The last kings of Judah. Kings of Israel and Judah: from Rehoboam to the Babylonian captivity All about the kings of Israel and Judah

Which had long raised doubts, left them. Every Jew began to doubt his neighbor and his destiny. Hatred arose, people began to attack each other. Some reached despair, and others reached hysteria. That was the end.

The Jewish mentor, Moshe, stood alone on the mountain and saw what was happening. He understood their feelings and was afraid to go down to them. But he was even more afraid that his students would not fulfill their role. He was responsible for them and was ready to bear punishment for each of the Jews.

It was then that he was able to comprehend the main law of the universe. Just as he revealed himself to his mentor Abraham in Babylon when there was hatred there. The law of universal love, the law of the Creator. Moshe knew that all the unfolding hatred did not happen by accident. But he already had the key to solving this.

This is exactly how the thorny path of the people of Israel began to ascend in fulfillment of the most important and incomprehensible commandment, which combines all the others: love your neighbor as yourself.

YESHUA BEN NUN

Moshe was elderly and was looking for a successor. He has been teaching for 40 years. His students were already well acquainted with nature: why hatred arises between them, and what its purpose is. Why hate and love follow each other like day follows night. They knew how to rise above differences and live in unity.

But this was not enough for Moshe. He needed someone who could teach them further. He was already old, and the people of Israel had not fulfilled their destiny.

Then he drew attention to one of the students who did not know the laws of the Torah so well. But he understood better than anyone the principle that the main thing is unity and love for one’s neighbor. His name was Yeshua ben Nun.

While Moshe’s other disciples were sitting and learning from him, Yeshu brought them water and set up chairs. The sages describe: when he heard a bad word about his neighbor, it did not penetrate him

This is the kind of student Moshe needed. The one who loves his people and is devoted to them even at the expense of his own importance. And he was not mistaken.

It was Yeshua who was able to bring and justify the people to. He can be considered the first ruler of Israel.

KING DAVID

Two generations later, the next star of Israel appears - King David. Its significance is so enormous that today it is recognized by all major world religions.

David was not the most prominent candidate for the role of leader, but the sage Samuel saw in the young shepherd the potential for a wise ruler. And then he anointed him as king.

King David made a strong independent state out of the divided Jewish people. Most of his time was spent resolving controversial issues of ordinary people, writing laws and defending the boundaries of the state.

He was a mentor and teacher to a generation. He conveyed his teachings in poems and songs. I didn’t write for fame. Through them he taught the people, as he writes.

He was a great sage and understood not only politics, but also understood human psychology well, thanks to which he could resolve even the most controversial issues, which earned him undeniable authority among the people for many generations to come.

KING SOLOMON

He was a son and a student. It was he who managed to lead the people to their dawn and fulfill the dream of his father. He was the one who built the First Temple, which became a symbol of love and unity of the people.

In his time, the wisdom of Israel was revered by everyone. This was the peak of national unity and the dawn of Israel. Greeks and Arabs came to study with the Israelis. And subsequently, they adopted many knowledge and customs from them.

With the death of Solomon, the era of ruler-teachers completely ended. The wisdom of the people was forgotten, which resulted in centuries-long exile that continues to this day.

WHAT SHOULD RULES BE TODAY?

So what distinguished the outstanding rulers of antiquity? All of them were not so much managers and leaders as teachers. People came to the rulers to study. They did not have to make an election campaign; they were chosen according to their wisdom. The door to the king's tent or palace was always open. Anyone could come. The king was always among his people and did not shy away from this. He was open to everyone because he was a teacher.

We are now at a transition when governments can no longer satisfy the people with their promises. People have become smarter. Surely we will see in the future how much the need for strict leadership disappears. People will want to be drawn to ideas, to minds. Towards greater cohesion among ourselves and unity. And for this we need people who know how to unite the people not under their own power, but under the common power of love, cohesion and unity.

This is our role. And sooner or later, we, the people of Israel, will have to remember our goal and purpose: to become a “light for the nations” - that is, to become mentors and teachers for all mankind, as it was before.

After Josiah, his twenty-three-year-old son Jehoahaz sat on the throne. He reigned for three months and was dethroned by Pharaoh Necho. This king did not inherit the piety of his father, he was wicked. He was succeeded by twenty-five-year-old Joachim, who reigned for eleven years. He also committed iniquities.

In 598, eighteen-year-old Jehoiachin reigned. Like his predecessors, he was wicked. His reign was short-lived. That same year, three months later, King Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem and took him into captivity.

That same year, the throne passed to Zedekiah. He was the last (twentieth) king of the Jews. The name Zedekiah was given to him by Nebuchadnezzar, who placed him in power. His real name is Matthania. Zedekiah was the uncle of Jehoiachin, who was taken captive. In 588, in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign, God's wrath broke out against Jerusalem, because this king also did what was displeasing to God.

At this time, the Edomites, Moabites and other peoples rebelled against the rule of the Babylonians. They encouraged Zedekiah to join in the union. The prophet Jeremiah warned against this crazy step. The Lord, through the prophet, exhorted us to submit to the Chaldean king: And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon my servant, and even the beasts of the field I have given to serve him.(Jer 27:6).

But Zedekiah broke away from the Babylonian king and rebelled. Nebuchadnezzar was in difficulty. It was necessary to decide on whom to direct the attack, so the rebellion arose in several places. Nebuchadnezzar cast lots, and the lot fell on Jerusalem. A protracted siege of the city began. Josephus Flavius ​​says that it was conducted according to all the rules of the art of war. The Chaldeans built many embankments around the city, reaching the same height as the walls. They erected huge towers on the ramparts and with the help of these towers they prevented the defenders of Jerusalem from taking positions on the walls. The defenders of the doomed city stubbornly and steadfastly withstood the siege. For a long time, neither the military skill of the besiegers, nor hunger, nor pestilence could break their courage. They boldly went out into battle, not embarrassed by the cunning devices and siege weapons of the enemy. The resistance lasted eighteen months until the defenders “fell prey to hunger and the missiles with which the enemies showered them from the tops of their siege towers” ​​(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews. 10. 8, 1).

On the 9th day of the fourth month of Tammuz (July) 587, the Chaldeans made the first breach of the city wall at the northern gate. Having learned about this, King Zedekiah fled at night through the gate between two walls, which researchers identify with the gate of the Source. The fugitives headed towards Jericho, but were captured by the Chaldeans on the way. Former king Zedekiah was taken to Nebuchadnezzar, who was in Riblah (in the land of Hamath). His sons were executed in front of Zedekiah. Then he was blinded. The highest representatives of the church and civil authorities were also taken to Nebuchadnezzar at Rivla and executed. The blinded Zedekiah was taken to Babylon, where two years later he was also put to a violent death.

The warnings of the Lord also came true in the kingdom of Judah, but only later, one hundred and thirty-four years later. The sacred writer says: And Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord his God, but acted according to the customs of the Israelites, as they did. And the Lord turned away from all the descendants of Israel, and humbled them, and gave them into the hands of robbers, and finally cast them out from before Him.(2 Kings 17, 19-20).

The misfortunes of the once populous flourishing city were mourned in the book prophet Jeremiah. He weeps bitterly at night, and his tears are on his cheeks. He has no comforter among all those who loved him; all his friends betrayed him and became his enemies(Lamentations 1, 2). In memory of this tragedy, the Jews established a one-day fast on the 17th of Tammuz.

The fall and destruction of Jerusalem was only the beginning of national disasters. The next month, on the 9th, another difficult and painful event for the memory of the Jews occurred - The Jerusalem Temple was burned military commander Nebuzaradan. This day is also marked by a one-day fast. Destruction of the Jerusalem Temple by the Romans in 70 AD. falls on the same day.

For most of the residents of Jerusalem and other Jews, the seventy-year captivity. The country did not remain completely deserted. The small part of the surviving poor population could not brighten up the overall picture of the terrible desolation of Judea. By order of the Babylonian king, the prophet Jeremiah was given the freedom to go to Babylon or remain in his homeland. The Prophet chose the latter.

Over the remaining part of the Jewish population, Nebuchadnezzar appointed ruler Gedaliah. As a noble and wise man, he called on his compatriots: do not be afraid to be subject to the Chaldeans, settle on the earth and serve the king of Babylon, and it will be good for you(2 Kings 25, 24). In these words there was submission to the will of God.

Gedaliah chose Mizpah, a city northwest of Jerusalem, as his residence. Here he formed a guard of Jews and Chaldeans and, with the support of the prophets Jeremiah and Baruch, tried to organize the poor population of Judea into a community. These plans did not come true. Gedaliah was villainously killed two months later by Ishmael, sent by the Ammonite king Baalis. In memory of the violent death of Gedaliah, according to Jewish tradition, fasting was established in the seventh month. Josephus Flavius ​​calls Gedaliah an honest and philanthropic person.

The key to understanding the passion and power of the great biblical historical saga is to understand the unique time and place in which it was originally composed. Our narrative now approaches a great moment in religious and literary history, for it was only after the fall of Israel that Judah grew into a fully developed state with the necessary set of professional priests and trained scribes capable of taking on such a task. When Judah itself was suddenly confronted with the non-Israelite world, it needed a defining and motivating text. This text was the historical core of the Bible, compiled in Jerusalem during the 7th century BC. It is not surprising that the biblical text, from the very beginning of Israel's history, repeatedly emphasizes the special status of Judah, because Judah was the birthplace of the basic writings of ancient Israel.

