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Kingdom of Israel
c. 1600BCE–722BCE
Map of the region in the 9th century BCE
Capital	Shechem Penuel Tirzah Samaria
Common languages	Hebrew
Religion	Canaanite Polytheism
Government	Monarchy
Historical era	Classical Antiquity
• Develops from settlement network to regional power	c. 1600BCE
• Destruction (by Assyria)	722BCE
ISO 3166 code	IL
Preceded by Succeeded by Canaan Neo-Assyrian Empire

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The Kingdom of Israel (Hebrew: מַמְלֶכֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל, Modern: Mamlekhet Yisra'el, Tiberian: Mamléḵeṯ Yiśrāʼēl) was a Bronze and Iron Age culture and kingdom in the northern Israeli highlands and later the surrounding areas. Beginning with early waves of Canaanite migration in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, it developed a distinctly Israelite identity in the Late Bronze Age and lasted until about 722BCE, when it was conquered by the Assyrian Empire. The major cities of the kingdom were Shechem, Tirzah, and Shomron (Samaria). Historians often refer to ancient Israel as the Northern Kingdom or the Kingdom of Samaria to differentiate it from the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

Name

In the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel has been referred to as "House of Joseph". It is also frequently referenced (particularly in poetry) as Ephraim, the tribe whose territory housed the capital cities and the royal families.

History

Settlement of the northern highlands occurred in multiple waves during the Bronze Age. Archaeology shows a pattern of oscillation between nomadic and sedentary lifestyles, and interdependence between nomads and settlers. The name Israel first appears in the stele of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah c. 1209 BCE, "Israel is laid waste and his seed is no more." This "Israel" was a cultural and probably political entity of the central highlands, well enough established to be perceived by the Egyptians as a possible challenge to their hegemony, but an ethnic group rather than an organised state; Archaeologist Paula McNutt says: "It is probably ... during Iron Age I a population began to identify itself as 'Israelite'," differentiating itself from its neighbours via prohibitions on intermarriage, an emphasis on family history and genealogy, and religion.

In the Late Bronze Age there were no more than about 25 villages in the highlands, but this increased to over 300 by the end of Iron I, while the settled population doubled from 20,000 to 40,000. The villages were more numerous and larger in the north, and probably shared the highlands with pastoral nomads who left no remains. Archaeologists and historians attempting to trace the origins of these villagers have found it impossible to identify any distinctive features that could define them as specifically Israelite – collared-rim jars and four-room houses have been identified outside the highlands and thus cannot be used to distinguish Israelite sites, and while the pottery of the highland villages is far more limited than that of lowland Canaanite sites, it develops typologically out of Canaanite pottery that came before. Israel Finkelstein proposed that the oval or circular layout that distinguishes some of the earliest highland sites, and the notable absence of pig bones from hill sites, could be taken as a marker of ethnicity, but others have cautioned that these can be a "common-sense" adaptation to highland life and not necessarily revelatory of origins. Other Aramaean sites also demonstrate a contemporary absence of pig remains at that time, unlike earlier Canaanite and later Philistine excavations.

In The Bible Unearthed (2001), Finkelstein and Silberman summarised recent studies. They described how, up until 1967, the Israelite heartland in the highlands of western Palestine was virtually an archaeological 'terra incognita'. Since then, the traditional territories of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh have been covered by intensive surveys. These surveys have revealed the sudden emergence of a new culture contrasting with the Philistine and Canaanite societies existing in the Land of Israel earlier during Iron Age I. This new culture is characterised by the lack of pork remains (whereas pork formed 20% of the Philistine diet in places), an abandonment of the Philistines/Canaanite custom of having highly decorated pottery, and the practice of circumcision. The Israelite ethnic identity had been created, not from the Exodus and a subsequent conquest, but from a transformation of the existing Canaanite-Philistine cultures.

These surveys revolutionized the study of early Israel. The discovery of the remains of a dense network of highland villages — all apparently established within the span of few generations — indicated that a dramatic social transformation had taken place in the central hill country of Canaan around 1200BCE. There was no sign of violent invasion or even the infiltration of a clearly defined ethnic group. Instead, it seemed to be a revolution in lifestyle. In the formerly sparsely populated highlands from the Judean hills in the south to the hills of Samaria in the north, far from the Canaanite cities that were in the process of collapse and disintegration, about two-hundred fifty hilltop communities suddenly sprang up. Here were the first Israelites.

From then on, over a period of hundreds of years until after the return of the exiles from Babylon, the Canaanites were gradually absorbed by the Israelites and other tribes until after the period of Ezra (c. 450BCE) whereafter there is no more biblical record of them. Hebrew (see Hebrew language), a dialect of Canaanite, became the language of the hill country and later the valleys and plains.

