Divided Kingdom

Key Phrases: Israel was carried off; the people of Judah were sent into exile

 1 Kings 12:1  Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel had gathered to make him king. . .

4 “Your father was a hard master,” they said. “Lighten the harsh labor demands and heavy taxes that your father imposed on us. Then we will be your loyal subjects.” . . .

13 But Rehoboam spoke harshly to the people, for he rejected the advice of the older counselors 14 and followed the counsel of his younger advisers. He told the people, “My father laid heavy burdens on you, but I’m going to make them even heavier! My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions!” . . .

 16 When all Israel realized that the king had refused to listen to them, they responded,

   “Down with the dynasty of David!

      We have no interest in the son of Jesse.

   Back to your homes, O Israel!

      Look out for your own house, O David!”

   So the people of Israel returned home. . .

 20 When the people of Israel learned of Jeroboam’s return from Egypt, they called an assembly and made him king over all Israel. So only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the family of David. . .

 22 But God said to Shemaiah, the man of God, 23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not fight against your relatives, the Israelites. Go back home, for what has happened is my doing!’” So they obeyed the message of the Lord and went home, as the Lord had commanded. . .

[After many kings in Israel]

2 Kings 15:30 Then Hoshea son of Elah conspired against Pekah and assassinated him. He began to rule over Israel in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah. . .

2 Kings 17:4 But Hoshea stopped paying the annual tribute and conspired against the king of Assyria by asking King So of Egypt[[1]] to help him shake free of Assyria’s power. When the king of Assyria discovered this treachery, he seized Hoshea and put him in prison.  5 Then the king of Assyria invaded the entire land, and for three years he besieged the city of Samaria.

20 The Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel. He punished them by handing them over to their attackers until he had banished Israel from his presence. . .

23 until the Lord finally swept them away from his presence, just as all his prophets had warned. So Israel was exiled from their land to Assyria, where they remain to this day. . .

 [After many kings in Judah]

 2 Kings 24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. . .

20 These things happened because of the Lord’s anger against the people of Jerusalem and Judah, until he finally banished them from his presence and sent them into exile.

   Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. . .

 2 Kings 25:1 So on January 15,[[2]] during the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon led his entire army against Jerusalem. They surrounded the city and built siege ramps against its walls. . .

10 Then he supervised the entire Babylonian army as they tore down the walls of Jerusalem on every side. . .

21 And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.

[1] 2 Kings 17:4 Or by asking the king of Egypt at Sais.

[2] 2 Kings 25:1 Hebrew on the tenth day of the tenth month, of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. A number of events in 2 Kings can be cross-checked with dates in surviving Babylonian records and related accurately to our modern calendar. This day was January 15, 588 b.c.