It was in the ancient Jewish capital of Hebron that the respected patriarchs and foremothers were buried in the cave of Machpelah, as we read in the book of Genesis. Among all the sons of Jacob, it was Judah who was appointed to rule over all the other tribes of Israel (Genesis 49:8). The Jews' devotion to God's commandments was unsurpassed by other Israelite warriors during the invasion of Canaan, only they are said to have completely eradicated the presence of the pagan Canaanites from their tribal inheritance. It was from the Jewish village of Bethlehem that David, Israel's greatest king and military leader, emerged onto the stage of biblical history. His described exploits and close relationship with God became important themes in Scripture. Indeed, David's conquest of Jerusalem symbolized the final act of the drama of the conquest of Canaan. Jerusalem, now transformed into a royal city, became the site of the Temple, the political capital of the Davidic dynasty, and the sacred center for the people of Israel forever.

However, despite the prominence of Judea in the Bible, until the 8th century BC. There is no archaeological indication that this small and rather isolated mountainous region, surrounded by arid steppe to the east and south, had any special significance. As we have seen, its population was meager, its cities (even Jerusalem) were small and few in number. It was Israel, not Judea, that initiated the wars in the region. It was Israel, not Judah, that carried out extensive diplomacy and trade. When the two kingdoms came into conflict, Judah typically went on the defensive and was forced to call on neighboring states for help. Before the end of the 8th century, there is no indication that Judea was a significant power in regional affairs. In a moment of revelation, the biblical historian quotes a fable in which he reduces Judah to the status of “the thistle of Lebanon” compared to Israel, the “cedar of Lebanon” (2 Kings 14:9). On the international stage, Judah was probably only a relatively small and isolated kingdom, which, as the great Assyrian conqueror Sargon II mockingly put it, “lies far away.”

But starting from the end of the 8th century BC. something extraordinary happened. A series of epochal changes, beginning with the fall of Israel, suddenly changed the political and religious landscape. The population of Judea reached unprecedented levels. Its capital became for the first time a national religious center and a bustling metropolis. Intensive trade began with surrounding peoples. Finally, a major religious reform movement - centered on the exclusive worship of Yahweh in the Jerusalem Temple - began to develop a new revolutionary understanding of the God of Israel. Analysis of historical and social events in the Middle East in the 9th and 8th centuries BC. explains some of these changes. The archeology of Judea at the end of the monarchy offers even more important clues.

Good kings and bad ones

There is no reason to seriously doubt the reliability of the biblical list of kings of the Davidic dynasty who reigned in Jerusalem during the two centuries following the times of David and Solomon. The Books of Kings intricately weave the histories of the northern and southern kingdoms into a single, combined national history, often making reference to now-lost royal chronicles called the "chronicles of the kings of Judah" and the "chronicles of the kings of Israel." The dates of the reigns of the kings of Judah are precisely compared with the dates of the reigns of the kings of Israel, as in the typical passage of 1 Kings 15:9, which reads: "In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa reigned over Judah". This cross-dating system, which can be verified by externally dated references to individual Israelite and Judah kings, has proven to be generally reliable and consistent—with a few minor chronological corrections to certain reigns and the addition of possible co-reigns.

KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH*

Rehoboam	931 – 914	Jeroboam I	931 – 909
Aviya	914 – 911	Nadav	909 – 908
Asa	911 – 870	Vaasa	908 – 885
Yoshaphat	870 – 846**	Ela	885 – 884
Yoram	851 – 843**	Zamvriy (Zimri)	884
Ahaziah	843 – 842	Famniy (Tivni)	884 – 880***
Athaliah (Atalia)	842 – 836	Omri (Omri)	884 – 873
Joas	836 – 798	Ahab	873 – 852
Amaziah	798 – 769	Ahaziah	852 – 851
Uzziah	785 – 733**	Joram	851 – 842
Jotham (Yotam)	743 – 729**	Jehu (Yehu)	842 – 814
Ahaz	743 – 727**	Yoahaz	817 – 800**
Hezekiah	727 – 698	Joash	800 – 784
Manasseh	698 – 642	Jeroboam II	788 – 747**
Ammon	641 – 640	Zechariah	747
Yosia	639 – 609	Shallum	747
Yoahaz	609	Manaim (Menachem)	747 – 737
Joakim	608 – 598	Fakia (Pekahia)	737 – 735
Jeconiah	597	Fakei (Pekah)	735 – 732
Zedekiah	596 – 586	Hosea	732 – 724

* According to Anchor Bible Dictionary, Volume. 1, p. 1010 and Galil "Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah"
** Including joint management
***Simultaneous reign with another rival

So we learn that 11 kings (all but one heir to the Davidic dynasty) ruled in Jerusalem from the late 10th to the mid-8th century BC. The accounts of each reign are laconic. But in neither case is there the dramatic, murderous portrayal of character that we see in the biblical representation of the northern king Jeroboam or the idolatrous house of Omri. But this does not mean that theology plays no role in the biblical account of the history of Judah. God's punishment was swift and crystal clear. When sinful kings reigned in Jerusalem and idolatry was rampant, we learn that they were punished and Judah suffered military failures. When righteous kings reigned over Judah and the people were faithful to the God of Israel, the kingdom prospered and expanded its territory. Unlike the northern kingdom, which is described in negative terms throughout the biblical text, Judah is basically good. Although the number of good and bad kings of Judah is almost equal, the length of their reign is not. Much of the history of the southern kingdom is covered by good kings.

So even in the days of Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon, “Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord,” and his people worshiped in high places “on every high hill” and imitated the customs of the foreigners (1 Kings 14:22-24). Punishment for this The apostasy was swift and painful. The Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak in the 5th year of Rehoboam (926 BC) marched on Jerusalem and took a huge tribute from the treasures of the Temple and the royal palace of the Davidic dynasty (1 Kings 14:25-26). was not adopted by Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, who “walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him, and his heart was not devoted to the Lord his God” (1 Kings 15:3). Judah's misfortunes continued with periodic conflicts with the armies of the kingdom of Israel.

Things took a turn for the better during the reign of Asa, who ruled Jerusalem for 41 years beginning in the late 10th century. Asa reportedly “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, as David his father did” (1 Kings 15:11). Therefore, it is not surprising that at one time Jerusalem was saved from the attack of the Israeli king Baasha. Asa sought help from the king of Aram-Damascus, who attacked Israel's far northern borders, thereby forcing Baasha to withdraw his invading forces from the northern outskirts of Jerusalem.

To the next king Jehoshaphat (the first Jewish monarch with a name consisting of a variation of the divine name Yahweh: Yeho + Shafat= "Yahweh judged") was praised for following the path of his righteous father Asa. He ruled Jerusalem for 25 years in the first half of the 9th century BC, made peace with the kingdom of Israel and joined it in a successful offensive operations against Aram and Moab.

Over the next centuries, the kingdom of Judah experienced ups and downs, reaching a low point when Jehoshaphat's son Jehoram became intermarried with the sinful family of Ahab and Jezebel. The predictable misfortune came: Edom (long dependent on Judah) rebelled, and Judah lost rich agricultural territories in the western Shephelah to the Philistines. Even more serious were the bloody consequences of the fall of the Omri dynasty, which shook the royal palace in Jerusalem. Ahaziah (son of Jehoram and Princess Athaliah of the House of Omri) was killed in Jehu's coup. Returning to Jerusalem and hearing the news of the death of her son and all her relatives at the hands of Jehu, Athaliah ordered the destruction of all the heirs of the royal house of David and took the throne herself. For 6 years, a Temple priest named Jehoiada waited. When the time came, he publicly announced that David's heir had been saved from the massacre of Athaliah, and presented the boy Joash, the son of Ahaziah by another wife. At the anointing of Joash as the rightful king of the Davidic dynasty, Athaliah was killed. The period of northern (Omrid) influence on the southern kingdom, during which the cult of Baal was introduced in Jerusalem (2 Kings 11:18), came to a bloody end.

Joash reigned in Jerusalem for 40 years and “did that which was right in the sight of the Lord all his days” (2 Kings 12:2). His most important act was the renovation of the temple. At one time, Jerusalem was threatened by Hazael, the king of Aram-Damascus. He left the city alone only after demanding and receiving a crippling tribute from the king of Judah (2 Kings 12:18-19), but this was not as terrible as the destruction to which Hazael subjected the northern kingdom.

The Jewish pendulum of good and bad kings, and sometimes mixed ones, will continue. Amaziah, a moderately righteous king who "did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not as his father David" (2 Kings 14:3), launched a successful war against Edom, only to be defeated and taken captive by the armies of the kingdom of Israel that invaded into the territory of Judea and destroyed the wall of Jerusalem. And so the story continues, through the reign of righteous Azariah (also known as Uzziah), who expanded the borders of Judah to the south, and his son Jotham.

A dramatic turn for the worse came with the death of Jotham and the coronation of Ahaz (743-727 BC). Ahaz is condemned by the Bible extremely harshly, far beyond the usual measure of apostasy:

And he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as David his father did, but walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even made his son pass through the fire, imitating the abominations of the nations whom the Lord drove out from before the children of Israel, and he made sacrifices and incense on the high places and on the hills and under every shade tree.. (2 Kings 16:2-4)

The result was catastrophic. The restive Edomites took Elath from the Gulf of Aqaba, and Rezin, the powerful king of Damascus, and his ally Pekah, the king of Israel, went to war against Judah and besieged Jerusalem. Pressed against the wall, King Ahaz turned to the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III for help with gifts from the temple: “And the king of Assyria listened to him; and the king of Assyria went to Damascus, and took it, and moved its inhabitants to Cyrus, and put Rezina to death. " (2 Kings 16:9) Judah was, at least temporarily, saved by the clever ploy of a wicked king who turned to the mighty Assyrian Empire.

