In the
Old_Testament, the
Kingdom of Judah
(
Hebrew יהודה Yəhûdhāh, ''Y(e)huda'' "Praise") is the state formed from the territories of the tribes of
Judah,
Levi and
Benjamin after the
Kingdom_of_Israel was divided. It is often called the
Southern Kingdom to distinguish it from the
Northern Kingdom which as the
Kingdom_of_Israel after the split. Its capital was
Jerusalem. See
History_of_ancient_Israel_and_Judah.
This article is about what the
Bible says. For how this relates to history, see
The_Bible_and_history.
When the disruption took place at
Shechem, at first only the
tribe_of_Judah followed the house of David. But very soon after the
tribe_of_Benjamin joined the tribe of Judah, and
Jerusalem became the capital of the new kingdom (
Joshua 18:28), which was called the kingdom of Judah.
For the first sixty years the kings of Judah aimed at re-establishing their authority over the kingdom of the other ten tribes, so that there was a state of perpetual war between them. For the following eighty years there was no open war between them. For the most part they were in friendly alliance, co-operating against their common enemies, especially against
Damascus. For about another century and a half Judah had a somewhat checkered existence after the termination of the kingdom of Israel till its final overthrow in the destruction of the temple (
586_BC) by Nebuzar-adan, who was captain of
Nebuchadnezzar's body-guard (
2 Kings 25:8-21).
The kingdom maintained a separate existence for three hundred and eighty-nine years. It occupied an area of
8,900 km2 (3,435 square miles).
The kings of Judah
For this period, most historians follow either the chronology established by
William_F._Albright or
Edwin_R._Thiele, both of which are shown below. (Albright's dates are in
bold while Thiele's are in ''italics''.) All dates are BC/BCE.
:
922 ''
931'' -
915 ''
913''
Rehoboam
:
915 ''
913'' -
913 ''
911''
Abijam
:
913 ''
911'' -
873 ''
870''
Asa
:
873 ''
870'' -
849 ''
848''
Jehoshaphat
:
849 ''
848'' -
842 ''
841''
Jehoram
:
842 ''
841'' -
842 ''
841''
Ahaziah
:
842 ''
841'' -
837 ''
835''
Athaliah (Queen Mother, wife of Jehoram)
:
837 ''
835'' -
800 ''
796''
Jehoash (Joash, son of Ahaziah).
:
800 ''
796'' -
783 ''
767''
Amaziah
:
783 ''
767'' -
742 ''
740''
Uzziah
(
George_Syncellus wrote that the
First Olympiad took place in Uzziah's 48th regnal year.)
:
742 ''
740'' -
735 ''
732''
Jotham
:
735 ''
732'' -
715 ''
716''
Ahaz
The
Assyrian king
Tiglath-Pileser_III records he received tribute from Ahaz; compare 2 Kings 16:7-9.
:
715 ''
716'' -
687 ''
687''
Hezekiah
Hezekiah was contemporary with king mention a "King Sennacherib the Less" as well. Furthermore, there was another king named Merodakh Baladan ben Baladan, also known as Mardokempad. (
Ptolemy assumed, without any reason, that Mordac Empadus was contemporary with King Hezekiah.) These two Baladans remained pretenders during Sennacherib's reign, therefore it is not easy to identify their regnal years as Ptolemy attempted. According to Robert R. Newton (''The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy'', 1977), this ancient scholar frequently attributed some observations to certain years of some kings for the sake of simplicity in his tabulation, but those were not part of the original observations. Newton also asserts Ptolemy often arbitrarily fudged astronomical data in order to support his own theories.
:
687 ''
687'' -
642 ''
643''
Manasseh
:
642 ''
643'' -
640 ''
641''
Amon
:
640 ''
641'' -
609 ''
609''
Josiah
King Josiah died in battle against
Necho_II of
Egypt.
:
609 ''
609''
Jehoahaz
:
609 ''
609'' -
598 ''
598''
Jehoiakim
The
Battle_of_Carchemish occurred in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim (
Jeremiah 46:2).
:
598 ''
598''
Jehoiachin (Perhaps from March to May as
2 Chronicles 36:10 suggests.)
:
597 ''
597'' -
587 ''
586''
Zedekiah
Zedekiah rebelled twice: in the first rebellion (597 BC),
Nebuchadnezzar_II captured Jerusalem, and took most of its leaders into
exile. In the second rebellion (588 - 586 BC), Jerusalem was captured after a lengthy siege, the temple burnt, Zedekiah taken into exile and Judah was reduced to a province. Nebuchadnezzar had left
Gedaliah as his governor, who was killed in one last revolt, and the few members of the ruling classes left from the kingdom of Judah took the prophets
Jeremiah and
Baruch with them as they fled to sanctuary in Egypt.
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