The Kingdom of Israel (), also called the Kingdom of Samaria or the Northern Kingdom, was an Israelite kingdom that existed in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Its beginnings date back to the first half of the 10th century BCE. It controlled the areas of Samaria, Galilee and parts of Transjordan; the former two regions underwent a period in which a large number of new settlements were established shortly after the kingdom came into existence. It had four capital cities in succession: Shiloh, Shechem, Tirzah, and the city of Samaria. In the 9th century BCE, the House of Omri ruled it, whose political centre was the city of Samaria.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the territory of the Twelve Tribes of Israel was once amalgamated under a Kingdom of Israel and Judah, which was ruled by the House of Saul and then by the House of David. However, upon the death of Solomon, who was the son and successor of David, there was discontent over his son and successor Rehoboam, whose reign was only accepted by the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin. The unpopularity of Rehoboam's reign among the rest of the Israelites, who sought Jeroboam as their monarch, resulted in Jeroboam's Revolt, which led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel in the north (Samaria), whereas the loyalists of Judah and Benjamin kept Rehoboam as their monarch and established the Kingdom of Judah in the south (Judea), ending Israelite political unity. While the existence of Israel and Judah as two independent kingdoms is not disputed, some historians and archaeologists reject the historicity of a United Monarchy of Israel and Judah.

Around 720 BCE, Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The records of Assyrian king Sargon II indicate that he deported 27,290 Israelites to Mesopotamia. This deportation resulted in the loss of one-fifth of the kingdom's population and is known as the Assyrian captivity, which gave rise to the notion of the Ten Lost Tribes. Some of these Israelites, however, managed to migrate to safety in neighbouring Judah, though the Judahites themselves would be conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire less than 1.5 centuries later. Those who stayed behind in Samaria following the Assyrian conquest mainly concentrated themselves around Mount Gerizim and eventually came to be known as the Samaritans.

History

thumb|Ruins of the royal palace of the [[Omrides|Omiride dynasty in the city of Samaria, which was the capital of Israel from 880 BCE to 720 BCE.]]

According to Israel Finkelstein, Shoshenq I's campaign in the second half of the 10th century BCE caused the collapse of the early polity of Gibeon in the central highlands, and made possible the beginning of the Northern Kingdom, with its capital at Shechem, around 931 BCE. Israel was consolidated as a kingdom in the first half of 9th century BCE, with its capital at Tirzah first, and next at the city of Samaria from 880 BCE. The existence of this Israelite state in the north is documented in 9th century BCE inscriptions. The earliest mention is from the Kurkh stela of c. 853 BCE, when Shalmaneser III mentions "Ahab the Israelite", plus the denominative for "land", and his ten thousand troops. This kingdom would have included parts of the lowlands (the Shephelah), the Jezreel plain, lower Galilee and parts of the Transjordan.

Ahab's forces were part of an anti-Assyrian coalition, implying that an urban elite ruled the kingdom, possessed a royal and state cult with large urban temples, and had scribes, mercenaries, and an administrative apparatus. In all this, it was similar to other recently founded kingdoms of the time, such as Ammon and Moab. Samaria is one of the most universally accepted archaeological sites from the biblical period. In around 840 BCE, the Mesha Stele records the victory of Moab (in today's Jordan), under King Mesha, over Israel, King Omri and his son Ahab.

Archaeological finds, ancient Near Eastern texts, and the biblical record testify that in the time of the Omrides, Israel ruled in the mountainous Galilee, at Hazor in the upper Jordan Valley, in large parts of Transjordan between the Wadi Mujib and the Yarmuk, and in the coastal Sharon plain.

