It so happened that a tiny piece of land on a planetary scale in the Middle East - Canaan (or the “Land of Purple”), lying between the Mediterranean coast, the bend of the Euphrates River and the Jordan River, played an unprecedented role in the destinies of all mankind. This territory, according to biblical sources, God gave to the Jewish people, who conquered it and divided it between their tribes. After the death of Joshua, who led the conquest of Canaan, the Lord alone led his chosen people through valiant leaders and elders, whom the Jews called judges. Among the most prominent judges inspired by the Almighty:
Prophetess Deborah - Israel's fourth judge
The brave warrior Gideon is the fifth Israeli judge,
The famous hero Samson, who came from the tribe of Dan and was famous for the miraculous power stored in his long hair;
High Priest Samuel is the last Israeli judge.
The period of the judges lasted approximately three hundred and fifty years; the Jews did not have kings at that time; spiritual power was considered the highest. But the moment came when the people felt that military leaders were much more useful to them than priests: the pressure from the Philistines and other neighboring states was too great, and the need to survive dictated its conditions.
It should be noted that Judge Samuel, to whom the Jews turned, did not like the idea of kings of Israel very much, because it violated established traditions. The Prophet asked the Creator a question and received an answer, the meaning of which boiled down to the command to listen to the wishes of the people, but to explain in detail to the Jews the rights of a secular ruler and the duties of subjects. However, the people persisted in their demand, and the Lord pointed out to Samuel who should be anointed as king.
The initial period of the era of kings
Scientists divide the time of the monarchy in the Holy Land into 2 periods: the time of the united Kingdom of Israel - the beginning of the monarchical era, which lasted until the death of King Solomon, and the period of two separate kingdoms of Judah, which existed side by side for about 250 years.
King Shaul
Modern researchers do not have the usual sources that help historians and archaeologists reconstruct the actual moments of the reign of monarchs:
Texts of decrees,
Chronicle evidence from surrounding countries.
None of the above relating to the years of King Shaul (or in European transcription - Saul) on the throne has been preserved. As a result, we can only rely on biblical texts, and the first king of Israel still remains for us only an Old Testament character, because his reality as a historical figure has not yet been proven.
So, the first of the 4 Books of Kings tells us about a remarkable warrior and a man of outstanding beauty - Saul from the tribe of Benjamin (the smallest and youngest of all the tribes of Israel, but also the most warlike among them). It was him, Shaul, who was chosen to rule by God; the high priest Samuel anointed him first secretly, and then introduced him to the people, who chose the anointed one by their own decision.
In the first years of his reign, Saul showed himself to be obedient to the Lord and a worthy ruler. He won the love of the Jews by his victories over his enemies, he was distinguished by his simplicity of manner and refused the honors due to his rank. Shaul laid the foundation for the Kingdom of Israel as a single state structure uniting all the Jewish tribes. This ruler, pleasing to the Almighty, created a regular army of Jews and brought impressive military victories to the people.
The exemplary faith and obedience to God of the Jewish king, which were evident in the first period of his reign, gave way to growing tension between Saul and the prophet Samuel. The high priest reproached the king for deviating from God's commands and even for insulting the Lord; he predicted to the ruler the short duration of his reign and the death of his descendants.
Famous King David
The young shepherd David from the tribe of Judah was also anointed to the kingdom by Samuel, and this happened, like the last time, secretly, and, like the last time, the Lord indicated a new contender to the throne to the prophet. David was not to become the de facto ruler and second king of Israel right away. But this is one of the most interesting and colorful characters in the Bible, revered by Islam, Christianity, and Judaism - all three world religions. Everything is permeated with the memory of this warrior-king and hero, his deeds are studied in schools, and the “Shield of David” in the form of a magical six-pointed star formed by 2 equilateral triangles, which has long served as the emblem of Judaism, has been transferred through the centuries to the modern State of Israel.
The second king of Israel founded a whole dynasty of Jewish monarchs, ruling almost until the very end of the political existence of the Jews. It all began with the service of young David in the army of King Saul. The future king became famous after the incident with Goliath. A descendant of giants, the Philistine Goliath was distinguished by his gigantic growth and enormous physical strength. The young man David and the warrior Goliath were supposed to decide the outcome of the entire battle between the Philistines and the tribes of Judah with their duel. Goliath, dressed in armor and armed with a heavy spear, was even offended when he saw the practically unarmed “boy” without armor. Martial arts have proven that strength alone will not make the difference. David struck the famous warrior with a stone thrown from a sling, and then cut off the head of the defeated Goliath with his own sword.
David's popularity among the people grew, causing increasing envy among the ruling king. Saul repeatedly tried to kill his rival, forced David to flee, and he hid from the ruler’s persecution for quite a long time and lived in caves.
Meanwhile, the wars with the Philistines continued; in one of the battles, the wounded King Saul committed suicide by throwing himself on his own sword. In Hebron, the tribe of Judah proclaimed David king, and Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, began to rule the other tribes of Israel. If the first king of the Israelites united the Jewish tribes only for the period of hostilities, then David dreamed of forever ending their internecine hostility and creating one Jewish state. After the death of Ishbosheth, killed by one of his own commanders, all the tribes of Israel asked David to become their leader, and now he was officially anointed as king. Realizing that instead of Hebron, which belonged to the people of the tribe of Judah, a neutral capital of the state was needed, David chose the settlement of Jebus and began to build the great City of David, the same Jerusalem that the whole world knows today.
The personification of the unity of the entire nation was the Golden Jerusalem, into which the Ark of the Covenant was transferred. But only the third king of Israel was given by God the honorable mission of building the Temple of Jerusalem. So the Almighty punished David for a serious moral transgression: the seduction of the beautiful Bathsheba, the wife of a soldier in the army of King Uriah the Hittite, and the subsequent deliberate murder of Uriah. The Lord sent many troubles to the king’s family for this sin, but still David ruled the state for 40 years, and one of the sons of David and Bathsheba, who had now become queen, was destined to inherit the Israeli throne.
The wisest king Solomon
The “Golden Age” came to the people of Israel with the accession of David’s son Solomon to the throne. In Hebrew, the king's name sounds like "Shlomo" and comes from the root words: "whole", "perfect", "peace". This legendary ruler led the kingdom of Israel for 40 years during its greatest prosperity. The main Jewish sanctuary, the Temple of Jerusalem, was built during the reign of Solomon.
According to the Bible, the loving king had 700 wives and another 300 concubines. However, in fact, the reason for such a number of wives was the political wisdom of the ruler, who turned marital ties into a means of establishing friendly relations with neighboring states. For example, Solomon's first wife was the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh, and the 500-year-old hostility between the Egyptians and Jews ended peacefully.
The construction of the Temple and the luxurious royal palace exceeded the capabilities of the state treasury, and this king also committed a great sin: one of his foreign wives persuaded the royal husband to worship the pagan deities of his faith and build an altar dedicated to them. So, although the reign of Solomon was characterized by calm for the people, it was the king’s act that angered the Creator that caused the coming hardships of the Jews.
As soon as the death of Solomon followed, the unified state was shaken by an uprising, and in 928 before the present era it split into 2 separate kingdoms: Judah and Israel. Scientists consider further history taking into account the existence not of a united state, but of separate kingdoms.
