1.
Twelve Tribes of Israel
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The Twelve Tribes of Israel or Tribes of Israel were the tribes said by the Hebrew Bible to have descended from the patriarch Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons and at least one daughter by two wives and two concubines, according to the biblical tradition, the twelve sons fathered the twelve tribes of Israel. Before his death, Jacob blessed or foretold the destiny of each of his sons and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. The confederation of tribes lived in the midst of the nationalities who continued to occupy Canaan. Modern scholarship has called into question the beginning, middle, the account of the conquest under Joshua has largely been abandoned. The Bibles depiction of the period of the Judges is widely considered doubtful, the extent to which a united Kingdom of Israel ever existed is also a matter of ongoing dispute. Living in exile in the sixth century BC, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision for the restoration of Israel which will include the ideal reallotment of the land to the tribes of Israel. In the Christian New Testament, the tribes of Israel are referred to twice in the gospels. In Matthew, paralled by Luke, Jesus anticipates that in the Kingdom of God, His followers will sit on thrones, israelites Leaders of the tribes of Israel Ten Lost Tribes The Twelve Tribes at the Jewish Encyclopedia The Twelve Tribes of Israel at the Jewish Virtual Library
2.
Tribe of Reuben
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Reuben was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. From after the conquest of the land under Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. According to the Book of Chronicles, Adina and thirty Reubenites aided David as members of his mighty warriors in conquering the City of David. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Reuben was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time, the Tribe of Reuben has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. According to Kenneth Kitchen, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BC, however, almost all scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in the Book of Joshua. In the case of the Tribes of Reuben, Gad and Menasheh, Moses allocated land to them on the side of the Jordan River. On that basis, some have suggested that the territory of Reuben was an enclave in the territory of Gad. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Reuben, the first son of Jacob, however, Peakes commentary viewed this as a postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. The territory of Reuben encapsulated the territory of the kingdom of Sihon. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Reuben was conquered by the Assyrians, and the tribe exiled, Israel The Making of the Pentateuch This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George
3.
Tribe of Simeon
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Simeon was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, kenneth Kitchen, a well-known conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. Simeon was one of the significant tribes in the Kingdom of Judah. With Leah as a matriarch, scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. According to this narrative, the tribe of Judah invited the tribe of Simeon to fight them in alliance to secure each of their allotted territories. Further verses state that about 500 men from the tribe migrated to Mount Seir, according to the Midrash, many families in the other Israelite tribes were descended from women from Simeon, which had been widowed from their original Simeonite husbands. Simeon was one of the strongest tribes during the wandering in the desert and its symbol is that of a gate representing the city of Shechem. This seeming contradiction can be explained in the following way, the tribe of Simeon, like Levi, was decreed to be scattered throughout as punishment for massacring Shechem. Levi was scattered throughout all of Israel whereas Simeon was scattered in towns only within Judah, in the Blessing of Jacob, this punishment appears to be prophesied, with the tribe being predicted to become divided and scattered. Nevertheless, an apocryphal midrash claims that the tribe was deported by the Babylonians to the Kingdom of Aksum, to a place behind the dark mountains
4.
Tribe of Levi
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The Tribe of Levi is one of the tribes of Israel, traditionally descended from Levi, son of Jacob, or high priest of the Israelites. Moses and his brother, Aaron, were descendants of the Tribe of Levi. The Tribe of Levi served particular religious duties for the Israelites and had political responsibilities as well, in return, the landed tribes were expected to give tithe to the Cohanim, particularly the tithe known as the Maaser Rishon. They performed the work in the Temple, the Levites who were not Cohanim played music in the Temple or served as guards. Notable descendants of the Levite lineage according to the Bible include Miriam, John the Baptist, Samuel, Ezekiel, Ezra, the descendants of Aaron, who was the first kohen gadol, high priest, of Israel, were designated as the priestly class, the Kohanim. The tribe is named after Levi, one of the sons of Jacob. Levi had three sons, Gershon, Kohath, and Merari, kohaths son Amram was the father of Miriam, Aaron and Moses. The descendants of Aaron, the Kohanim, had the role as priests in the Tabernacle in the wilderness. The remaining Levites were divided into three groups, Gershonites, Kohathites, and Merarites, each division filled different roles in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple services. Levites principal roles in the Temple included singing Psalms during Temple services, performing construction and maintenance for the Temple, serving as guards, Levites also served as teachers and judges, maintaining cities of refuge in Biblical times. The Book of Ezra reports that the Levites were responsible for the construction of the Second Temple and also translated and explained the Torah when it was publicly read. During the Exodus the Levite tribe were particularly zealous in protecting the Mosaic law in the face of those worshipping the Golden Calf and they are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting. And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what people have spoken, saying. Jeremiah 33, 22-24 The prophet Malachi also spoke of a covenant with Levi, Know then that I have sent this commandment unto you, that My covenant might be with Levi, saith the LORD of hosts. My covenant was with him of life and peace, and I gave them to him, and of fear, and he feared Me, and was afraid of My name. The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips, he walked with Me in peace and uprightness, but who may abide the day of his coming. And who shall stand when he appeareth, the Levites are not mentioned by the Song of Deborah considered one of the oldest passages of the Bible. Jahwist passages have more language, traditionally interpreted as referring to a person named Levi they could also be interpreted as just referring to a social position titled levi
5.
Tribe of Judah
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel. According to the account in the Book of Joshua, following a partial conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Judahs divinely ordained portion is described in Joshua 15 as encompassing most of the portion of the Land of Israel, including the Negev. However, the consensus of scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. According to the narrative in the Book of Judges, the tribe of Judah invited the tribe of Simeon to fight them in alliance to secure each of their allotted territories. As is the case with Joshua, many scholars do not believe that the book of Judges contains reliable history. In Samuels account, after the death of Saul, all the other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul. The Book of Kings follows the expansion and unparalleled glory of the United Monarchy under King Solomon, a majority of scholars believe that the accounts concerning David and Solomons territory in the united monarchy are exaggerated, and a minority believe that the united monarchy never existed at all. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to the House of David and these tribes formed the Kingdom of Judah, which existed until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c.586 BCE and the population deported. When the Jews returned from Babylonian exile, residual tribal affiliations were abandoned, bethlehem and Hebron were initially the main cities within the territory of the tribe. In biblical times, this region was subdivided into three sections – the wilderness of En Gedi, the wilderness of Judah, and the wilderness of Maon. The hill country – the elevated plateau situated between the Shephelah and the wilderness, with rocky slopes but very fertile soil and this region was used for the production of grain, olives, grapes, and other fruit, and hence produced oil and wine. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Judah, some Biblical scholars view this as an etiological myth created in hindsight to explain the tribes name and connect it to the other tribes in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, Biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been believed by the authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. As depicted by the Deuteronomists and post-exilic writers, the tribe of Judah was the tribe of the Kingdom of Judah. David and the line belonged to the tribe, and the line continued after the fall of the Kingdom of Judah in the Exilarchs. The traditional Jewish belief was that the Messiah would be of the Davidic line, indeed, many of the Jewish leaders and prophets of the Hebrew Bible claimed membership in the tribe of Judah. For example, the literary prophets Isaiah, Amos, Habakkuk, Joel, Micah, Obadiah, Zechariah, and Zephaniah, all belonged to the tribe
6.
Tribe of Dan
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The Tribe of Dan, meaning, Judge, was one of the tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. They were allocated a portion of land when the people of Israel entered the Promised Land. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of the descendants of Dan, in the biblical account, Dan is one of the two children of Bilhah, the handmaid of Jacobs wife Rachel, the other child of Bilhah being Naphtali. Scholars see this as indicating that the authors saw Dan and Naphtali as being not of entirely Israelite origin. Some have noted that the territory of the handmaid tribes happens to be the territory closest to the north and eastern borders of Canaan, thus exposing them to Assyria and Aram. In the Biblical census of the Book of Numbers, the tribe of Dan is portrayed as the second largest Israelite tribe. Some textual scholars regard the census as being from the Priestly Source, dating it to around the 7th century BC, and more likely to reflect the biases of its authors. According to the narrative, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE. Dan was the last tribe to receive its territorial inheritance, the land originally allocated to Dan was a small enclave in the central coastal area of Canaan, between Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and the Philistines. On the north the territory of Dan ended opposite Joppa, the modern Jaffa and this territory, not very extensive originally, was soon diminished by its dangerous neighbors, the Philistines. The tribe was able to camp in the hill country overlooking the Sorek Valley. The region they were trying to settle extended south into the Shephelah in the area of Timnah, as a result, the modern state of Israel refers to the region as Gush Dan. From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first united Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. The most celebrated Danite was Samson, a Danaite judge from the period of settlement in the lands allotted by Joshua, pnina Galpaz-Feller sees similarities between the story of Samson and Denyen tribal legends. Thus their territory in the end lay northeast of that of Naphtali, east of the upper Jordan River, near its eastern sources, a number of biblical texts thus refer to All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to re-form a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Dan was conquered by the Assyrians, and exiled, the manner of their exile led to their further history being lost. Simon Magus, also known as Simon the Sorcerer, and Simon the Magican, came from the village of Gitta in Samaria, according to Justin Martyr, a site settled by the tribe of Dan according to Josephus
7.
Tribe of Naphtali
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The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. In the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, kenneth Kitchen, a well-known conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. The most significant city was Hazor, from after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, the Tribe of Naphtali was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. In c.732 BCE, Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem, and Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, for help. After Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, Tiglath-Pileser sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aram, according to 2 Kings 16,9 and 15,29, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. The kingdom of Israel continued to exist until c.723 BC, when it was invaded by Assyria. From that time, the Tribe of Naphtali has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, according to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Naphtali, a son of Jacob and Bilhah, from whom it took its name. However, Biblical scholars view this as a postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation, militarism is featured in Naphtalis history. In the Blessing of Jacob, which textual scholars date to 700-600 BC - and thus a postdiction, Naphtali is compared to a hind let loose, and commended for giving goodly words. Centuries later, the Assyrians invaded Israel, which, though it had been a tributary, had also defaulted, with the land taken, the tribe were exiled, the manner of their exile led to their further history being lost. The symbol of the tribe is a very quick animal. The people of Naftali were famous for being great runners, there has been speculation that the Bukharian Jews of Central Asia are the descendants of the Naphtali tribe. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton
8.
