Chapter III: The Division of the Kingdom

=1. Solomon after a reign of 40 years=[87] was succeeded by his son Rehoboam, who, through the adoption of evil counsel, brought on a great rebellion and division which resulted in the formation of the two kingdoms――one of =Judah=, with its chief city at Jerusalem, and the other of =Israel=, with its capital at Shechem. Jeroboam soon removed to Tirzah, where the capital, or royal residence, remained for many years until Samaria became the capital, and continued to be so until the captivity, 1 Kings 16:23.

TIRZAH.

This city has been identified with a village now inhabited and which is called Teiasir, eleven miles north by east of Shechem and twelve miles east-northeast of Samaria. It is 995 feet above the Mediterranean on the main road to Beth-shean. But formerly Tirzah was, by Dr. Robinson, supposed to be found in a village called Telluzah, six miles due east of Samaria, built upon a hill 1,940 feet above the Mediterranean and commanding a magnificent view eastward. This place, in its position, well deserves the name “Tirzah,” which means “beauty.” It is probably referred to in the Song of Solomon, 6:4. It was thirty-four miles a little east of due north from Jerusalem. But neither of these places can with certainty be called the Tirzah of this history.

Samaria was private property at this time, having no settlement upon it until nearly fifty years after the division of the kingdom, when it was bought by Omri, king of Israel, from Shemer, and, after him, named Samaria.

=2. There is a great chronological difficulty= in adjusting the reigns of the kings of Judah and of Israel.

It arises, in some degree, from the fact that the number of months is omitted in the statements of the years during which the reigns continued, for the whole number of years only is given. Moreover the statements are not always clear in relation to the epoch from which the number given is to be counted. But more recently collateral history, both Egyptian and Assyrian, has supplied certain data whereby considerable aid has been furnished in the settlement of some of the difficulties.

Under the supposition that the commonly accepted chronology is correct and that the division of the kingdom, at the death of Solomon, took place B. C. 975, the kingdom of Israel lasted 253 years and the kingdom of Judah 387 years, that is from B. C. 975 to B. C. 722 for Israel and from B. C. 975 to B. C. 588 for Judah.

=3. The captivity of Israel= took place B. C. 722, at the taking of Samaria by Sargon, the general of Shalmaneser. In the book of Kings we have the account of the attack of Shalmaneser upon Samaria, 2 Kings 17:6; 18:10. In the last passage, the phrase “they took it” appears to refer to the fact that both Shalmaneser and Sargon laid siege to Samaria, for although the former began the siege, he died suddenly before the city was taken, and Sargon, who had seized upon the throne of Assyria, immediately returned and completed the siege.

Sargon’s own account of the siege and of the captivity remarkably agrees with the statement in the book of Kings. These facts are derived from the Assyrian tablets.

=4. In regard to this king of Assyria=, Sargon by name, the verse in Isaiah 20:1 was for twenty-five centuries the only known evidence of his existence. It was not until recently, when the mound which covered his palace was excavated, that the name came to view. It was then discovered that he was one of the greatest kings of Assyria, and his history was recorded upon the large alabaster slabs which lined a part of his palace.

Judah was carried into captivity B. C. 588. The whole number of rulers, from Rehoboam the first king to Zedekiah the last, inclusive of both, was 20, of which number there was one queen, Athaliah, who reigned six years.

=5. The line of descent of the Messiah= passed through Judah and through all its kings except the last (Zedekiah), and the third and fourth from the last, namely, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim. The kings of Israel were none of them in this line. It was for this reason that the tribe of Judah was the most important and prominent of all the tribes.

=6. The captivity of Judah= took place under Nebuchadnezzar, called also Nebuchadrezzar, Ezek. 29:19. This king succeeded to the throne of Babylon B. C. 604. His father was the first king of Babylon after the fall of Nineveh and death of its king Assur-bani-pal, the Sardanapalus of the Greek historians.

=7. Immediately after the fall of Nineveh=, B. C. 626, the father of Nebuchadnezzar, Nabopolassar, founded the independent monarchy of Babylon, B. C. 625, and at the death of Nabopolassar, B. C. 604, Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne. He was a general of great energy and enterprise and became so well known, even to the Greeks, that according to Josephus,[88] he was compared with Hercules for his valor and deeds.[89] The prophet Jeremiah compares him with an eagle swooping down on his prey,[90] and Ezekiel represents him as a great eagle with great wings.[91] He was intrusted by his father with the entire management of the attack upon Nechoh, who had come up from Egypt in battle against the city Carchemish on the Euphrates, B. C. 606. This city was over five hundred miles northwest from Babylon on the west bank of the river.