Monarchy of the Age of Two Kingdoms
It’s true, nature rests on its offspring! This proverb was successfully demonstrated by the actions of the fourth king of Israel, Solomon’s son Rehoboam. An arrogant man and an inexperienced ruler, Rehoboam did not enjoy the love of the people. During the uprising, only part of the tribe of Benjamin and the tribe of Judah remained on his side. It turned out that the new ruler of the whole state turned out to be the first ruler of the kingdom of Judea after the schism. The disunity was, according to biblical texts, a consequence of the sins of Solomon - apostasy never ended well for the Jews.
All the Israeli kings we are talking about are considered biblical characters; modern researchers have no other evidence of their lives, except for mentions in the sacred texts of the Torah.
Kingdom of Israel
The split of a single state inevitably led to its weakening, which, of course, neighboring countries took advantage of. The northern kingdom of Israel nurtured within its borders a new cult - the worship of the golden calf and, as a result:
Idolatry,
Superstition,
A complete decline in morality.
Political upheavals and internal unrest - this is the entire further history of the kingdom. And the rulers of this country died one after another. The ten tribes of Israel elected Jeroboam as the first king here, refusing after the split of the united Jewish state to remain loyal to the House of David and the legal heir, Rehoboam.
Less than 2 centuries passed before the last king of Israel, Hosea, reigned on the throne, reigning for 9 years until the complete destruction of the kingdom. The strong army of Assyria under the leadership of King Sargon in 722 BC defeated the capital of Israel, Samaria, and the local inhabitants were resettled by the victors to Media. Among the other eastern peoples of the region, the Jews of the Kingdom of Israel were lost, and ten of the 12 tribes of Israel disappeared without a trace, leaving only legends about the missing descendants of the 10 Jewish tribes. It is believed that just before the coming of the Messiah they will reappear in the Promised Land, and the Jewish people will regain their lost unity.
Kingdom of Judah
341 years passed before the destruction of Solomon's Temple - the First Temple of Jerusalem - in 586 BC. The inhabitants of Judea continued to profess the true religion, the Law of Moses was still for them a measure of loyalty to God, and the Temple of Jerusalem protected them from external influences that corrupted morality. This is probably why the Kingdom of Judah remained independent longer than the Kingdom of Israel, although it was also beset by disaster: the army of Babylon conquered the state, destroyed the temple, and took the population to a foreign land. Thus began the Babylonian captivity - a separate period in Jewish history.
But still, there is a difference between the Babylonian and Assyrian captivity: the latter completely destroyed the 10 tribes of Israel, and the first not only did not exterminate the Jews, but served as the starting point for preparing the pagan world for Christianity, that is, the spread of monotheism throughout the planet.
Nowadays, Christian shrines are revered on a par with Jewish shrines, Jews have relearned, and the State of Israel, which gathered people scattered throughout the countries of the world to the Promised Land in the 20th century, has accepted, which sings about previous sufferings and the hopes of Jews who have just begun come to life.
Main article: Rulers of Ancient Israel and Judah This page provides a list of kings who, according to the Bible, ruled the Kingdom of Judah in 922,586 CE. BC e. The reigning dynasty was one of the descendants of King David. In... ... Wikipedia
Tsar (from tsar, tsѣsar, Latin caesar, Greek kαῖσαρ) is one of the Slavic titles of the monarch, usually associated with the highest dignity of the emperor. In allegorical speech to denote primacy, dominance: “the lion is the king of beasts.” Contents 1... ...Wikipedia
KINGS OF JUDAH AND ISRAEL (EPHREM)- ISRAEL JUDAH Jeroboam I 931–910 Rehoboam 931–913 Nadab 910–909 Abijah 913–911 Baasha 909–886 Asa 911–870 Elah 886–885 Jehoshaphat 870–848 Omri 885–874 Jehoram 848–841 Ahab 874–853 Ahaziah 841 Ahaziah 853–852 Athaliah 841–835 Jehoram … … Bibliological dictionary
Wikipedia has articles about other people with the name Hosea (meanings). Portrait from the collection of biographies Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553) Hosea (Hebrew ... Wikipedia
David דָּוִד Pedro Berruguete, David, XV century ... Wikipedia
Ahaziah Hebrew Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles about other people named Zechariah. Portrait from the collection of biographies Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553) Zechariah (Hebrew ... Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles about other people named Joash. Portrait from the collection of biographies Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553) Joash (Hebrew ... Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles about other people named Joram. Portrait from the collection of biographies Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553) Joram (... Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles about other people named Jehoahaz. Portrait from the collection of biographies Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum (1553) Jehoahaz (Hebrew: יְהו ... Wikipedia
Books
- Kings and Prophets. Newest translations of the Old Testament. Set in 2 books: Leaders and Kings of Israel. Prophets of Israel (number of volumes: 2), Desnitsky Andrey Sergeevich. The set includes two books: “Leaders and Kings of Israel” The books of the Old Testament presented in this edition tell the story of the ancient Israelites: from tribal society to monarchy and…
- Leaders and Kings of Israel, Andrei Desnitsky. This book contains translations of most of the historical books of the Old Testament, made by the famous Russian biblical scholar Andrei Desnitsky. These books tell the story of the ancient...
With the establishment of the Law of Moses, Israel had no kingship for nearly five centuries. The Lord Himself was the King. Prophets, judges and elders were only executors of His will. This type of government is called theocracy(literally, the power of God). Being God and the Heavenly King of all nations, the Lord was in relation to His chosen people at the same time Tsar earthly. From Him came laws and regulations not only of a religious nature, but also of a family, social, and state nature.
When Samuel grew old, the elders of Israel gathered together and began to ask: set a king over us so that he judges us like other nations(1 Kings 8:5). Samuel did not like these words. The great prophet saw in them a threat to theocracy.
However, the Lord allowed Samuel to satisfy the people's desire, finding that the fulfillment of this may not contradict the form of government established among the Jews, since the earthly king of the theocratic state of the Jews could and should have been nothing more than a zealous executor and guide in the people entrusted to him with the laws of the King of Heaven .
The first king anointed to the kingdom by the prophet Samuel was Saul, son of Kis. It happened like this. Kish's best donkeys were missing, and he sent his son Saul and a servant to find them. After a three-day search, they came to the land of Zuph - the fatherland of the great prophet Samuel. The donkeys were not found, the servant advised Saul to ask the famous seer about them. So the Lord brought the future king to the prophet Samuel. God revealed this to Samuel the day before Saul came. The prophet Samuel took a vessel of oil and poured it on Saul’s head, kissed him and said: Behold, the Lord anoints you to be the ruler of His inheritance(1 Kings 10:1). Until now, the Old Testament spoke of anointing only the high priest with holy oil (see: Exodus 30:30).
Royal power places great responsibility on a person. Through myrrh (or holy oil) Divine spiritual gifts were given for the successful completion of this ministry.
As Saul was returning, he met a company of prophets, and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them. To prophesy in biblical language does not always mean to foretell. In this case the word prophesied can be understood in the sense that he glorified God and His miracles in enthusiastic hymns of praise, which implies a special rise in the spiritual powers of man. For everyone who knew Saul before, this was extremely unexpected, so the Jews had a proverb: Is Saul also a prophet?(1 Kings 10, 11).
