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Kingdom of Israel: Northern Kingdom
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[A]t the time of Amos, King Jeroboam II had ruled the Northern Kingdom (Israel) for 41 years and under him Israel had reached political and military heights and peace and prosperity unknown since the time of Solomon. Read a brief history of the Northern Kingdomat the Quartz Hill Online Theology site to understand how this situation had come about. The kings of the North get a very bad press in scripture and are usually judged to have ‘done what is displeasing to the Lord’. Jeroboam II is no exception (2Kings 14:24). The short article from Quartz Hill makes the good point that the scriptural history of the Northern Kingdom was written from the point of view of the deuteronomical writers, who were inevitably scornful of the infidelities of the Northern kings. However, the Northern Kingdom was exposed to much greater temptations to participate in pagan religion and cult, and Jerusalem and the Southern Kingdom, while economically poorer, remained the bastion of religious orthodoxy.
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The story of the kings of the Northern Kingdom of Israel is one of dynasty after dynasty being assassinated for the throne. Jeroboam's family was murdered by Bashan. His succeeding family left a power vacuum. Zimri may have thought to become king himself, but he was unable to gain a following and his reign lasted only a week. Following his untimely death, there arose two contenders for the throne of Israel.
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In approximately 721 BCE, nearly twenty years after the initial deportations, the ruling city of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Samaria, met its end. Sargon II finally finished what Shalmaneser V had started. II Kings 17:3-6 describes it:
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In the eighth century, the Northern Kingdom, Israel was particularly wealthy and flourishing in contrast to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. This was partly due to geographic factors. The Southern Kingdom contained large tracts of barren land and struggled without access to the fertile regions of the North. Visit one of the online photo galleries and see for yourself the contrast between the countryside in the north and the countryside in the south.
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During the long reign of Jeroboam II, the Northern Kingdom enjoyed an unprecedented prosperity. Owing chiefly to the fact that Israel's enemies had grown weaker on every side, the new king was able to eclipse the victories achieved by his father, Joas, and to maintain for a while the old ideal boundaries both east and west of the Jordan (2 Kings 14:28). Peace and security followed on this wonderful territorial extension, and together with them a great artistic and commercial development set in. Unfortunately, there set in ... the moral laxity and the religious unfaithfulness which were in vain rebuked by the Prophets Amos and Osee, and which surely presaged the utter ruin of the Northern Kingdom. Jeroboam's son, Zacharias (740 B.C.) was the last monarch of Jehu's's dynasty. Ile had scarcely reigned six months when a usurper, Sellum, put him to death. Sellum, in his turn, was even more summarily dispatched by the truculent Manahem.
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At the beginning of the 20th century, the German Oriental Society mounted an extensive archaeological dig of Megiddo, the site of an important northern-kingdom stronghold. The excavations produced a beautiful agate seal depicting a roaring lion. The Hebrew inscription read, "Belonging to Shema, servant of Jeroboam." From the dating of the city level, certain archaeologists proposed the king referred to was Jeroboam II (791-751 B.C.).
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Northern Kingdom