Map of Assyrian invasion into Judah
Map Isaiah 10 Assyrian Invasion into Judah
Assyrians at the Gate of Jerusalem
Map of 12 Tribes of Israel
Map of 12 Tribes of Israel
Map of the 12 Tribes of Israel
The 12 tribes of Israel came from the families of Jacob's 12 sons (Genesis 49:28). Jacob later in life became known as Israel. Each tribe was named after one of Jacob's sons, and they each got a specific chunk of land to call their own.
The tribes were spread out across the land of Canaan, which is modern-day Israel and Palestine. On the east side of the Jordan River, you had the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh. These guys got some wonderful pastoral land, which was great for grazing their animals, such as like the sheep and goats and camels.
West of the Jordan River
As for the other nine tribes, they were situated on the west side of the Jordan. From the north to the south, you had the tribes of Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Issachar, Manasseh (the other half, to be exact), Ephraim, Benjamin, Dan, and Simeon. These tribes were given land that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea all the way to the Jordan River.
Oh, and let's not forget about the tribe of Levi. They were the ones who were in charge of the Temple and didn't really get a specific piece of land to call their own. Instead, they were spread throughout the communities of the other 12 tribes.
The geography of the 12 tribes of Israel was quite diverse and spread out across a large swath of land of hills and fields and coastland and river land and desert. But, somehow, they managed to come together as a people and make a name for themselves as a powerful nation.
Then they split in two. But that comes later.
Bible map of the 12 Tribes of Israel
Israel and Judah
Map of Judah and Israel
Assyrian Empire 750 BC
Bible map of Assyria erasing Israel from the world map
Bible map of Assyria erasing Israel from the world map
Map of Assyria erasing Israel from the world map.
Assyria erases Israel from map
Bible map of Sennacherib’s attack on Judah
Bible map of Sennacherib's attack on Judah
Bible map of Sennacherib's attack on Judah
Assyria's invasion of Judah
Before Sennacherib's attack on Judah, Assyrians invaded Israel in the 700s BC. There, they gave top priority to capturing and pillaging Israel’s elite: rulers, judges, wealthy businesspeople. They followed the money and often butchered the cash cow. Assyria erased this northern Jewish nation and deported the survivors who became known as the Lost Tribes of Israel. Assyrian King Sennacherib’s turn on the only surviving Israelite nation about 20 years layer, in 701 BC. Judah, in the south, was the only surviving Jewish nation.Judah's cities decimated
Sennacherib destroyed most cities during that campaign. And he defeated Egyptians who came to their rescue. Then he lay siege to Jerusalem when Hezekiah was king. But he left suddenly.Assyria fled from Jerusalem
A Bible writer said an angel killed 185,000 of his soldiers (2 Kings 19:35). A Greek writer 250 years later, Herodotus, wrote that the army got stopped by a rat infestation that killed some of the soldiers. Some scholars speculate that the rats carried diseases—plagues such as bubonic, septicemic, pneumonic. Those three diseases—all from the same bacterium (yersinia pestis)—affect the immune system, blood, and lungs. (See Isaiah 10.)Assyria attacks Judah