In the early years, Saul was quite at the height of his rank. He won several victories over the Philistines and Amalekites, who were hostile to the chosen people. But gradually power intoxicated him. He began to act autocratically, disregarding the will of God which the prophet Samuel revealed to him.
Saul's self-will displeased Samuel. Samuel's final break with Saul occurred after the victory over the Amalekites. The Lord demanded that everything gained in battle be cursed, that is, completely destroyed. But Saul and the people spared the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fattened lambs, and everything of value that came to them. When Samuel rebuked him on behalf of the Lord, Saul said that he had kept the spoils to sacrifice to the Lord. Samuel replied that obedience to God is better than any sacrifice, and disobedience is as sinful as magic.
The history of the kingdom of Israel and all the kings of Israel begins with the reign of the first king - Saul; this demand of the people was not according to the heart of God, since they rejected the rule of the Lord over themselves. As the book of Kings says, the first king did not remain God's faithful servant and servant of the people of Israel for long. He did not follow the orders of the Lord, and therefore was deprived of the Lord’s protection and his affection. The reign of the first king Saul ended with the fact that in the next war with the Philistines, Saul’s son died, and the first king of Israel himself also died.
The Lord God commanded Samuel to anoint the young shepherd David, who was tending his father’s flocks at that time, to the royal dignity. After David defeated the giant Goliath in battle, which determined the outcome of the battle between the Israeli army and the Philistines, the popularity of young David increases sharply among the people of Israel. Saul is afraid 
that David, taking advantage of the right of the winner, would remove him from the royal throne, and raised persecution against David, but the God of Israel was with him and his kingdom lasted 40 years. David made the city of Jerusalem the capital of the state. He expands the city, builds new neighborhoods and streets. David plans to build the Temple. David's plans for the construction of the Temple were later implemented by one of the kings of Israel - Solomon, David's son and successor. Solomon went down in the history of Israel as the wisest and richest king; he became the creator of the Jerusalem Temple. The reign of Solomon - 40 years - became the best time of Israel.
There were many kings of Israel in the subsequent history of the country. But, the heyday of Israel and its golden age occurred at the time when the kings of Israel David and Solomon ruled the kingdom. After the death of Solomon, the united state of Israel ceased to exist. Since then, the kings of Israel ruled over two states, each of which had its own King. The ruling dynasties began to change one after another during coups d'etat. Two tribes remained loyal to the throne of David and his son, and 10 tribes formed another state in the north of Israel. In 722 BC. ten tribes were captured by Assyria and taken into slavery, after which their fate is unknown. The southern kingdom of Judah existed for more than 300 years, and in 606 it was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar. All its inhabitants were resettled to Babylon, and according to prophecy, in 536, the Persian king Cyrus issued a decree on the return of Israel and the restoration of the temple, which was accomplished 70 years after the destruction - in 516 BC.
The kings of Judah represented one dynasty of David
Rehoboam (932-915) - 17 years old, bad. He had Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, as his wife. The Egyptian Susakim captured Jerusalem and plundered the wealth of its father Solomon.
Avia (915-913) - 3 years, bad. He had Ana as his wife, his mother’s sister, the daughter of Absalom.
Asa (913-872) - 41 years old, good. He led a pious life, eradicated idolatry, for which he also deprived his mother Anu of the title of queen.
Jehoshaphat (872-850) - 25 years good. He taught the people the law of God and had a large army.
Joram (850-843) - 8 years old, bad. He had Athaliah as his wife, and probably, following her teaching, killed all his brothers. Died from a cruel illness.
Ahaziah (843) - 1 year, bad. Named probably after his mother's half-brother Athaliah, the son of Ahab. He was killed while visiting Joram in Jezreel.
Athaliah (843-837) - 6 years old, bad, daughter or granddaughter of Omri, also called the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. After the death of her son, Ahaziah killed all her descendants. She was killed in the conspiracy of the priest Jehoiada.
Joash (843-803) - 40 years old, good, was hidden for 6 years from Athaliah by his aunt Joshabetha. At the age of 7 he reigned and, under the leadership of Jehoiada, cleansed Judea of idols. After the death of Jehoiada, he turned to idolatry and killed his son Zechariah. Died from a conspiracy.
Amaziah (803-775) - 29 years old, started out not bad, until after the victory over the Edomites in the salt valley he brought their idols to Jerusalem and began to worship them. Joash of Israel destroyed and plundered Jerusalem and maimed Amaziah. Amaziah died from a conspiracy.
Uzziah (775-735) - 52 years old, good. The name Uzziah was a common name and his throne name was Azariah. (Brackhaus encyclopedia). The first years he reigned with his father Amaziah, the last years of his life he became proud and was a leper, and his son Jotham was on the throne.
Jotham (749-734) - 16 years old, good. He was practically a co-ruler with his father Uzziah.
Ahaz (741-726) - 16 years old, bad. At the beginning he was co-ruler with Jotham, and changed the altar according to the model of Damascus. 
Hezekiah (726-697) - 29 years old, good. In the fourth year of his reign in 722, the northern kingdom of Israel fell. In the 14th year, Sennacherib went to the whole land of Judea, God granted a miraculous deliverance from the king of Asyria and a miraculous recovery from illness with a sign.
Manasseh (697-642) - 50 years old, bad. Because of his wickedness, God did not want to forgive Judas. According to legend, he sawed down the prophet Isaiah.
Ammon (642-640) - 2 years, bad. Killed in a conspiracy.
Josiah (639-608) - 31 years old, good. At the age of 8 he became king and carried out pious reforms among the people. Killed by Pharaoh Necho.
Joahaz (608) - 3 months, bad. Captured by Pharaoh.
Joachim (608-597) - 11 years old, bad.
Eliakim was appointed Pharaoh in place of his brother Jehoahaz. At first, he paid tribute to the pharaoh and 3 years later, after the conquest by Nebuchadnezzar, to Babylon.
Jehoiachin (597) - 3 months, bad. He went out to Nebuchadnezzar and was taken to Babylon, where he lived for 37 years. He was taken out of prison and received support from the king until the day of his death.
Zedekiah (Matthania) 597-586) - 11 years old, bad. (Matthanah), Jeconiah's uncle, was taken to Babylon where he was put on trial. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed and remained in ruins for 70 years.
Gedaliah, the last ruler of Judah, installed as king of Babylon, ruled for 2 months and was killed, he was not from the royal family of David
After the death of Solomon, the kingdom was divided, ten tribes made up the northern kingdom called “Israel”; Judah and Benjamin formed the southern kingdom, called "Judah."
Israel's 19 kings comprised 9 different dynasties
Jeroboam (932-911) - 22 years old, bad. Founder of the Northern Independent of Judah. Jeroboam, like the Jews on the way from Egypt, introduced Egyptian idolatry of the calf into the country. Probably in memory of work in copper mines, where often after a dying candle the exit depended on the instinct for a fresh stream of oxen that pulled heavy loads. All 19 kings worshiped the calf.
Navat (911-910) - 2 years, bad. He walked in the ways of his father and was killed by Baasha and all the house of Jeroboam.