But the time for far-reaching religious change has come. The endless cycle of apostasy, punishment and repentance had to be broken. For Ahaz's son Hezekiah, who reigned in Jerusalem for 29 years, embarked on radical religious reforms, restoring the purity and loyalty to Yahweh that had been lacking since the days of King David. One of the most enduring forms of cult practiced in rural Judea was the popularity of high places (open-air altars), which were rarely disturbed, even by the most righteous kings. In the summary of the deeds of each king, the Bible, like a mantra, repeats the formula that “the high places were not abolished,” the people of Judah continued to offer sacrifices and burn incense on the high places. Hezekiah was the first to remove the high places, as well as other objects of idolatrous worship:

And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord in all things, just as David his father had done; he abolished the high places, broke the statues, cut down the oak grove and destroyed the bronze serpent that Moses had made, because until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it Nehushtan. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel; and there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, both after him and before him. And he clung to the Lord and did not depart from Him, and kept His commandments which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him: wherever he went, he acted wisely. (2 Kings 18:3-7)

Therefore, the biblical picture of Judah's history is clear in its belief that the kingdom was once exclusively righteous but sometimes deserted the faith. Only the accession of Hezekiah could restore the holiness of Judah.

However, archeology suggests a completely different situation, in which the golden age of tribal loyalty to Yahweh was a late religious ideal rather than historical reality. Instead of restoration, the evidence suggests that a centralized monarchy and a national religion centered in Jerusalem developed over the centuries and was new in Hezekiah's time. The idolatry of the people of Judah was not a departure from the previous monotheism. On the contrary, it was a custom that the people of Judah had worshiped for hundreds of years.

The Hidden Face of Ancient Judea

Just a few years ago, almost all biblical archaeologists accepted the biblical description of the sister states of Judah and Israel at face value. They portrayed Judah as a fully developed state from the time of Solomon and went out of their way to provide archaeological evidence of the building activities and effective regional administration of the early kings of Judah. However, as we have already shown, the supposed archaeological evidence for a united monarchy was nothing more than wishful thinking. This was the case with the monuments attributed to the successors of Solomon. Identification of forts reportedly built in Judah by Solomon's son Rehoboam (according to 2 Chron. 11:5-12), and linking the massive fortifications at the site of Tell en-Nasbeh north of Jerusalem to the defensive work undertaken by King Asa of Judah at the biblical city of Mizpah (1 Kings 15:22) turned out to be illusory. Like Solomon's gates and palaces, these royal building operations are now known to have taken place nearly two hundred years after the reign of these kings.

Table 6. Kings of Judah from Rehoboam to Ahaz

Kings	Reign dates	Biblical Assessment	Bible Testimony	Non-biblical data
Rehoboam	934 – 914	Bad	First king of Judah; strengthens cities	Bigwig Campaign
Aviya	914 – 911	Bad	Fights with the Israeli king Jeroboam
Asa	911 – 870	Good	Clears Judea of ​​foreign cults; with the assistance of the king of Damascus, he fights with the Israeli king Baasha; builds two forts on the northern border of Judea
Jehoshaphat	870 – 846**	Good	He fights with the Arameans with Ahab and with the Moabites with Joram; marries his son to Ahab's daughter
Joram	851 – 843**	Bad	Edom rebels against Judah
Ahaziah	843 – 842	Bad	Descendant of Omri; killed in Jehu's coup in Israel	Mentioned in an inscription from Tell Dan?
Afalia	842 – 836	Bad	Kills many of the house of David; killed during a bloody coup
Joash	836 – 798	Good	Restores the temple; saves Jerusalem from Hazael; killed during the coup
Amaziah	798 – 769	Good	Edom wins; attacked by King Joash of Israel
Azariah (Uzziah)	785 – 733**	Good	Isolated in a leper's house; times of the prophet Isaiah	Two seals contain his name
Jotham	759 – 743**	Good	Oppressed by the kings of Israel and Aram; times of Isaiah
Ahaz	743 – 727	Bad	Attacked by the kings of Israel and Aram; calls Tiglath-pileser III for help; times of Isaiah	Pays tribute to Tiglath-pileser III, prosperity begins in the Judean Highlands

* according to Anchor Bible Dictionary And The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah G. Gallil
** including years of joint rule

Archeology shows that the early kings of Judah were not equal in power and administrative ability to their northern counterparts, despite the fact that their reigns and even accession dates are intertwined in the books of Kings. Israel and Judah were two different worlds. With the possible exception of the city of Lachish in the Shephelah foothills, there is no sign of developed regional centers in Judah comparable to the northern cities of Gezer, Megiddo and Hazor. In addition, Jewish town planning and architecture were more rustic. In the south, monumental building techniques such as the use of cut stone masonry and proto-Aeolian capitals, characteristic of the advanced building style of the Omri dynasty in the northern kingdom, do not appear until the 7th century BC. Even if the royal buildings of the House of David in Jerusalem (supposedly destroyed by later buildings) achieved some measure of imposingness, if not grandeur, there is no evidence of monumental construction in the few towns and villages anywhere on the southern hills.

Despite the long-standing claim that Solomon's luxurious court was a place of prosperity fiction, religious thought and historical writing, there is absolutely no evidence of widespread literacy in Judea during the divided monarchy. Not a single trace of the supposed literary activity in 10th century Judea has been found. Indeed, monumental inscriptions and personal seals - essential signs of a fully developed state - do not appear in Judea until 200 years after Solomon, at the end of the 8th century BC. Most of the known ostracons and inscribed weight stones - further evidence of bureaucratic accounting and orderly trading standards - did not appear until the 7th century. There is no evidence of mass production of pottery in centralized workshops or industrial production of olive oil for export until the same late period. Population estimates show exactly how unequal Judah and Israel were. As mentioned, archaeological research shows that before the 8th century, the population of the Judean highlands was about one-tenth of the population of the highlands of the northern kingdom of Israel.

In light of these findings, it is clear that Iron Age Judea did not have any precocious golden age. David, his son Solomon, and subsequent members of the Davidic dynasty ruled over a small, isolated, rural area that lacked signs of wealth or centralized government. This was not a sudden decline into backwardness and failure from an era of unprecedented prosperity. On the contrary, it was a process of long and gradual development, lasting hundreds of years. The Jerusalem of David and Solomon was only one of a number of religious centers in the land of Israel; at the initial stage, it was, of course, not recognized as the spiritual center of the entire people of Israel.

So far we have given only negative evidence of what Judea was not. However, we have a description of what Jerusalem and its environs may have been, both in the times of David and Solomon and their early successors. This description does not come from the Bible. It comes from the Egyptian Late Bronze Age archive of Tell el-Amarna.

A distant city-state in the hills

Among more than 350 cuneiform tablets from the 14th century BC discovered in the ancient Egyptian capital of Akhetaten (modern Tel el-Amarna), containing correspondence between the pharaoh of Egypt and the kings of the Asian states, as well as the minor rulers of Canaan, a group of 6 tablets suggests a unique opportunity to look into royal rule and economic opportunities in the southern highlands—precisely where the kingdom of Judah would later emerge. Written by Abdi-Heba, king of Urusalim (the name of Late Bronze Age Jerusalem), the letters reveal the character of his kingdom as a sparsely populated highland region, loosely controlled from the royal citadel in Jerusalem.

As we now know from research and recognition of repeated cycles of settlement over millennia, Judea's distinctive society was largely determined by its remote geography, unpredictable rainfall, and rugged terrain. Unlike the northern highlands, with its wide valleys and natural overland routes to neighboring regions, Judah had always been agriculturally insignificant and isolated from major trade routes, offering only meager opportunities for wealth to any would-be ruler. Its economy was centered around the self-sufficient production of an individual farming community or pastoral group.

A similar picture emerges from Abdi-Heba's correspondence. He controlled the highlands from the area of ​​Bethel in the north to the area of ​​Hebron in the south - an area of ​​about 2,300 square kilometers, in conflict with neighboring rulers in the northern highlands (Shechem) and Shephelah. Its land was very sparsely populated, with only 8 small settlements having been discovered so far. The settled population of the Abdi-Heba area, including people living in Jerusalem, probably did not exceed 1,500 people; it was the most sparsely populated area of ​​Canaan. But in this remote mountainous frontier zone there were many pastoral groups, perhaps outnumbering the settled village population. It can be considered that the main power in the remote parts of Abdi-Heba territory was in the hands of bandits known as Apiru, Bedouin-like Shasu and independent clans.

Abdi-Heba's capital, Urusalim, was a small mountain fortress located on the southeastern edge of ancient Jerusalem, which would later be known as the City of David. No monumental buildings or fortifications from the 14th century BC were found there. and, as historian Nadav Naaman has suggested, the capital of Abdi-Heba was a modest settlement for an elite who dominated several agricultural villages and a large number of pastoral groups in the surrounding area.

We do not know the fate of the Abdi-Heba dynasty, and we do not have sufficient archaeological evidence to understand the changes that occurred in Jerusalem during the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. And yet, from the broader point of view of the environment, settlement patterns and economics, nothing seems to have changed dramatically over the subsequent centuries. Several agricultural villages existed on the central plateau (though in slightly increased numbers), pastoral groups continued to follow seasonal cycles with their herds, and a tiny elite exercised nominal rule over them all from Jerusalem. Of the historical David, little can be said except to note the uncanny resemblance between the rabble of bands of Apiru who threatened Abdi-Heb and the biblical accounts of the bandit chief David and his band of brave knights roaming the hills of Hebron and the Judean desert. But whether David actually conquered Jerusalem in a swashbuckling raid like Apiru, as described in the books of Kings, or not, it is clear that the dynasty he founded represented a change in rulers, but was unlikely to change the basic way of ruling the southern highlands.

All this suggests that the institutions of Jerusalem - the Temple and the palace - did not dominate the life of the rural population of Judea to the great extent implied by the biblical texts. In the early centuries of the Iron Age, the most obvious characteristic of Judea was continuity with the past, rather than sudden political or religious innovation. Indeed, this should be clear even in the religious practices with which later historians of the kingdom of Judah seem to have been so particularly obsessed.

