Yisrael and Yahudah at variance
Schisms Political and Spiritual; The House of Yacob torn down from within
The Political Separation; 2 close knit and 10 restless and
rebellious
(1 Melechim 12:20-25; 2 Divre Hayamim 10:19)
Without delay the Ten Tribes of the north, known under the name of Yisrael 2 proclaimed their independence and at once named their ruler -Jeroboam. He was the obvious choice for the elders of Ephraim and he was chosen as king.
Between these two States the frontier was established following a line passing a short distance below Bethel (see map); this enabled Yahudah to incorporate within its territory certain southern elements of the tribe of Benjamin A glance at the map shows that the territory of Yisrael was clearly more extensive and was far richer agriculturally, while the land in Yahudah, generally speaking was inclined to be rocky, barren, and in places a wilderness.
On the other hand, as an ethnical group the people of Yahudah, closely concentrated round their capital city of Yerusalem, the political and spiritual centre of their country, were deeply attached to the house of David. They were thus a more closely knit and homogeneous body than the federation of the Ten Tribes of Yisrael, which from the very beginning of their history showed a restless and on occasion a rebellious tendency.3
2 The Scripture sometimes calls them Ephraim. He was Yacob's son and the ancestor of one of the most powerful northern tribes. It also calls them House of Yoseph; Ephraim and Manasseh, the two tribes descended from these sons of Yoseph. exerted the leading influence in the general policy of the northern group.
3 A numerical example will illustrate this point during the two centuries which occurred between the accession of Jeroboam (931) and the Assyrian destruction of the kingdom of Yisrael (721) there were nineteen kings in succession. and half of them met their deaths as a result of palace revolutions; thus dynastic changes were effected by violence. In Yahudah, however. (capital: Yerusalem) the legitimist principle was never called in question During the same period there were only nine kings, all of the house of David
Palestine At The Time Of The Schism; cause of all their problems
(931 B.C.)
This is the kingdom established by David with care and diplomacy (in about the year 1000) which was now cut in two. Rehoboam, Solomon's son and heir, had clumsily offended the northern group of Yisrael, which then decided to return to independence. Henceforward there were two States: in the north, the kingdom of Yisrael (ten tribes) with its capital finally at Samaria; in the south, the kingdom of Yahudah (two tribes only) with its capital Yerusalem. All the problems we shall see befalling the People of YAHWEH had their political origin in this deplorable schism.
Jeroboam decided to establish his capital at Shechem advantageously situated in the very centre of the country. Shortly afterwards, for strategic reasons, the new king moved his seat of government to Penuel on the Jabbok in Transjordania. Finally he settled at Tirzah (1 Melechim 14:17). to the east of Samaria.
A curious sidelight is furnished by the fact that for the defense of the country (the construction of strongholds), and the building of the royal palace, Jeroboam was obliged to re-establish the system of forced labour. Thus the Yisraelites who had previously rebelled against Solomon's impositions and separated from Yahudah, were once more obliged to labour at the royal building sites.
The Spiritual Schisms; golden calf set up in YAHWEH's
tabernacle by Yisrael
(1 Melechim 12:26-33; 2 Divre Hayamim 11:13-17)
At the accession of Jeroboam Yisrael possessed no spiritual capital. For some time past, it is true, the men of the Ten Tribes had sacrificed on the 'high places' venerated by tradition. There were two principal centres: Dan at the extreme north of the country and Bethel in the south. Jeroboam decided to revive these two places of pilgrimage to take the place of Yerusalem as a spiritual centre, since this was situated in enemy country. Henceforward it was forbidden for any of the Yahwists of the country to travel to the Tabernacle built by Solomon in the heart of the city of David. 'You have been going up to Yerusalem long enough,' Jeroboam proclaimed. And to encourage his subjects to worship YAHWEH within the confines of Yisrael he added: 'Here are your gods, Yisrael; these brought you out of the land of Egypt! In each of the tabernacles of Dan and Bethel the statue of a golden calf was set up in the place of honour on the altar. Jeroboam's idea was that they should make up for the absence of the Ark of the Covenant.
It was true nonetheless that images of this kind constituted a serious danger to the people's spiritual advancement. At this time they were already beginning to be attracted again by the Canaanite rites. In addition, the more primitively-minded of the population, and there was a considerable number of them, were incapable of distinguishing between Baal and YAHWEH, between worship of the bull (the pagan fertility symbol) and the worship to be given to the holy, invisible and almighty Creator.
One result of this spiritual change was that the majority of the kohens and levites, who served the various tabernacles in Yisrael, vehemently rejected the intrusion of the idols into YAHWEH's tabernacles. And so they left Ephraim to fall back on Yerusalem. Who was to take their place in Yisrael? Jeroboam appointed kohens from ordinary families who were not of the sons of Levi. This was hardly likely to augur well for the moral level of the new kohenly class.
In an endeavour to minimize the consequences of the schism Jeroboam emphasized that he had no intention of breaking with traditional Yahwism. Thus he retained the great annual Feast of Tabernacles, which took place in the seventh month at the Tabernacle of Yerusalem; he made efforts to surround it with royal ceremonial, but he fixed it in the eighth month. Despite these measures the schism soon became a painful reality and a very serious matter for the spiritual future of the People of YAHWEH.
