Old Testament Split Between Israel and Judah?

[PeteZaHut]

Am I right in saying that there was a split between Israel and Judah? I am reading through the Old Testament (slowly, I might say). I am in Isaiah right now and it’s hard to realize what the Jewish kingdom is composed of. I know they are all spread out at that point. But what happened with the split between Israel and Judah? Did God accept one over the other? did they reunite?

 

[Zenas]

Go back and read 1 Kings 12. Rehoboam was the son of Solomon and succeeded him as king. Aganist sound advice, he foolishly chose to tax the people heavily and to rule with an iron fist. When he chose this course, one of Solomon’s old enemies, Jeroboam, rose up and led most of the tribes to set up a new nation. Thus we had the southern kingdom of Judah, under Rehoboam, consisting of Judah and Benjamin. The king of Judah lived in Jerusalem. And we had the northern kingdom of Israel, under Jereboam, consisting of all the other tribes except Levi. It seems that Levites had no parcel of land so they were pretty much everywhere. As a general rule, Judah maintained better decorum and more favor with God than did Israel. Israel disappeared when it was overrun by the Assyrians, never to be a nation again. Judah remained another 100 or so years until it was overrun by Babylon and the people carried off into slavery. Some 70 years later, they returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the city and the temple.

If you’re reading Isaiah, keep in mind that he was a prophet in the Southern Kingdom, i.e., Judah.

 

[John7]

Also, the split was foretold by the LORD to Solomon. From 1 kings 11 (ESV)

9 Now the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD had commanded.
11 So the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and will give it to your servant.
12 "Nevertheless I will not do it in your days for the sake of your father David, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.
13 “However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen.”

Also the prophet Ahijah prophesied to Jeroboam the Ephraimite about the split in the days of Solomon in 1 Kings 11:31-39.

 

[NotWorthy]

Zenas, good points!

Yes, the ten northern tribes broke off and called themselves Israel (which is confusing because the 12 united tribes were also called Israel). The two southern tribes, Judah and Benjamin, united under the name Judah (or Judea in the time of Jesus). Judah was the largest tribe and Benjamin was the smallest, hence the name defaulted to Judah. This term, Judah, is where we get the term Jews.

The Assyrians did overrun the 10 northern tribes as Zenas mentioned. They then exported many of the Israelites to other territories that the Assyrians had previously conquered. This is called the Diaspora, or Dispersion. They brought in the tribes of 5 other conquered peoples to live in Israel. These tribes all inter-married and watered down the religion of the Israelites. The resulting region was re-named Samaria. The Samaritans still held to the Torah, but didn’t hold to any of the other Scriptures that their Brother Jews held.

 

[NotWorthy]

BTW, Zenas, the Levites had cities in each of the 12 tribal lands. After the split, the King of Israel, Rheoboam(?), had a problem with all his priests still traveling to Jerusalem for their priestly duties, so he set up two temples in Israel - Dan and Bethel, I think. He even constructed two golden idols and placed them at each temple. :bigyikes:

Also, while the northern kingdom had dynasties from various different families, the southern Kingdom of Judah held to one dynastic family - the descendants of David. Not all of them were good. Matter of fact, many of them were evil and fell away from God. I think one of them even resorted to child sacrifice!!!