Traditional religion of Judea

The books of Kings are frank in their description of the apostasy that brought so much misery to the kingdom of Judah. The account of Rehoboam's reign sets it out in typical detail:

And Judas did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him more than all that their fathers had done by the sins which they had committed. And they built themselves high places and statues and temples on every high hill and under every shady tree. And there were also fornicators in the land, and they did all the abominations of those nations whom the Lord drove out from before the children of Israel. (1 Kings 14:22-24)

Likewise, in the time of King Ahaz, 200 years later, the nature of sins seems to have been largely the same. Ahaz was a famous apostate who walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even put his son through fire (2 Kings 16:2-4).

Biblical scholars have demonstrated that they are not arbitrary isolated pagan rites, but are part of a complex of rituals for appealing to the heavenly powers for the fertility and well-being of people and the earth. According to them appearance they resembled the methods used by neighboring peoples to honor and receive the blessings of other gods. Indeed, archaeological finds throughout Judea of ​​clay figurines, incense altars, libation vessels, and offering stands suggest that religious practice was highly varied, geographically decentralized, and certainly not limited to the worship of Yahweh only in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Indeed, for Judea, with its relatively undeveloped state bureaucracy and national institutions, religious rituals were carried out in two different places, sometimes working in harmony and sometimes in open conflict. The first site was the temple in Jerusalem, for which there are numerous biblical accounts from different periods, but (since its site was destroyed in later construction works) there is virtually no archaeological evidence. The second branch of religious practice was used by clans scattered throughout the countryside. There, all stages of life, including religion, were dominated by a complex network of kinship relationships. Rituals for the fertility of the land and blessings of the ancestors gave people hope for the well-being of their families and sanctified their ownership of their rural fields and pastures.

Biblical historian Baruch Helpern and archaeologist Lawrence Stager compared the biblical description of clan structure with the remains of Iron Age mountain villages and revealed a distinctive architectural picture of extended family holdings, whose inhabitants likely performed rituals sometimes quite different from those used in the Jerusalem Temple. Local customs and traditions insisted that the Jews inherited their homes, their land, and even their graves from their God and their ancestors. Sacrifices were offered at shrines within the domain, at family graves, or on open altars throughout the countryside. These places of worship were rarely disturbed even by the most "pious" or aggressive kings. It is therefore not surprising that the Bible repeatedly notes that “the high places were not taken away.”

The existence of high places and other forms of tribal and household worship of God was not - as the books of Kings imply - a departure from an earlier and purer faith. This was part of the timeless tradition of the mountain settlers of Judah, who worshiped Yahweh along with various gods and goddesses known or adapted from the cults of neighboring peoples. In short, Yahweh was worshiped in a variety of ways, and was sometimes depicted along with a heavenly retinue. From the indirect (and demonstrably negative) evidence of the books of Kings, we learn that in rural areas, priests also regularly burned incense to the sun, moon and stars on high.

Since the heights were probably open areas or natural elevations, no definite archaeological traces of them have yet been identified. So clear archaeological evidence of the popularity of this type of worship throughout the kingdom is the discovery of hundreds of figurines of naked fertility goddesses in every village in Judea at the end of the monarchy. More suggestive are inscriptions found at the early 8th century village of Kuntillet Ayrud in northeastern Sinai, a site that shows cultural ties to the northern kingdom. They apparently refer to the goddess Asherah as the consort of Yahweh. And lest we suggest that Yahweh's married status was only a sinful northern hallucination, a somewhat similar formula speaking of Yahweh and his Asherah appears in an inscription of the end of the monarchy from the Jewish Shephelah.

This deeply rooted cult was not limited to rural areas. There is ample biblical and archaeological information that the syncretic cult of Yahweh in Jerusalem flourished even at the end of the monarchical period. The condemnation of various Jewish prophets makes it abundantly clear that Yahweh was worshiped in Jerusalem along with other deities such as Baal, Asherah, the heavenly hosts, and even the national deities of neighboring lands. From Solomon's biblical criticism (probably reflecting the realities of the end of the monarchy), we learn of the worship in Judah of the Ammonite Milcom, the Moabite Chemosh, and the Sidonian Asherah (1 Kings 11:5; 2 Kings 23:13). Jeremiah tells us that the number of deities worshiped in Judah equaled the number of cities and that the number of altars of Baal in Jerusalem equaled the number of market stalls in the capital (Jeremiah 11:13). Moreover, cult objects dedicated to Baal, Asherah and the heavenly host were installed in the Jerusalem temple of Yahweh. Chapter 8 of the book of Ezekiel details all the abominations practiced in the Jerusalem Temple, including the worship of the Mesopotamian god Tammuz.

Thus, the great sins of Ahaz and the other wicked kings of Judah should not be regarded as in any way exceptional. These rulers simply allowed rural traditions to pass unhindered. They and many of their subordinates expressed their devotion to Yahweh in rites performed at countless tombs, shrines, and high places throughout the kingdom, with occasional and ancillary worship of other gods.

Sudden coming of age

For most of the 200 years of the divided monarchy, Judea remained in the shadows. Its limited economic potential, its relative geographic separation, and the traditional conservatism of its clans made it much less attractive to Assyrian imperial exploitation than the larger and wealthier Kingdom of Israel. But with the arrival of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC) and the decision of Ahaz to become his vassal, Judah entered the game with huge stakes. After 720, with the conquest of Samaria and the fall of Israel, Judah was surrounded by Assyrian provinces and Assyrian vassals. And this new situation will have consequences for the future far greater than could have been imagined. The royal citadel of Jerusalem was transformed in a single generation from the seat of a very minor local dynasty into the political and religious leadership center of regional power, both due to dramatic internal events and due to the thousands of refugees from the conquered kingdom of Israel who fled to the south.

Here archeology has made an invaluable contribution in charting the pace and extent of Jerusalem's sudden expansion. As first proposed by the Israeli archaeologist Magen Broshi, excavations carried out here over the past decades have shown that suddenly at the end of the 8th century BC. Jerusalem underwent an unprecedented population explosion as its residential areas expanded from their former narrow spine - the City of David - to cover the entire western hill (Figure 26). In order to cover the new suburbs, a formidable defensive wall was built. Over the course of several decades—certainly within a generation—Jerusalem grew from a modest mountain town of 4-5 hectares into a huge urban area of ​​60 hectares of densely packed houses, workshops and public buildings. From a demographic point of view, the city's population was expected to increase by as much as 15 times, from about 1 thousand to 15 thousand inhabitants.

Rice. 26. Expansion of Jerusalem from the City of David to the Western Hill

A similar picture of enormous population growth comes from archaeological research in the agricultural outskirts of Jerusalem. Not only were numerous estates built in the immediate vicinity of the city at this time, but in areas south of the capital, the previously relatively empty countryside was flooded with new agricultural settlements, large and small. The old sleepy villages grew in size and became, for the first time, real cities. Also in Shephele, a big step forward was made in the 8th century, with a sharp increase in the number and size of villages. Lachish, the most important city in the region, serves as a good example. Until the 8th century it was a modest city; it was surrounded by a formidable wall and turned into the main administrative center. Additionally, the Beersheba valley far to the south witnessed the creation of a number of new cities in the late 8th century. Overall, the expansion was astounding; at the end of the 8th century, Judea had about 300 settlements of all sizes, from the metropolis of Jerusalem to small hamlets where there had once been only a few villages and modest towns. The population, which had long hovered at several tens of thousands, has now grown to approximately 120 thousand.

In the wake of the Assyrian campaigns in the north, Judah experienced not only sudden demographic growth, but also real social evolution. In a word, it became a full-fledged state. Starting from the end of the 8th century, archaeological signs of a mature public education: monumental inscriptions, seals and seal impressions, ostracons for the royal administration; sporadic use of cut stone masonry and stone capitals in public buildings; mass production of ceramic vessels in central workshops;

Evidence of new burial customs, mainly but not exclusively in Jerusalem, shows that a national elite emerged at this time. In the 8th century, some residents of Jerusalem began carving elaborate tombs into the rock of the ridges surrounding the city. Many were extremely elaborate, with peaked ceilings and architectural features such as cornices and capped pyramids elaborately carved from the rock. There is no doubt that these graves were used for the burial of nobility and high officials, as indicated by a fragmentary inscription on one of the tombs in the village of Siloam near Jerusalem (east of the city of David), dedicated to “[...]Yah, who is in charge of the house.” It cannot be ruled out that this was the tomb of Shebna (whose name, perhaps combined with the divine name, became Shebnayahu), the royal steward whom Isaiah (22:15-16) condemns for his arrogance in cutting the tomb in the rock. Elaborate tombs have also been found at several sites in Shephele, indicating sudden accumulation of wealth and division social status in Jerusalem and surrounding area in the 8th century.

The question is, where did this wealth and apparent movement towards full public education come from? The inevitable conclusion is that suddenly Judah was united and even integrated into the economy of the Assyrian Empire. Although King Ahaz of Judah began to cooperate with Assyria before the fall of Samaria, the most significant changes undoubtedly took place after the collapse of Israel. A sharp increase in settlement far to the south in the Beersheba valley may hint that the Kingdom of Judah took part in the increased Arab trade in the late 8th century under Assyrian rule. There is good reason to believe that new markets opened up for Jewish goods, stimulating an increase in the production of olive oil and wine. As a result, Judea went through an economic revolution from a traditional system based on villages and clans to export production and industrialization under state centralization. Wealth began to accumulate in Judah, especially in Jerusalem, where the diplomatic and economic policies of the kingdom were determined and where national institutions were controlled.

