After Solomon’s death in 931 BC, the ten northern tribes refused to accept Rehoboam (Solomon’s son and heir) as their king, and instead chose Jeroboam,
who was not of the Davidic line, as their king. The northern kingdom continued to be called Israel, whereas the southern kingdom was called the Kingdom of Judah, or Judah.This period is known as the “divided kingdom” period. During this time, something of a jostling for power took place in the region. Egypt was becoming more dominant, as was Assyria, soon to be followed by Babylon. Lesser states such as Israel, Judah, and Aram (modern day Syria) etc. constantly walked a tight-rope of alliances in order to maintain their existence.DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL
In c. 732 BCE, King Pekah of Israel allied with King Rezin of Aram and threatened Jerusalem. King Ahaz of Judah appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria for help and paid him ‘tribute’ (note: tribute is basically old world extortion money paid by a lesser state to a more powerful state). Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram and large parts of Israel. 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 720 BCE, 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. However, other writers 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 and Sargon II. Many also fled south to Jerusalem, which appears to have expanded in size fivefold during this period.
CLASH OF EMPIRES
Besides witnessing the destruction of Israel and the deportation of its population, Ahaz and his co-regent son Hezekiah were vassals (aka client kings) to Assyria and forced to pay an annual tribute. After Hezekiah became sole ruler in c. 715 BC, he re-captured Philistine-occupied lands in the Negev desert, formed alliances with Ashkelon and Egypt, and made a stand against Assyria by refusing to pay tribute. (Isaiah 30-31; 36:6-9) In response, Sennacherib of Assyria attacked the fortified cities of Judah. (2 Kings 18:13) Hezekiah was forced to pay three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold to Assyria — requiring him to empty the temple and royal treasury of silver and strip the gold from the doorposts of Solomon's Temple. Sennacherib went so far as to besiege Jerusalem itself (2 Kings 18:14-16) in 701 BC, though the city was divinely spared.
During the long reign of Hezekiah’s son Manasseh (c. 687/686 - 643/642 BC), Judah was a vassal state of Assyria. Manasseh’s reign was marked as a ‘low point’ in Judah’s history in terms of rejection of worship of the one true God and toleration of idolatry.
When Josiah became king of Judah in c. 641/640 BC, the international situation was in flux. To the east, the Assyrian Empire was beginning to disintegrate, the Babylonian Empire had not yet risen to replace it, and Egypt to the west was still recovering from Assyrian rule. In this power vacuum, Judah was able to govern itself for the time being without foreign intervention. Important religious reforms were able to take place under Josiah. Josiah is a king without peer in Judah’s history.
In the spring of 609 BC, Pharaoh Necho II personally led a sizable army up to the Euphrates River to aid the Assyrians against the upstart Babylonians. However, Necho found his way blocked by the Judean army led by Josiah. Presumably in an attempt to help the Babylonians, Josiah attempted to block the advance at Megiddo, where a fierce battle was fought and where Josiah was killed. Necho then joined forces with the Assyrians and together they crossed the Euphrates and lay siege to Harran. The combined forces failed to capture the city, and Necho retreated back to northern Syria. The event also marked the disintegration of the Assyrian Empire.
On his return march to Egypt in 608 BC, Necho found that Jehoahaz had been selected to succeed his father, Josiah. Necho deposed Jehoahaz, who had been king for only three months, and replaced him with his older brother, Jehoiakim. Necho imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver (about 3 3/4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons) and a talent of gold (about 75 pounds or about 34 kilograms). Necho then took Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, never to return.
Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians, paying a heavy tribute. However, when the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BC, Jehoiakim changed allegiances, paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. In 601 BC, in the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar unsuccessfully attempted to invade Egypt and was repulsed with heavy losses. This failure lead to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant which owed allegiance to Babylon. Jehoiakim also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and took a pro-Egyptian position. Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with these rebellions.
DESTRUCTION OF JUDAH
According to the Babylonian Chronicles, after invading in 599 BC, Nebuchadnezzar lay siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiakim died in 598 BC during the siege, and was succeeded by his son Jehoiachin at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, carting all his spoils to Babylon. Jehoiachin and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire. (2 Kings 24:14) Among them was Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's brother, king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon.
Despite the strong warnings of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered into an alliance with Egypt. In 589 BC, Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah and again besieged Jerusalem.
During this period, many Jews fled to surrounding Moab, Egypt, Edom and other countries to seek refuge. The city fell after an eighteen month siege and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple, after which he set fire to them both. After killing all of Zedekiah's sons, Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah to Babylon, putting an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah. After the destruction of Judah, Babylon created Yehud Province for the remnant of the Jewish population in a part of the former kingdom, and appointed Gedaliah governor, supported by a Chaldean guard. The administrative centre of the province was Mizpah, and not Jerusalem. On hearing of the appointment, the Jews that had taken refuge in surrounding countries returned to Judah. (Jeremiah 40:11-12) However, before long Gedaliah was assassinated by a member of the royal house, and the Chaldean soldiers killed. The population that was left in the land and those that had returned fled to Egypt fearing a Babylonian reprisal, under the leadership of Johanan, son of Kareah, ignoring the urging of the prophet Jeremiah against the move. (2 Kings 25:26, Jeremiah 43:5-7) In Egypt, the refugees settled in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and Pathros, (Jeremiah 44:1) and Jeremiah went with them as moral guardian.
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