The situation was made more serious still because in the south in the kingdom of Yahudah, under Rehoboam, the spiritual position was scarcely any better. Naamah, Solomon's wife and Rehoboam's mother, was an Ammonitess, and we know that Solomon had allowed her to put up a tabernacle to her national idols on the slopes of the Mount of Olives. Then there was Maacah (daughter or grand-daughter of Absalom), Rehoboam's favourite wife who was half Aramaean; she had been allowed to set up within the palace, and therefore close by the Tabernacle, an altar dedicated to the impure Astarte (2 Divre Hayamim 15:16).
Yahudah; worship of YAHWEH existing side by side with old Canannite pagan customs
In addition at this period, in Yahudah as in Yisrael, there was a revival of the cults on the 'high places', as the 'high hills, shaded with green trees' were called; at one time here the Canaanite ceremonies had taken place. Since the coming of the sons of Yacob to the Promised Land these high places had gradually been transformed into Yahwist tabernacles in which sacrifices were offered to YAHWEH. But, either because the Canaanite worship had never been completely eradicated, or because gradually it had crept back on the mountains, at the period with which we are concerned we find the worship of YAHWEH existing side by side with old Canannite pagan customs. Thus beside the altar of incense stood 'raised stones', sacred steles (massaboth), or menhirs which, following the locality in which they stood, had different forms; in some places rounded, in others square or shaped like pyramids. These blocks of stone were regarded by the people in primitive times as the dwelling of a god (bethel -beth, house and 'EI, god). To feed them, or at least to worship them, libations of oil or wine were poured over them.
Another spiritual element that the archaeologists have discovered on the high places of Yahudah and Yisrael is the asherah which is mentioned angrily in the Scripture from time to time. This was the 'sacred trunk', a relic of former days when the Semitic shepherd worshipped trees as the dwelling place of a female deity. A little later the asherah was identified with the Phoenician Astarte, the goddess of love and fertility.
Very often the staff of the high places included 'sacred' male and female prostitutes.
At the tabernacle in Yerusalem the kohens certainly did their best to preserve the Law of Mosheh in all its purity. But high society of the capital (officers, officials and rich merchants) made a point of displaying an amused and polite disbelief. The ordinary country people were principally attracted by the Canaanite rites; increasingly they abandoned the lofty Yahwist religion to return to idolatry, a form of religion that appealed to their sensual nature and gave play to their basest instincts. Very rapidly they were coming to forget all about the TORAH, the foundation of all civilization.
GRAPH OF THE SPIRITUAL PROGRESS OF THE CHOSEN PEOPLE
from the death of Solomon (931) to the return from the Babylonian Exile (538) (For the periods preceding this graph, the reader could refer to the graph included in 'Solomon the Magnificent', in this series.)
931 Death of Solomon. The schism.
931-926 Yisrael and Yahudah, enemy brothers.
I 926-885 First blow: the Egyptian invasion.
ll 885-609 Second blow: the Assyrian invasion.
1. The prophet EliYah.
2. The prophet Elisha about (859).
3. The prophet Amos.
4. The prophet Hosea.
5. The call of the prophet YeshaYahu (about 740).
6. The time of YeshaYahu (740-700).
7. The capture of Samaria by Sargon II of Assyria; deportation
(and dissolution) of the Ten Tribes of Yisrael.
8. The time of Josiah (640-609).
9. The prophet Zephaniah (about 630)
10. The call of YermeYah (627).
11. Discovery of the Book of the Law in Tabernacle (621).
12. First production of the Books of Yahshua Ben Nun, Shophtim, Shemu'el and Melechim.
13. Death of Josiah on the battlefield of Megiddo (609).
lll 609-587 Third blow: the Chaldaean invasion.
14. The revolt of Jehoiachin against his sovereign Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. First deportation to Babylonia, 597.
15. The prophet YermeYah.
16. In Babylon, to where he was deported in 597, the prophet Ezekiel predicts the destruction of Yerusalem.
17. The revolt of Zedekiah, king of Yerusalem, against Nebuchadnezzar. Fall of Yerusalem: the burning of the city. The destruction of the Tabernacle. Second deportation (587) and third (582/581 B.C.).
IV 587-538 Exile of the people of Yahudah in Babylonia.
18. Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians (549).
19. The anonymous prophet called 'Deutero-YeshaYahu'.
20. The decree of Cyrus (538). End of the Exile.
Guerilla Warfare Between Yisrael And Yahudah erodes military
strength
(931-926; 1 Melechim 14:30; 2 Divre Hayamim 12:15)
There were no pitched battles but only skirmishes and frontier incidents -a sort of permanent state of grumbling hostility. Rehoboam nevertheless gained control of the southern part of the territory of Benjamin in order to lessen the threat to Yerusalem which was too near the demarcation line. Rehoboam confined himself to this one campaign.
In these skirmishes, which were almost continuous, the two puny States gradually eroded their military strength. Daily they wore themselves out in fruitless battles which led to no definite result. Formidable and merciless invasions by their powerful neighbours were soon to show them the futility of their stupid quarrels.
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