Edom and Arabah Valley
Bible map of Judah and Edom
Bible map of Judah and Edom
Bible map of Judah, Edom, Paran Desert, King's Highway in the time of King Josiah, after Assyrians erased Israel from the political map.
Judah, Edom, Paran Desert, King's Highway
Bible map Assyrian Empire 750 BC
Bible map Assyrian Empire 750 BC
Assyrian Empire 750 BC
On the verge of overrunning Middle East
Assyria, based in what is now northern Iraq, began to push west, bullying city-state kingdoms into paying them taxes or tribute. They would conquer Syria first and kill the king in Damascus. Then, in 722 BC, they would erase Israel from the world map and deport the Jewish survivors. They would try to destroy Jerusalem, but didn't make it past the walls before something mysterious drove them away, possibly a bubonic-like plague, some scholars theorize.Where to find more Bible maps
The Casual English Bible® has more than 900 Bible maps, many in 3D style. You can search for maps by place name, such as "Sea of Galilee."Dedicated Bible map search engine
But you can also search for maps by Bible book, such as searching for all the maps in the book of Joshua. In addition, you can search by country, region, or era on a timeline, such as when Israel had kings or when Jesus was on earth. Here's a link to the dedicated Map Search Engine.For more Bible features
Assyrian Empire 750 BC
Israel, Judah capture land
Israel, Judah capture land
Land grab
Israel and Judah take land from Syria and Edom
Israel, Judah, and Moab are the big winners in a land grab. Each nation fought for control over their individual corners of the region.Assyria weakens Syria
Assyria attacks Syria, leaving it too weak to defend itself against an opportunist like Israel's King Jeroboam. Jeroboam II recovered territory Israel lost to Syria. He restores Israel’s border from Lebo-hamath in the north (about 50 miles/80 km northwest of Damascus), to the Dead Sea in the south. A prophet named Jonah, son of Amittai, said it would happen. Jonah came from the town of Gath-hepher.God helped make it happen
The LORD helped Jeroboam do these things because he saw how desperate the people had become. There was no one else willing to help them, free or slave. One more reason the LORD helped is because he promised not to let anyone erase them from the world. Those are the reasons he helped Jeroboam II, son of Jehoash.Edom and Judah gain land, too
Edom can't stop the young king of Judah, Amaziah, still in his early 20s and ambitious. After taking Edom, he challenges Israel to a battle. He loses, gets captured, and for punishment, Israel's soldiers knock down part of Jerusalem's city walls. Many citizens are taken as slaves.Moab's last stand
As for Moab, the combined armies of Judah and Israel can't break through the defenses of Moab's capital city, Kir-hareseth. Moab’s king saw he was losing the city. So, he took 700 swordsmen and tried to punch through Edom’s line and scatter the enemy. He failed and had to retreat.King sacrifices his son on city wall
Then he killed his oldest son, who would have succeeded him as king. He burned the body on top of the city wall as a sacrifice for everyone to see. Israel saw it, too. Angry and disgusted, they went home.Where to find more Bible maps
The Casual English Bible® has more than 900 Bible maps, many in 3D style. You can search for maps by place name, such as "Sea of Galilee."Dedicated Bible map search engine
But you can also search for maps by Bible book, such as searching for all the maps in the book of Joshua. In addition, you can search by country, region, or era on a timeline, such as when Israel had kings or when Jesus was on earth. Here's a link to the dedicated Map Search Engine.For more Bible features
Israel and Judah grab land
Judah picks fight with Israel
Judah picks fight with Israel
Judah picks one fight too many
Judah crushes Edom then Israel crushes Judah
Judah's king Amaziah is just 25 years old when he takes the throne in Jerusalem. Eager for glory, he crushes Edom's army. Then full of himself, the king of Judah picks a fight with Israel.Edom, first battle
The king sent his soldiers to fight the neighboring nation of Edom. Judah’s army killed 10,000 people of Edom and overran the Edom city of Sela.Israel, bad choice
Amaziah sent Israel’s King Jehoash an invitation to a fight. The message said, “Let’s settle our differences king to king on the battlefield.” Jehoash sent his reply: “You defeated Edom and you’re feeling pretty good about yourself. Enjoy the glory of victory. Why risk the agony of defeat? If you go down, so does Judah.” Amaziah pressed, so Jehoash complied. The two Israelite armies fought on Judah’s tribal land at the town of Beth-shemesh.Agony of defeat
Judah lost the battle, and their soldiers raced home. Israel’s King Jehoash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, the son of King Jehoash and grandson of King Ahaziah. Israel’s King Jehoash marched into Jerusalem and tore down 200 yards of the city walls, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. He raided treasuries of the Temple and the king’s palace. He took all the silver and gold, including the sacred utensils and furnishings in the Temple. And he kidnapped some citizens and took them back to his capital city of Samaria.Where to find more Bible maps
The Casual English Bible® has more than 900 Bible maps, many in 3D style. You can search for maps by place name, such as "Sea of Galilee."Dedicated Bible map search engine
