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Israel and Judah

Middle East & Central AsiaHeartland today: Israel

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Two neighbouring kingdoms of the southern Levant: Israel in the north, with its capital at Samaria, and Judah in the south, around Jerusalem. Assyria ended Israel around 722 BCE and Babylon ended Judah in 587 or 586 BCE. The Bible's account and the archaeology differ on their early years.

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Key events

  1. Pharaoh Merneptah's victory stele names a people called Israel in Canaan, the earliest known mention

    The sign after the name marks a people, not a city or state, and most scholars place this Israel among the people of Canaan's hill country. It is about 350 years before Israel's king Ahab appears in Assyrian records (853 BCE).

  2. In the Bible's account, the kingdom of David and Solomon splits into Israel in the north and Judah in the southDisputed

    Whether one kingdom existed before the split is debated. The earliest mention outside the Bible of a 'House of David' is the Tel Dan stele, from the 9th century BCE.

  3. Omri makes Samaria the capital of Israel; Assyrian records call the kingdom the House of OmriDisputed

    Omri's reign is dated 884–873 BCE by Livius and about 876–869 BCE by other chronologies, so founding Samaria in his sixth year falls between about 879 and 871 BCE. The year here is a middle estimate.

  4. Ahab of Israel joins a coalition against Shalmaneser III of Assyria at Qarqar; only Assyrian records mention itDisputed

    The Kurkh Monolith credits Ahab with 2,000 chariots and 10,000 soldiers; some scholars think the chariot figure is too high. The date, 853 BCE, comes from Shalmaneser III's sixth regnal year. The Hebrew Bible does not mention the battle.

  5. Assyria takes Samaria and ends the kingdom of Israel; many of its people are deportedDisputed

    Sources date the fall between about 724 and 720 BCE (Livius c. 724, the World History Encyclopedia 722, Wikipedia c. 720). Scholars estimate that far fewer people were resettled than Assyrian records claim.

  6. Sennacherib of Assyria takes Lachish and besieges Jerusalem under Hezekiah, but does not take the city
  7. Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon destroys Jerusalem and its Temple, ending the kingdom of JudahDisputed

    Historians put the fall of Jerusalem in 587 or 586 BCE, depending on how they count the years of King Zedekiah's reign.