Kingdom of Judah

In the Old Testament, the Kingdom of Judah is the nation formed from the territories of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin after the Kingdom of Israel was divided. It is often called the Southern Kingdom to distinguish it from the tribe of Judah. 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 next 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

928 - 913 Rehoboam

913 - 911 Abijam

911 - 871 Asa

871 - 848 Jehoshaphat

848 - 843 Jehoram

843 - 842 Ahaziah (Killed at a feast in Jezreel, Israel by Jehu)

842 - 836 (Queen Mother) Athaliah

836 - 798 Jehoash (Joash, son of Ahaziah).

In the first regnal year of Joash (836/798 BC) the High priest of Baal, Mattan was killed (2 Chronicles 24: 17). Refer to the chronology of the Phoenicians for this event.

798 - 769 Amaziah

769 - 733 Uzziah = Azariah

(George of Syncellos wrote that the First Olympiad took place in his 48th regnal year.)

751 - 743 Jotham

743 - 726 Ahaz

726 - 688 Hezekiah

See details for absolute dating under him. He was contemporary with King Sennacherib of Assyria, and Merodach-Baladan king of Babylonia. However, the latter kings cannot provide a reliable absolute date for his reign: Al-Biruni and Bar-Hebraeus 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. 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. Also, he often arbitrarily fudged astronomical data in order to support his own theories. Refer to Robert R. Newton, The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, 1977. Unfortunately many authorities still accept his list of rulers as the base of a perfect chronology.

688 - 642 Manasseh

642 - 640 Amon

640 - 609 Josiah

King Josiah died in the chronology accepted by most scholars in 609 BC in battle against Necho II of Egypt

609 Jehoahaz

609 - 597 Jehoiakim

597 Jehoiachin. (Perhaps from March to May as Chronicles 36: 10 allows.)

597 - 586 Zedekiah

Zedekiah rebelled twice, in the first rebellion (597 BC) Jerusalem was taken and most of its leaders were taken. In the second rebellion in 586 BC Jerusalem was taken, the temple burnt, the king taken and Judah utterly lost its independence to Nebuchadnezzar II.

605 or 604 commonly used for the accession of Nebuchadnezzar.

The kings of Israel (for cross-reference)

925 - 907 Jeroboam I

907 - 905 Nadab (Last of Jeroboams line)

905 - 883 Baasha

883 - 881 Elah

881 Zimri (Son, ruled for 7 days)

881 - 870 Omri (Khumri in some foreign records, founded a new dynasty)

870 - 848 Ahab (Defeated the Assyrians at Qarqar)

848 - 847 Ahaziah

851 - 842 Joram

842 - 814 Jehu

General, staunch supporter of Jahweh, called by Elijah to end Ahab's dynasty. He was a contemporary of the Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (Ahab died in battle against Shalmaneser), and paid tribute to him.

814 - 800 Jehoahaz

800 - 783 Jehoash or Joash.

He paid tribute to King Adad-nirari III of Assyria.

783 - 748 Jeroboam II (Israel was at the height of its power)

748 Zachariah

748 Shallum

748 - 738 Menahem

738 - 733 Pekahiah

733 - 732 Pekah

Pekah was deposed in 732 BC by:

732 - 722 Hosheah

Hosheah paid tribute to the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V, but rebelled in 728 BC. Shalmaneser besieged the capital, Samaria. He died shortly before the fall of the city Shalmaneser died and his brother Sargon II completed the siege with success in 722, making Judah the sole Hebrew kingdom. The ten tribes were migrated to other parts of the Assyrian Empire and never heard from again. A small group of people fled south and were assimilated into Judah.