Vaasa (910-887) - 24 years old, bad. Conspired against Navat and fought with the Kingdom of Judah.
Ila (887-886) - 2 years, bad. He was a libertine, killed in a drunken state by Zamri, who destroyed the entire house of Ila.
Zimri (Jehu) (886) - 7 days, bad. Burned in the fire.
Omri (886-875) - 12 years old, bad. Under him, Israel began to act worse than the surrounding nations.
Ahab (875-854) - 22 years old, bad. He married the daughter of the Sidonian priest Ethbaal, who destroyed the prophets of the Lord and introduced in Israel the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth, which was eradicated by the prophets Elijah, Elisha and Ju.
Ahaziah (855-854) - 2 years, bad. He followed the path of his mother, and under mysterious circumstances fell through the bars of a house and died.
Joram (854-843) - 12 years old, bad. Killed by the military commander Jehu.
Jehu (843-816) - 28 years old, bad. The commander of Ahab's bodyguard, he destroyed his entire house and the worship of Baal.
Joahaz (820-804) - 17 years old, bad. He walked in the ways of his father Jehu. 
Joash (806-790) - 16 years old, bad. He fought and destroyed the walls of Jerusalem.
Jeroboam 2 (790-749) - 41 years old, bad.
Zechariah (748) - 6 months, bad. Publicly killed by Sellum.
Sellum (748) - 1 month, bad. Killed by Menaim from Tirzah.
Menaim (748-738) - 10 years old, bad. He paid off Phul, the king of Assyria.
Fakiya (738-736) - 2 years, bad.
Fakei (736-730) ~ 20 years old, bad. In 734 BC. Tiglathpileser took northern and eastern Israel into captivity.
Hosea (730-721) - 9 years old, bad. The Assyrian king Shalmaneser imposed tribute on him after his death in 721 BC. Samaria and the rest of Israel were taken and carried into captivity by Sargon in 722.
Captivity and return from Babylon of Israel
The Babylonian captivity of Judah occurred in three stages:
1) In 606 BC.
2) In 597 BC.
3) In 586 BC.
The Babylonian captivity lasted 70 years, from 606-536 BC.
In 516 70 years later from the destruction and burning of the temple in 586, it was restored.
The return of Israel took place in three stages:
1) from the decree of Cyrus in 538-536;
2) under Artharxerxes the First and the priest Ezra in 458;
3) in the 20th year of the reign of Artharxerxes I, with cupbearer Nehemiah in 445.
What was the beginning of the time of allotment determined for Israel in 69 weeks until the death of Christ: “Know therefore and understand: from the time the commandment goes out to restore Jerusalem, until Christ the Lord, there are seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; and [the people] will return and streets and walls will be built, but in difficult times. And at the end of sixty-two weeks Christ will be put to death” (Dan.9:26)
In the IV century. conquest of the Greek Empire by A. Macedonian
IN III-II century Maccabean Wars with the Kings of Syria
In Iv. BC Formation of the Roman Empire, conquest of Pompey (63 BC)
37-4 to R/X. the kingdom of Herod Idumea, who destroyed the royal family of the Hasmoneans. To give his dynasty the royal connections of the Hasmonean family, Herod married the granddaughter of the high priest Hyrcanus IIMariamne, who was subsequently ordered to be executed with her two sons and her mother.
Very little is known about the time in which the prophet Hosea lived. However, the author makes an attempt to outline this period in the history of the Kingdom of Israel and the political balance of power both in the country and abroad. The course of events in the described time precedes a complete catastrophe - the disappearance of the Kingdom of Israel from human history, the deportation and subsequent assimilation of its population in the vastness of the Assyrian Empire. The history of biblical Israel was shaped by prophets. It is no coincidence that many of those Old Testament books that we are accustomed to calling “historical” - the books of Joshua, Judges, 1-4 Kings (or, according to the Western division, 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings) - belong to the ancient Jewish tradition to the section of the Prophets.
Biblical prophets were always in the thick of things, constantly interfering in politics. Their actions and their words sometimes had a greater influence on their contemporaries than the deeds of kings and military leaders. In their speeches and actions there was more interpretation of the present than predictions about the future. The written or later prophets, of which Hosea belongs, are no exception in this sense. Therefore, before we begin to explain the small book that bears his name, it will be useful to pay attention to the historical context in which this book appeared. Although very little is known about the time in which the prophet lived, we will still try to describe it based on the available data, without claiming to be a complete review.
North wind
The long reign of Jeroboam II was the last successful period of Israel's history. Under the leadership of this king, the kingdom of Israel reached the pinnacle of its economic and military-political power. Most modern studies date the death of Jeroboam II to 747 BC. . From this date to the capture of Shomron (Samaria) by the Assyrians in 722 - 25 years. A quarter of a century of unrest, riots, anarchy. This last period of Israeli history ended in complete disaster - the disappearance of the Kingdom of Israel from human history, the deportation and subsequent assimilation of its population into the vast Assyrian Empire.
Since Shalmaneser I (1274-1245) managed to conquer the kingdom of Mitanni and take possession of all of Northern Mesopotamia, the Euphrates River became the natural western border of Assyria. Crossing this river, the Assyrians found themselves in territories inhabited by Arameans. From ancient times, the Assyrians sought to capture cities west of the Euphrates, and sometimes they succeeded. Thus, long before the formation of the Assyrian kingdom proper, Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1781), who ruled in the city of Ashur, managed to capture a large trading center in Syria - the city of Qatna (200 km north of Damascus). Tiglath-pileser I (1115-1077) made a punitive campaign against the Arameans, passing far to the southwest from the great bend of the Euphrates. Having passed through the Bekaa Valley, his troops reached the Mediterranean coast and occupied Phenicia all the way to Sidon. However, the Assyrians were not able to subjugate lands so far from native Assyria for a long time. In the XI-X centuries. even Northern Mesopotamia was not yet completely under the control of the Assyrian rulers, it was constantly overrun by nomads - Mushki (proto-Armenians), Apeshlians (possibly the ancestors of the Abkhazians) and proto-Georgian tribes from the north, Arameans from the south. In general, we can say that although in the 2nd millennium BC. Some Assyrian kings undertook campaigns to the west and southwest of the Euphrates, but they were unable to gain a foothold in the captured territories. Perhaps they did not strive for this, because the main goal of the Assyrian military expeditions of that time was control over international trade routes and simply outright robbery. The territorial annexation of lands to the west of the Euphrates began later, in the so-called “New Assyrian” era.
The first king of the New Assyrian state, whose campaign to the west beyond the Euphrates was successful, was Ashur-nasir-apal II (884-858). This is how our domestic Assyriologist Vladimir Yakobson describes this campaign: “In 876, Ashur-natsir-apal crossed the Euphrates... and moved his troops west, to the Mediterranean Sea. No one, apparently, even tried to resist him. Accepting tributes and gifts from local kings along the way, the Assyrian king passed through the Orontes Valley and Lebanon. On the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, according to ancient custom, he washed his weapons in its waters. Having established an Assyrian colony on the Orontes, Ashur-nasir-apal returned to Assyria with huge booty and cedars cut in the mountains of Lebanon and Aman. He built himself a new magnificent capital - the city of Kalhu, populated it with prisoners and lived here for the remaining years of his reign. Ashur-Natsir-Apal’s strategy was to launch lightning strikes and create strongholds in the annexed territories.” This campaign of the Assyrians forced the small Syrian states to unite into two military alliances - the Northern, centered in Karchemish, and the Southern, centered in Damascus.
