History Files
 

Supporting the History Files

Contributed: £175

Target: £400

2023
Totals slider
2023

The History Files still needs your help. As a non-profit site, it is only able to support such a vast and ever-growing collection of information with your help, and this year your help is needed more than ever. Please make a donation so that we can continue to provide highly detailed historical research on a fully secure site. Your help really is appreciated.

Near East Kingdoms

Ancient Levantine States

 

Princes of Judah in Exile (Canaan)
597 - 539 BC
Incorporating Persian Satraps of Judah

Although the early Israelites reputedly founded the small kingdom of Israel in the mid eleventh century BC, it remained a somewhat turbulent semi-tribal entity which was beset by regional quarrels and attacks, especially by Ammon and the Philistines. It held a largely united front until an internal civil war caused it to be divided in two (according to the Old Testament), creating Samaria in the north and Judah in the south.

From 925 BC Jerusalem was the capital of the southern division of two of the twelve Israelite tribes, these being the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and retaining Edom as a dependency. The civil war rumbled on with occasional flare-ups over successive generations, weakening both states. In the end it was an external threat which finished both kingdoms. The northern kingdom of Samaria fell to the Assyrians in 721 BC and Judah was taken by its Babylonian overlords in 586 BC, following one rebellion too many.

The imposed governors of Babylon's Yehud province commanded Judah from the north, such was the devastation in Jerusalem itself. This period of Babylonian occupation and overlordship would be followed by similar periods under Persia, the Greek empire, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Seleucid empire in Syria, before a Judean revolt would give Jerusalem its freedom.

Large numbers of Israelites and Judeans had been shipped off to Assyria and Babylon respectively following the fall of their kingdoms, leaving some areas considerably reduced in terms of population. This was the true start of the Jewish Diaspora.

Some of these people never returned, forming the basis of the Babylonian Jews. With good land going begging back in their old homeland, the Edomites and probably Moabites too began migrating northwards to fill the vacuum. Their movement allowed Arab tribes to venture northwards from their desert territories, with the result that the Kedarites and Nabatu became players in international politics during the seventh and sixth centuries BC.

The shock for the Judeans in their defeat by Babylon went deeper than simply losing their territory and freedom. Their god, Yahweh, had been defeated by alien gods (although their own view was more along the lines of their having been defeated for not being true to Yahweh, and also for having failed to keep the Sabbath).

FeaturePerhaps a radical change was needed in the way Hebrews worshipped. During this period, those books which made up the Old Testament were assembled from writings which covered the previous five or six centuries (including the story of Noah and the flood - see feature link).

However, the Hebrews who managed this were probably, and perhaps suddenly, leaning towards a monotheistic message, and a rejection of the polytheism which had gone before. The Old Testament is littered with examples of text which seems to have been amended to cover up that previous polytheism, even to the extent that Yahweh's consort is obscured.

It seems more likely that the true monotheism which Hebrews, Christians, and Muslims follow today was only truly solidified by the second century BC, perhaps during the Maccabaean period.

Persians & Medes

(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information by Sean Bambrough, from the BBC documentary series, Bible's Buried Secrets, first broadcast 22 March 2011, from The Persian Empire, J M Cook (1983), from A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire, M A Dandamaev, from The Histories, Herodotus (Penguin, 1996), from Ctesias' Persica in its Near Eastern Context, Matt Waters, from Unger's Bible Dictionary, Merrill F Unger (1957), from Easton's Bible Dictionary, Matthew George Easton (1897), and from External Link: Encyclopaedia Iranica.)

597 - 560 BC

Jehoiachin / Jeconiah

'Prince of Judah'. Former king of Judah.

597 - 560 BC

As the dethroned final independent king of Judah, Jehoiachin retains his status in Babylon, at least as far as his own people are concerned. He is the 'Prince of Judah' until 560 BC during the exile, although one record of him in Babylon states that he and his five sons are recipients of food rations.

That must be early on, however. In 562 BC he is freed from captivity by the new king, Amêl Marduk, and given a position in the royal court.

Babylon
Babylon was one of the biggest, most heavily-populated centres of population in the ancient world of the early first millennium (click or tap on image to view full sized)

587/586 BC

Zedekiah, the Babylonian puppet king of Judah, rebels against Babylonian overlordship and Jerusalem is sacked as a result. Zedekiah himself is captured and forced to watch the execution of his children before his eyes are poked out.

Much of the population is moved to Babylon, beginning the Jewish Diaspora and starting a group which will become classified as Babylonian Jews. Judah becomes the Babylonian province of Yehud.

The First Temple is burnt to the ground after being pillaged. The last fragment of the Israelite kingdom has been destroyed and its line of kings ended, although Zedekiah himself is taken to Babylon with his enslaved people.

586 - 538 BC

Gedaliah, the Babylonian governor of Judah, is killed by the remaining populace during a rebellion which is instigated by Baalis of Ammon. In retribution, even more of the population is shipped to Babylon, increasing the numbers for Babylonian Jews who will never return. The names of any subsequent Babylonian governors of Judah seem to be unknown.

Cyrus the Great
Cyrus the Great freed the Indo-Iranian Parsua people from Median domination to establish a nation which is recognisable to this day, and an empire which provided the basis for the vast territories which were later ruled by Alexander the Great

560 - after 537 BC

Sheshbazzar

Son. 'Prince of Judah'. Persian governor of Judah (539 BC).

539 - 538 BC

Persia's Cyrus the Great enters Babylon. Cyrus adopts an enlightened attitude to his subjects and allows the Judeans to return to Jerusalem, after officially handing over all their captured idols and treasures.

He also proclaims that they can rebuild their temple. This policy is probably to encourage pro-Persian support in the Levant, a region which bears distinctly pro-Egyptian sympathies. Some do not return, however, these later being labelled Babylonian Jews.

During the Persian period, the kingdom or state of Moab disappears from the historical record. The fate of the Moabites is not clear, but they may be migrating northwards to fill Israelite lands which have been emptied by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The Edomites certainly are allowed to do just this, but they retain their identity while the Moabites seem not to.

537 - 520 BC

Sheshbazzar is instructed by Cyrus the Great to begin construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, sited over the ruins of the First Temple. He is supplied with the store of gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had removed.

Second Temple in Jerusalem
Construction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem was begun on the order of Persian King Cyrus the Great, with the work being under the direct command of his satraps in Judah, Sheshbazzar and Zorobabel

In 520 BC, Zorobabel (Zerubbabel), a grandson of Jehoiachin (although the precise connection is debated), is commanded to complete the now-stalled work on the temple. His superior would be Tattenai of Ebir-nāri, while he is accompanied in his work by Joshua, first of the High Priests of Judah. A large swathe of Hebrews in Babylon follow the pair back to Jerusalem to help repopulate the region.

520 - ? BC

Zorobabel / Zerubbabel

Nephew. Satrap of Judah for Persia.

c.517 BC

The Second Temple is completed and the population at last know for certain that the Ark of the Covenant has been lost when it is not available to be re-sited inside the new temple's Holy of Holies. They already had doubts, knowing as they did that it had not been taken into captivity with them.

As the exilarch, or leader, of the Jewish community in Mesopotamia, Zorobabel also fulfils the role of satrap of Yehud Medinata (Judah) within the jurisdiction of Ebir-nāri for an uncertain period of time.

 
Images and text copyright © all contributors mentioned on this page. An original king list page for the History Files.