The term divided kingdom refers to the period beginning in 922 BCE—when the kingdom of Israel split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south—and ending with the destruction of Israel (the northern kingdom) by the Assyrians in 721 BCE. During this period Israel and Judah existed as neighbors, not always on amicable terms.
The Literary Evidence: What’s in the Biblical Text? (First Kings 12—22; Second Kings 1—17)
The literary evidence for this period comes from First Kings 12—22 and Second Kings 1—17. The biblical texts are patterned on the lives of the kings of the two nations. Frequently the narrative stops to give a formula summarizing and evaluating the reign of a particular king. The formula then cites another historical source where additional information could be found, gives a statement about the length of the king’s reign, and names the king’s successor.
Here is the summary that comes at the end of Solomon’s reign (1 Kings 11:41—43):
41 Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, all that he did as well as his wisdom, are they not written in the Book of the Acts of Solomon? 42The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years. 43Solomon slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam succeeded him.
All of the historical sources mentioned in these summaries are now lost.
All of the Northern kings are evaluated negatively because they do not support proper worship of Yahweh, and all but two of the Southern kings receive a similar assessment. The two clearest exceptions are Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:3—1) and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2). Two other Judean kings (Asa and his son Jehoshaphat) receive qualified praise from the author of the books of Kings. They are said to have been faithful in all important ways except that they did not close the “high places,” places for animal sacrifice to Yahweh outside Jerusalem. See for example First Kings 22:41—44.
This patterning of the narrative on the reigns of kings is interrupted at times by a focus on the role of a particular prophet. Beginning with the announcement of the division of the two kingdoms by the prophet Ahijah (1 Kings 12:5), every major calamity is preceded by a warning from a prophet. This practice creates a pattern of prophecy and fulfillment that helps structure the narrative. Disasters are consistently linked to disobedience of the covenant. The foretelling comes as an announcement of God’s judgment, not a prediction.
Reconstruction of the Historical Context
At Solomon’s death around 922 BCE, the crown prince, Rehoboam, was accepted as king by the tribe of Judah, but he had to be confirmed by an assembly of the elders from each tribe at Shechem. Jeroboam, son of Nebat, was in exile in Egypt at the time of Solomon’s death, but he got word soon enough to show up at the Shechem meeting. The ten Northern tribes chose Jeroboam as their king, leaving Rehoboam with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the South. For the next two hundred years two nations descending from the Hebrew people would exist as neighbors, sometimes cooperatively and sometimes as enemies.
Israel (The Northern Kingdom)
The new Northern Kingdom retained the name “Israel.” It was the stronger of the two kingdoms with a larger population and better agricultural lands. The original capital of the northern kingdom was Shechem, but the location of the capital changed regularly (with Tirzah being a popular location) until the reign of Omri (the most famous of the Northern Kings) who built a new city as his capital and named it “Samaria.” By the time of Jesus much of the surrounding territory would be called by that name.
The Northern kingdom suffered from serious dynastic instability. Only two ruling families lasted more than four generations (Omri and Jehu). In 722 BCE the capital city of Samaria fell to Sargon II of the Assyrians after a three-year siege, and he took most of the upper levels of society off into captivity.
Judah (The Southern Kingdom)
The weaker Southern Kingdom experienced much more stability. The line of David continued on the throne until the end. Under Hezekiah (after the fall of the Northern Kingdom [Israel] in 722/721 BCE) Judah expanded northward to take in most of what had been David’s kingdom (but without the ruling families of the northern tribes). This expansion was quickly reversed, however, when the Assyrians pushed through the region and even took Egypt in the 7th century (600s) BCE. The reign of Manasseh in Judah was one of a vassal ruler, in complete obedience to Assyria. (Notice the Deuteronomist’s contrasting assessment of Hezekiah and his son Manasseh [2 Kings 18—21].)
In about 621 BCE Josiah of Judah began a radical religious and social reform movement that is now called Josiah’s reform. He justified the reform on the basis of a “book of the Torah” found in the Temple in Jerusalem and validated by Huldah (2 Kings 22:14—20), a respected female prophet. In this reform Josiah closed all of the “high places,” rural centers of worship for Yahweh, as well as all temples of Yahweh outside Jerusalem. He also closed worship centers for all other gods and banned child sacrifice and temple prostitution. These reforms follow closely the religious principles stated in Deuteronomy, and many scholars believe the “book of the Torah” found in the Jerusalem temple was in fact a copy of an early form of the book that we now call Deuteronomy.
When the Assyrian empire finally collapsed under pressure from the Medo-Babylonian alliance (612 BCE, the fall of Nineveh), Josiah was just coming of age to rule. He, like Hezekiah, expanded the Southern kingdom far into the north. He died, however, in 609 BCE while trying to stop the Egyptian forces from moving through his territory on their way north. The Egyptians deposed Josiah’s heir (Jehoahaz) and replaced him with Jehoiakim.
In 597 BCE, shortly after the death of the Jehoiakim, the Babylonians (under Nebuchadnezzar II) invaded Judah taking Jehoiakim’s son, Jehoiachin and many other prominent Judeans captive. Nebuchadnezzar II allowed Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, to become king in place of his nephew, but Zedekiah soon rebelled against Babylon. The Babylonian troops returned in 587 BCE, sacked Jerusalem, and tore down the temple that Solomon had built.
A glimmer of hope is seen in a postscript at the end of 2 Kings which tells the reader that the Davidic King (Jehoiachin) has been released from prison and is living well in Babylon. The Promise to David (the Davidic Covenant) is in danger, but it is not abandoned.