The birth of a new national religion

Along with the extraordinary social transformation at the end of the 8th century BC. came an intense religious struggle directly related to the emergence of the Bible as we know it today. Before the kingdom of Judah became a completely bureaucratic state, religious ideas were varied and scattered. Thus, as we have already mentioned, there was a royal cult in the Jerusalem temple, countless ancestor and fertility cults in the countryside, and a widespread mixture of worship of Yahweh along with other gods. As far as we can tell from the archaeological evidence of the northern kingdom, there was a similar variety of religious practices in Israel. Apart from mentioning the harsh preaching of figures like Elijah and Elisha, the anti-Omrid puritanism of Jehu, and the harsh words of prophets like Amos and Hosea, there was never any concerted or sustained effort on the part of the Israelite leadership to establish worship of Yahweh alone.

But after the fall in Samaria, as the kingdom of Judah became increasingly centralized, a new, more focused approach to religious law and customs began to emerge. Jerusalem's influence - demographic, economic and political - was now enormous and linked to a new political and territorial agenda: the unification of all of Israel. And the determination of its priestly and prophetic elites to determine the "correct" methods of worship for all the inhabitants of Judah - and even for those Israelites who lived in the north under Assyrian rule - grew accordingly. These dramatic changes in religious leadership have led biblical scholars such as Baruch Helpern to suggest that during a period of no more than a few decades in the late 8th and early 7th centuries B.C.E. The monotheistic tradition of Judeo-Christian civilization was born.

It is a great claim to be able to pinpoint the birth of modern religious consciousness, especially when its central scripture, the Bible, places the birth of monotheism hundreds of years earlier. But even here, the Bible offers a retrospective explanation rather than an accurate description of the past. Really, social development, set in Judea in the decades following the fall of Samaria, offers a new look at how traditional stories of the patriarchs' journeys and the great national liberation from Egypt gave rise to religious innovation - the emergence of a monotheistic idea - within the newly transformed Judean state.

Sometime at the end of the 8th century BC. a more vocal school of thought arose which insisted that the cults of the countryside were sinful, and that Yahweh alone was worthy of worship. We can't be sure where this idea originated. It is expressed in the cycle of stories about Elijah and Elisha (set down in writing long after the fall of the Omri dynasty) and, more importantly, in the writings of the prophets Amos and Hosea, both of whom were active in the north in the 8th century. As a result, some biblical scholars have suggested that this movement arose in the last days of the northern kingdom among dissident priests and prophets who were overwhelmed by the idolatry and social injustice of the Assyrian period. After the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, they fled south to propagate their ideas. Other scholars point to circles associated with the Jerusalem Temple intent on exerting religious and economic control over the increasingly developed countryside. Perhaps both of these factors played a role in the densely packed atmosphere of Jerusalem after the fall of Samaria, when refugees from the north, the priests of Judah, and royal officials acted together.

Whatever its composition, the new religious movement (dubbed the "Yahweh One Movement" by the iconoclastic historian Morton Smith) engaged in a bitter and ongoing clash with adherents of older, more traditional Jewish religious customs and rituals. It is difficult to assess their relative strength in the kingdom of Judah. Even if they were probably initially in the minority, they were the ones who later created or influenced much of the surviving biblical historiography. The moment was favorable for this; with the development of bureaucratic management came the spread of literacy. For the first time, written texts, rather than narrated epics or ballads, gained enormous influence.

As should be clear by now, passages in the books of Kings about the righteousness and sinfulness of the former kings of Judah reflect the ideology of the “Yahweh-one movement.” If the proponents of the traditional modes of syncretistic worship had ultimately prevailed, we might have had a completely different Scripture, or perhaps none at all. For it was the “Yahweh One movement” that was determined to create an unquestionable orthodoxy of worship and a unified national history centered in Jerusalem. And this was brilliantly achieved in the creation of what would later become the legislation of Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic history.

Biblical scholars have tended to emphasize the strictly religious aspects of the struggle between the Jerusalem factions, but there is no doubt that their positions also included a strong stance on internal and foreign policy. In the ancient world, as today, the sphere of religion could never be separated from the spheres of economics, politics and culture. The ideas of the "Yahweh One" group had a territorial aspect - the search for the "restoration" of the Davidic dynasty over all of Israel, including over the territories of the defeated northern kingdom, where, as we have seen, many Israelites continued to live after the fall of Samaria. This would lead to the unification of all Israel under one king ruling from Jerusalem, the destruction of the cult centers in the north, and the centralization of Israelite cult in Jerusalem.

It is easy to understand why the biblical writers were so upset about idolatry. It was a symbol of chaotic social diversity; clan leaders in the surrounding areas managed their own systems of economics, politics, social relations without direction or control from the royal court in Jerusalem. However, this rural independence, respected for centuries by the people of Judah, began to be denounced as a "return" to the barbarism of Israel's previous times. Thus, ironically, what was most sincerely Jewish came to be labeled as the Canaanite heresy. In the arena of religious disputes and polemics, what was old suddenly began to be seen as foreign, and what was new suddenly began to be seen as correct. And what could only be called an extraordinary outpouring of retrospective theology, a new centralized kingdom of Judah, and the worship of Yahweh centered in Jerusalem, was carried back into the history of the Israelites as what should have always been.

King Hezekiah's reforms?

It is difficult to understand when the new exceptionalism theology first had a practical influence on the state of affairs in Judea; various reforms towards worshiping Yahweh alone are mentioned in the books of Kings as early as the time of King Asa in the early 9th century BC. But their historical authenticity is questionable. One thing seems fairly certain: the ascension of King Hezekiah to the throne of Judah in the late 8th century BC. was remembered by the authors of the books of Kings as an unprecedented event.

As described in 2 Kings 18:3-7, ultimate goal Hezekiah's reform was the establishment of exclusive worship of Yahweh in the only legal place of worship - the Jerusalem Temple. But Hezekiah's religious reforms are difficult to verify with archaeological evidence. The evidence found for them, especially at two sites in the south (Arad and Beersheba), is controversial. In this regard, Baruch Helpern proposed that Hezekiah prohibited rural worship, but did not close the state temples in the administrative centers of the kingdom. However, there is no doubt that profound changes came to the land of Judah with the reign of King Hezekiah. Judah now became the center of the people of Israel. Jerusalem became the center of Yahweh's worship. And the members of the Davidic dynasty became the only legal representatives and means of Yahweh's rule on earth. The unpredictable course of history chose Judea for special status at a particularly important moment.

The most dramatic events were yet to come. In 705 BC. The venerable Assyrian king Sargon II died, leaving his throne to his largely untested son Sennacherib. Troubles ensued in the east of the empire, and Assyria's once invincible façade seemed in danger of toppling over. To many in Jerusalem, it must have seemed that Yahweh was miraculously preparing Judah, just in the nick of time, to fulfill his historical destiny.

Kings of the United Kingdom

Saul - at first was loved by the Lord, but already in the second year of his reign he began to do things displeasing to the Lord. Died in battle in the thirteenth year of his reign.

David. He revered the Lord and was loved by Him, despite the fact that he committed many crimes. Died ahead of schedule, decimated by numerous diseases.

Solomon. For the first twenty years of his reign, he was an obedient servant of Jehovah. Then he disobeyed and turned to other gods. Reigned for forty years. Was not punished by the Lord. He died a natural death.

Kings of the Jews.

Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, was punished by the Lord for the sins of his father. Half of the kingdom was taken away by Jeroboam. God forbade Rehoboam to fight the usurper.

“Return every one to your own home, for it was from Me.”(1 Kings 12 24)

Didn't recognize the Lord. Reigned for seventeen years. He died a natural death.

Abia, son of Rehoboam. He followed in the footsteps of his father. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Asa, son of Abijah. He was a devoted servant of the Lord. Reigned for forty-one years. Asa, despite the fact that he faithfully served the Lord, had severe pain in his legs while moving in a wheelchair. And the Lord could not heal him. But, as a sign of encouragement, he allowed him to die his death.

Jehoshaphat, son of Asa. Worshiped our God. But he did not even try to eradicate the pagan rituals in which Jews participated, making sacrifices to foreign gods. Ruled for twenty-five years. The Lord treated him with coolness. He died a natural death.

Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat. He ruled at the same time as Joram, the king of Israel, and was friends with him. He was married to his sister, which had a bad influence on the king of Judah. And he began to do objectionable things. Ruled for eight years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Ahaziah son of Joram. Did the wrong thing. Only ruled for a year. He died in battle with the conspirator Jehu. At the same time, Joram, king of Israel, died.

Athaliah, the daughter of the Israeli king Omri, having learned about the death of her son Ahaziah, killed all the members in Judea royal family. Rules for six years. Served Baal. She died when the priest Jehoiada became the head of a popular revolt and restored the Davidic family to the throne.

Joash, the miraculously surviving son of Ahaziah. Sat on the throne at the age of seven. Maintained parity, was a servant of two masters. He respected the Lord God, but did not abolish either Baal or the gods of the heights. Reigned for forty years. Died as a result of a conspiracy.

Amaziah, son of Joash. He did what he wanted, but without much zeal. He was two-faced, like his father. He fought against Joash, king of Israel. And he was smashed on the head. Although that Joash persistently did what was displeasing to the Lord. It is not clear whose side the Lord was on; did He really help his enemy?

Amaziah reigned twenty-nine years. He was not encouraged, but he was not punished either. Died as a result of a conspiracy.

Azariah, son of Amaziah. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord. For this, the Lord struck the king, and he was a leper until the day of his death, and lived in a separate house. And Jophan his son ruled in his stead. Very instructive! He cursed his life, but died a natural death.

Jotham, son of Azariah (Uzziah). I did what I wanted, but the pagan heights and oak forests were not abolished. Ruled for sixteen years. He died a natural death.

Ahaz, son of Jotham. He went over to the side of Baal and betrayed the Lord. In the temple of the Lord he began to make sacrifices to the pagan gods. Ruled for sixteen years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Hezekiah, son of Ahaz. I did whatever I wanted. He abolished the heights, smashed the statues, cut down the oak grove. He was as close to the Lord as King David. The Lord saved him from the Assyrian army and killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand enemy soldiers with one left hand.