=8. With a fine army= he attacked Nechoh, and defeated him with so dreadful a slaughter that the Egyptian king retreated rapidly to the Nile. Nebuchadnezzar followed him through Palestine to Pelusium, a city on the sea-coast frontiers of Egypt, about seventy miles east of the Nile. At this place he heard of the death of his father, at Babylon, and committing the army and his prisoners into the hands of his trusty generals, he left and, with a small escort, crossed the desert and arrived at Babylon, 700 miles distant to the east. Here he found that the chief of the priestly caste of the Chaldæans had held the government for him since the death of his father.[92] He then peaceably succeeded his father.

=9. But the kingdom of Judah= had not yet submitted to Nebuchadnezzar. He, therefore, after settling the new order of rule at Babylon, returned to Syria, B. C. 602, and attacked Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and placed him under tribute. Three years had not passed before this Hebrew king, counting on help from the king of Egypt, rebelled against the king of Babylon, and dying soon after, left the odium of the rebellion, together with the regal succession, to his son Jehoiachin.

=10. This king of Judah= had reigned only three months when Nebuchadnezzar sent an army into Judah and soon after arrived in person; and the king of Judah was forced to submit to the king of Babylon, and, with 10,000 of his best citizens, he was taken prisoner and carried to Babylon. The uncle of the king of Judah, whose name was changed to Zedekiah, that is, “the righteousness of Jehovah,” was placed upon the throne by Nebuchadnezzar. His previous name was Mattaniah, that is, “gift of Jehovah,” and Nebuchadnezzar, in giving him this new name, evidently intended it as a suggestion to the king that he was expected to sustain the truthful character of that Jehovah whom he professed to serve; for the king of Babylon had made Zedekiah promise by oath and covenant, swearing by his God, to be faithful to him, 2 Chron. 36:13; Ezek. 17:13, B. C. 599.

In the same manner Pharaoh-nechoh changed the name of Eliakim to Jehoiakim, when he advanced him to the throne eleven years before, B. C. 610. 2 Kings 23:34. He simply changed the ordinary name, El, _god_, to that most holy name of the Israelites’ divinity, namely Jehovah.

=11. After eleven years of reign= Zedekiah rebelled, and then the final siege of Jerusalem took place, and the Jews were forced by starvation to yield to the king. During the delay required by the siege, Nebuchadnezzar remained at a place called Riblah (now Ribla) 200 miles north of Jerusalem and 70 miles northeast of Beirût, pleasantly located in the valley between the Lebanon ranges and on the east side of the river Orontes. This place was made sadly prominent eighteen years before by the imprisonment of Jehoahaz, the successor of Josiah, king of Judah. He was taken captive and removed from Jerusalem and left at this place by Pharaoh-nechoh when he was on his way to his terrible defeat by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, B. C. 606. But on his retreat he carried Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died, 2 Kings 23:33, 34.

=12. When the generals of Nebuchadnezzar= had taken Jerusalem, they brought Zedekiah and the royal family to Riblah, where it appears that the king of Babylon upbraided Zedekiah for his violation of his oath, and then slew his sons before his eyes. This was his last and dreadful vision, for immediately after, according to the custom of these kings depicted upon the monuments, “he put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him with fetters of brass and carried him to Babylon,” 2 Kings 25:7.

=13. The king of Babylon now left= the completion of the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of captives to one of his chief army officers, called “the captain of the guard.” This officer sent off all the treasure of the Temple and of the various palaces, and then having burned the Temple and all the chief houses, he broke down the walls and so completely destroyed the city that the ruler, who was left to take charge of the few poor remaining, resided at Mizpah,[93] a village, not certainly but very probably, identified with a place on a high hill five miles west by north from Jerusalem.

=14. Judah was now finally= carried away captive, and the seventy years of captivity foretold by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 24:11; 29:10) are to be reckoned from the first captivity, B. C. 606, when Daniel and others were carried to Babylon in the third year of Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 24:1, 2. These seventy years terminated when Cyrus, in the first year of his reign at Babylon, B. C. 536, made his proclamation permitting the Jews to return to Palestine and rebuild the temple, Ezra 1:11.

=15. About 50,000 accepted= the invitation, but a large number preferred to remain, as we shall more fully explain hereafter.