Tribe of Gad
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Gad was one of the tribes of Israel who, after the Exodus from Egypt, settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River. From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Gad was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time then, the Tribe of Gad has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BCE, however, in the case of the Tribes of Gad, Reuben and Menasheh, Moses allocated land to them on the eastern side of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. The Tribe of Gad was allocated a region to the east of the River Jordan, according to the Torah, the tribe were descendants of Gad the seventh son of Jacob, from whom it took its name. However, some Biblical scholars view this also as a postdiction, furthermore, the Moabite Stone seemingly differentiates between the kingdom of Israel and the tribe of Gad, presenting Gad as predating Israel in the lands east of the Jordan. These details seems to indicate that Gad was originally a nomadic tribe. Though initially forming part of the Kingdom of Israel, from the biblical account it appears that under Uzziah and Jotham the tribe of Gad joined with the kingdom of Judah instead. The manner of the led to the further history of the tribe being lost
9.
Tribe of Asher
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Asher was one of the Tribes of Israel. According to the biblical Book of Joshua, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes, according to biblical scholar Kenneth Kitchen, this conquest should be dated slightly after 1200 BC. However, the consensus of scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. The Blessing of Moses appears to prophesy this allocation, although textual scholars view this as a postdiction. From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c.1050 BC, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. On the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom. Asher was a member of the kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BC, from that time, the Tribe of Asher has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. In the New Testament, Anna the prophetess and her father, critical scholars generally conclude that Asher consisted of certain clans that were affiliated with portions of the Israelite tribal confederation, but were never incorporated into the body politic. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Asher the fourth son of Jacob, critical scholars view this as an eponymous metaphor. A group named Aseru, living in a region to Asher in the 14th century BC, are mentioned in Egyptian monuments of the period. Identification with the tribe of Asher is plausible according to views that place the Exodus at the end of the Hyksos period and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George
10.
Tribe of Zebulun
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. According to the Torah, the tribe consisted of descendants of Zebulun, some Biblical scholars, however, view this as postdiction, an eponymous metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, Biblical scholars believe the tribe to have been regarded by the authors as a part of the original Israelite confederation. In the ancient Song of Deborah, Zebulun are described as sending to the battle those that handle the sopher shebet, the Tribe of Zebulun plays an important part in the early history of Israel. At the census of the tribes in the Desert of Sinai during the year of the Exodus. This army, under the command of Eliab the son of Helon, encamped with Judah and Issachar east of the Tabernacle, among the spies sent by Moses to view the land of Canaan, Gaddiel the son of Sodi represented Zebulun. At Shittim, in the land of Moab, after 24,000 men were slain for their crime, elizaphan the son of Parnach was chosen to represent Zebulun at the division of the Promised Land. During the rule of Joshua it received no special mention. e, such as recruiting and inspecting officers. The reference is to Baraks campaign against Sisera, the commander of the forces of Jabin and they answered the call of Gideon and joined in battle against Madian, and gave to Israel Elon, who judged it ten years. When Hezekiah made reparation for the abominations of his father Ahaz, at the division of the land of Israel among the seven tribes not yet provided for, the lot of Zebulun was third. The tribes territory started with Sarid, which is supposed to have been Tel Shadud, zebuluns boundaries have not been made out. The historian Josephus assigns to Zebulun the land near to Carmel, to its northwest lay Asher, to the southeast Issachar. It included a part of the Jezreel Valley, and the highway from the sea to the lake. Within the territory of Zebulun, Jesus was raised, and did and said much that is narrated in the Gospels, especially in the Synoptics, about his Galilean ministry. As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Zebulun was conquered by the Assyrians, and the tribe exiled, israeli Knesset member Ayoob Kara speculated that the Druze are descended from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, probably Zevulun. Kara stated that the Druze share many of the same beliefs as Jews, Zebulun Tribe of Issachar This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Easton, Matthew George. Media related to Tribe of Zebulun at Wikimedia Commons
11.
Tribe of Joseph
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The Tribe of Joseph was one of the Tribes of Israel. There were obvious linguistic differences between at least one portion of Joseph and the other Israelite tribes, the territory of Joseph was thus one of the most valuable parts of the country, and the House of Joseph became the most dominant group in the Kingdom of Israel. They have concluded that parts of the corresponding Elohist text, from this scholars believe that Joseph was originally considered a single tribe, and only split into Ephraim and Manasseh later. In the narrative in the Book of Joshua, which concerns the arrival in Canaan by the Israelites from Egypt, the leader is Joshua, but, despite an ethnic connection to Ephraim, Benjamin associated with the southern tribes and became part of the Kingdom of Judah. Despite the loss of the history of Manasseh and Ephraim, several modern-day groups claim descent from them, with varying levels of academic. The Yusufzai tribe of the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan, who refer to themselves as the Bani Israel, have a long tradition connecting them to the exiled Kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from these tribes, similar traditions are held by the Telugu Jews, in South India, who claim descent from Ephraim, and call themselves Bene Ephraim. Considered less plausible by academic and Jewish authorities are the claims of several western Christian and related groups, Ephraim Joseph Manasseh Yousafzai McConkie, Bruce R, The Millennial Messiah,1982, Chapter 16. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton
12.
Tribe of Ephraim
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the Tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim also formed the House of Joseph, the etymology of the name is disputed. According to the Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim is descended from a man named Ephraim and this Ephraim is recorded as the son of Joseph, the son of Jacob. The descendants of Joseph formed two of the tribes of Israel, whereas each of the sons of Jacob was the founder of only one tribe. The Bible records that the Tribe of Ephraim entered the land of Canaan during its conquest by Joshua, however, almost all scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in the Book of Joshua. From Joshua to the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel, no central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge, the Tribe of Ephraim joined the new kingdom with Saul as the first king. The widely accepted date for Sauls reign is approximately 1025-1005, some scholars dispute this date range and place Saul later, perhaps as late as the second half of the tenth century B. C. E. After the death of Saul, the Bible records all the other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul. However, on the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BCE the northern tribes split from the House of David to form the northern Kingdom of Israel. The first king of the kingdom was an Ephraimite, Jeroboam. Ephraim was a member of the Northern Kingdom until the kingdom was conquered by Assyria in c.723 BCE, from that time, the Tribe of Ephraim has been counted as one of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Ephraim is often seen as the tribe that embodies the entire Northern Kingdom, in the biblical account, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen, a conservative biblical scholar, dates this event to slightly after 1200 BCE. However, the view of modern scholars is that the conquest of Joshua as described in the Book of Joshua never occurred. The region later named Samaria consisted mostly of Ephraims territory, the area was mountainous, giving it protection, and also highly fertile, giving prosperity, The territory of Ephraim contained the early centers of Israelite religion - Shechem and Shiloh. These factors contributed to making Ephraim the most dominant of the tribes in the Kingdom of Israel, Bethel was allocated by Joshua to the Tribe of Benjamin. However, even by the time of the prophetess Deborah, Bethel is described as being in the land of the Tribe of Ephraim, ephron is believed to be the Ophrah that was also allocated to the Tribe of Benjamin by Joshua
13.
Tribe of Benjamin
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According to the Torah, the Tribe of Benjamin was one of the Tribes of Israel descended from Benjamin, the youngest son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel. In the Samaritan Pentateuch the name appears as Binyamīm, from after the conquest of the promised land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel, the Tribe of Benjamin was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges, almost the entire tribe of Benjamin, women and children included, was wiped out by the other Israelite tribes after the Battle of Gibeah. The text refers several times to the Benjaminite warriors as men of valour despite their defeat, a remnant of the tribe was spared, those few who remained were allowed to marry women of another town, whose husbands had been killed, to enable the tribe to continue. Responding to a threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes formed a strong. The first king of this new entity was Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin and he reigned from Gibeah for 38 years. On the accession of Rehoboam, Davids grandson, in c.930 BCE the northern tribes split from the House of David to reform a Kingdom of Israel. The tribe of Benjamin remained a part of the Kingdom of Judah until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c.586 BCE, some scholars believe that it instead originates from the tribe having the figure of a wolf in its standard. In Jewish Rabbinic literature, the Tribe of Benjamin is believed to correspond to the Hebrew month of Kislev, however, an abrupt change of character to one of placidity occurs in the text after a traumatic incident for the tribe. Six hundred of the men from the tribe of Benjamin survived by hiding in a cave for four months, the other Israelite tribes were grieved at the near loss of the tribe of Benjamin. They decided to allow these 600 men to carry on the tribe of Benjamin,400 virgin women from the tribe of Machir we found and given in marriage to the Benjaminite men. They then grabbed a wife each and took her back to their land, according to the Hebrew Bible, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Kenneth Kitchen dates this conquest to just after 1200 BCE, however, according to the consensus of modern scholars, the conquest as described in the book of Joshua did not occur. Modern Israeli scholars have identified most of the mentioned in the Book of Joshua. The Babylonian Talmud names three of these cities, all of which were enclosed by a wall, and belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, Lydda, Ono. Presumably, the boundary of the tribe of Benjamin would have stretched as far as the Mediterranean Sea. It is now an abandoned Arab village, the word Lifta is merely a corruption of the Hebrew name Nephtoah, and where a natural spring by that name still abounds. Though Jerusalem was in the allocated to the tribe of Benjamin
14.
Israelites
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The Israelites were a Semitic-speaking people of the ancient Near East, who inhabited a part of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods. The ancient Israelites are considered to be an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanite populations that inhabited the Southern Levant, Syria, ancient Israel. In the period of the monarchy it was only used to refer to the inhabitants of the northern kingdom. The Israelites were also known as the Hebrews and the Twelve Tribes of Israel, the Jews are named after and also descended from the southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah, particularly the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi. The word Jews is found in 2 Kings, Chronicles, and in passages in the Book of Jeremiah, the Book of Zechariah. The Kingdom of Israel, often called the Northern Kingdom of Israel, contained all the tribes except for the tribes of Judah, following its conquest by Assyria, these ten tribes were allegedly dispersed and lost to history, and they are henceforth known as the Ten Lost Tribes. Jewish tradition holds that Samaria was so named because the mountainous terrain was used to keep Guard for incoming enemy attacks. According to Samaritan tradition, however, the Samaritan ethnonym is not derived from the region of Samaria, thus, according to Samaritan tradition, the region was named Samaria after them, not vice versa. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, while in Samaritan Hebrew they call themselves Shamerim, in Judaism, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites. In texts of Jewish law such as the Mishnah and Gemara, the term יהודי, meaning Jew, is rarely used, Samaritans commonly refer to themselves and to Jews collectively as Israelites, and they describe themselves as the Israelite Samaritans. The name Israel first appears in the Hebrew Bible in Genesis 32,29, the Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra to prevail over or to struggle/wrestle with, and el, God, the divine. The name Israel first appears in non-biblical sources c.1209 BCE, the inscription is very brief and says simply, Israel is laid waste and his seed is not. The inscription refers to a people, not to an individual or a nation-state, in modern Hebrew, bnei yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history, it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna the term Yisrael acquired a narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites. In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli, a citizen of the modern State of Israel, the term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor. It is used synonymously with Israelites, or as a term for historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general. Today, Jews and Samaritans both recognize each other as communities with an authentic Israelite origin, the terms Jews and Samaritans largely replaced the title Children of Israel as the commonly used ethnonym for each respective community. The name Yahweh, the god of the later Israelites, may indicate connections with the region of Mount Seir in Edom, the Canaanites were also the first people, as far as is known, to have used an alphabet
15.