Reigned for twenty-nine years. He died a natural death.

Manasseh, son of Hezekiah. Did the wrong thing. He restored the heights and oak forests. And he built an altar to Baal and an image of Asherah in the temple of the Lord. Reigned for fifty years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Ammon, son of Manasseh. For two years I did the wrong thing. He died as a result of a conspiracy at the age of twenty-four, but left behind an eight-year-old son.

Josiah, son of Manasseh. From the age of eight I did whatever I wanted. He burned the statue of Astarte.

“And he destroyed the houses of fornication that were at the temple of the Lord, where the women wove garments for Ashtoreth. And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah and desecrated the high places. And he desecrated Taphet, so that no one would lead his son or his daughter through the fire to Moloch. And he abolished the horses that the kings of Judah had set before the sun before the entrance to the house of the Lord, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.”(2 Kings 23 7-11)

Reigned for thirty-one years. He died in battle at the hands of the Egyptians. Jehoahaz, son of Josiah. For three months I did something I didn’t want. For this, Pharaoh deposed him and imprisoned him.

Joachim (Eliakim), brother of Josiah. Placed on the throne by Pharaoh, who captured Judea and Jerusalem. Did the wrong thing. Reigned for eleven years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Jeconiah, son of Joachim. For three months I did the wrong thing. He was taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, along with many eminent citizens of Judah.

Zedekiah, brother of Joachim. Did the wrong thing. Reigned for eleven years. Betrayed his patron Nebuchadnezzar. Captured and blinded.

Kings of Israel Jeroboam, one of Solomon's close associates. Thanks to the help of the Lord (3 Kings 14:8), he tore away half of the kingdom. Proclaimed himself king of Israel. He insidiously turned away from Jehovah.

He set up two bulls and built temples for idols. Was punished by death little son, but reigned safely for twenty-two years and died a natural death.

Nebat, son of Jeroboam. In the eyes of the Lord he was no better than his father. Ruled for two years. He was overthrown by the conspirator Vaasa. The Bible does not say whether the Lord was part of the conspiracy.

Vaasa. He destroyed the entire family of Jeroboam, as the Lord intended. But he did not honor Jehovah, he did what was displeasing to Him. Despite this, he reigned for twenty-four years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Eli, son of Baasha. Reigned for two years. I treated the Lord very badly. Died as a result of a conspiracy.

Zamvriy. According to the word of the Lord, he destroyed the entire family of Baasha. But he treated me even worse. During the seven days of his reign, he managed to give a damn about God’s soul. He was defeated by his rival Omri. He burned down in the palace, which he himself set on fire.

Omri. Reigned for six years. “And Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him.”. (3 Kings 16.25) Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Ahab, son of Omri. “And Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord more than all that were before him.”. (1 Kings 16.30) Served Baal, the main opponent of the Lord. Ruled for twenty-two years. Was not punished. Died as a result of wounds received in battle. This arrow was not directed by the Lord.

Ahaziah, son of Ahab. Did the wrong thing. He served Baal, which angered the Lord. God tripped him up in the second year of his reign. He died as a result of an accident, falling into an open cellar.

Jehoram, son of Ahab. He did not draw the right conclusions from the tragic death of his brother. Did the wrong thing. Reigned for twelve years. He died in battle with the conspirator Jehu, at the same time as Ahaziah, the king of Judah.

Jehu. He killed seventy brothers of Joram, king of Israel, all the close associates of the house of Ahab and forty brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah (2 Kings 10. 11-14). Wanting to prove his devotion, he destroyed all the priests of Baal to the Lord and broke his statue.

The Lord praised Jehu and promised that his descendants would rule until the fourth generation (2 Kings 10.31) But, despite this, the new Israeli king did not want to do what was pleasing, he did something contrary to the Lord.

Reigned for twenty-eight years. Was not punished. He died a natural death. Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, did evil. The Lord sent enemy troops against him, but Jehoahaz stood firm. Reigned for seventeen years. Was not punished. Died a natural death

Joash, son of Jehoahaz. Did the wrong thing. He defeated Amaziah, who was pleasing to the Lord. Destroyed Jerusalem. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Jeroboam the Second, son of Joash. He did the wrong thing, but won the battles and restored the former borders of the kingdom of Israel. He recaptured territories seized under his predecessors. Reigned for forty-one years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Zechariah, son of Jeroboam. I did the wrong thing for six months. Died as a result of a conspiracy.

Celum, the conspirator. He remained on the throne for only one month, so he did not have time to annoy the Lord. Fell victim to a conspiracy.

Menaim, killer of pregnant women. (2 Kings 15. 16) He robbed all the Israelites. Did the wrong thing. Ruled for ten years. Was not punished. He died a natural death.

Phakiah, son of Menaim. For two years I did the wrong thing. Died as a result of a conspiracy.

Fakey. Did the wrong thing. Reigned for twenty years. Was not punished.

Died as a result of a conspiracy.

Hosea. Did the wrong thing. Ruled for nine years. Moved to Assyria.

Imprisoned. Further fate is unknown.

This entire list of kings, indicating the degree of their loyalty to the Lord, convincingly proves that God is not able to punish anyone. Completely helpless. He has no strength in His members.

He has no thunder, no lightning, no plagues, no scratches. Not a single king received what he deserved and ate the flesh of his children. All God's curses are not worth a damn, not worth the paper they are printed on.

The Bible explains the military failures and life troubles of the kings of Judah and Israel by the fact that they turned away from the Lord, and successes and victories, naturally, by their devotion to Him.

But I am sure that before the decisive battles, which ended in victories or defeats, all the kings, without exception, remembered the Lord, everyone prayed with equal zeal

His to grant them victory. They brought numerous sacrifices to Him, but the outcome of these battles, unfortunately, did not depend on the Lord.

The Bible itself, without wanting it, admits that the righteous were sometimes very unlucky, and the apostates were sometimes successful in battles, ruled long and happily, and died in their beds.

Joash, king of Israel, who did “what was evil in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 13:11), utterly defeated Amaziah, king of Judah, who “did what was right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 14:2-13)

So whose side was the Lord on?

Manasseh, who reigned fifty years and did “such abominations are worse than all that the Amorites did who were before him, and he caused Judah to sin with his idols, and shed a great deal of innocent blood, so that he filled Jerusalem with it from one end to the other” (2 Kings 21:11- 16) lived happily, without wars.

At the same time, such a favorite of the Lord, such a faithful servant as King Josiah, “Who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, who walked in all things in the way of David, who turned unto the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses,”- died a violent death, having been defeated by the Egyptian pharaoh. And the Lord did not protect him. (2 Kings 23)

Moreover, it is clearly said that the Lord punished Josiah for the sins of Manasseh (2 Kings 23-26)

As you have already noticed, God's actions are divinely inconsistent.

The Bible attributes numerous attacks on the Israelites and Jews by kings from neighboring states to the Will of the Lord.

In my opinion, this is slander, for which the writers should be resurrected and roughly punished. The Lord could not do such nasty things to his people. And how could He? These kings had their own gods who patronized them and directed their actions.

Before setting out on a military campaign, these kings certainly had to turn to their gods for a blessing. Numerous sacrifices were made, including human ones. Did Moloch, Ashtoreth, Baal, Chemosh really consult with Jehovah and ask for his help? Did they really share with him the sacrifices they made to him?

If we assume that this was in reality, that the Lord protected the enemies, then the numerous defeats of the Jews are quite understandable. How could they succeed against foreign armies if their own God, chosen by them, fought on the side of the enemy!

Let's step back for a moment. Imagine that you are at odds with your growing sons. They often do not listen to you, do not stand at attention in front of you, and do not bring you gifts.

Moreover, the eccentric neighbor whom you don’t value at all is for them the first authority, almost a god. You have repeatedly tried to reason with them, repeatedly taught them both with words and with a belt, although this is not humane. Did not help. What's the solution?

There is only one way out. You should persuade the neighboring boys to beat your sons more often. Moreover, give them batons and self-propelled guns.

But neither the beatings nor the wounds corrected the character of your foolish sons. Then you sent stronger guys against them, who mutilated them and killed them.

Do not Cry! You have fulfilled your parental duty perfectly! Don't feel remorse! God bless you! Because He does the same thing.

Here are a few quotes from the Bible for you to choose from.

“And the Lord raised up an adversary against Solomon Ader the Edomite, from the royal family of Edomite” (1 Kings 11:14)

“And God raised up another enemy against Solomon, Razon, the rank of Eliada” (1 Kings 11.23)

“In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of the Israelites, and Isael smote them throughout all the borders of Israel” (2 Kings 10:32)

“And the wrath of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hand of Benhadad the son of Hazael all their days.” (2 Kings 13 3)

“In these days the Lord began to send Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah to Judah.” (2 Kings 15.37)

“And the Lord turned away from all the descendants of Israel and humbled them, and gave them into the hands of robbers, and finally cast them out from before Him” (2 Kings 17:20)

“And just as at the beginning of their residence there they did not honor the Lord, so the Lord sent lions against them, which killed them.” (2 Kings 17.25)

“And the king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria because they did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and transgressed their covenant: everything that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded, they neither listened nor did.” (2 Kings 18. 11-12)

“Have you not heard that I did this long ago, ordained it in ancient days, and now I have fulfilled it by laying waste to fortified cities, turning them into heaps of ruins?” (2 Kings 19.25)

“For this reason,” says the Lord God of Israel, “behold, I will bring such evil upon Jerusalem and upon Judah, of which whoever hearswill ring in both ears that one. And I will stretch out to Jerusalem the measuring branch of Samaria, the plumb line of the house of Ahab.And I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a cup; when you wipe it, it will overturn. And I will reject the remnant of My inheritance, and will give them into the hand of their enemies, and they will be spoiled and plundered by all their enemies, because they have done evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger.” (2 Kings 21. 12-15)

“And the Lord sent against him the hordes of the Chaldeans, and the hordes of the Syrians, and the hordes of the Moabites, and the hordes of the Ammonites; he sent them against Judah, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servants the prophets.” (2 Kings 24 2)

So the Lord, for thirty centuries, tormented and killed His people, with divine patience trying to arouse in the Jews ardent love for Him. And He achieved his goal.