In Assyrian inscriptions, the Kingdom of Israel is referred to as the "House of ʻOmri". The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III mentions Jehu, son of ʻOmri. The Neo-Assyrian emperor Adad-nirari III made an expedition into the Levant around 803 BCE mentioned in the Nimrud slab, which lists the places he went to, sometimes using the apellative for "land", mat: the Hatti and Amurru lands, Tyre, Sidon, the mat of Hu-um-ri (<sup>mat</sup>Hu-um-ri, "land of ʻOmri"), Edom, Philistia, and Aram (not Judah). The Tell al-Rimah stela of the same king introduces a third way of talking about the kingdom, as Samaria, in the phrase "Joash of Samaria". The use of Omri's name to refer to the kingdom still survived, and was used by Sargon II in the phrase "the whole house of Omri" in describing his conquest of the city of Samaria in 722 BCE. It is significant that the Assyrians never mention the Kingdom of Judah until the end of the 8th century, when it was an Assyrian vassal state: possibly they never had contact with it, or possibly they regarded it as a vassal of Israel/Samaria or Aram, or possibly the southern kingdom did not exist during this period.

In the Hebrew Bible

One traditional source for the history of the Kingdom of Israel has been the Hebrew Bible, especially the Books of Kings and Chronicles. These books were written by authors in Jerusalem, the capital of the Kingdom of Judah. Being written in a rival kingdom, they were inspired by ideological and theological viewpoints that influence the narrative. Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram and the territories of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in Gilead, including the desert outposts of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. People from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system, in Halah, Habor, Hara and Gozan (). Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim, and an Assyrian governor was placed over the region of Naphtali. According to and , the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria.

thumb|The tribute of Israel's king "[[Jehu of the people of the land of Omri" (), as depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III from 841 to 840 BCE. This is "the only portrayal we have in ancient Near Eastern art of an Israelite or Judaean monarch."]]

The remainder of the northern kingdom of Israel continued to exist within the reduced territory as an independent kingdom until around 720 BCE, when it was again invaded by Assyria and more of the population was deported. Not all of Israel's populace was deported by the Assyrians. During the three-year siege of Samaria in the territory of Ephraim by the Assyrians, Shalmaneser V died and was succeeded by Sargon II, who himself records the capture of that city thus: "Samaria I looked at, I captured; 27,280 men who dwelt in it I carried away" into Assyria. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the northern kingdom came to an end. Some of the Israelite captives were resettled in the Khabur region, and the rest in the land of the Medes, thus establishing Hebrew communities in Ecbatana and Rages. The Book of Tobit additionally records that Sargon had taken other captives from the northern kingdom to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, in particular Tobit from the town of Thisbe in Naphtali.

The Hebrew Bible relates that the population of the Kingdom of Israel was exiled, becoming known as the Ten Lost Tribes. To the south, the Tribe of Judah, the Tribe of Simeon (that was "absorbed" into Judah), the Tribe of Benjamin and the people of the Tribe of Levi, who lived among them of the original Israelite nation, remained in the southern Kingdom of Judah. The Kingdom of Judah continued to exist as an independent state until 586 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire.

Samaritan tradition

The tradition of the Samaritan people states that much of the population of the Kingdom of Israel remained in place after the Assyrian captivity, including the Tribes of Naphtali, Manasseh, Benjamin and Levi – being the progenitors of the modern Samaritans. Many members of these northern tribes also fled south to the Kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem seems to have expanded in size five-fold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water Siloam to be provided by King Hezekiah.]]

In their book The Bible Unearthed, Israeli authors Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman estimate that only a fifth (about 40,000) of the population of the northern Kingdom of Israel were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II.

right|thumb|Map of the [[Assyrian captivity, showing the routes of the deported population of Israel after the kingdom was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 720 BCE.]]

Religion

The religion of the Kingdom of Israel appears to have followed two major trends. The first was the worship of Yahweh; the religion of ancient Israel is sometimes referred to by modern scholars as Yahwism. The reference in Hosea 10 to Israel's "divided heart" may refer to these two cultic observances, although alternatively it may refer to hesitation between looking to Assyria and Egypt for support.

The Jewish Bible also states that Ahab allowed the cult worship of Baal to become acceptable within the kingdom. His wife Jezebel was the daughter of the Phoenician king of Tyre and a devotee to Baal worship ().