Ten Lost Tribes
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The ten lost tribes were the ten of the twelve tribes of ancient Israel that were said to have been deported from the Kingdom of Israel after its conquest by the Neo-Assyrian Empire circa 722 BCE. Claims of descent from the lost tribes have proposed in relation to many groups. The motif of the lost tribes first appeared in the era. In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, the return of the lost tribes was associated with the concept of the coming of the messiah, recorded history is at variance with the legends elaborated in apocryphal texts. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite states, The fascination with the tribes has generated, alongside ostensibly nonfictional scholarly studies, anthropologist Shalva Weil has documented differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Lost Tribes throughout the world. Some DNA studies have refuted any connection between modern-day ethnic Jews and most of the ethnic groups proposed as possible Lost Tribe candidates, for example, a recently published study into the genetic origins of Japanese people does not support a genealogical link. The Scriptural basis for the idea of 10 Lost Tribes is 2 Kings 17,6, In the ninth year of Hoshea and he settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River and in the towns of the Medes. According to the Hebrew Bible, Jacob had 12 sons and at least one daughter by two wives and two concubines, the twelve sons fathered the twelve Tribes of Israel. When the land of Israel was apportioned among the tribes in the days of Joshua, however, the tribe of Levi were given cities. Six cities were to be refuge cities for all men of Israel, three of these cities were located on each side of the Jordan River. In addition,42 other cities, totaling 48 cities, were given to the Tribe of Levi, Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the Tribe of Joseph. Each received its own land and had its own encampment during the 40 years of wandering in the desert, nine landed tribes formed the Northern Kingdom, the tribes of Reuben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh. In addition, some members of Tribe of Levi, who had no land allocation, were found in the Northern Kingdom, the Tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam, and formed the Kingdom of Judah. Members of Levi and the remnant of Simeon were also found in the Southern Kingdom, according to 2 Chronicles 15,9, members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon fled to Judah during the reign of Asa of Judah. Whether these groups were absorbed into the population or remained distinct groups, people from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system in Assyria/Mesopotamia. Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim, according to 2 Kings 16,9 and 15,29, the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. Many also fled south to Jerusalem, which appears to have expanded in size fivefold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water to be provided by King Hezekiah. 2 Kings 17,34 says of the newly exiled Israelites that were in Assyria and they neither worship Yahweh nor adhere to the decrees and regulations, the laws and commands that Yahweh gave the descendants of Jacob, whom he named Israel
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Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
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Samaritans
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The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near East. Samaritans used to include descendants who ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, in the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans are called Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq. In the Biblical account, however, Kuthah was one of cities from which people were brought to Samaria. Genetically, modern Samaritan populations are found to have greater affinity genetically to Jews than to neighbouring Palestinian Arabs. This suggests that the Samaritans remained an isolated population. The Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, a closely related to Judaism. The Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan, once a large community, the Samaritan population appears to have shrunk significantly in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines also reduced their numbers, conversions to Islam took place as well, and by the mid Middle Ages Benjamin of Tudela estimated only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria. As of January 1,2015, the population was 777, most Samaritans in Holon and Qiryat Luza today speak Hebrew and Arabic. Hebrew and later Aramaic were languages in use by the Jewish, Samaritans have a standalone religious status in Israel, and there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice-versa due to marriages. One example is Israeli TV personality Sofi Tsedaka, who converted to Rabbinic Judaism at the age of 18. Samaritans with Israeli citizenship are obligated to undertake service in the Israel Defense Forces. There is conflict over the etymology of the name for the Samaritans in Hebrew and this has accompanied controversy over whether the Samaritans are named after the geographic area of Samaria, or whether the area received its name from the group. This distinction is controversial in part because different interpretations can be used to justify or deny claims of ancestry over this region, Biblical Hebrew Šomerim ) Guardians comes from the Hebrew Semitic root שמר, which means to watch, guard. Historically, Samaria was the key geographical concentration of the Samaritan community, thus, it may suggest the region of Samaria is named after the Samaritans, rather than the Samaritans being named after the region. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Shomronim, which would appear to mean inhabitants of Samaria. This is a politically sensitive distinction, according to Samaritan tradition, Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of the Israelites from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan and the tribes of Israel settled the land. The two mountains were used to symbolize the significance of the commandments and serve as a warning to whoever disobeyed them
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Hebrew Bible
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They are composed mainly in Biblical Hebrew, with some passages in Biblical Aramaic. The term does not comment upon the naming, numbering or ordering of books, the term Hebrew Bible is an attempt to provide specificity with respect to contents but avoid allusion to any particular interpretative tradition or theological school of thought. Hebrew Bible refers to the Jewish biblical canon, in its Latin form, Biblia Hebraica, it traditionally serves as a title for printed editions of the Masoretic Text. Many biblical studies scholars advocate use of the term Hebrew Bible as a substitute to terms with religious connotations. Hebrew Bible Old Testament without prescribing the use of either, however, he accepts that there is no reason why non-Christians should feel obliged to refer to these books as the Old Testament, apart from custom of use. Modern Christian formulations of this tension include Supersessionism, Covenant Theology, New Covenant Theology, Dispensationalism, in terms of canon, Christian usage of Old Testament does not refer to a universally agreed upon set of books but, rather, varies depending on denomination. The Hebrew Bible includes small portions in Aramaic, written and printed in Aramaic square-script, the books that constitute the Hebrew Bible developed over roughly a millennium. The oldest texts seem to come from the 11th or 10th centuries BCE and they are edited works, being collections of various sources intricately and carefully woven together. Since the 19th century, most biblical scholars have agreed that the Pentateuch consists of four sources which have been woven together and these four sources are J, D, E and P sources. They were combined to form the Pentateuch sometime in the 6th century BCE and this theory is now known as the documentary hypothesis, and has been the dominant theory for the past two hundred years. The Deuteronomist credited with the Pentateuchs book of Deuteronomy is also said to be the source of the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, several editions, all titled Biblia Hebraica, have been produced by various German publishers since 1906. Between 1906 and 1955, Rudolf Kittel published nine editions of it,1966, the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft published the renamed Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in six editions until 1997. Since 2004 the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft has published the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, other projects include, Hebrew University Bible Project Hebrew Bible, A Critical Edition Biblical canon Books of the Bible Non-canonical books referenced in the Bible Torah Brueggemann, Walter. An introduction to the Old Testament, the canon and Christian imagination, the People of Ancient Israel, an introduction to Old Testament Literature, History, and Thought, Harper and Row,1974. Sinai and Zion, An Entry into the Jewish Bible, archived from the original on 14 March 2012. The Ancient Near East, Volume I, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press. An abridgement of Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament Noth, how the Bible Became a Book. The Old Testament, A Literary History, hebrew-English Tanakh, the Jewish Bible Complete, fully vocalized, contilated, Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible, together with the classic English translation by the Jewish Publication Society
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Hebrew language
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Hebrew is a language native to Israel, spoken by over 9 million people worldwide, of whom over 5 million are in Israel. Historically, it is regarded as the language of the Israelites and their ancestors, the earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date from the 10th century BCE. Hebrew belongs to the West Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family, Hebrew is the only living Canaanite language left, and the only truly successful example of a revived dead language. Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining since the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. Aramaic and to a lesser extent Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among elites and it survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy, rabbinic literature, intra-Jewish commerce, and poetry. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, according to Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, Modern Hebrew is one of the two official languages of the State of Israel, while premodern Hebrew is used for prayer or study in Jewish communities around the world today. Ancient Hebrew is also the tongue of the Samaritans, while modern Hebrew or Arabic is their vernacular. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Leshon Hakodesh, the modern word Hebrew is derived from the word Ivri, one of several names for the Israelite people. It is traditionally understood to be a based on the name of Abrahams ancestor, Eber. This name is based upon the root ʕ-b-r meaning to cross over. Interpretations of the term ʕibrim link it to this verb, cross over, in the Bible, the Hebrew language is called Yәhudit because Judah was the surviving kingdom at the time of the quotation. In Isaiah 19,18 it is called the Language of Canaan, Hebrew belongs to the Canaanite group of languages. In turn, the Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages, according to Avraham ben-Yosef, Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during about 1200 to 586 BCE. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile. In July 2008 Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa which he claimed may be the earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating around 3000 years ago. The Gezer calendar also dates back to the 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic Period, classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew, the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that through the Greeks, the Gezer calendar is written without any vowels, and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places where later Hebrew spelling requires it
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Modern Hebrew
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Modern Hebrew or Israeli Hebrew, generally referred to by speakers simply as Hebrew, is the standard form of the Hebrew language spoken today. It was revived as a language in the 19th and 20th centuries and is one of the two official languages of Israel, along with Modern Standard Arabic. Modern Hebrew is spoken by about nine people, counting native, fluent. The organization that directs the development of the Modern Hebrew language. The most common term for the language is Modern Hebrew. Most people refer to it simply as Hebrew, the term Modern Hebrew has been described as somewhat problematic as it implies unambiguous periodization from Biblical Hebrew. Rosén supported the now widely used term Israeli Hebrew on the basis that it represented the nature of Hebrew. In 2006, Israeli linguist Ghilad Zuckermann proposed the term Israeli to represent the origins of the language. Jewish contemporary sources describe Hebrew flourishing as a language in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew remained a spoken vernacular following the Babylonian captivity, Hebrew died out as a vernacular language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE, declining after the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136 CE, which devastated the population of Judea. After the exile Hebrew became restricted to liturgical use, the revival of the Hebrew language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Modern Hebrew used Biblical Hebrew morphemes, Mishnaic spelling, and Sephardic pronunciation, idioms and calques were made from Yiddish. Ben-Yehuda used a stock of 8,000 words from the Bible and 20,000 words from rabbinical commentaries and codified and planned the new language, some words he invented, such as ḥatzilīm for eggplants and ḥashmal for electricity. Sometimes, old Hebrew words took on different meanings altogether, for example, the Hebrew word kǝvīš, which now denotes a street or a road, is actually an Aramaic adjective meaning trodden down, blazoned, rather than a common noun. It was originally used to describe a blazoned trail, for a simple comparison between the Sephardic version of Mishnaic Hebrew and the Yemenite version of the same, see Yemenite Hebrew. Modern Hebrew is classified as an Afroasiatic language of the Semitic family, although it has been influenced by non-Semitic languages, Modern Hebrew retains its Semitic character in its morphology and in much of its syntax. A minority of scholars argue that the language had been so influenced by various substrate languages that it is genealogically a hybrid with Indo-European. These theories have not been met with acceptance, and Modern Hebrew continues to be considered a Semitic language by most experts
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Tiberian vocalization
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The system soon became used to vocalize other Hebrew texts as well. The Tiberian vocalization marks vowels and stress, makes fine distinctions of consonant quality and length, the sin dot distinguishes between the two values of ש. A dagesh indicates a consonant is geminate or unspirantized, and a raphe indicates spirantization, the mappiq indicates that ה is consonantal, not silent, in syllable-coda position. Each of the vowel phonemes could be lengthened, occasionally. The ultrashort vowels are more complicated. There were two graphemes corresponding to the vowel /ă/, attested by alternations in manuscripts like ארֲריך~ארְריך, ואשמֳעָה~ואשמְעָה. . In addition, one of the graphemes could also be silent, Shva was used both to indicate lack of a vowel and as another symbol to represent the phoneme /ă/, the latter also represented by hataf patah. The phoneme /ă/ had a number of allophones, /ă/ had to be written with shva rather than hataf patah when it was not pronounced as, before a laryngeal-pharyngeal, mobile šwa was pronounced as an ultrashort copy of the following vowel and as preceding /j/. Using ḥataf vowels was mandatory under gutturals but optional under other letters, קָ֫מֶץ also denotes a slighter, as שׁוּרֶק and קִבּוּץ a firmer, compression or contraction of the mouth. Segôl takes its name from its form, so שָׁלֹשׁ נְקֻדּוֹת is another name for Qibbúṣ. Moreover the names were mostly so formed, that the sound of each vowel is heard in the first syllable, in order to carry this out consistently some even write Sägôl, Qomeṣ-ḥatûf, cantillation signs mark stress and punctuation. Metheg may mark secondary stress, and maqqaf conjoins words into one stress unit, babylonian vocalization Palestinian vocalization Niqqud Cardinal vowels Blau, Joshua. Phonology and Morphology of Biblical Hebrew, a History of the Hebrew Language
22.
