The Kingdom of Judah was an Iron Age kingdom of the Southern Levant. The Hebrew Bible depicts
it as the successor to the United Monarchy, a term denoting the Kingdom of Israel under
biblical kings Saul, David and Solomon and covering the territory of two historical kingdoms,
Judah and Israel. However, some scholars, including Israel Finkelstein and Alexander
Fantalkin, believe that the existent archaeological evidence for an extensive Kingdom of Judah
before the late 8th century BCE is too weak and that the methodology used to obtain the
evidence is flawed. The Tel Dan Stele shows that the kingdom, in some semblance, existed
by at least the mid-9th century BCE, but it does little to show to what extent.
In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE, the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely
populated, limited to small rural settlements, most of them unfortified. Jerusalem, the kingdom's
capital, likely did not emerge as a significant administrative centre until the end of the
8th century BCE. Before then, the archaeological evidence suggests its population was too small
to sustain a viable kingdom. In the 7th century BCE its population increased greatly, prospering
under Assyrian vassalage , but in 605 BCE the Assyrian Empire was defeated, and the
ensuing competition between the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire
for control of the Eastern Mediterranean led to the destruction of the kingdom in a series
of campaigns between 597 and 582 BCE, the deportation of the elite of the community,
and the incorporation of Judah into a province of the Neo-Babylonian Empire.
Archaeological record According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom
of Judah resulted from the break-up of the United Kingdom of Israel after the northern
tribes refused to accept Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, as their king. At first, only
the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David, but the tribe of Benjamin soon joined
Judah. Both kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, co-existed uneasily after
the split until the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by Assyria in c. 722/721.
The major theme of the Hebrew Bible's narrative is the loyalty of Judah, especially its kings,
to Yahweh, which it states is the God of Israel. Accordingly, all of the kings of Israel and
many of the kings of Judah were "bad" in terms of the biblical narrative by failing to enforce
monotheism. Of the "good" kings, Hezekiah is noted for his efforts at stamping out idolatry
, but his successors, Manasseh of Judah and Amon , revived idolatry, which drew down on
the kingdom the anger of Yahweh. King Josiah returned to the worship of Yahweh alone, but
his efforts were too late, and Israel's unfaithfulness caused God to permit the kingdom's destruction
by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the Siege of Jerusalem .
However, it is now fairly well established among academic scholars that the Books of
Kings is not an accurate reflection of religious views in Judah or particularly Israel of the
period.
Relations with Northern Kingdom For the first 60 years, the kings of Judah
tried to re-establish their authority over the northern kingdom, and there was perpetual
war between them. Israel and Judah were in a state of war throughout Rehoboam's 17-year
reign. Rehoboam built elaborate defenses and strongholds, along with fortified cities.
In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Shishak, pharaoh of Egypt, brought a huge army and
took many cities. In the sack of Jerusalem , Rehoboam gave them all of the treasures
out of the temple as a tribute and Judah became a vassal state of Egypt.
Rehoboam's son and successor, Abijah of Judah, continued his father's efforts to bring Israel
under his control. He fought the Battle of Mount Zemaraim against Jeroboam of Israel
and was victorious with a heavy loss of life on the Israel side. According to the Books
of Chronicles, Abijah and his people defeated them with a great slaughter, so that 500,000
chosen men of Israel fell slain, and Jeroboam posed little threat to Judah for the rest
of his reign, and the border of the tribe of Benjamin was restored to the original tribal
border.
Abijah's son and successor, Asa of Judah, maintained peace for the first 35 years of
his reign, and he revamped and reinforced the fortresses originally built by his grandfather,
Rehoboam. 2 Chronicles states that at the Battle of Zephath, the Egyptian-backed chieftain
Zerah the Ethiopian and his million men and 300 chariots were defeated by Asa's 580,000
men in the Valley of Zephath near Maresha. The Bible does not state whether Zerah was
a pharaoh or a general of the army. The Ethiopians were pursued all the way to Gerar, in the
coastal plain, where they stopped out of sheer exhaustion. The resulting peace kept Judah
free from Egyptian incursions until the time of Josiah, some centuries later.
In his 36th year, Asa was confronted by Baasha of Israel, who built a fortress at Ramah on
the border, less than ten miles from Jerusalem. The capital became under pressure, and the
military situation was precarious. Asa took gold and silver from the Temple and sent them
to Ben-Hadad I, the king of Aram-Damascus, in exchange for the Damascene king cancelling
his peace treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad attacked Ijon, Dan and many important cities of the
tribe of Naphtali, and Baasha was forced to withdraw from Ramah. Asa tore down the unfinished
fortress and used its raw materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah in Benjamin on his side of
the border.
Asa's successor, Jehoshaphat, changed the policy towards Israel and instead pursued
alliances and co-operation with the northern kingdom. The alliance with Ahab was based
on marriage. The alliance led to disaster for the kingdom with the Battle of Ramoth-Gilead.
He then entered into an alliance with Ahaziah of Israel for the purpose of carrying on maritime
commerce with Ophir. However, the fleet that was then equipped at Ezion-Geber was immediately
wrecked. A new fleet was fitted out without the co-operation of the king of Israel. Although
it was successful, the trade was not prosecuted. He joined Jehoram of Israel in a war against
the Moabites, who were under tribute to Israel. This war was successful, and the Moabites
were subdued. However, on seeing Mesha's act of offering his own son in a human sacrifice
on the walls of Kir-haresheth filled Jehoshaphat with horror, and he withdrew and returned
to his own land.