Dynasties

According to the Bible, the Northern Kingdom had 19 kings across 9 different dynasties throughout its 208 years of existence.

thumb|550px|center|The genealogy of the kings of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judea, the Kingdom of Israel and the kings of the Kingdom of Judah. Most historians follow either of the older chronologies established by [[William F. Albright or Edwin R. Thiele, or the newer chronologies of Gershon Galil and Kenneth Kitchen, all of which are shown below. All dates are BC/BCE.]]

Mentions of Israel/Samaria in Assyrian literature and inscriptions

The table below lists all the historical references to the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria) in Assyrian records. King Omri's name takes the Assyrian shape of "Humri", his kingdom or dynasty that of Bit Humri or alike—the "House of Humri/Omri".

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

|-

! scope="col" | Assyrian King

! scope="col" | Inscription

! scope="col" | Year

! scope="col" | Transliteration

! scope="col" | Translation

|-

| Shalmaneser III

| Kurkh Monoliths

| 853 BCE

| KUR sir-'i-la-a-a

| "Israel"

|-

| Shalmaneser III

| Black Obelisk, Calah Fragment, Kurba'il Stone, Ashur Stone

| 841 BCE

| mar Hu-um-ri-i

| "of Omri"

|-

| Adad-nirari III

| Tell al-Rimah Stela

| 803 BCE

| KUR Sa-me-ri-na-a-a

| "land of Samaria"

|-

| Adad-nirari III

| Nimrud Slab

| 803 BCE

| KUR <Bit>-Hu-um-ri-i

| "the 'land of [the House of] Omri"

|-

| Tiglath-Pileser III

| Layard 45b+ III R 9,1

| 740 BCE

| [KUR sa-me-ri-i-na-a-a]

| ["land of Samaria"]

|-

| Tiglath-Pileser III

| Iran Stela

| 739–738 BCE

| KUR sa-m[e]-ri-i-na-a-[a]

| "land of Samaria"

|-

| Tiglath-Pileser III

| Layard 50a + 50b + 67a

| 738–737 BCE

| URU sa-me-ri-na-a-a

| "city of Samaria"

|-

| Tiglath-Pileser III

| Layard 66

| 732–731 BCE

| URU Sa-me-ri-na

| "city of Samaria"

|-

| Tiglath-Pileser III

| III R 10,2

| 731 BCE

| KUR E Hu-um-ri-a

| "land of the House of Omri"

|-

| Tiglath-Pileser III

| ND 4301 + 4305

| 730 BCE

| KUR E Hu-um-ri-a

| "land of the House of Omri"

|-

| Shalmaneser V

| Babylonian Chronicle ABC1

| 725 BCE

| URU Sa-ma/ba-ra-'-in

| "city of Samaria"

|-

| Sargon II

| Nimrud Prism, Great Summary Inscription

| 720 BCE

| URU Sa-me-ri-na

| "city of Samaria"

|-

| Sargon II

| Palace Door, Small Summary Inscription, Cylinder Inscription, Bull Inscription

| 720 BCE

| KUR Bit-Hu-um-ri-a

| "land of Omri"

|-

|}

See also

  • History of ancient Israel and Judah
  • Kingdom of Judah, the other Israelite kingdom
  • Kings of Israel and Judah
  • Kingdom of Israel and Judah, claimed by the Hebrew Bible as Israel's (and Judah's) predecessor state
  • Ten Lost Tribes, the Northern Kingdom's population that was lost after the Assyrian conquest in 720 BCE
  • Samaritan people, the traditional descendants of the Northern Kingdom's non-deported Israelites

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

  • Crouch, C. L., "Israel and the Assyrians: Deuteronomy, the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon, and the Nature of Subversion", ANEM 8, SBL Publications, (from the Official SBL website) Atlanta 2014
  • About Israel – The Information Center About Israel
  • The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • Complete Bible Genealogy A synchronized chart of the kings of Israel and Judah