taken into captivity by the Assyrians. The kingdom of Judah continued alone for
another one hundred thirty some years until they,
too, were carried into captivity in 586 B. C. by the Babylonians. The account
of the Divided Kingdom period begins in I Kings 11 and II Chronicles
10, ending with the conclusions of II Kings and II Chronicles.
The descendants of David, according
to Lewis, (2005), reigned in Judah from the division of the kingdom until
the Babylonian captivity with only a brief interruption during the civil unrest
that occurred with the purge of the house of Ahab; thus, in Sections I and II
each king of Judah is the son of the preceding king unless otherwise
identified, (Michael, 2005). In Israel the government was less stable
and several dynasties ruled; therefore, in Section I the relationship between a
king of Israel and the preceding king is specified, (Lewis, 2005).
The challenge for us today in the study of
the Divided Kingdom is to contemplate God’s dealings with
peoples and nations, (Michael, 2005). God poured forth his blessings on the
obedient and righteous, but He sent his judgments upon the disobedient and
unrighteous, (Michael, 2005). It is for us, therefore, to determine our course
of action, whether we walk in compliance or rebellion to God’s word.
After the death of King Solomon, the united
Tribes of Israel split into 2 kingdoms - the southern kingdom of
"Judah," with the capital remaining at Jerusalem, and the
northern kingdom of "Israel," with the capital at Samaria. The
northern kingdom lasted just over 200 years before they were conquered and
taken away into exile by the Assyrians. They never returned, and have become
known to history as the "Lost Ten Tribes of Israel." See Ancient
Empires - Assyria and The Tigris-Ephrates Valley and Nineveh.
The southern kingdom lasted slightly over 300
years before they were conquered and taken into exile by the Babylonians under
King Nebuchadnezzar. Unlike the northern kingdom however, a remnant of the
southern kingdom was allowed to return and resettle Jerusalem in the
time of Ezra and Nehemiah after the Babylonians were themselves conquered by
the Persians under Cyrus the Great. Their descendants are known as the Jews of
today.
Authur J.
(1998). The divided kingdom. London:
Constable, 1988.
Lewis,
M. (2005). The Mystery of
Old Testament Chronology Revealed. London: Xulon
Press.
Michael A. (2005). In
the Divided Kingdom: Gerard Manley Hopkins in his Celtic contexts.
New
York: University of New
York.
Pfeiffer, C. (1967) The divided kingdom. New
York: Bake The Divided Kingdom: the
Decline and Fall of Ancient Israel
Tetley, C. (2005) The reconstructed chronology of
the Divided Kingdom. London: Eisenbrauns, 2005
William S. et al
(1996) Old Testament Survey: the Message, Form, and Background of the Old
Testament. New York: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing.
Suggested Citation in
APA
Wanjohi, A.M. (2010). Divided
Monarchy. KENPRO Publications. Available
online at http://www.kenpro.org/papers/divided-monarchy.htm
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