The son of Ashur-nasir-apal II Shalmaneser III (858-824) conducted several military campaigns against the Aramaic states and their allies, during which he made several attempts to capture Damascus. The most famous battle of Shalmaneser III is the Battle of Karkar in 853. The Assyrian army was then opposed by a powerful coalition of the armies of Hamath, Arvad, Byblos, Damascus and Israel, as well as Ammonite and Arab troops. At the head of the Israelite army was Ahab. The Bible says nothing about this battle, but Assyrian sources mention twelve kings who were defeated in this battle by Shalmaneser III. Scientists doubt whether this actually happened: the battle did not have positive consequences for Assyria in 849, 848 and 845. Shalmaneser III had to organize new expeditions beyond the Euphrates, but the resistance of the Syrians and their allies was so fierce that the 120,000-strong Assyrian army could not break it. In 841, Shalmaneser III again launched a campaign to the southwest, during which he besieged the capital of Israel, Shomron (Samaria). The Israeli king Jehu (Jehu) is forced to recognize vassalage from Assyria and pay tribute to Shalmaneser III. This event is captured on the “black obelisk of Shalmaneser” kept in the British Museum, on which Jehu is depicted in prostration before the Assyrian king. But neither during this most successful campaign, nor during the next one, undertaken in 838, Shalmaneser III was unable to conquer Damascus.
The next campaign against the Syrians and their allies was undertaken by Adad-nerari III (811-781), the son of the legendary queen Shammuramat (Semiramis). During the campaign, he collected tribute from the Syrian kingdoms, but could not completely subjugate them. Over the next few decades, Adad-nirari III and his successors were forced to resist the military expansion of Urartu. In difficult wars with this young and aggressive state, Assyria lost its northern positions, and it had no time for Syrian campaigns.
The situation changed in the second half of the 40s of the 8th century, when the reformer Tiglath-pileser III came to power in Assyria. He ascends the throne in 745 and proclaims himself "King of the Universe." The years of his reign (745-727) almost completely cover the last period of Israel's history (from the death of Jeroboam II in 747 to the fall of Shomron in 722). Under him, the New Assyrian state reached the peak of its power and became an empire in the true sense of the word. It was he who managed to take Damascus, which was hitherto impregnable, in 732. His reforms radically changed both the appearance of Assyria itself and the political situation throughout the Middle East, including Israel and Judea. Therefore, a few words should be said about them.
Before Tiglath-pileser III, Assyria's military policy was as follows. The attacked cities and peoples were offered a choice: either recognize the power of the Assyrians over themselves and begin to pay tribute, or, in case of disobedience, be subjected to total extermination. As long as the military goal was only robbery, this policy was quite effective. All the loot - horses, military equipment, metals, jewelry, etc. - was transported to native Assyria. The walls of conquered cities were destroyed, canals were filled up, gardens were cut down, and the entire population, including women and children, was exterminated. There was no television at that time, and for propaganda purposes the Assyrians used the simplest and most visual methods of propaganda: the disobedient were subjected to the most brutal terror - they were impaled en masse or burned alive; pyramids of tied up captives were built in city squares, thereby dooming them to a painful death. All this was supposed to convince residents of other, not yet captured cities to open the gates to the invader themselves. But in the long term, such a policy was disastrous: when cities are destroyed and their inhabitants exterminated, when herds are stolen or simply put under the knife, when fields and gardens are burned, this cannot but affect the economy. This is how V.A., already quoted above, describes the consequences of the economic miscalculations of the Assyrians in the occupied territories. Jacobson: “The newly annexed provinces were largely devastated. They no longer provided income, but only required new and new expenses to maintain them... Trade began to gradually be directed along new routes, bypassing the Assyrian possessions and areas of possible military action. Due to the economic decline, a significant part of small producers fell into debt bondage and lost their lands. This weakened the military power of Assyria. Huge military booty was spent on new military expeditions or ended up in the hands of the military-bureaucratic elite, which was gaining more and more influence. The governors of the provinces had excessive power, they were almost kings, and some of them were not averse to becoming kings in full.”
Tiglath-pileser III carried out radical reforms in all areas. First of all, he reorganized the army, which now consisted not of militias and military colonists, but of professional warriors who were fully supported by the king. The cavalry became the main striking force under Tiglath-pileser III; traditional chariots became only an auxiliary branch of the army. Sappers appeared in the Assyrian army, who paved roads, established crossings, and built siege ramparts. Scholars note an excellent intelligence and communications service in the reorganized Assyrian army. The core of the army was the elite “royal regiment”, which included all types of troops - a kind of army in miniature. During offensive operations, tactics such as surprise light cavalry raids and flanking began to be widely used. All operations were carefully worked out, and each unit received a strictly defined task from the commander-in-chief (the king or the turtana who replaced him - the highest military leader).
The administrative reform was no less radical. Vast regions were fragmented into smaller ones, and unreliable princelings from the local nobility were replaced by “regional leaders” - proteges of Assyrians loyal to the king, most often eunuchs (so that they could not encroach on the transfer of power by inheritance). Vassal treaties gave way to the annexation of conquered territories. This sharply stopped the separatist efforts of the outskirts. The newly formed regions were called simply by the name of their main city - Arpad, Tzumur, Dor, Damascus, Megiddo, etc. Tiglath-pileser's successors would continue this tradition. So, after the capture of Samaria, Shomron will appear on the list of Assyrian provinces.
But perhaps the most important reform of Tiglath-pileser III was associated with a change in attitude towards the conquered population. If disobedient peoples are exterminated, this will have a bad effect on the country's economy; if left to live in their native land, this is fraught with separatism, especially during periods of political instability or during defensive wars with external aggressors. Both happened more than once in the long history of Assyria, and therefore Tiglath-pileser III comes up with an ingenious solution to the problem - deportation. The population of conquered countries had previously moved to native Assyria, but this was rare and very limited - only small groups of warriors or highly skilled artisans were resettled. Now deportation is becoming a domestic political dominant. Entire peoples are moving, entirely. Usually as far as possible from their native places, preferably on the opposite outskirts of the empire. Far from their homeland, migrants are not capable of rebellion or organizing national liberation resistance. And in the second and third generations, for the most part they simply assimilate. This is what will happen to the ten tribes of the kingdom of Israel, resettled in Assyria and settled “in Halakh and in Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of Media” (2 Kings 17:6).
Tiglath-pileser III is known from Assyrian history under another name. In 729, a powerful monarch who reformed the country and expanded its borders to unprecedented limits (in the south - all the way to Gaza, that is, to the Egyptian border), was crowned in Babylon with the name Pulu. Whether he bore this name before his enthronement in Babylon, Assyro-Babylonian sources do not say. Let us turn below to the actions of this great conqueror in Israel and Judah.