House of Joseph
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The Tribe of Joseph was one of the Tribes of Israel. There were obvious linguistic differences between at least one portion of Joseph and the other Israelite tribes, the territory of Joseph was thus one of the most valuable parts of the country, and the House of Joseph became the most dominant group in the Kingdom of Israel. They have concluded that parts of the corresponding Elohist text, from this scholars believe that Joseph was originally considered a single tribe, and only split into Ephraim and Manasseh later. In the narrative in the Book of Joshua, which concerns the arrival in Canaan by the Israelites from Egypt, the leader is Joshua, but, despite an ethnic connection to Ephraim, Benjamin associated with the southern tribes and became part of the Kingdom of Judah. Despite the loss of the history of Manasseh and Ephraim, several modern-day groups claim descent from them, with varying levels of academic. The Yusufzai tribe of the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan, who refer to themselves as the Bani Israel, have a long tradition connecting them to the exiled Kingdom of Israel. The Samaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from these tribes, similar traditions are held by the Telugu Jews, in South India, who claim descent from Ephraim, and call themselves Bene Ephraim. Considered less plausible by academic and Jewish authorities are the claims of several western Christian and related groups, Ephraim Joseph Manasseh Yousafzai McConkie, Bruce R, The Millennial Messiah,1982, Chapter 16. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Easton
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Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
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The United Monarchy is the name given to the Israelite kingdom of Israel and Judah, during the reigns of Saul, David and Solomon, as depicted in the Hebrew Bible. This is traditionally dated between 1050 and 930 BCE, modern historians are divided on the historicity of the United Monarchy as described in the Bible. There is no evidence of a united Kingdom of Judah. According to standard source criticism, a number of source texts were spliced together to produce the current books of Samuel. The most prominent in the parts of the first book are the pro-monarchical source. In identifying these two sources, two separate accounts can be reconstructed, the anti-monarchical source describes Samuel to have thoroughly routed the Philistines, yet begrudgingly accepting that the people demanded a ruler, and thus appointing Saul by cleromancy. Textual critics also point to disparities in the account of Davids rise to power as indicative of separate threads being merged later to create an age of a united monarchy. David is thought by scholars to have been a ruler in Judah while Israel, comparatively immense, modern archaeology also supports this view. Most scholars believe the Books of Samuel exhibit too many anachronisms to have been a contemporary account, for example, there is mention of later armor, use of camels, cavalry, and iron picks and axes. According to the Book of Judges, the Israelite tribes previously lived as a confederation under ad hoc charismatic leaders called Judges. Abimelech was the first to be declared king by the men of Shechem and the house of Millo, and reigned over Israel for three years before he was killed during the Battle of Thebez. The Bible treats the notion of kingship as having been an anathema at the time, it being seen as one man put in a position of reverence and power, which in their faith was reserved for God. According to the Second Book of Samuel, due to his disobedience to God, Sauls reign was curtailed, the Masoretic Text says that Saul ruled for only two years. The Bible portrays Saul as having died in battle against the Philistines, Sauls heir, Ishbaal, took over rulership of Israel but, according to Samuel, ruled for only two years before he was assassinated. David, who had become king of Judah only, ended the conspiracy, a number of textual critics and biblical scholars have suggested that David was actually responsible for the assassination, and Davids innocence was a later invention to legitimize his actions. Israel rebels, according to Samuel, and appoints Davids son Absalom as their new king, the Bible then describes Israel as taking over Judah and ultimately forcing David into exile east of the Jordan. This section of the text, and the bulk of the remainder of the Books of Samuel, is thought by textual critics to belong to a single large source known as the Court History of David. Israel and Judah are portrayed in this source as quite distinct kingdoms, eventually, according to the Book of Samuel, David launches a counter-attack, and wins, although with the loss of Absalom
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Biblical judges
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A Biblical judge was a ruler or a military leader as well as someone who presided over legal hearings. These judges appear most often in the Book of Judges, which is named after them, kenneth Kitchen argues that following the conquest of Canaan by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel and Judah, the Israelite tribes formed a loose confederation. No central government existed in this confederation, in times of crisis, however, almost all scholars have abandoned the idea that Joshua carried out a conquest of Canaan similar to that described in the Book of Joshua. Likewise, there is considerable doubt among scholars that a period resembling the one described in the Book of Judges ever existed in ancient Israel. Moses was a shofet over the Israelites and appointed others to whom cases were delegated in accordance with the advice of Jethro, his Midianite father-in-law. The Book of Judges mentions twelve leaders who judged Israel, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, the First Book of Samuel mentions Eli and Samuel, as well as Joel and Abiah. The First Book of Chronicles mentions Kenaniah and his sons, the Second Book of Chronicles mentions Amariah and Zebadiah. The biblical text does not generally describe these leaders as a judge, thus, Othniel judged Israel, Tola judged Israel twenty-three years, and Jair judged Israel twenty-two years. This is most likely not the case though as if all the figures given in Judges are treated as consecutive, however, Cyrus H. Gordon argued that they were normally from among the hereditary leaders of the fighting, landed and ruling aristocracy, like the kings in Homer. The shoftim many times played the role as an official with the authority to administer justice, most shoftim acted primarily as military leaders in times of war. The leaders were thought of as being sent by God to deliver the people from a threat, after the threat had passed, shoftim were generally expected to give up their position as military leaders. In accordance with the needs of the time, their functions were primarily martial and judicial, all biblical Judges performed judicial duties and the institution of Judges was separated from the institute of King. Shophet Moses Book of Judges Book of Samuel This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. Judges Boling, Robert G. revised by Richard D. Nelson, The Harper Collins Study Bible, Book of Judges, Harper Collins Publishers,2006 Malamat, givatayim, Israel, Rutgers University Press,1971. A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament, Oxford University Press,2009 Wolf, the Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible, Judge, Abingdon Press,1962
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Book of Judges
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The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible. Judges can be divided into three sections, a double prologue, a main body, and a double epilogue. The book opens with the Israelites in the land which God has promised to them but worshiping foreign gods instead of Yahweh, the God of Israel, and with the Canaanites still present everywhere. Chapters 1, 1–2,5 are thus a confession of failure while chapters 2, 6–3,6 are a major summary and reflection from the Deuteronomists. Once peace was regained, for a time Israel does right and receives Yahwehs blessings, only to relapse later into doing evil, Judges follows on from the Book of Joshua and opens with reference to Joshuas death. The Israelites meet, most likely at the sanctuary at Gilgal or at Shechem, the cyclic pattern set out in the prologue is readily apparent at the beginning, but as the stories progress it begins to disintegrate, mirroring the disintegration of the world of the Israelites. The stories are not presented in order, but the judges as they appear in the text are, Othniel vs. Chushan-Rishathaim, King of Aram. Some scholars have inferred that the judges were actual adjudicators, whereas the major judges were leaders. The only time a judge is said to have made legal judgments was Deborah. Despite their appearance at the end of the book, certain characters, early in the period of the judges. Judges contains a chronology of its events and it is overtly schematic and, according to biblical scholar Jeremy Hughes, shows signs of having been introduced at a later period. The basic source for Judges was a collection of connected stories about tribal heroes who saved the people in battle. A statement repeated throughout the book, In those days there was no king in Israel implies a date in the monarchy for the redaction editing) of Judges. Since the second half of the 20th century most scholars have agreed with Martin Noths thesis that the books of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings form parts of a single work. Noth believed that history was the work of a single author, living in the mid-6th century BCE. After a period of peace, the cycle recurs, further themes are also present, the sovereign freedom of Yahweh, the satirisation of foreign kings, the concept of the flawed agent and the disunity of the Israelite community. Although Judges probably had a monarchist redaction, the book contains passages and themes that represent anti-monarchist views, one of the major themes of the book is Yahwehs sovereignty and the importance of being loyal to Him and His laws above all other gods and sovereigns. Indeed, the authority of the judges comes not through prominent dynasties nor through elections or appointments, anti-monarchist theology is most apparent toward the end of the Gideon cycle in which the Israelites beg Gideon to create a dynastic monarchy over them and Gideon refuses
26.
