First and second Kings contain the history of Israel from the death of King David to the fall of Judah and the Babylonian exile in 586. These books appear to be based on older sources, some of which are explicitly identified, such as the subsequently lost “Book of the Acts of Solomon” (1 Kings 11:41) and the “Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel” (see, e.g., 1 Kgs 14:19) and the “Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah” (see, e.g., 1 Kgs 14:29). Annals, or chronicles, were always maintained at royal courts in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and it is highly likely they were maintained in Israel and Judah. These annals are generally lists of events with little narrative, and the first sixteen chapters of 1 Kings contain material of this type. First Kings 17–22 and second Kings 1–9 depart from the annalistic reports on the reigns of kings and contain more developed narratives, generally featuring prophets. Some of the narratives probably circulated independently, particularly those about the prophets Elijah and Elisha. These sources have been embedded in a framework that brings them into line with the religious perspective of the Deuteronomistic historian.
Extracted from: Elizabeth Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series) (p. 216). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
According to the biblical narrative, Solomon’s accomplishments extended to the realm of industry and trade. He exploited Israel’s position to control the major north-south trade routes from Egypt and Arabia to northern Syria, and foreign trade became a source of great wealth to the state. (p. 218).
He engaged in magnificent building operations. Assuming the accuracy of the biblical tradition, earlier scholars hypothesized a flowering of the arts under Solomon. This is the time, some scholars have supposed, that scribes wrote the first imaginative literature—the J source. (p. 220).
Nevertheless, archaeologists note that Jerusalem was a small town until the end of the eighth century B.C.E., when it suddenly expanded to absorb refugees fleeing the fall of Israel in 722. There are few material remains from the tenth century that attest to a fabulous empire on the scale suggested by the biblical text.(p. 220).
What’s important about these stories is that Solomon’s many diplomatic alliances are said to be effected by unions condemned by the Deuteronomistic historian: He is said to have loved many foreign women from the nations that Yahweh had forbidden, and he succumbed to the worship of their gods and goddesses (Levenson, Sinai, 138). He built temples for Moabite and Ammonite deities (Levenson, Sinai, 138). This may point to a general tolerance of different cults in Jerusalem before the reforms of Josiah in 622, a tolerance of which later editors disapproved. Thus, Solomon’s primary flaw in the biblical writer’s view is his syncretism, brought on by his marriages to foreign women who introduced their native cults into Jerusalem. Yahweh’s punishment for Solomon’s infidelity is the division of the kingdom after his death.
In order to support his tremendous court, army, and bureaucracy, Solomon introduced heavy taxation as well as the hated corvée (forced labor on state projects; 1 Kgs 9:14). The urban structure superimposed on agricultural life produced a class distinction between officials, merchants, and large-scale landowners who prospered and the farmers and shepherds who lived at subsistence level. Divisions between town and country, between rich and poor, grew. The tribal democracy was giving way to a schism in society. In addition to the flaws of the kings, the very institution of monarchy itself did not sit well in many quarters because centralized leadership under a human king went against the older traditions of Hebrew tribal society united by covenant with Yahweh and guided by prophets and priests.
Extracted from: Elizabeth Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series) (pp. 221-222). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
When Solomon died in 922 B.C.E., the northern tribes, long alienated by the house of David, its tax burden, and forced labor, rebelled against Solomon’s son and successor Rehoboam after he refused to relieve their tax burden (1 Kgs 12). The kingdom that had been united under David fell into two rival states of second-rate importance (see Map 5)—Israel, composed of ten tribes in the north, and Judah, composed of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the south, each with its own king (see Table 5). In the ensuing centuries, these two states were sometimes at war and sometimes in alliance against a common enemy. Possession of the outlying territories became precarious, and much of the empire, to the extent that it existed, was lost. Toward the end of the eighth century B.C.E., the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrian empire (722 B.C.E.), and the southern kingdom of Judah, though still viable, was reduced to paying tribute to the new overlord of the Near East. Judah was finally destroyed in 586 B.C.E. by the Babylonians, who had defeated the Assyrians and assumed control over the ancient Near East.
Extracted from: Elizabeth Hayes, Christine. Introduction to the Bible (The Open Yale Courses Series) (p. 226). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.