Tiglath-pileser III was replaced by Shalmaneser V (726-722), whose name is associated with the fall of Israel. In 724 Shalmaneser V began a three-year siege of Samaria. During the capture of the Israeli capital, he died or was killed by the conspirators. Sargon II (722-725), the founder of the new dynasty of Assyrian kings, already took advantage of the fruits of the victory over the kingdom of Israel. After the fall of Israel, the Assyrian Empire would last for more than a century, its kings would conquer Egypt and conquer Elam, Assyria would become the first “world superpower” in human history. But all this will happen after the destruction of the kingdom of Israel.
Let us now turn to the history of Israel itself in the last decades of its political existence.
Decline of Israel
During the long reign of Jeroboam II (787-747), Israel reached its economic and political apogee. The kingdom of Israel under this last successful king extended from Hamath in the north to the Dead Sea in the south: “He restored the borders of Israel, from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the desert” (2 Kings 14:25). He even succeeded in what the Assyrian army had not yet succeeded in capturing Damascus, the main center of anti-Assyrian resistance (2 Kings 14:28). Domestic historian of Israel Igor Tantlevsky suggests that Ammon and Moab at this time became vassals of the Kingdom of Israel. The era of Jeroboam II coincided with the temporary weakening of Assyria and Aram. Taking advantage of this, Israel, as Tanlevsky rightly notes, took “a leading position in the region.” The main trade routes leading from Egypt to Mesopotamia - the "Coastal Route" along the Mediterranean coast, through Phenicia and the "Royal Road" passing through Moab, Ammon, Bashan (Bashan) and Damascus - ended up under the control of the Israelis over a fairly significant length. Control over trade turnover within the Fertile Crescent ensured an extraordinary economic rise in Israel, which in turn led to a deep stratification of property within Israeli society and sharply aggravated social contradictions in it: all duties ended up in the hands of the aristocracy, and the bulk of the population ended up in mortgage bondage with the latter. Amos, who prophesied in the era of Jeroboam II, severely denounced the social ills of Israeli society.
After the death of Jeroboam II, his son Zharyahu (Zechariah), the last representative of the Jehu dynasty, reigned over Israel. He did not reign for long, only six months (2 Kings 15:8-9). And then, quite in the traditions of the Northern Kingdom, “Sellum the son of Jabez conspired against him, and struck him before the people, and killed him, and reigned in his place” (2 Kings 15:10). The writer of the Fourth Book of Kings sees in this event the fulfillment of the promise given by God to the founder of the dynasty, Jehu: “This was the word of the Lord, which He spoke to Jehu, saying: Your sons to the fourth generation will sit on the throne of Israel. And so it came to pass” (2 Kings 15:12). For Israel, where, unlike Judah, power was not centralized and where the tribal traditions of the tribes were strong, the reign of one dynasty for ninety years (that is how long Jehu and his descendants reigned) was a fairly long period of stability and prosperity. This, says the writer of the Fourth Book of Kings, was the reward of Jehu for his zeal in eradicating the Phoenician cult of Baal, officially introduced into Israel by Ahab. Jehu put an end to the “house of Ahab”, exterminated all its descendants, thereby putting an end to the Omri (Omrid) dynasty. In 2 Kings, the history of Jehu, starting from his secret anointing to the kingdom by the prophet Elisha until his death, is described in detail, the punishments to which Jehu subjected the “house of Ahab” and the priests of Baal are especially plastic and vividly described (2 Kings 9-10). The repression was so severe that it was long remembered in Israel (cf. Hos 1:4). But although Jehu showed commendable zeal in the fight against the cult of Baal and its leaders, he was not equally zealous in establishing, purifying and centralizing the cult of YHWH: “Jehu destroyed Baal from the land of Israel. However, from the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who led Israel into sin, Jehu did not retreat from them - from the golden calves that are in Bethel and those in Dan. And the Lord said to Jehu, Because you willingly did what was righteous in My sight, and did for the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons to the fourth generation will sit on the throne of Israel. But Jehu did not try to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin” (2 Kings 10:28-31). We must not forget that the historiography of the books of Kings, as well as the entire corpus of Nav-2Kings, is Deuteronomic, the theology of these books is the theology of Deuteronomy, their author is a resident of Judea, not Israel. And for the pious Jew of the times of the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah, Jehu’s reluctance to destroy the high places, even if they are dedicated not to Baal, but to YHWH, is an unforgivable sin, a continuation of the religious policy of Jeroboam I, the founder of the Kingdom of Israel, independent of the Davidians. Since in Judea the cult of YHWH was strictly centralized in the Jerusalem sanctuary, and the high places in honor of YHWH were destroyed and desecrated, for the sacred writers of Judea the entire religious and political history of their northern neighbor became a history of schism, all of which they describe from the theological positions of Deuteronomy. And these positions are so, so to speak, David- and Jerusalem-centric that those who stand on them can describe the history of the Kingdom of Israel exclusively in dark tones.
Shallum (Sellum) reigned only for a month: “Shallum the son of Jabez reigned... and reigned one month in Samaria” (2 Kings 15:13). There was another, stronger contender for the Israeli throne - Menachem (Menaim). It can be assumed that Shallum's conspiracy was a palace coup, and Menachem's conspiracy was a military coup. The lines of Scripture are sparse, but still suggest that the army reacted negatively to the events in Samaria. Probably Menachem was one of the authoritative military leaders. His decision to take the Israeli capital and destroy Shallum could well have been presented as righteous revenge for the latter’s murder of Zechariah and therefore received support among the troops and approval among the people. Menahem makes a forced march from Tirzah (Tirzah), one of the ancient Israeli capitals, captures Samaria and kills Shallum: “And Menahem the son of Gadi from Tirzah went and came to Samaria, and struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria, and killed him, and reigned in his place" (2 Kings 15:14).
Menachem's reign lasted ten years, apparently from the end of 747 to 738 (biblical tradition usually considers incomplete years of the reign as complete). Not everyone recognizes his power. Having established himself in Samaria, Menahem organizes a punitive expedition against the rebellious, whose stronghold was the city of Tipsah: “And Menahem struck Tipsah and all who were in it and within its borders, starting from Tirzah, because the city did not open the gates, and defeated it and he cut down all the pregnant women in it" (2 Kings 15:16). Probably, the ruins of ancient Tipsah are located under the Khirbet Tafsah hill, 11 km southwest of present-day Nablus. Interestingly, the Septuagint in 2 Kings 15:16 does not speak of Tipsah, but of Tappuah, which, according to the book of Joshua, was located on the border of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh (cf. Joshua 16:8; 17:8). If the localization of Tapuah on the site of the Sheh Abu Zarad hill, 12 km southwest of Nablus, and the localization of Tipsah on the site of Khirbet Tafsah are correct, then these cities were located very close to each other: on the Ephraim Highlands, 11-12 km south of Nablus ( Shechem), present-day Nablus. Tirzah (Tirzah), in turn, judging by the excavations of the Tel el-Farah hill, was located northeast of Nablus, about 10 km from it. That is, from Tipsah or Tappuah to Tirza - about 20 km.