But you can also search for maps by Bible book, such as searching for all the maps in the book of Joshua. In addition, you can search by country, region, or era on a timeline, such as when Israel had kings or when Jesus was on earth. Here's a link to the dedicated Map Search Engine.For more Bible features
Judah picks a fight with Israel
King Jehu bows to Assyria
King Jehu bows to Assyria
Assyria on the rise
King Jehu on the record bowing to Assyria
In the ancient version of a photo op, King Jehu shows up chiseled into a limestone obelisk, bowing and paying tribute to Assyrian King Shalmaneser III (reigned about 858-824 BC).Assyria's war memorial
Assyrians set up the pillar in the courtyard of a major city the king was building: Kalhu. The obelisk became a monument to commemorate the king's 31 years of knocking nations in the head during his military campaigns. He was in the business of expanding the empire from its base in what is now northern Iraq. Babylonians would later rise to power in Iraq's southland, near the Persian Gulf. They would run the Assyrians out of their capital on Nineveh, in what is now Mosul.Jehu bowing, in the British Museum
The obelisk was rediscovered in 1846 and it went on on display in the British Museum, in London. Scholars were delighted to find archaeological evidence of an Israelite king. Evidence like that is rare.Where to find more Bible maps
The Casual English Bible® has more than 900 Bible maps, many in 3D style. You can search for maps by place name, such as "Sea of Galilee."Dedicated Bible map search engine
But you can also search for maps by Bible book, such as searching for all the maps in the book of Joshua. In addition, you can search by country, region, or era on a timeline, such as when Israel had kings or when Jesus was on earth. Here's a link to the dedicated Map Search Engine.For more Bible features
Jehu bows to Assyria
Syria steal’s Israel’s land
Syria steal's Israel's land
When Israel owned the East Bank
Israel on both sides of the Jordan River
When Joshua led the Hebrew ancestors across the Jordan River, into the river valley near the city of Jericho, they already owed the ground behind them. They captured it from nations that attacked them as they traveled. But after almost a millennium, they began to lose it. Syria steals Israel's land.Three tribes lose their homeland
The LORD began breaking off pieces of Israel and giving them away. Syria’s King Hazael defeated Israel in one location after another. He kept what he won. He won the sprawling territory of Gilead along with the tribal lands of Gad, Reuben, Manasseh, all east of the Jordan River. He took that entire stretch of land, from the town of Aroer by the Arnon river in the south, to the territories of Gilead and Bashan in the north. (2 Kings 10:32-33, Casual English Bible). This cut Israel in half, not only by splitting the nation down the middle, along the Jordan River, but by taking half the land mass.Where to find more Bible maps
The Casual English Bible® has more than 900 Bible maps, many in 3D style. You can search for maps by place name, such as "Sea of Galilee."Dedicated Bible map search engine
But you can also search for maps by Bible book, such as searching for all the maps in the book of Joshua. In addition, you can search by country, region, or era on a timeline, such as when Israel had kings or when Jesus was on earth. Here's a link to the dedicated Map Search Engine.For more Bible features
Syria steals Israel's land
Famine, murder, revolution in Israel
Famine, murder, revolution in Israel
Famine, murder, revolution
Famine in Israel
Elisha met with the woman from Shunem, whose son he brought back to life. He told her, “The LORD is sending a famine here. For seven years we won’t have enough food to go around. So, you need to live somewhere else during that time." She did what the prophet said. She moved into Philistine territory and stayed there for seven years.The famine may have been started by Syrian king Ben-hadad's three-year siege of Israel's capital city of Samaria. Invading soldiers may have destroyed the crops. It takes several years to restart a vineyard burned to the ground, for example.
Murder in Damascus, prompted by a prophet
Elisha pays a visit to Damascus while the Syrian king, Ben-hadad, lies sick in bed. He's hostile to Israel, but apparently values the opinion of Israel's most revered prophet. So he sends a messenger to ask if he'll recover from the sickness. Elisha tells the messenger, Hazael, to lie and tell the king he'll recover. Elisha then cries and tells Hazael that he'll do terrible things to Israel.Hazael tells the king he'll get well. Then he suffocates him and declares himself king of Syria.
Hazael will declare war on Israel and begin to take some of Israel's land east of the Jordan River. King Ahab's son and successor, Joram joins forces with Judah's army to try to stop the Syrians. Joram is wounded in the fight and goes to his getaway palace in the town of Jezreel to recover. He will die there, assassinated by one of his chariot commanders, prompted by a message from Elisha (2 Kings 9). That would be two kings Elisha nudged into an assassination.
Revolution
Edom and the little border town of Libnah revolted against Judah during the reign of Jehoram, the king who went into battle with Joram against Syria, and lost. Edom may have seen that as a sign of weakness. The nation won their independence, and the Israelites never regained control of the land.For more Bible features
Famine, murder, and revolution in Israel