Jehoshaphat's successor, Jehoram of Judah, formed an alliance with Israel by marrying
Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab. Despite the alliance with the stronger northern kingdom,
Jehoram's rule of Judah was shaky. Edom revolted, and he was forced to acknowledge its independence.
A raid by Philistines, Arabs and Ethiopians looted the king's house and carried off all
of his family except for his youngest son, Ahaziah of Judah.
Clash of empires After Hezekiah became the sole ruler in c.
715 BCE, he formed alliances with Ashkelon and Egypt and made a stand against Assyria
by refusing to pay tribute. In response, Sennacherib of Assyria attacked the fortified cities of
Judah. Hezekiah paid three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold to Assyria,
which required him to empty the temple and royal treasury of silver and strip the gold
from the doorposts of Solomon's Temple. However, Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem in 701 BCE
though the city was never taken.
During the long reign of Manasseh , Judah was a vassal of Assyrian rulers: Sennacherib
and his successors, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal after 669 BCE. Manasseh is listed as being
required to provide materials for Esarhaddon's building projects and as one of a number of
vassals who assisted Ashurbanipal's campaign against Egypt.
When Josiah became king of Judah in c. 641/640 BCE, the international situation was in flux.
To the east, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was beginning to disintegrate, the Neo-Babylonian Empire
had not yet risen to replace it and Egypt to the west was still recovering from Assyrian
rule. In the power vacuum, Judah could govern itself for the time being without foreign
intervention. However, in the spring of 609 BCE, Pharaoh Necho II personally led a sizable
army up to the Euphrates to aid the Assyrians. Taking the coastal route into Syria at the
head of a large army, Necho passed the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon. However, the
passage over the ridge of hills, which shuts in on the south the great Jezreel Valley,
was blocked by the Judean army, led by Josiah, who may have considered that the Assyrians
and the Egyptians were weakened by the death of Pharaoh Psamtik I only a year earlier . Presumably
in an attempt to help the Babylonians, Josiah attempted to block the advance at Megiddo,
where a fierce battle was fought and Josiah was killed. Necho then joined forces with
the Assyrian Ashur-uballit II, and they crossed the Euphrates and lay siege to Harran. The
combined forces failed to capture the city, and Necho retreated back to northern Syria.
The event also marked the disintegration of the Assyrian Empire.
On his return march to Egypt in 608 BCE, Necho found that Jehoahaz had been selected to succeed
his father, Josiah. Necho deposed Jehoahaz, who had been king for only three months, and
replaced him with his older brother, Jehoiakim. Necho imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred
talents of silver and a talent of gold ). Necho then took Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner,
never to return.
Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians by paying a heavy tribute. However,
when the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim changed
allegiances to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon. In 601 BCE, in the fourth year
of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar attempted to invade Egypt but was repulsed with heavy losses.
The failure led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant that owed allegiance
to Babylon. Jehoiakim also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and took a pro-Egyptian
position. Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with the rebellions. According to the Babylonian Chronicles,
after invading "the land of Hatti " in 599 BCE, he laid siege to Jerusalem. Jehoiakim
died in 598 BCE during the siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight
or eighteen. The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar 597 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged
both Jerusalem and the Temple and carted all of his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his
court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish
population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from the land and dispersed
throughout the Babylonian Empire . Among them was Ezekiel. Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah,
Jehoiakim's brother, the king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon.
Destruction and dispersion Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah
and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar by ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered
an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra. In 589 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah and again
besieged Jerusalem. Many Jews fled to surrounding Moab, Ammon, Edom and other countries to seek
refuge. The city fell after a siege, which lasted either eighteen or thirty months, and
Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and then destroyed both. After
killing all of Zedekiah's sons, Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah to Babylon and so put an end
to the independent Kingdom of Judah. According to the Book of Jeremiah, in addition to those
killed during the siege, some 4,600 people were deported after the fall of Judah. By
586 BCE, much of Judah had been devastated, and the former kingdom had suffered a steep
decline of both its economy and its population.
Aftermath Babylonian Yehud
Jerusalem apparently remained uninhabited for much of the 6th century, and the centre
of gravity shifted to Benjamin, the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom,
where the town of Mizpah became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud for
the remnant of the Jewish population in a part of the former kingdom. That was standard
Babylonian practice. When the Philistine city of Ashkelon was conquered in 604 BCE, the
political, religious and economic elite was banished and the administrative centre shifted
to a new location.
Gedaliah was appointed governor of the Yehud province, supported by a Babylonian guard.
The administrative centre of the province was Mizpah in Benjamin, not Jerusalem. On
hearing of the appointment, many of the Judeans who had taken refuge in surrounding countries
were persuaded to return to Judah. However, Gedaliah was soon assassinated by a member
of the royal house, and the Chaldean soldiers killed. The population that was left in the
land and those who had returned fled to Egypt for fear a Babylonian reprisal, under the
leadership of Yohanan ben Kareah. They ignored the urging of the prophet Jeremiah against
the move. In Egypt, the refugees settled in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and Pathros, and Jeremiah
went with them as a moral guardian.
Exile of elites to Babylon The numbers that were deported to Babylon
and that made their way to Egypt and the remnant that remained in the land and in surrounding
countries are subject to academic debate. The Book of Jeremiah reports that 4,600 were
exiled to Babylonia. The Books of Kings suggest that it was 10,000 and later 8,000.
Yehud under Persian rule In 539 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire conquered
Babylonia and allowed the exiles to return to Yehud Medinata and to rebuild the Temple,
which was completed in the sixth year of Darius under Zerubbabel, the grandson of the second
to last king of Judah, Jeconiah. Yehud Medinata was a peaceful part of the Achaemenid Empire
until its fall in c. 333 BCE to Alexander the Great.