Cutting pregnant women to pieces was a military custom of that time; all Middle Eastern armies did this in captured cities, and Israel was no exception. This meant depriving the conquered city or people of the future. But they did this in relation to other nations, but Menachem showed this cruelty towards part of his own people - some cities of the Ephraim Highlands. But the coming history will show that Israel as a state will indeed have no future. The ten tribes inhabiting it will be driven away from their homes and settled in the vastness of Mesopotamia.
Some scholars believe that Menachem's repression triggered a full-scale civil war and that under him Israel became divided into two territories, which the prophet Hosea calls "Israel" and "Ephraim" ("Ephraim").
By terrorizing the population, Menachem wanted to achieve not only submission to himself personally, not only to establish his throne through frightening repressions, but, apparently, to eradicate pro-Egyptian sentiments in the country. It is quite possible to assume that the quick death of Zechariah and with him the entire dynasty of Jehu, the failure of Shallum and his supporters were due to the struggle in Israel of two “parties” - the pro-Egyptian (to which Shallum may have belonged) and the pro-Assyrian (to which Menachem belonged). Apparently, the prophet Hosea alludes to this internal party struggle when he says: “And Ephraim became like a foolish dove, without a heart: they call the Egyptians, they go to Assyria” (Hosea 7:11). The prophets are the creators of spiritual history, for them it is obvious: one must rely not on Egypt, and not even on Assyria, but only on God: “The pride of Israel is humiliated in their eyes - and for all this they did not turn to the Lord their God and did not seek Him "(Hosea 7:10). In contrast, kings are the creators of political history, and they cannot do without diplomacy in foreign policy, especially when the very existence of the kingdoms they rule is under threat.
At the end of the 40s of the 8th century, the political situation in the Middle East changed so much that not a single state could think about true political independence: the aggressive shadow of Assyria hung over them all. Israel had little choice: either admit complete, total dependence on Assyria, or resist. To do the latter alone would be madness, so the eyes of the anti-Assyrian party turned to Assyria’s natural competitor in the Fertile Crescent - to Egypt (Judea would have the same alternative at the beginning of the 6th century: either Babylon or Egypt). But alas, at that time Egypt itself was in a protracted and deep internal crisis; the collapse of the XXIII dynasty and the anarchy of itself would lead in a few decades to the loss of independence and to the Assyrian conquest. So the choice in favor of Assyria made by Menachem was justified. If Menachem had not recognized his vassalage to Tiglath-pileser III and not confirmed it by all possible means, not even stopping at terror against his own people, the history of the Northern Kingdom could have ended two decades earlier.
Having defeated the army of Urartu in the battle on the upper Euphrates in 743, Tiglath-pileser III besieged the capital of the Northern Syrian Union, Arpad, and after a long siege took it. In 738, his second campaign to the west took place, as a result of which, as Jacobson writes, “many countries of Syria, as well as the southeast of Asia Minor (Tabal) and the Arab tribes of the Syrian semi-desert were forced to submit and pay tribute. New provinces were created in Syria, and a significant part of the population was taken captive." Apparently, it was during this campaign that Menahem paid Tiglath-pileser III that huge tribute that is spoken of in the Bible: “Then Phul, the king of Assyria, came to the land of Israel. And Menaim gave Fulu a thousand talents of silver, that his hands might be for him, and that he might establish the kingdom in his hand. And Menahem distributed this silver among the Israelites, among all the rich people, fifty shekels of silver for each person, to give to the king of Assyria. And the king of Assyria went back and did not remain there in the land” (2 Kings 15:19-20). The biblical data is confirmed by the annals of Tiglath-pileser III himself, in which Menahem is listed along with many other kings who paid tribute to the king, in particular, Rezin of Damascus and Hiram of Tire. A thousand talents of silver (about 30-35 tons!) is a huge amount. One talent is 3,000 shekels. Total - 3 million shekels. If we divide this amount by 50 shekels, which the rich owners were obliged to pay, we get the number of these owners - 60,000 people. It is unlikely that such a radical indemnity could have pleased Menachem’s subjects. And she could not help but strengthen anti-Assyrian sentiments.
Menachem's son Pekahya (Fakiya) reigned for a short time - two (most likely, incomplete) years (738-737). The next, seventh dynasty in the history of Israel, the dynasty of Menachem, ended as soon as it began. She was forcibly interrupted by one of Pekahi’s military dignitaries, Pekahi (Pekah): “And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, his high official, conspired against him, and struck him in Samaria in the chamber of the king’s house, with Argov and Arius, having with him fifty Gileadites, and he put him to death, and reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 15:25). The Argov and Aryeh (Ariy) mentioned here were either close associates of Pekahya (perhaps the chiefs of his personal guard), or, on the contrary, they came along with Pekakha to kill Pekahya. The biblical text allows for both understandings. The second option is supported by medieval Jewish exegesis represented by David Kimhi: “These are the names of two heroes. Pekah came with them and with fifty warriors from the sons of Gil "ad and killed the king." The fact that with the help of a small detachment from Gilead (Transjordan) they managed to carry out a coup speaks of the weakness and instability of Pekahya's power. Most likely, Pekahya, who continued to recognize himself as a slave of Tiglath-pileser III, was not popular in the country: Israel gained illusory independence at too high a price.
In contrast to Menachem and Pekahi, Pekahi (737-732), apparently, was determined to break the vassal agreement with Assyria. This is eloquently evidenced by his alliance with Rezin II, the last king of Damascus. Two kings, Rezin and Pekah, concluded a pact and, in order to protect their rear, attacked Judea with joint forces. Historians called this war “Syro-Ephraimite”: Ephraim (Ephraim) in this name parsprototo denotes the entire kingdom of Israel. Militarily, Judea was not something significant at that time. Having been defeated on the battlefield by the Israeli-Syrian coalition and secluded in Jerusalem, the young Jewish king Ahaz (736-716) sends envoys to Tiglath-pileser III, with rich gifts from the Jerusalem temple he plundered and from his own treasury, hastening to recognize himself as his slave and asking about protection (2 Kings 16:5-9. Compare 2 Chronicles 28:5-8,16. Is 7). About protection not only from the Israelites and Syrians, but also from the Philistines, who captured the southwestern territories of Judah (2 Chronicles 28:18). Under the pretext of helping Judah, the Assyrian hordes invade Gilead and Galilee and easily capture these Israeli territories: “In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and took Jonah, Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoch, and Kedesh. , and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them into Assyria" (2 Kings 15:29). This expedition took place, according to Assyrian documents, in the years 734-732. The annals of Tiglath-pileser III speak of 13,500 Israelites being deported from the country. Israeli archaeologist Israel Finkelstein writes that this figure is not exaggerated, it can be trusted: “Archaeological data from the Lower Galilee,” he says, “speak of a strong decrease in population.” The destruction discovered by archaeologists in Tel Kinneret, En Geve and Tel Hadar, located on the shores of Lake Galilee, is usually associated with this campaign. The same can be said about other, larger Israeli cities. Finkelstein writes: “In many places one can observe the terrible consequences of the conquest begun by Tiglath-pileser. In Hazor (Hasor of the Russian Synodal translation, 2 Kings 15:29 - ig. A.)... the last Israeli city was destroyed and turned to ashes. There is clear archaeological evidence that the city's fortifications were destroyed in the period before the final Assyrian attack. Also in Dan and Beth Shean there is evidence of total destruction." Of the large cities, only Megiddo was saved from complete destruction. There is a simple explanation for this: Megiddo was destined to become the center of the new Assyrian province, and its administration would be housed in palaces with pilasters. Captures Tiglath-pileser III and all of Palestine up to Gaza, the gates of Egypt. King Hanno of Gaza flees to Egypt, leaving the city to be plundered by the Assyrians. In 732, the Assyrian king finally took Damascus, finally putting an end to the kingdom of Damascus: “And the king of Assyria went to Damascus, and took it, and resettled its inhabitants to Cyrus, and killed Rezina” (2 Kings 16:9). Thus the prophecy of Amos was fulfilled: “And the Aramean people will go into captivity to Cyrus” (Amos 1:5). After paying tribute to Judah, Tiglath-pileser III leaves Judah alone, and the remaining kingdoms lose their semi-independence, are split into provinces under the direct control of the Assyrians (in the lands taken from Israel, these are the provinces of Megiddo, Dor, Karnaim and Gilad), their population is deported, and their territories settled by settlers from native Assyria.