Modern scholars therefore see Israel arising peacefully and internally from existing people in the highlands of Canaan.

Unusually favourable climatic conditions in the first two centuries of Iron Age II brought about an expansion of population, settlements and trade throughout the region. In the central highlands this resulted in unification in a kingdom with the city of Samaria as its capital, possibly by the second half of the 10th century BCE when an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Shoshenq I, the biblical Shishak, records a series of campaigns directed at the area. Israel had clearly emerged by the middle of the 9th century BCE, when the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III names "Ahab the Israelite" among his enemies at the battle of Qarqar (853). At this time Israel was apparently engaged in a three-way contest with Damascus and Tyre for control of the Jezreel Valley and Galilee in the north, and with Moab, Ammon and Damascus in the east for control of Gilead; the Mesha stele (c. 830), left by a king of Moab, celebrates his success in throwing off the oppression of the "House of Omri" (i.e., Israel). It bears what is generally thought to be the earliest extra-biblical Semitic reference to the name Yahweh (YHWH), whose temple goods were plundered by Mesha and brought before his own god Kemosh. French scholar André Lemaire has reconstructed a portion of line 31 of the stele as mentioning the "House of David". The Tel Dan stele (c. 841) tells of the death of a king of Israel, probably Jehoram, at the hands of a king of Aram Damascus. A century later Israel came into increasing conflict with the expanding neo-Assyrian empire, which first split its territory into several smaller units and then destroyed its capital, Samaria (722). Both the biblical and Assyrian sources speak of a massive deportation of people from Israel and their replacement with settlers from other parts of the empire – such population exchanges were an established part of Assyrian imperial policy, a means of breaking the old power structure – and the former Israel never again became an independent political entity.

Judah emerged somewhat later than Israel, probably during the 9th century BCE, but the subject is one of considerable controversy. There are indications that during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE, the southern highlands had been divided between a number of centres, none with clear primacy. During the reign of Hezekiah, between c. 715 and 686 BCE, a notable increase in the power of the Judean state can be observed. This is reflected in archaeological sites and findings, such as the Broad Wall; a defensive city wall in Jerusalem; and Hezekiah's Tunnel, an aqueduct designed to provide Jerusalem with water during an impending siege by the Assyrians led by Sennacherib; and the Siloam Inscription, a lintel inscription found over the doorway of a tomb, has been ascribed to comptroller Shebna. LMLK seals on storage jar handles, excavated from strata in and around that formed by Sennacherib's destruction, appear to have been used throughout Sennacherib's 29-year reign, along with Bullae from sealed documents, some that belonged to Hezekiah himself and others that name his servants;

King Ahaz's Seal is a piece of reddish-brown clay that belonged to King Ahaz of Judah, who ruled from 732 to 716 BCE. This seal contains not only the name of the king, but the name of his father, King Yehotam. In addition, Ahaz is specifically identified as "king of Judah." The Hebrew inscription, which is set on three lines, reads as follows: "l'hz*y/hwtm*mlk*/yhdh", which translates as "belonging to Ahaz (son of) Yehotam, King of Judah."

In the 7th century Jerusalem grew to contain a population many times greater than earlier and achieved clear dominance over its neighbours. This occurred at the same time that Israel was being destroyed by Assyria, and was probably the result of a cooperative arrangement with the Assyrians to establish Judah as an Assyrian vassal controlling the valuable olive industry. Judah prospered as an Assyrian vassal state (despite a disastrous rebellion against Sennacherib), but in the last half of the 7th century BCE Assyria suddenly collapsed, and the ensuing competition between the Egyptian and Neo-Babylonian empires for control of the land led to the destruction of Judah in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582.

Territory

The territory and extent of the Kingdom of Israel grew during the Middle and Late Bronze Ages to encompass the northern highlands to and beyond the Jordan River to the east, the expanse of the Jezreel Valley to the north, and later the lowland cities to the west. During this time, Judah was comparatively underdeveloped, its geography more prohibitive to trade and climate more prone to drought and famine.

Its capital was Samaria, following earlier periods where Shechem and Tizrah served as its central hubs of politics and trade.

Biblical narrative

Contemporary archaeology and textual analysis of the bible suggest the concept of a united monarchy was developed much later, with the biblical account merging textual and legendary traditions from the respective northern and southern kingdoms, the bible portrays Israel and Judah as having once been part of a united monarchy. According to the bible, the united Kingdom of Israel would have have existed from about 1030BCE to about 930BCE. It was a union of all the twelve Israelite tribes living in the area that presently approximates modern Israel and the Palestinian territories.