Philistines
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The Philistines were an ancient people primarily known for their conflict with the Israelites described in the Bible. Assyrian sources also refer to Pilišti and Palaštu, also believed to be cognate with Pléšet, the first reference to Philistines in the Hebrew Bible canon is in the Table of Nations, where they are said to descend from Casluhim son of Mizraim. However, the Philistines of Genesis who are friendly to Abraham are identified by Rabbinic sources as distinct from the people described in Deuteronomistic history. This description portrays them at one period of time as among the Kingdom of Israels most dangerous enemies, in contrast, the canon of Eastern Christianity, the LXX, uses the term allophuloi instead of philistines, which means simply other nations. There are several theories about the origins of the Philistines, in 2016, the discovery of a huge Philistine cemetery, containing more than 150 burials, seems to point toward an Aegean origin of the Philistines. Genetic testing of the remains will provide further information. The English word Philistine and the modern term Palestine come from Old French Philistin, from Classical Latin Philistinus, from Late Greek Philistinoi, from Hebrew Plištim, the Hebrew term pelishtim occurs 286 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. It also appears in the Samaritan Pentateuch, in secondary literature the Aramaic Visions of Amram further mentions Philistia. This is datable prior to Antiochus IV and the Hasmonean revolt, possibly to the term of High Priest of Israel Onias II, Jubilees 46, in the Greek version of the Bible called Septuagint, the equivalent term phylistiim occurs 12 times, again in the Pentateuch. Outside of pre-Maccabean Israelite religious literature, evidence for the name, in the remainder of the Hebrew Bible, ha-pelishtim is attested at Qumran for 2 Samuel 5,17. In the Septuagint however 269 references instead use the term allophylos, the Philistines are the subject of research and speculation in biblical archaeology. While the evidence for connections is etymological and has been disputed. Archaeological research to date has been unable to corroborate a mass settlement of Philistines during the Ramesses III era, a Walistina is mentioned in Luwian texts already variantly spelled Palistina. This implies dialectical variation, a phoneme inadequately described in the script, *Falistina was a kingdom somewhere on the Amuq plain, where the Amurru kingdom had held sway before it. Allen Jones suggests that the name Philistine represents a corruption of the Greek phyle histia and he goes on to suggest that the Philistines introduced the fixed hearth to the Levant. This suggestion was raised before archaeological evidence for the use of the hearths was documented at Philistine sites, literally, it says that those whom Mizraim begat included the Pathrusim, Casluhim, and the Caphtorim. There is some debate among interpreters as to whether this verse was intended to signify that the Philistines themselves were the offspring of the Casluhim or the Caphtorim. While the Casluhim or the Caphtorim origin is widely followed by scholars, other scholars such as Friedrich Schwally, Bernhard Stade
27.
Saul
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Saul, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the first king of the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, Sauls life and reign are described in the Hebrew Bible. He was anointed by the prophet Samuel and reigned from Gibeah and he fell on his sword to avoid capture in the battle against the Philistines at Mount Gilboa, during which three of his sons were also killed. The succession to his throne was contested by Ish-bosheth, his surviving son, and his son-in-law David. A similar yet different account of Sauls life may be given in the Quran, according to the New Testament account, Saul reigned for a period of forty years. The Biblical accounts of Sauls life are found in the Books of Samuel, the narrative contains various internal inconsistencies, to the point that his biography is often embarrassingly confusing. According to the Tanakh, Saul was the son of Kish, of the family of the Matrites, and it appears that he came from Gibeah. Saul married Ahinoam, daughter of Ahimaaz and they had four sons and two daughters. The sons were Jonathan, Abinadab, Malchishua and Ish-bosheth and their daughters were named Merab and Michal. Saul also had a concubine named Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, Saul died at the Battle of Mount Gilboa, and was buried in Zelah, in the region of Benjamin. Three of Sauls sons – Jonathan, and Abinadab, and Malchishua – died with him at Mount Gilboa, Ish-bosheth became king of Israel, at the age of forty. At Davids request Abner had Michal returned to David, Ish-bosheth reigned for two years, but after the death of Abner, was killed by two of his own captains. Armoni and Mephibosheth were given by David along with the five sons of Merab to the Gibeonites, the only male descendant of Saul to survive was Mephibosheth, Jonathans lame son, who had been five when his father and grandfather Saul had died in battle. In time, he came under the protection of David, Mephibosheth had a young son, Micah, who had four sons and descendants named until the ninth generation. The Books of Samuel give three differing accounts of Sauls rise to the throne, Saul is sent with a servant to look for his fathers strayed donkeys. Leaving his home at Gibeah, they arrive at the district of Zuph. Sauls servant tells him that they happen to be near the town of Ramah, where a famous seer is located, the seer offers hospitality to Saul and later anoints him in private. A popular movement having arisen to establish a centralized monarchy like other nations, after having been chosen as monarch, Saul returns to his home in Gibeah, along with a number of followers
28.
David
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David was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah, reigning in c. He is described as a man after Gods own heart in 1 Samuel 13,14 and Acts 13,22. The Hebrew prophets regarded him as the ancestor of the future messiah, the New Testament says he was an ancestor of Jesus. God is angered when Saul, Israels king, unlawfully offers a sacrifice and later disobeys a divine instruction to not only all of the Amalekites. Consequently, he sends the prophet Samuel to anoint David, the youngest son of Jesse of Bethlehem, God sends an evil spirit to torment Saul. Sauls courtiers recommend that he send for David, a man skillful on the lyre, wise in speech, and brave in battle. So David enters Sauls service as one of the royal armour-bearers, and plays the lyre to soothe the king, war comes between Israel and the Philistines, and the giant Goliath challenges the Israelites to send out a champion to face him in single combat. David, sent by his father to bring provisions to his brothers serving in Sauls army, refusing the kings offer of the royal armour, he kills Goliath with his sling. Saul inquires the name of the heros father. Saul sets David over his army, all Israel loves David, but his popularity causes Saul to fear him. Saul plots his death, but Sauls son Jonathan, one of those who loves David, warns him of his fathers schemes and David flees. He becomes a vassal of the Philistine king Achish of Gath, but Achishs nobles question his loyalty, Jonathan and Saul are killed, and David is anointed king over Judah. In the north, Sauls son Ish-Bosheth is anointed king of Israel, with the death of Sauls son, the elders of Israel come to Hebron and David is anointed king over all Israel. He conquers Jerusalem, previously a Jebusite stronghold, and makes it his capital. He brings the Ark of the Covenant to the city, intending to build a temple for God, Nathan also prophesies that God has made a covenant with the house of David, Your throne shall be established forever. David wins more victories over the Philistines, while the Moabites, Edomites, Amalekites, Ammonites, during a battle to conquer the Ammonite capital of Rabbah, David seduces Bathsheba and causes the death of her husband Uriah the Hittite. In response, Nathan prophesies the punishment that shall fall upon him, in fulfillment of these words Davids son Absalom rebels. The rebellion ends at the battle of the Wood of Ephraim, Absaloms forces are routed, and Absalom is caught by his long hair in the branches of a tree, and killed by Joab, contrary to Davids order. Joab was the commander of Davids army, David laments the death of his favourite son, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom
29.
Rehoboam
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Rehoboam was an Israelite king mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. He was a son of Solomon and a grandson of David and his mother was Naamah the Ammonite. One of the most difficult issues in identifying Shishak with Shoshenq I is the statement that King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. Solomons wisdom and power were not sufficient to prevent the rebellion of several of his border cities, Damascus under Rezon secured its independence of Solomon, and Jeroboam, a superintendent of works, his ambition stirred by the words of the prophet Ahijah, fled to Egypt. Thus before the death of Solomon the apparently unified kingdom of David began to disintegrate, with Damascus independent and a powerful man of Ephraim, the most prominent of the Ten Tribes, awaiting his opportunity, the future of Solomons kingdom became dubious. Conventional Bible chronology dates the start of Rehoboams reign to the mid-10th century BC and his reign is described in 1 Kings 12 and 14, 21-31 and in 2 Chronicles 10-12 In the Hebrew Bible, Rehoboam was 41 years old when he ascended the throne. The assembly for the coronation of Solomons successor, Rehoboam, was called at Shechem, before the coronation took place the assembly requested certain reforms in the policy followed by Rehoboams father, Solomon. The reforms requested would materially reduce the royal exchequer and hence its power to continue the magnificence of Solomons court, the older men counseled Rehoboam at least to speak to the people in a civil manner. However, the new king sought the advice from the people he had grown up with, who advised the king to show no weakness to the people, and to tax them even more, which Rehoboam did. He proclaimed to the people, Whereas my father laid upon you a heavy yoke, Whereas my father chastised you with whips, so shall I chastise you with scorpions. For my littlest finger is thicker than my fathers loins, and your backs, the two sections had acted independently until David, by his victories, succeeded in uniting all the tribes, though the Ephraimitic jealousy was ever ready to develop into open revolt. The building of the Temple was a blow for the various sanctuaries scattered through the land. Josephus makes the rebels exclaim, We leave to Rehoboam the Temple his father built, Jeroboam and the people rebelled, with the ten northern tribes breaking away and forming a separate kingdom. The new breakaway kingdom continued to be called Kingdom of Israel, the realm Rehoboam was left with was called Kingdom of Judah. Rehoboam went to war against the new Kingdom of Israel with a force of 180,000 soldiers, however, he was advised against fighting his brethren, and so returned to Jerusalem. The text reports that Israel and Judah were in a state of war throughout his 17-year reign, in the 5th year of Rehoboams reign Shishaq, king of Egypt, brought a huge army and took many cities. According to Joshua, son of Nadav, the mention in 2 Chron,11,6 sqq. that Rehoboam built fifteen fortified cities, indicates that the attack was not unexpected. The account in Chronicles states that Shishaq marched with 1,200 chariots,60,000 horsemen and troops who came with him from Egypt, Libyans, Sukkites, shishaqs armies captured all of the fortified towns leading to Jerusalem between Gezer and Gibeon
30.