The kingdom of Israel, whose territory after this devastating campaign of Tiglath-pileser III remains only the Ephraim Highlands with its center in Samaria (about 20% of the former territory), continues, unlike Damascus, to exist. This “oversight” on the part of the Assyrians can be explained by at least two reasons. Firstly, during the long campaign of the Assyrian king to Palestine and Southern Syria, which lasted about two years, anarchy reigned in Babylon, subordinate to Assyria, and the king was forced to go there with his entire army to restore order, and at the same time be crowned under the Babylonian name Pulu . Tiglath-pileser III simply had no time to besiege Samaria. Secondly, in this desperate situation in Samaria, and again through a coup, a new king comes to power, expressing his complete submission to the Assyrian ruler. Israel again becomes a vassal of Assyria.
This last king of Israel was called Hoshea (Hosea, 732-724): “And Hoshea the son of Elah conspired against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and put him to death, and reigned in his stead” (2 Kings 15:30). Orientalist Igor Lipovsky suggests that Hosea “represented the interests of the same forces as the Yehu dynasty, that is, the Yahwists from the Israeli tribes, compromising with Assyria.” The scientist substantiates his assumption by referring to the biblical text: “And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him” (2 Kings 17:2). Perhaps the Assyrians themselves helped Hosea come to power. At least, Tiglath-pileser III himself speaks about this, unless one sees in this only the usual boasting for Assyrian documents: “I resettled the House of Omri, all its people with all its property to Assyria. Since they overthrew (iskipuma) their king Pekah, I appointed Hosea to govern them." Ricciotti believes that for Tiglath-pileser III Hosea became a kind of longamanus: “The conspiracy against Pekah... could have been inspired by Tiglath-pileser himself... The regicide was awarded the crown, but was recognized only as a vassal king who... should have, according to the Assyrian document , to pay Tiglath-pileser a tribute of ten talents of gold and an unspecified amount of silver."
Death of Israel
Finkelstein calls the entire period from the death of Jeroboam II in 747 to the fall of Samaria in 722 “the Death Throes of Israel.” This metaphor applies especially well to the last decade of Israeli history.
Tiglath-pileser III died in 727. The time from the death of one ruler to the enthronement of another is always a time of instability, especially on the outskirts, where at such critical moments “peoples are troubled and tribes are plotting” (Ps. 2:1) how they can get out from under the foreign yoke. The psalmist said this about the vassals of his kingdom, but also for the great empire of the East, Assyria, the sedimentation of the outskirts during the interregnum was a constant danger. The vassal princes, and sometimes their own Assyrian governors, in the periods between the death of one king and the accession of another no longer considered themselves bound by the oaths given to the deceased, and began to seek independence. Perhaps it was during this period of uncertainty between the death of Tiglath-pileser III and the coronation of his successor Shalmaneser V that the last Israeli king decided on the most dangerous undertaking - to break away from Assyria.
But Assyrian intelligence worked well, spies and informants, as historians say, were everywhere among the Assyrians, so the new king soon learned about the conspiracy and his reaction was not slow. The Bible says this: “And the king of Assyria noticed treason in Hosea, since he sent ambassadors to Zoar, king of Egypt, and did not deliver tribute to the king of Assyria every year; and the king of Assyria took him into custody, and shut him up in a prison house” (2 Kings 17:4). It is not difficult to understand Hosea. Remain a slave of Assyria, a nominal king of a vassal state, reduced by Tiglath-pileser III to the capital with its environs - or, with the military support of the Egyptians, free from the Assyrians and not only restore independence, but also return the selected territories? Sending ambassadors to the pharaoh was a gesture of despair: strangled by the confiscation of fertile lands and exorbitant indemnities, Samaria was slowly dying under the Assyrian yoke. Israel no longer had any significant army of its own; the only hope for the revival of the country was Egypt, which probably promised Israel military support in the event of an attack against Assyria. The founder of the short-lived XXIV dynasty, Tefnakht I, who owned only part of the Delta (with the capital in Sais) and was desperately defending himself from the Nubians pressing from the south, could hardly fulfill these promises. But it was undoubtedly beneficial for him to remove Israel from Assyrian dependence. Lipkovsky suggests: “With their promises of support, the Egyptians deliberately pushed Israel to act against Assyria in order to delay its army in Palestine and thereby gain time to strengthen its own positions.”
It is unknown under what circumstances Hosea’s arrest took place. Perhaps Shalmaneser V (726-722), who began a pacifying campaign against Gaza and Palestine, summoned him to his headquarters and arrested him, or perhaps Hosea fled from the already besieged Samaria and was captured. This happened in 724 or 723. The further fate of Hosea is unknown. The capital was under siege without its king.
The Bible speaks of a three-year siege of Samaria, but these three years may not be complete: the biblical tradition considers incomplete years to be complete. Given this fact, the "three years" siege that is spoken of may in reality be two years, or even less than two. But still this is not small. We know nothing about what happened in those months and years inside the walls of the besieged city. But one cannot help but be surprised by the heroism and courage of its inhabitants, left without a king, who for so long resisted the onslaught of the besiegers - the most powerful army at that time under the command of Shalmaneser V himself.
“In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and deported the Israelites to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and in Habor, by the river Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes” (2 Kings 17:6; cf. 18:9-11). During the siege or during the capture of the city, Shalmaneser V suddenly died (or rather was killed). All the fruits of the victory went to the new “king of the universe” - Sargon ΙΙ (722-705). In his annals, Sargon II boasts: “I evicted 27,290 inhabitants [of Samaria], and included 50 taken chariots in my army... I rebuilt Samaria and made it larger than it was. The people of the earth I conquered I left in place. I appointed one of my eunuchs to govern them and imposed tribute and taxes on them as Assyrians." The destruction of Samaria by the Assyrians is evidenced by the VI archaeological layer of the city; VII layer of Samaria is already an Assyrian city. In 722 (or 721), the last piece of the state that had left the historical arena - Samaria and its environs - became another Assyrian province, which, according to tradition, received the same name as the administrative center - Shomron (Samaria). The history of the State of Israel is over.