Kings and Prophets

TIMELINE 2A

Kings and Prophets

1000 to 586 BCE

David makes Jerusalem the capital and Solomon builds the First Temple. The kingdom then splits in two. The prophets speak out against kings and idols, Assyria ends the north, and Babylon ends the south.

TURNING POINTS

c. 1000 BCE David makes Jerusalem the capital. He unites the tribes into one kingdom and secures the trade routes.

c. 960 BCE Solomon builds the First Temple. The kingdom reaches its height in wealth and trade, and Jerusalem becomes a religious center.

c. 930 BCE The kingdom splits. After Solomon’s death the northern tribes form Israel and the south becomes Judah.

c. 853 BCE The Battle of Qarqar. Ahab of Israel joins an alliance that fights Assyria. It is the first Assyrian record that names an Israelite king.

722 BCE Samaria falls to Assyria. The northern kingdom is conquered and its people are scattered.

701 BCE Hezekiah withstands Sennacherib. The Assyrian king besieges Jerusalem and does not take it. Hezekiah’s water tunnel supplies the city.

622 BCE Josiah’s reform. A law book found during Temple repairs leads the king to end idol worship.

586 BCE Babylon destroys the First Temple. Jerusalem falls, the Temple is burned and Judah’s leaders are taken to Babylon.

ALSO IN THIS PERIOD

c. 990 BCE The prophet Nathan rebukes King David, by tradition.

c. 950 BCE The Gezer calendar, an early Hebrew inscription, records the farming year.

c. 925 BCE Pharaoh Shishak raids Judah and Israel.

c. 880 BCE Omri founds Samaria as the capital of the northern kingdom.

c. 870 BCE Ahab and Jezebel promote the worship of Baal. The prophets Elijah and Elisha oppose it.

c. 841 BCE Jehu overthrows Ahab’s house in a coup and ends Baal worship.

c. 840 BCE The Mesha Stele of Moab tells of Israel’s rule over Moab.

c. 760 BCE The prophets Amos and Hosea condemn injustice and idolatry.

c. 740 BCE Isaiah and Micah prophesy in Judah, and Isaiah’s poetry shapes the Hebrew Bible.

732 BCE Assyria takes the Galilee and sends many of its people into exile.

701 BCE The Siloam inscription records the digging of Hezekiah’s tunnel.

c. 626 BCE Jeremiah begins to prophesy. After the fall, Lamentations mourns Jerusalem.

609 BCE Josiah is killed at Megiddo.

597 BCE Babylon captures Jerusalem for the first time.

c. 588 BCE The Lachish letters, written in Hebrew on pottery, record Judah’s last days.