Davidic line
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The Davidic line refers to the tracing of lineage to King David referred to many times in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament. According to the Tanakh upon being chosen and becoming king, the custom was anointing with holy oil poured on the head. In Davids case, this was done by the prophet Samuel In Hebrew, the anointing is called meshicha and a king is referred to as a Moshiach or Messiah or a Melech HaMashiach meaning the anointed king. The procedure of anointment, in Davids case, is said to symbolize the descent of Gods holiness upon the king and this kingdom was eventually conquered by Assyria who exiled them, to disappear from history as The Ten Lost Tribes. Following the conquest of Judah by Babylon and the exile of its population, the highest official of Babylonian Jewry was the exilarch. Those who held the position traced their ancestry to the House of David in the male line, the position holder was regarded as a king-in-waiting. The Hasmoneans, also known as the Maccabees, were a group from the Tribe of Levi. They established their own monarchy in Judea following their revolt against the Hellenistic Seleucid dynasty, the Hasmoneans were not considered connected to the Davidic line nor to the Tribe of Judah. The Levites had always been excluded from the Israelite monarchy, so when the Maccabees assumed the throne in order to rededicate the defiled Second Temple, a cardinal rule was broken. The Messiah is often referred to as King Messiah, or, in Hebrew, מלך משיח, jewish tradition alludes to two redeemers, both of whom are called mashiach and are involved in ushering in the Messianic age, Mashiach ben David, and Mashiach ben Yosef. In general, the term Messiah unqualified refers to Mashiach ben David, in Christian interpretation the Davidic promise of a Davidic line in 2 Samuel 7 is understood in various ways, traditionally referring to the genealogies of Christ in the New Testament. The Quran mentioned the house of David once and mentioned David 16 times
31.
Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
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According to the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel was one of two successor states to the former United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Historians often refer to the Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom or as the Kingdom of Samaria to differentiate it from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, the Kingdom of Israel existed roughly from 930 BCE until 720 BCE, when it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The major cities of the kingdom were Shechem, Tirzah, in the Hebrew Bible, the Kingdom of Israel has been referred to as the House of Joseph. It is also referenced as Ephraim, the tribe whose territory housed the capital cities. It has also referred to as Israel in Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible, the territory of the Kingdom of Israel comprised the territories of the tribes of Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and its capital was Samaria according to the Book of Isaiah. The United Kingdom of Israel and Judah is said to have existed from about 1030 to about 930 BCE and it was a union of all the twelve Israelite tribes living in the area that presently approximates modern Israel and the Palestinian territories. After the death of Solomon in about 931 BCE, all the Israelite tribes except for Judah and Benjamin refused to accept Rehoboam, the rebellion against Rehoboam arose after he refused to lighten the burden of taxation and services that his father had imposed on his subjects. Jeroboam, who was not of the Davidic line, was sent for from Egypt by the malcontents, the Tribe of Ephraim and all Israel raised the old cry, Every man to his tents, O Israel. Rehoboam fled to Jerusalem, and in 930 BCE, Jeroboam was proclaimed king over all Israel at Shechem, after the revolt at Shechem at first only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. But very soon after the tribe of Benjamin joined Judah, the northern kingdom continued to be called the Kingdom of Israel or Israel, while the southern kingdom was called the kingdom of Judah. 2 Chronicles 15,9 also says that members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, both Eusebius and Josephus place the division in 997 BCE – lunar dates of Venus can be mistaken as 64 years later. Shechem was the first capital of the Kingdom of Israel, King Omri built his capital in Samaria, which continued as such until the destruction of the Kingdom by the Assyrians. Thus, around 720 BCE, after two centuries, the kingdom of the ten tribes came to an end, for the first sixty years, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over the northern kingdom, and there was perpetual war between them. For the following eighty years, there was no war between them, and, for the most part, they were in friendly alliance, co-operating against their common enemies. The conflict between Israel and Judah was resolved when Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, allied himself with the house of Ahab through marriage, later, Jehosophats son and successor, Jehoram of Judah, married Ahabs daughter Athaliah, cementing the alliance. However, the sons of Ahab were slaughtered by Jehu following his coup détat around 840 BCE, in c.732 BCE, Pekah of Israel, while allied with Rezin, king of Aram, threatened Jerusalem. Ahaz, king of Judah, appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III, the king of Assyria, people from these tribes including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Khabur River system
32.
Assyria
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Assyria was a major Mesopotamian East Semitic-speaking kingdom and empire of the ancient Near East and the Levant. Centered on the Tigris in Upper Mesopotamia, the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Assyria is named after its capital, the ancient city of Aššur. In the 25th and 24th centuries BC, Assyrian kings were pastoral leaders, Assyria can also refer to the geographic region or heartland where Assyria, its empires and the Assyrian people were centered. The indigenous modern Eastern Aramaic-speaking Assyrian Christian ethnic minority in northern Iraq, north east Syria, southeast Turkey, in prehistoric times, the region that was to become known as Assyria was home to a Neanderthal culture such as has been found at the Shanidar Cave. The earliest Neolithic sites in Assyria were the Jarmo culture c.7100 BC and Tell Hassuna, during the 3rd millennium BC, a very intimate cultural symbiosis developed between the Sumerians and the Akkadians throughout Mesopotamia, which included widespread bilingualism. The influence of Sumerian on Akkadian, and vice versa, is evident in all areas, from lexical borrowing on a scale, to syntactic, morphological. This has prompted scholars to refer to Sumerian and Akkadian in the third millennium BC as a sprachbund and it is highly likely that the city was named in honour of its patron Assyrian god with the same name. The city of Aššur, together with a number of other Assyrian cities, however it is likely that they were initially Sumerian-dominated administrative centres. In the late 26th century BC, Eannatum of Lagash, then the dominant Sumerian ruler in Mesopotamia, similarly, in c. the early 25th century BC, Lugal-Anne-Mundu the king of the Sumerian state of Adab lists Subartu as paying tribute to him. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria, little is known, in the Assyrian King List, the earliest king recorded was Tudiya. According to Georges Roux he would have lived in the mid 25th century BC, Tudiya was succeeded on the list by Adamu, the first known reference to the Semitic name Adam and then a further thirteen rulers. The earliest kings, such as Tudiya, who are recorded as kings who lived in tents, were independent semi-nomadic pastoralist rulers and these kings at some point became fully urbanised and founded the city state of Ashur in the mid 21st century BC. During the Akkadian Empire, the Assyrians, like all the Mesopotamian Semites, became subject to the dynasty of the city state of Akkad, the Akkadian Empire founded by Sargon the Great claimed to encompass the surrounding four quarters. Assyrian rulers were subject to Sargon and his successors, and the city of Ashur became an administrative center of the Empire. On those tablets, Assyrian traders in Burushanda implored the help of their ruler, Sargon the Great, the name Hatti itself even appears in later accounts of his grandson, Naram-Sin, campaigning in Anatolia. Assyrian and Akkadian traders spread the use of writing in the form of the Mesopotamian cuneiform script to Asia Minor, the Akkadian Empire was destroyed by economic decline and internal civil war, followed by attacks from barbarian Gutian people in 2154 BC. The rulers of Assyria during the period between c.2154 BC and 2112 BC once again fully independent, as the Gutians are only known to have administered southern Mesopotamia
33.
Canaan
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Canaan was a Semitic-speaking region in the Ancient Near East during the late 2nd millennium BC. The name Canaan occurs commonly in the Hebrew Bible, in particular, the references in Genesis 10 and Numbers 34 define the Land of Canaan as extending from Lebanon southward to the Brook of Egypt and eastward to the Jordan River Valley. References to Canaan in the Bible are usually backward-looking, referring to a region that had something else. The term Canaanites serves as an ethnic catch-all term covering various indigenous populations—both settled, the Amarna Letters and other cuneiform documents use Kinaḫḫu, while other sources of the Egyptian New Kingdom mention numerous military campaigns conducted in Ka-na-na. Canaan had significant geopolitical importance in the Late Bronze Age Amarna period as the area where the spheres of interest of the Egyptian, Hittite, Mitanni and Assyrian Empires converged. Much of the knowledge about Canaan stems from archaeological excavation in this area at sites such as Tel Hazor, Tel Megiddo. The English term Canaan comes from the Hebrew כנען, via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and it appears as KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters, and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna, scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kanaan, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region. An early explanation derives the term from the Semitic root knʿ to be low, humble, purple cloth became a renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus. The dyes may have named after their place of origin. The purple cloth of Tyre in Phoenicia was well known far, however, according to Robert Drews, Speisers proposal has generally been abandoned. The Late Bronze Age state of Ugarit is considered quintessentially Canaanite archaeologically, Jonathan Tubb states that the term ga-na-na may provide a third millennium reference to Canaanite while at the same time stating that the first certain reference is in the 18th century BC. See Ebla-Biblical controversy for further details, Mari letters A letter from Mutu-bisir to Shamshi-Adad I of the Old Assyrian Empire has been translated, It is in Rahisum that the brigands and the Canaanites are situated. It was found in 1973 in the ruins of Mari, an Assyrian outpost at that time in Syria, additional unpublished references to Kinahnum in the Mari letters refer to the same episode. Alalakh texts A reference to Ammiya being in the land of Canaan is found on the Statue of Idrimi from Alalakh in modern Syria. After a popular uprising against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mothers relatives to seek refuge in the land of Canaan, the other references in the Alalakh texts are, AT154 AT181, A list of Apiru people with their origins. All are towns, except for Canaan AT188, A list of Muskenu people with their origins, the letters are written in the official and diplomatic East Semitic Akkadian language of Assyria and Babylonia, though Canaanitish words and idioms are also in evidence. May the king ask Yanhamu about these matters, may the king ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan EA151, Letter from Abimilku to the Pharaoh, The king, my lord wrote to me, write to me what you have heard from Canaan
34.
