Israel&judah

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate October 2001

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Israel and Judah "“ the divided kingdoms.

Solomon, the king of Israel, was not going with God's way. After two warnings, God punishes him for the sins he'd committed. The punishment is taking the kingdom from his dynasty and letting his son rule over only one tribe, which means the kingdom will be divided into two. The ten northern tribes go by the name of Israel, while the southern kingdom was known by the name of the major tribe, Judah.

When King Solomon died in 931 b.c, he left behind him a disturbing situation: an empty treasury, a country ruined by taxes, and religion that's not going with God's way. Obviously, Solomon had not left a good situation for the next king of Israel to get into. The united monarchy came into big problems and due to God's will it was divided in 922 b.c.

The separation of the kingdom was both a political and religious separation.

Israel had much more land in their territory and far more heterogeneous population. Israel has established its center and capital at Samaria. Judah on the other hand was centered around their capitol of Jerusalem. Furthermore, Judah was very attached to the Davidic dynasty. The people were more united and they had a very stable dynasty to rely on.

Religiously, Israel and Judah were also separated. The center of worship for the united monarchy had been the city of Jerusalem. People from all over would travel to Jerusalem to worship and sacrifice to Yahweh. This was considered a threat to Israel in the mind of Jeroboam, the king of Israel. He feared that the people of Israel would rather move to the kingdom of Rehoboam and the house of David because its relative to Jerusalem and Solomon's temple. Jeroboam solution is building religious centers...