True, He had to wait three thousand years. But the result exceeded all expectations. They loved him with all their hearts, sparing neither alms for him, nor even the foreskin of their sons.

Shusakim, king of Egypt, in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, took all the treasures from the temple of the Lord. Most likely, he also took the ark covered with gold. And he threw the tablets away somewhere along the way. (1 Kings 14 26)

Twenty years after this, King Asa gave all the treasures to Benadir, king of Syria. (3 Kings 15.18).

Joash, king of Judah, was pleasing to the Lord. But he was forced to humble himself before Hazael, king of Syria, and give up all the gold from the state and temple treasuries. The Bible claims that Hazael was sent by the Lord himself, which is not entirely clear.

Moreover, it is even more incomprehensible why the Lord allowed Hazael to take away the treasures that belonged to Him? Was he really so weak that he resignedly allowed himself to be robbed by a filthy pagan?

But sometimes the Lord, gathering his last strength, fought on our side. Because the Syrians offended Him, He, with the help of the Israelites, killed one hundred thousand Syrians.

“The rest fled to the city of Aphek; there the wall fell on the remaining twenty-seven thousand people. And Benhadad went into the city and ran from one inner room to another."(1 Kings 20. 30)

Why was he running? Obviously, he was afraid that the wall of the room would also fall on him. So, Ahab with seven thousand soldiers, one Lord and one wall defeated the enemy forces twenty times greater.

What kind of wall is this huge that buried twenty-seven thousand idiots who for some reason huddled under it? I think that if the Great Wall of China collapsed one day, there would be much fewer casualties.

The Holy Bible fills us with similar and even more truthful descriptions of battles and other events. And we sacredly believe all this nonsense.

So how far have we gone in our development from the Papuans and pygmies? I think that they too would doubt: were there really 27,000 people crushed there, or just 26,999?

During the reign of the Israeli king Ahab, the name of the great prophet Elijah became widely known. The Lord placed him in opposition to the king, a sinner such as the world has never seen.

The evangelists copied the image of John the Baptist from the prophet Elijah. The Prophet wore sackcloth, was an ascetic and ate locusts, which crows brought to him in their beaks.

Then the Lord gave Elijah to the house of a certain widow, to be taken care of. At this point the prophet had already eaten his fill and become uneasy. The widow pleased him in every possible way, and for this the Lord replenished the refrigerator with food from the bottomless heavenly pantries.

Elijah, with the help of the Lord, saved the dying son of a widow. And his fame spread even wider.

The man of God, having left the widow, began to wander through cities and villages, reproaching Ahab for his sins and crimes. Ahab finally got tired of this, and he announced an Israeli search for the troublemaker.

But Elijah himself went to meet the king.

“When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Are you the one who troubles Israel?” And Elijah said, “It is not I who trouble Israel, but you and your father’s house, because you have despised the commandments of the Lord.”(3 Kings 18. 17-18)

And one troublemaker ordered another troublemaker to gather on a hill four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and four hundred prophets of the oak forests.

If you decided that Ahab was the one who ordered, then you are mistaken. In those blessed times, poor prophets gave orders to kings. And the kings took their pride and unquestioningly carried out any orders, even such stupid ones.

But here's the mystery. How could oppositionist Elijah know about the exact number of prophets of the ruling coalition? Obviously, the crows not only fed him, but also carried out reconnaissance work.

But look at these interesting statistics! The Lord of hosts had only one under his command - a single prophet! And Baal, who did not look at all next to the Lord, had a retinue of five hundred prophets!

From this we can conclude how many Jews in those days worshiped the Lord, and how many deviated from Him.

Among the several hundred prophets of Baal, I am sure there were several no less great than Elijah. But the Lord was now in charge.

Numerous foreign prophets huddled together and patiently waited for what would happen next. King Ahab and his entourage sat in the royal box and watched the action with interest.

Crowds of people, notified by heralds of the upcoming dispute, flocked to the mountain from nearby valleys.

“And Elijah said to the people: I am the only prophet of the Lord left, and the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. Let them give us two bulls, and let them choose one bull and cut it up and put it on the firewood, but let them not add fire. And I will prepare another calf and put it on the wood, but I will not add fire. And you call on your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord my God. The God who gives the answer through fire is God. And all the people answered and said, “It’s good.”(3 Kings 18.22-24)

The false prophets jointly cut up the calf and placed it on their altar. And they began to dance, make faces and stab themselves with knives, calling on Baal to send fire from heaven. Blood flowed in streams. This was a performance.

The crowd cheered and applauded. And although these unfortunates danced with fire, Baal did not give them fire. During yesterday's thunderstorm, he used up his entire supply of lightning, and Hephaestus has not yet forged any new ones.

Because he was fulfilling a big order for the Lord of Hosts.

The great shaman Elijah made fun of his enemy’s antics.

Then our righteous man butchered the second calf with his own hands, placed the carcass on the restored altar of the Lord, and for greater effect, poured water on the calf from four buckets. And also peed on him.

And he prayed fervently to the Lord God. Moreover, without any dancing and without bloodshed. Nothing happened. The people became uninterested and began to disperse.

But here, oh, miracle! The fire of the Lord came down and consumed everything: the calf, the water, the stones, and the dust. The remaining people were amazed that the Lord had eaten the meat with stones. And everyone was seized with panic.

“Seeing this, all the people fell on their faces and said: The Lord is God! The Lord is God! And Elijah said to them: Seize the prophets of Baal, so that not one of them hides! And they seized them, and Elijah took them to the brook Kishon, and slaughtered them there.”(3 Kings 18.40)

Four hundred and fifty of God's prophets knelt in a row along the stream and, bowing their heads, waited for Elijah to come and slaughter them.

It wasn't that fast or that easy. Twice Ilya went on a break to replenish his strength and sharpen his dagger better. Then he once again walked along the lying line to make sure whether the prophets were breathing or had already retreated to Baal. Those who did not rush to Baal, Ilya shot with a control shot in the back of the head.

What happened to the remaining four hundred prophets is not stated in the Bible. One cannot demand much from a venerable old man. I think that Ilya, having slept with this thought, stabbed them to death on the second day.

So, immediately, with one hand and one dagger, the balance between the Gods was restored. Baal did not have a single prophet left, but the Lord had only Elijah, who was worth hundreds of prophets.

“Meanwhile, the sky became gloomy with clouds and wind, and heavy rain began to fall. Ahab got into his chariot and rode to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah. He girded his loins and fled before Ahab as far as Jezreel."(3 Judges 18.45-46)

Large-scale biblical paintings, such as the mass execution on the banks of the Kishon, are stunning in their realism. You can't help but trust them! But small details, let's say, are alarming. It’s somehow not respectable for a prophet of such stature to run ahead of the chariot, his heels sparkling. After all, he is not a hare, but a man of God!

Ahab had an evil wife named Jezebel. And she swore that she would destroy Elijah just as he destroyed her parasites - the prophets. The Lord not only saved Elijah, but also instructed him to anoint Hazael to the Syrian throne, and the conspirator Jehu to the Israeli throne. It is fortunate that the prophets always have a jug of oil at hand, and in their bosom - God's Certificate of Anointing.

“And anoint Elisha the son of Shebat as prophet in your place.”(3 Judges 19:16).

Here we are faced with a unique, only case in world history, when they were anointed not only for the kingdom, but also for prophecy! The Bible is full of such profanities.

Elisha immediately looked up from the plow, killed his oxen, and began to prophesy with inspiration. It is interesting that in the Bible almost all the prophets and apostles are dark, simple, illiterate people, from the earth, from the flock, from the net.

And what’s even more interesting is what they teach, foretell, and prophesy. And there was no one to tell them: “Ilyusha, don’t teach us how to live! Better help financially. After all, you are with the Lord through your buddies!”

It should be noted that this fact, unknown to the general public, is that the Lord our God, in these very poor years for true believers, became the God of not only people, but also animals and wild beasts.

These creatures of God prayed to Him and obeyed Him without question. And they ate sinners according to His command. Dogs, for example, devoured the evil Jezebel.

The animals, despite their peaceful nature, carried out the most cruel orders of the bloodthirsty Lord.

One day His favorite, the prophet Elisha, passed near a certain city. Local kids laughed at his bald head and shouted to him: “bald, bald!” The Lord, also the owner of considerable baldness, considered himself insulted. And then he sent two bears out of the forest. And they immediately restored order, tearing to pieces forty-two children. (2 Kings 2.24).

This is how infinitely merciful our Lord is! He is especially merciful to children. Well, he simply cannot look at these angels indifferently!

Did all forty-two kids really scream with one voice? Perhaps among these street people there were also several good, homely children, whom their parents taught that they should not laugh at poor prophets?

But she-bears don’t know where the bad ones are and where the good ones are. They, in terms of mental development, cannot be equal to God. They were ordered to tear to pieces and eat! And that’s right, what’s there to understand! Children, whether evil or good, taste the same.

It is significant that the Lord sent not bears, but she-bears. Because He tested them. These mother bears, of course, had their own cubs.

And it wasn’t at all easy for them to kill other people’s children. But boundless faith in the Lord helped them overcome natural maternal instincts with honor.

And this is not surprising. We observe such boundless, sacrificial faith among people.

If this bear god had not been satisfied with one bloody orgy, but had continued to exterminate children only because they allowed themselves to laugh at the old people, then soon there would not be a single child left in the whole earth.