Joshua
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Joshua /ˈdʒɒʃuə/ or Jehoshua is the central figure in the Hebrew Bibles Book of Joshua. According to the books of Exodus, Numbers and Joshua, he was Moses assistant and his name was Hoshea the son of Nun, of the tribe of Ephraim, but Moses called him Yehoshua the name by which he is commonly known. The name is shortened to Yeshua in Nehemiah, according to the Bible he was born in Egypt prior to the Exodus. According to the Hebrew Bible, Joshua was one of the spies of Israel sent by Moses to explore the land of Canaan. In Numbers 13, 1–16, and after the death of Moses, he led the Israelite tribes in the conquest of Canaan, according to Biblical chronology, Joshua lived between 1355 and 1245 BCE, or sometime in the late Bronze Age. According to Joshua 24,29, Joshua died at the age of 110, Joshua also holds a position of respect among Muslims. According to Islamic tradition, he was, along with Caleb, all Muslims also see Joshua as the leader of the Israelites, following the death of Moses. Some Muslims also believe Joshua to be the attendant of Moses mentioned in the Qurān, before Moses meets Khidr, the English name Joshua is a rendering of the Hebrew language Yehoshua, meaning Yahweh is salvation. The vocalization of the second name component may be read as Hoshea—the name used in the Torah before Moses added the divine name, Jesus is the English of the Greek transliteration of Yehoshua via Latin. In the Septuagint, all instances of the word Yehoshua are rendered as Ἰησοῦς, thus, in Greek, Joshua is called Jesus son of Naue to differentiate him from Jesus Christ. This is also true in the Slavic languages following the Eastern Orthodox tradition, Joshua was a major figure in the events of the Exodus. He was charged by Moses with selecting and commanding a group for their first battle after exiting Egypt, against the Amalekites in Rephidim. He later accompanied Moses when he ascended biblical Mount Sinai to commune with God, visualize Gods plan for the Israelite tabernacle and receive the Ten Commandments. Joshua was with Moses when he descended from the mountain, heard the Israelites celebrations around the Golden Calf, and broke the tablets bearing the words of the commandments. However, when Moses returned to the mountain to re-create the tablets recording the Ten Commandments, Joshua was not present, according to Joshua 1, 1-9, God appointed Joshua to succeed Moses as leader of the Israelites along with giving him a blessing of invincibility during his lifetime. The first part of the book of Joshua covers the period when he led the conquest of Canaan, at the Jordan River, the waters parted, as they had for Moses at the Red Sea. The first battle after the crossing of the Jordan was the Battle of Jericho, Joshua led the destruction of Jericho, then moved on to Ai, a small neighboring city to the west. However, they were defeated with thirty-six Israelite deaths, the defeat was attributed to Achan taking an accursed thing from Jericho, and was followed by Achan and his family and animals being stoned to death to restore Gods favor
35.
Jordan River
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The Jordan River is a 251-kilometre -long river in the Middle East that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and on to the Dead Sea. Israel and the West Bank border the river to the west, while the Golan Heights, both Jordan and the West Bank take their names from the river. The Jordan River has a course and a lower one. In this sense, the Jordan Valley may be separated into upper, central, over its upper course, the river drops rapidly in a 75-kilometre run to the once large and swampy Lake Hula, which is slightly above sea level. Exiting the now much diminished lake, it goes through an even steeper drop over the 25 kilometres down to the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan deposits much of the silt it is carrying within the lake, which it leaves again near its southern tip. At that point the river is situated about 210 metres below sea level, two major tributaries enter from the east during this last section, the Yarmouk River and Zarqa River. Its section north of the Sea of Galilee is within the boundaries of Israel, south of the lake, it forms the border between the Kingdom of Jordan, and Israel. The streams coming together to create the River Jordan in its basin are, west to east, Iyyon. Hasbani, a stream flows from Mount Lebanon. Dan, a stream whose source is also at the base of Mount Hermon, Banias, a stream arising from a spring at Banias at the foot of Mount Hermon. The full text of W. F. Lynchs 1849 book Narrative of the United States Expedition to the River Jordan, in 1964, Israel began operating a pumping station that diverts water from the Sea of Galilee to the National Water Carrier. Also in 1964, Jordan constructed a channel that diverted water from the Yarmouk River, another tributary of the Jordan River to the East Ghor Canal. Syria has also built reservoirs that catch the Yarmouks waters, environmentalists blame Israel, Jordan and Syria for extensive damage to the Jordan River ecosystem. In modern times, the waters are 70% to 90% used for human purposes, because of this and the high evaporation rate of the Dead Sea, as well as industrial extraction of salts through evaporation ponds, the sea is shrinking. All the shallow waters of the end of the sea have been drained in modern times and are now salt flats. A small section of the northernmost portion of the Lower Jordan, 3-kilometre below the Sea of Galilee, has been kept pristine for baptism and local tourism. Most polluted is the 100-kilometre downstream stretch—a meandering stream from above the confluence with the Yarmouk to the Dead Sea, environmentalists say the practice of letting sewage and brackish water flow into the river has almost destroyed its ecosystem. Rescuing the Jordan could take decades, according to environmentalists, the same environmentalist organization had said in a report that the Jordan River could dry up by 2011 unless the decay is stopped
36.
Transjordan in the Bible
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The Transjordan is an area of land in the Southern Levant lying east of the Jordan River. The prefix trans- is Latin and means across or beyond, so Transjordan refers to the land on the side of the Jordan River. The equivalent Latin term for the west side is the Cisjordan - literally, the term used in Hebrew for the Transjordan is עבר הירדן, beyond the Jordan, occurring, for example, in Joshua. It was therefore used by people on the west side of the Jordan, per the Septuagint, the Hebrew, בעבר הירדן מזרח השמש , translit. Beyond the Jordan towards the sunrise is translated to Ancient Greek, πέραν τοῦ Ιορδάνου, péran toú Jordánou, beyond the Jordan, which was then translated to Latin, trans Iordanen, lit. Beyond the Jordan in the Vulgate Bible, however some authors give the Hebrew, עבר הירדן, translit. Beyond the Jordan, as the basis for Transjordan, which is also the modern Hebrew usage, whereas the term East as in towards the sunrise is used in Arabic, شرق الأردن, translit. The Book of Numbers tells how the tribes of Reuben and Gad came to Moses to ask if they could settle in the Transjordan. Moses is dubious, but the two promise to join in the conquest of the land, and so Moses grants them this region to live in. The half tribe of Manasseh are not mentioned until verse 33, David Jobling suggests that this is because Manasseh settled in land which previously belonged to Og, north of the Jabbok, while Reuben and Gad settled Sihons land, which lay south of the Jabbok. Since Ogs territory was not on the route to Canaan, it was more part of the Promised Land. In the Book of Joshua, Joshua affirms Moses decision, in Joshua 22, the Transjordanian tribes return, and build a massive altar by the Jordan. In response to this, the Transjordanian tribes say that the altar is not for offerings, the western tribes are satisfied, and return home. Assis argues that the dimensions of the altar suggest that it was not meant for sacrificial use. Some of these traditions provide only a picture of Israelite possessions east of the Jordan. Num 21. 21–35, for example, says only that the land the people occupied extended from Wadi Arnon to Wadi Jabbok, there is some ambiguity about the status of the Transjordan in the mind of the biblical writers. Horst Seebass argues that in Numbers one finds awareness of Transjordan as being holy to YHWH and he argues for this on the basis of the presence of the cities of refuge there, and because land taken in a holy war is always holy. Richard Hess, on the hand, asserts that the Transjordanian tribes were not in the land of promise
37.
Mount Carmel
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Mount Carmel is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. The range is a UNESCO biosphere reserve and a number of towns are located there, most notably the city of Haifa, Israels third largest city, located on the northern slope. The phrase Mount Carmel has been used in three ways, To refer to the 39 km-long mountain range, stretching as far in the southeast as Jenin. To refer to the northwestern 19 km of the mountain range, to refer to the headland at the northwestern end of the range. The Carmel range is approximately 6.5 to 8 kilometres wide, sloping gradually towards the southwest, the Jezreel Valley lies to the immediate northeast. The mountain formation is an admixture of limestone and flint, containing many caves, the sloped side of the mountain is covered with luxuriant vegetation, including oak, pine, olive, and laurel trees. There is also a small kibbutz called Beit Oren, which is located on one of the highest points in the range to the southeast of Haifa. As part of a 1929–1934 campaign, between 1930 and 1932, Dorothy Garrod excavated four caves, and a number of shelters, in the Carmel mountain range at el-Wad, el-Tabun. Garrod discovered Neanderthal and early human remains, including the skeleton of a Neanderthal female, named Tabun I. The excavation at el-Tabun produced the longest stratigraphic record in the region, the four caves and rock-shelters together yield results from the Lower Paleolithic to the present day, representing roughly a million years of human evolution. Taken together, these emphasize the paramount significance of the Mount Carmel caves for the study of cultural and biological evolution within the framework of palaeo-ecological changes. In 2012, UNESCOs World Heritage Committee added sites of human evolution at Mount Carmel to the List of World Heritage Sites, the World Heritage Site includes four caves on the southern side of the Nahal Me’arot/Wadi El-Mughara Valley. The site fulfils criteria in two categories, natural and cultural. According to the Books of Kings, Elisha travelled to Carmel straight after cursing a group of men because they had mocked him. After this, bears out of the forest and mauled 42 of them. During World War I, Mount Carmel played a significant strategic role, the Battle of Megiddo took place at the head of a pass through the Carmel Ridge, which overlooks the Valley of Jezreel from the south. General Allenby led the British in the battle, which was the point in the war against the Ottoman Empire. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel, according to the Books of Kings, there was an altar to God on the mountain, which had fallen into ruin by the time of Ahab, but Elijah built a new one
38.