After the death of Solomon in about 931BCE, all the Israelite tribes except for Judah and Benjamin (called the ten northern tribes) refused to accept Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, as their king. The rebellion against Rehoboam arose after he refused to lighten the burden of taxation and services that his father had imposed on his subjects.

Jeroboam, who was not of the Davidic line, was sent for from Egypt by the malcontents. The Tribe of Ephraim and all Israel raised the old cry, "Every man to his tents, O Israel". Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem, and in 930BCE (some date it in 920BCE), Jeroboam was proclaimed king over all Israel at Shechem. After the revolt at Shechem at first only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. But very soon after the tribe of Benjamin joined Judah. The northern kingdom continued to be called the Kingdom of Israel or Israel, while the southern kingdom was called the kingdom of Judah. 2 Chronicles 15:9 also says that members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon fled to Judah during the reign of Asa of Judah.

Both Eusebius and Josephus place the division in 997BCE - lunar dates of Venus can be mistaken as 64 years later (c. 930BCE). (Crossing of sun over Mars as Tamuz would be 10 July 997BCE.)

Shechem was the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel. Afterwards it was Tirzah. King Omri built his capital in Samaria (1 Kings 16:24), which continued as such until the destruction of the Kingdom by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:5). During the three-year siege of Samaria by the Assyrians, Shalmaneser V died and was succeeded by Sargon II of Assyria, who himself records the capture of that city thus: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away" into Assyria. Thus, around 720BCE, after two centuries, the kingdom of the ten tribes came to an end.

Today, among archaeologists, Samaria is one of the most universally accepted archaeological sites from the biblical period At around 850BCE, the Mesha Stele, written in Old Hebrew alphabet, records a victory of King Mesha of Moab against king Omri of Israel and his son Ahab.

In c. 732BCE, Pekah of Israel allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem, and Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram and territory of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in Gilead including the desert outposts of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. People from these tribes including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system. Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim and an Assyrian governor was placed over the region of Naphtali. According to 2 Kings 16:9 and 15:29, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria.

Israel continued to exist within the reduced territory as an independent kingdom until around 720BCE, when it was again invaded by Assyria and the rest of the population deported. The Bible relates that the population of Israel was exiled, becoming known as The Ten Lost Tribes, leaving only the Tribe of Judah, the Tribe of Simeon (that was "absorbed" into Judah), the Tribe of Benjamin and the people of the Tribe of Levi who lived among them of the original Israelites nation in the southern Kingdom of Judah. However, in their book The Bible Unearthed, authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman estimate that only a fifth of the population (about 40,000) were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II. Many also fled south to Jerusalem, which appears to have expanded in size fivefold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water (Siloam) to be provided by King Hezekiah.

The remainder of the northern kingdom was conquered by Sargon II, who captured the capital city Samaria in the territory of Ephraim. He took 27,290 people captive from the city of Samaria resettling some with the Israelites in the Khabur region and the rest in the land of the Medes thus establishing Hebrew communities in Ecbatana and Rages.

The Book of Tobit additionally records that Sargon had taken other captives from the northern kingdom to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, in particular Tobit from the town of Thisbe in Naphtali.

In medieval Rabbinic fable the concept of the ten tribes who were taken away from the House of David (who continued the rule of the southern kingdom of Judah) becomes confounded with accounts of the Assyrian deportations leading to the myth of the "Ten Lost Tribes". The recorded history differs from this fable: No record exists of the Assyrians having exiled people from Dan, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun or western Manasseh. Descriptions of the deportation of people from Reuben, Gad, Manasseh in Gilead, Ephraim and Naphtali indicate that only a portion of these tribes were deported and the places to which they were deported are known locations given in the accounts. The deported communities are mentioned as still existing at the time of the composition of the books of Kings and Chronicles and did not disappear by assimilation. 2 Chronicles 30:1-11 explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by the Assyrians in particular people of Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun and how members of the latter three returned to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah.

The religious climate of the Kingdom of Israel appears to have followed two major trends. The first, that of YHWH, and the second the cult of Baal as detailed in the Hebrew Bible, and in the Baal cycle discovered at Ugarit.

