The Divided Monarchy
861 words by ebonycook
Israel wanted a monarchy because Samuel had gotten old and his sons became judges over the people. But the Israelites did not approve of his sons’ ways. In the New King James Version of the Bible, the First Book of Samuel, Chapter 8, Verse 3 says “But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.” So, the Israelites wanted a king to judge them to be like all the other nations. Samuel warned the people of their request, telling them that a king will make their sons serve him, will set captains over them, make them work in the field for the king’s sake, make their daughters be his cooks and maidens, and take a tenth of their earnings for himself. David was not a great king because he slept with a married woman, Bathsheba, and got her pregnant; then he tried to get her husband, Uriah, to sleep with her to make it seem like the baby was not David’s. But Uriah is a soldier and he had to remain pure in battle, which included no sex, which David knew. So David had Uriah killed by putting him in the front lines of the battlefield. And David also let his kids get away with unpleasant behavior. His son, Amnon, raped his daughter Tamar and David did nothing about it. But he let his son Absalom kill Amnon. I would say that David did not set a good example for his people. The United Kingdom had split into the Divided Monarchy because after Saul’s death, David was anointed king of Judah. But Abner, a commander of Saul’s army, took Saul’s surviving son Ishbaal and made him king over Israel. So, the men of Israel battled against the servants of David and the monarchy was divided into the House of Saul and the House of David, but was further divided into Israel and Judah when David’s son Solomon would not take heed to the northern tribe’s complaints.
Saul was anointed king around 1020 according “Israel”, National Geographic at www.crystalinks.com. His successor David started the Divided Monarchy. David’s military campaigns conquered Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon and Aram. Also, David conquered Jerusalem from the Canaanites and it became the capital in place of Hebron. Solomon succeeded David to the throne around 965 BCE according to National Geographic. He had the 1st temple in Jerusalem built. Rehoboam succeeded Solomon and caused the kingdom to split because he would not ease the tension between the northern and southern tribes. The northern kingdom of Israel included Samaria and Shechem and the southern kingdom contained Jerusalem. In 922 BCE, Rehoboam became king of the northern tribe Judah, and Jeroboam led the revolt of the northern tribes establishing the Kingdom of Israel; this event was the start divided the Monarchy. Later, Israel fell to the Assyrians in 721 BCE. In 701 BCE, the Assyrian king campaigned Hezekiah of Judah, but Judah was spared. Judah finally fell to the Babylonians in 586 BCE.
Schneider’s article “Did Jehu Kill His Family” is about Jehu’s coup d’ tat against the House of Omri and how he and Omri may have been related. An ancient monument, the Black Obelisk of Assyrian King Shalmaneser III has cuneiform writing saying Jehu, the son of Omri, gave tribute to the king. Jehu killed Omri’s grandson, Joram, who inherited the throne. Ahab was Joram’s father and the Bible mentions that Jehu wiped out the entire House of Ahab, but it does not say House of Omri. So, Schneider believes Jehu could have been related to Omri through a different line from Ahab. Although the Hebrew Bible does not tell of the Israelites being under control by the Assyrians, the Obelisk mentions that Jehu had to pay tribute to the Assyrian king and also the Kurkh Monolith, which lists all Shalmaneser’s victories, lists King Ahab in the account. A possible suggestion was that the 1st ruler determined the name of a tribe so that when Jehu became king, the tribe was still called House of Omri. But this argument has no evidence. Also, Jehu was the only one whose grandfather name was mention to introduce him: Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi, which could have been a way to establish the link to Omri or distinguish from Jehu’s contemporary who’s name was also Jehoshaphat. And Jehu was not a stranger to the royal family, which may also hint at a connection. Osama bin Laden and Jehu are both members of a royal or wealthy family. Osama’s family disowned him after the September 11th attacks and Jehu’s connection to his royal family is not even mentioned. The two men staged coup d’ tats, Jehu against the House of Ahab and Osama against America. However, Jehu was successful in not leaving one remaining survivor of the House of Ahab. But Osama only killed over 3,000 Americans and did not attack the majority. They are different because Jehu attacked his own family whereas Osama attacked outside of his family.