Mount Hermon
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Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the border between Syria and Lebanon and, at 2,814 m above sea level, is the highest point in Syria. On the top, in the United Nations buffer zone between Syrian- and Israeli-occupied territories, is the highest permanently manned UN position in the world, the southern slopes of Mount Hermon extend to the Israeli-occupied portion of the Golan Heights, where the Mount Hermon ski resort is located. A peak in this rising to 2,236 m is the highest elevation in Israeli-controlled territory. Mount Hermon is actually a cluster of mountains with three summits, each about the same height. The Hermon range covers an area of about 700 km2 of which about 70 km2 are under Israeli control, most of the portion of Mount Hermon within the Israeli-controlled area constitutes the Hermon nature reserve. The entire relatively narrow range, with the Lebanon-Syria boundary along its spine, the mountain forms one of the greatest geographic resources of the area. Because of its height it captures a great deal of precipitation in a dry area of the world. The Jurassic limestone is broken by faults and solution channels to form a karst topography, Mount Hermon has seasonal winter and spring snow falls, which cover all three of its peaks for most of the year. Melt water from the mountains western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain. These merge to become the Jordan River, additionally, the runoff facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyards and pine, oak, and poplar trees are abundant. The springs, and the mountain itself, are contested by the nations of the area for the use of the water. Mount Hermon is also called the mountain, the gray-haired mountain. It is also called the eyes of the nation in Israel because its elevation makes it Israels primary strategic early warning system, in the Book of Enoch, Mount Hermon is the place where the Watcher class of fallen angels descended to Earth. They swear upon the mountain that they would take wives among the daughters of men, the mountain or summit is referred to as Saphon in Ugaritic texts where the palace of Baal is located in a myth about Attar. The Book of Chronicles also mentions Mount Hermon as a place where Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, france, in his book on the Gospel of Matthew, noted that Mount Hermon was a possible location of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Various Temples of Mount Hermon can be found in villages on the slopes, there is a sacred building made of hewn blocks of stone on the summit of Mount Hermon. Known as Qasr Antar, it is the highest temple of the ancient world and was documented by Sir Charles Warren in 1869
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Jezreel Valley
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For the ancient city, see Jezreel For the kibbutz, see Yizreel. The Jezreel Valley, is a fertile plain and inland valley south of the Lower Galilee region in Israel. The Samarian highlands and Mount Gilboa border the valley from the south and to the north lie the Israeli cities Afula, to the west is the Mount Carmel range, and to the east is the Jordan Valley. The Jezreel Valley takes its name from the ancient city of Jezreel which was located on a low hill overlooking the edge of the valley. The word Jezreel comes from the Hebrew, and means God sows or El sows, the area has been known as the Plain of Esdraelon. The valley perhaps once acted as the channel by which the Dead Sea, located southeast of the valley, connected to the Mediterranean Sea. About two million years ago, as the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Rift Valley rose, this connection was lost, and periodic floods from the Mediterranean Sea ceased. This resulted in the Dead Sea no longer having a connection to the ocean, biblical cities in the Jezreel Valley include Jezreel, Megiddo, Beit Shean Shimron and Afula. Archaeological excavations have indicated near continuous settlement from the Ghassulian culture of the Chalcolithic Age to the Ayyubid periods of the 11–13th centuries. Due to the terrain, Egyptian chariots were only able to travel from Egypt as far as the Jezreel valley. In Christian eschatology, the part of the valley on which the Battle of Megiddo was fought is believed to be the site of the penultimate battle between good and evil, known as Armageddon. According to 2Kings 9, 1–10, after Jehu kills King Jehoram, he confronts Jezebel in Jezreel and they comply, tossing her out the window and leaving her in the street to be eaten by dogs. Only Jezebels skull, feet, and hands remained, in the early 1900, the Ottomans constructed the Jezreel Valley railway which ran along the entire length of the valley. In the 1870s, the Sursock family of Beirut purchased the land from the Ottoman government for approximately £20,000. Between 1912 and 1925 the Sursock family sold their 80,000 acres of land in the Vale of Jezreel to the American Zion Commonwealth for about nearly three-quarters of a million pounds. The land was purchased by the Jewish organization as part of an effort to resettle Jews who inhabited the land, as well as others who came from distant lands and the Jewish National Fund. After the land was sold to the American Zion Commonwealth, some of the Arab farmers who lived in villages and had been working for the absentee landowners were evicted. This was a feeling among the Jewish residents, part of a socialist ideology of the Yishuv
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Hauran
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Auranitis, also spelled Hawran, Houran and Horan, is a volcanic plateau, a geographic area and a people located in southwestern Syria and extending into the northwestern corner of Jordan. It gets its name from the Aramaic Hawran, meaning cave land, in geographic and geomorphic terms, it extends from near Damascus and Mount Hermon in the north to the Ajloun mountains of Jordan in the south. It includes the Golan Heights in the west and is bounded there by the Jordan Rift Valley, it also includes Jabal al-Druze in the east and is bounded there by more arid steppe and desert terrains. The Yarmouk River drains much of the Hauran to the west and is the largest tributary of the Jordan River, however, the name is used colloquially by both the inhabitants of the region and outsiders, to refer to the area and its people. The volcanic soils of Hauran make it one of the most fertile regions in Syria, the region receives above-average annual precipitation but has few rivers. Hauran relies mainly on annual snow and rain during winter and spring and many of the ancient sites contain cisterns, the area is unlike other historical fertile areas of Syria, which rely on controlled irrigation systems for their farming productivity. Since the mid-1980s, Syria has built a number of seasonal storage dams within the headwaters of the Yarmouk River drainage basin. The plains of Auranitis appear to have been inhabited by small bands of hunters and gatherers. By circa 12,000 BC, microliths and bone tools were becoming part of daily lifestyle. By this time Natufians settled in Taiyiba in southern Houran, and southwest of Houran in Tabqat Fahl, to their east, circa 8,300 BC wheat was domesticated and their neighbors to the west in Canaan and to the East in Mesopotamia started living in oval houses. Between 8,000 and 7,000 BC, people of Hauran were eating mostly hunted gazelles and foxes, between 7000 and 6000 BC their daily food was mostly domesticated animals and domesticated cereals. By the 4th millennium BC there were many Chalcolithic settlements in the valley of the Yarmouk river, the Auranitis is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible including the boundary area of the Israelite northern kingdom at the time. The countrys most distinguished citizen is said to have been the prophet Job, at the time, the Hauran also included the northern cities of the Decapolis. Atypically, its name is part of that of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Bosra-Haūrān, in alphabetical order, including article and disregarding hyphens
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Pekah
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He was a captain in the army of king Pekahiah of Israel, whom he killed to become king. Pekah was the son of Remaliah, Pekah became king in the fifty-second and last year of Azariah, king of Judah, and he reigned twenty years. In the second year of his reign Jotham became king of Judah, Jotham was succeeded by his son, Ahaz in the seventeenth year of Pekahs reign. William F. Albright has dated his reign to 737 –732 BC, while E. R. Thiele and this explanation is consistent with evidence of the Assyrian chronicles, which agree with Menahem being king in 743 BC or 742 BC and Hoshea being king from 732 BC. When Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram to attack Ahaz, the king of Judah, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III and this the Assyrian king obliged, but Judah became a tributary of Assyria. With the aid of a band of Gileadites, from home territory he probably originally came, he slew Pekahiah. In c.732 BCE, Pekah allied with Rezin, king of Aram and threatened Jerusalem. The prime reason for such a league was probably to protect their respective countries from another incursion of Tiglath-pileser III. who had compelled Menahem, the two kings united their armies and attempted to coerce Ahaz of Judah into joining them. Pekah raided Judah and carried to Samaria a number of captives, the united forces of Israel and Syria appeared before the walls of Jerusalem to demand its surrender. At this juncture Isaiah the prophet came to the support of Judah, the allies had proposed to set upon the throne of Judah a son of Tabeel, probably one favorable to the alliance. Ahaz, however, knowing that Tiglath-pileser was within call, appealed to him for help, after Ahaz paid tribute to Tiglath-Pileser, the Assyrians sacked Damascus and annexed Aram. According to 2 Kings 16,9, the population of Aram was deported, according to 2 Kings 15,29, Tiglath-Pileser also attacked Israel and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh and Hazor. He took Gilead and Galilee, including all the land of Naphtali, Tiglath-Pileser also records this act in one of his inscriptions. Soon after this Pekah was assassinated by Hoshea, the son of Elah, Tiglath-Pileser in an inscription mentions the slaying of Hoshea by his fellow Israelites. He is supposed by some to have been the shepherd mentioned in Zechariah 11,16, the data given for Pekahs reign in the biblical sources have generated considerable discussion. His ending date can be established fairly firmly as 732/731 BC, but two conflicting systems of reckoning seem to be used for his reign. One system gives him a reign of twenty years, which puts his starting date in 752 BC. This date is consistent with the statement that Jotham of Judah began to reign in Pekahs second year,750 BC, and that Jothams successor Ahaz began to reign in his 17th year,735 BC
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Aram-Damascus
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Aram-Damascus was an Aramaean state around Damascus in Syria, from the late 12th century BCE to 732 BCE. Sources for this state come from texts that can be divided into three categories, Assyrian annals, Aramaean texts, and the Hebrew Bible, the largest portion of the textual sources come from Assyria. There are, however, often several copies of the same texts, most of the texts are annals from the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser III, Adad-Nirari III, and Tiglath-Pileser III. The texts mention Aram-Damascus from an Assyrian perspective, but are in many ways informative of the strength of the state, Aramaean royal inscriptions are rare, and only one royal stele from Aram-Damascus proper has been identified — the Tel Dan Stele. Other sources in Aramaic that shed light on the history of Aram-Damascus include two booty inscriptions from Eretria and Samos, and the Zakkur stele of the king Zakkur, the Hebrew Bible gives more detailed accounts of Aram-Damascus history, mainly in its interaction with Israel. For instance, there are texts of the Bible mentioning Davids battles against Aramaeans in southern Syria in the 10th century BCE, in contrast, the sources for the early history of Aram-Damascus are almost nonexistent. In an annal dating to Tiglath-Pileser I, we learn that Aramaean people have begun settling in the half of Syria. The first reliable data can be found in the 9th century BCE when Aramaean, Assyrian, to the southwest, Aram-Damascus reached over most of Golan to the Sea of Galilee. In the 8th century BCE, Rezin had been a tributary of Tiglath-Pileser III, in c.732 BCE, he allied himself with Pekah, the king of Israel, to attack Ahaz, the king of Judah. However, Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-Pileser III for help and this the Assyrian king obliged, after Judah paid tribute to the Assyrian king. As a result, Tiglath-Pileser III sacked Damascus and annexed Aram, according to 2 Kings 16,9, the population was deported and Rezin executed. Tiglath-Pileser also records this act in one of his inscriptions, archaeological evidence of Aram-Damascus is close to nothing. Excavations in Damascus are hard to perform, owing to the settlement of the city. Other cities of Aram-Damascus have not been identified from textual sources. The material culture at sites farther south do not show many features distinguishing from the culture of ancient northern Israel. Hadadezer 880-842 BC Hazael 842-805 or 796 BC Ben-Hadad III796 to 792 BC Rezin Aram Aram Naharaim Aram Rehob
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Jerusalem
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Jerusalem is a city located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is considered a city in the three major Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, the part of Jerusalem called the City of David was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent, today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger, Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old Citys boundaries. These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, the sobriquet of holy city was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times. The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Septuagint which Christians adopted as their own authority, was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesuss crucifixion there, in Sunni Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina. As a result, despite having an area of only 0, outside the Old City stands the Garden Tomb. Today, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the captured and later annexed by Israel while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was captured. Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into Jerusalem, one of Israels Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the countrys undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset, the residences of the Prime Minister and President, the international community does not recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, and the city hosts no foreign embassies. Jerusalem is also home to some non-governmental Israeli institutions of importance, such as the Hebrew University. In 2011, Jerusalem had a population of 801,000, of which Jews comprised 497,000, Muslims 281,000, a city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem. Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba, the name Jerusalem is variously etymologized to mean foundation of the god Shalem, the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city. The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim first appears in the Bible, in the Book of Joshua, according to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yireh and the town Shalem. The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states, I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem, or as other scholars suggest, the mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Easton, Matthew George (1897). "article name needed". Easton's Bible Dictionary (New and revised ed.). T. Nelson and Sons.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the