It is recorded in the Hebrew Bible that Jeroboam built two places of worship, one at Bethel and one at far northern Dan, to be an alternative to the Temple in Jerusalem. He did not want the people of his kingdom to have religious ties to Jerusalem, the capital city of the rival Kingdom of Judah. He erected golden bulls at the entrance to the Temples to represent the national god. The Hebrew Bible, written from the perspective of scribes in Jerusalem, referred to these acts as the way of Jeroboam or the errors of Jeroboam.(1 Kings 12:26–29)

Ahab allowed the cult worship of Baal to become an acceptable religion of the kingdom. His wife Jezebel was a devotee to Baal worship. (1 Kings 16:31)

Biblical Prophets

• Elijah, opponent of religious inventions under Ahab and Jezebel
• Elisha, chosen successor of Elijah
• Amos
• Hosea
• Jonah
• Nahum

Biblical Royal Houses

List of proposed Assyrian references to Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)

The table below lists all the historical references to Samaria in Assyrian records.

See also

Template:Misplaced Pages books

• Assyrian captivity of Israel
• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• Ten Lost Tribes
• Israel

References

1. * Finkelstein, Israel, and Silberman, Neil Asher, The Bible Unearthed : Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, Simon & Schuster, 2002. ISBN 0-684-86912-8
2. *Zechariah 10:6
3. *II Samuel 2:10
4. Stager in Coogan 1998, p. 91.
5. Dever 2003, p. 206.
6. McNutt 1999, pp. 35.
7. McNutt 1999, pp.46-47.
8. McNutt 1999, p. 69.
9. Miller 1986, p. 72.
10. Killebrew 2005, p. 13.
11. Edelman in Brett 2002, p. 46-47.
12. Cite error: The named reference Finkelstein was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
13. Avraham Faust (2009) "How Did Israel Become a People? The Genesis of Israelite Identity. Biblical Archaeology Review 201: pp. 62-69, 92-94
14. Finkelstein and Silberman (2001), p. 107
15. Holy Bible. King James version. Ezra, Chapter 9
17. Gnuse 1997, pp.28,31
18. ^ Thompson 1992, p. 408.
19. ^ Mazar in Finkelstein 2007, p. 163.
20. "Moab". New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15 August 2012.
21. Biblical Archaeology Review , pp. 30–37
22. Lemche 1998, p. 85.
23. Cite error: The named reference Grabbe 2008, pp. 225–6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
24. Lehman in Vaughn 1992, p. 149.
25. David M. Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature, Oxford University Press, 2005, 164.
26. Seal of Amariah Hananiah--Servant of Hezekiah
27. First Impression: What We Learn from King Ahaz’s Seal (#m1), by Robert Deutsch, Archaeological Center.
28. ^ Thompson 1992, pp. 410–1.
29. 1 Kings 12:17–22
30. 1 Kings 12:4, 1 Kings 12:14
31. 1 Kings 12:2–3
32. 2Samuel 20:1
33. 1 Kings 12:1–18
34. 2 Chronicles 10
35. 2 Chronicles 15:9
36. 1 Kings 12:25
37. 1 Kings 14:17
38. See Yohanan Aharoni, et al., The Macmillan Bible Atlas, Macmillan Publishing: New York, 1993, p. 94.; and Amihai Mazar, The Archaeology of the Land of the Bible: 10,000 – 586 B.C.E, New York: Doubleday, 1992, p. 404, see Pp. 406-410 for discussion of archaeological significance of Shomron (Samaria) under Omride Dynasty.
39. 2 Kings 3
40. 2 Kings 16:7–9
41. Lester L. Grabbe, Ancient Israel: What Do We Know and How Do We Know It? (New York: T&T Clark, 2007): 134
42. Finkelstein & Silberman 2001, The Bible Unearthed p. 221.
43. 2 Chronicles 30:1–18
44. ^ http://teldan.wordpress.com/israelite-temple/
45. Considered to be a contemporary of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (858–824) to whom he paid tribute. This is based on an inscription on The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III showing "Yaua" son of Omri paying tribute, dated to 841BCE.
46. Paid tribute to the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V (727–722BCE) but rebelled in 725BCE. Shalmaneser besieged the capital, Samaria, but died shortly before the fall of the city. His brother Sargon II (722–705BCE) completed the siege with success in 722. Some of the population of the Northern Kingdom was exiled to other parts of the Assyrian Empire and new population groups were resettled in the new Assyrian province of Samaria. A small group of people fled south to take refuge in Judah.
47. * Kelle, Brad (2002), "What's in a Name? Neo-Assyrian Designations for the Northern Kingdom and Their Implications for Israelite History and Biblical Interpretation", Journal of Biblical Literature, 121 (4): 639–646

External links

• About Israel - The Information Center About Israel
• Biblical History The Jewish History Resource Center - Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Complete Bible Genealogy A synchronized chart of the kings of Israel and Judah

• Use dmy dates from December 2010
• 800s BC
• Ancient Israel and Judah
• Former monarchies of Asia
• Books of Kings
• Political entities in the Land of Israel