Obviously, the old Lord had serious fears that even small children would soon laugh at him.

Some modern clergy are trying to attract as many parishioners as possible, mainly young people, to churches. And they organize noisy concerts of modern music there, disturbing the sacred peace of the Lord.

In ancient Bible times, God's servants also did their best to increase attendance. Considering that many women sought to devote themselves to the service of God or Goddess, it would be a sin not to take advantage of this.

Under many of the kings of Judah and Israel, the temples resembled communal apartments.

Several pagan Gods lived here and made peace with each other, including the God of Hosts, who differed from them only in that he was not represented by a statue or idol.

Therefore, many parishioners considered Him to be a god of the second category, the god of heights and valleys. To which He was greatly offended.

Entering such a public temple, a parishioner could see many priestesses of Astarte, who, with modestly downcast eyes, pretended to weave a veil for the Goddess.

But as soon as you beckoned one of them with your finger, it immediately broke away from this boring work and tried with all her might to prove that she mastered not only this, but also an even more ancient craft. She did this with special diligence, pleasing not so much the parishioner as her great Goddess.

And although there were no tariffs for these divine services, the priests were sure that the guest would definitely put more than one mite into the temple donation box.

The Lord of Hosts was deeply disgusted by these innocent amusements. But what could He do if He lived in a commune not only with Astarte, but also with Moloch, Baal, Chemosh and a dozen other small gods?

It was still possible to put up with the beauties of Astarte; their antics even distracted Him from worldly concerns. But how could one put up with the fact that human sacrifices were offered to Molech on the altar right there, in front of the temple?

Moreover, His relatives also brought them. Who rightly believed that they had the right to sacrifice one of their many descendants for the benefit of the rest.

The Lord ground his teeth (the sounds were like thunder), but endured. We had to put up with it because He was in the minority. Moreover, some things fell to Him from the unfaithful sinners.

The Lord of Hosts showed his complete failure as a God and as a politician. Could not agree with other gods on the division of spheres of influence.

He could not drive his slaves away from other people's altars. Could not destroy idols and heights. His curses are empty words. Not a single pillar, not a single height, was destroyed.

Chapter 14. The Gospel of Thomas

“Man has no power over the spirit to hold the spirit,
and he has no power over the day of death, no deliverance
in this conflict, and the wickedness of the wicked will not save.”
(Ec. 8:8)

The four books of the New Testament, the four Gospels, bring us the good news about the birth, ascetic life, tragic death, resurrection and ascension into heaven of Jesus, called Christ, that is, Messiah, Savior.

About the many miracles He performed and about the teachings He preached.

Millions of people believe in Him and worship Him as God. Millions of people do not believe in Him and worship Moses, Mohammed, Buddha and other great prophets.

Most atheists claim that a person named Jesus Christ never existed, the legends about Him are fiction.

There is no mention of Him, they claim, in the ancient Jewish and Roman chronicles. I would like to remind you that in those days the territory of Palestine was part of the Roman Empire.

According to various sources, including Jewish Encyclopedia Brockhaus and Efron (EEBE), kingdom of israel was founded in the ninth century BC by the prophet Samuel. The name of this man (transc. Hebrew Shmuel) means “heard by the Almighty.” He was considered the last and famous judge of Israel. Samuel lived in hard time, when the Jewish people had a period of inter-tribal violence and conflicts with other ethnic groups. During the era of the Judges of Israel, the descendants of Joakov split into a dozen tribes based on blood kinship, which was accompanied by acts of mutual attacks and destruction of representatives of one or another “tribe.” For example, the massacre of the tribe of Ephim and the tribe of Benjamin resulted in the death of more than 90,000 Israelites. The tribes led a nomadic and partially sedentary lifestyle and had judges as their leaders, who could be prophets (the first ruler of the Kingdom of Israel, Samuel) and even ladies (Deborah).

The Age of the Judges of Israel

The power of the judges was primarily based on moral authority and had no executive branch, no regular army, and no general taxation. The founder and first ruler of the Kingdom of Israel, Samuel, who became a reformer for his people, tried to correct these “shortcomings.” Attacked by the Philistines and defeated by them (the Philistines took the Israelite tribes as a trophy, they were united by Samuel and called to repentance in Mizp. Here the prophet managed to raise the spirit of his people so much that the people were able to throw off the yoke of the Philistines and get back their shrine (according to legend, the taken Ark brought so much misfortune to the new owners that they chose to return it back).

The people asked the prophet for a king

The formation of the Israeli kingdom under the leadership of Samuel was accompanied by the creation of prophetic schools, through which patriotism and public education spread. The prophet was a ruler until his old age and significantly improved the situation of his subjects, but his sons Abij and Joel turned out to be bribe-takers, so the Israelites asked to install a king “from among the people” over them. Samuel, having warned those asking about the possibility of despotism, chose for them the son of Kish, Saul, as king.

The first king of Israel was head and shoulders above the rest of the people

Saul, officially the first ruler of the kingdom of Israel after the prophet himself, according to the Bible, was very tall, handsome, courageous and brave in battle. Even after his anointing to the kingdom, he remained easy to handle, although he came from a wealthy family that lived in modern Tol-el-fur. According to legend, the Lord himself announced to Samuel that at a certain time he would meet a young man from the tribe of Benjamin (by the way, the smallest), who would become the king of Israel. After the appointment, the prophet warned the Israelites that if they did not resist the will of the Almighty, then the Almighty would not be against them and against their king, wrote the royal duties and placed them in the camp temple, the tabernacle.

How the king quarreled with the prophet

The first ruler of the kingdom of Israel, Saul, remained in office for about 20 years. He created a regular army of 3,000 people, successfully fought against the Philistines (one of the battles of this period is famous for the confrontation between Goliath and David), and was initially a very religious person (he wanted to execute his own son for breaking his fast once). However, before the battle in Gilgal, he personally made sacrifices, without waiting for Samuel (such actions were the duties of the prophet himself), and then refused to carry out Samuel’s order to completely destroy the Amalekites. The angry prophet announced the deprivation of Saul's royal title and the possible death of all his descendants. The king, deprived of the support of the prophet, lost heart, an evil spirit possessed him, and he lost interest in autocratic activities.

The prophet's choice fell on a blond young man

Samuel, heeding the voice of the Most High, went to Bethlehem, where he chose and anointed David from the tribe of Judah as king. It is interesting that, according to historical data, David did not have a Middle Eastern appearance. He had a pleasant face, handsome eyes and had blond hair, which was not usually typical for the inhabitants of this region. In addition, he was distinguished by physical strength (he defeated a bear and a lion) and meekness. And he sang and played the harp so well that the official King Saul lost his depressive mood to the sounds of his music.

Before the wedding of David and Saul's daughter, many Philistines were killed

After David's victory and his musical successes at the royal court, Saul made him his son-in-law, marrying his youngest daughter to him. At the same time, David exceeded the royal condition for the wedding - he took the lives of not one hundred, but two hundred Philistines with the help of troops in the next battle. David's popularity irritated the suspicious king, and he tried to kill him, after which the young man went to the prophet, who then lived in Rama. Saul pursued his son-in-law everywhere, killed almost all the priests who helped him escape, and gave his wife to another man as his wife. In this process, David did not reciprocate his feelings and many times spared Saul at moments when he could have killed him. King Saul committed suicide when, in another battle with the Philistines, he was surrounded and lost three sons. Before this, he turned to the famous sorceress of Endor to find out his fate. And, as expected, for this conversion he was left by the mercy of the Almighty.

David and his son Solomon brought prosperity to Israel

David, fleeing the persecution of Saul, went over to the Philistines, who later defeated Saul. In the resulting power vacuum, David came with his followers to the city of Hebron, where the Jews proclaimed him king. This is how two kingdoms were formed - Israel and Judah. The first was headed by Jephostheus (son of Saul), the second by David. These two states fought among themselves for about two years (Jephostheus ruled for so long), after which the victorious David was elected ruler of all Israel at the request of the Israeli elders. Subsequently, he conquered Jerusalem, Moab, some territories of Syria and the shores of the Euphrates, etc., subordinated spiritual power to secular power, placed the Ark of the Covenant on the surface and composed psalms. In old age, he transferred power to his son Solomon, born from a relationship with Bathsheba, who was the wife of another man.

Historians believe that the rulers of Judah, David and his son Solomon, brought a “golden age” to the people of Israel. The son of David managed to develop the domestic and foreign policy achievements of his father. According to religious sources, he received a prosperous reign, great wisdom and patience for not deviating from serving the Almighty. Under Solomon, united Israel and Judah were built; they were not in poverty due to the trade route from Damascus to Egypt, wars with the Egyptians stopped, since the daughter of Pharaoh became the first royal wife. The annual income of the kingdom under Solomon was estimated at more than 600 talents of gold (a talent is about 26 liters). But by the end of the reign, the state treasury was empty due to large expenses for the temple and palace, which led to the need to increase taxes, against which the subordinate tribes rebelled. The single state again split into Judea and Israel.

Why did the Kingdom of Judah last longer than the Kingdom of Israel?

Who was the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel? This territory was larger than the separated Judean south; up to two-thirds of the entire population of the former unified state lived here, and the most fertile lands were located here. But in the south, among the Jews, Jerusalem remained with the main temple and national shrines. Therefore, the Jewish formation lasted longer, despite the worse economic situation. While the Northern Kingdom of Israel, led in the early years of its existence by Jeroboam, was on the political map of that time for about 250 years, where the Age of Kings was established for this period. The kings of Israel from Jeroboam to Hosea retreated, as a rule, from serving the One God of Israel, erected a number of temples with or worshiped the deities of the Phoenician cult. The country suffered greatly from many coups d'etat and was conquered in 722 by Sargon the Second, king of Assyria.