Archaeology of the Bible (9781912552214) by Hoffmeier James K

Author:Hoffmeier, James K.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent Pub Group

CHAPTER 8

THE TALE OF TWO KINGDOMS: ISRAEL AND JUDAH

A House Divided Against Itself

Solomon’s lavish building projects in Jerusalem and the defence network he built to protect his kingdom were made possible through a system of forced labour into which people were conscripted for periods of service (1 Kings 9:15). But this harsh treatment led to opposition to Solomon’s policies and internal strife that eventually brought schism within the kingdom. Jeroboam, an able official of Solomon, was responsible for recruiting the workers from the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (1 Kings 11:28). He began to oppose the king’s policy to the point that he became a wanted man. To avoid Solomon’s death sentence on him, Jeroboam fled to Egypt where Pharaoh Shishak gave him sanctuary (1 Kings 11:40). One might ask why Egypt, Solomon’s ally, would give aid and comfort to his political enemy. In the years since the alliance was made between Solomon and Pharaoh – probably Siamun of Tanis – the Twenty-first Dynasty had ended, and a Libyan usurper had assumed the kingship of the north. From Egyptian sources, this king is known to have been Shoshank, the first of five rulers to bear that name. Shishak is the Hebrew form of this Libyan name. He became king around 945 BC, during the second half of Solomon’s reign. The new king and dynasty meant that the old treaty with Solomon was over, abandoned when Psusennes II, the last monarch of the Twenty-first Dynasty, died.

In Solomon’s final years, several of the outlying parts of the kingdom began to rebel against Israel (1 Kings 11:14–25). So there were internal pressures from separatist forces such as those of Jeroboam, and external stress on the kingdom from vassal states such as Edom and Zobah. Rehoboam succeeded his father around 931 BC, opening the way for Jeroboam to return from Egypt and be the spokesman for the northern tribes, who asked the new king to reduce their forced labour burden (1 Kings 12:1–11). Following Rehoboam’s rejection of their appeal, the representatives of the ten northern tribes spurned Rehoboam and made Jeroboam their new king (1 Kings. 12:6–20). The northern kingdom was known as Israel, while Judah in the south was ruled by the successors of David, and was sometimes called the ‘House of David’. Thus what had been a united nation became two independent and, for the most part, adversarial kingdoms. The border dividing the rival kingdoms was situated just north of Jerusalem, although many battles were fought during the first fifty years of the divided kingdom to determine the precise location of the boundary lines.

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