Bible map Hills of Judah
Edom, Israel, Judah
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
3D Bible map Judean Hills
Jerusalem Temple Mount
Jerusalem Temple Mount
Map of the Jerusalem Temple Mount, with Jericho and the Jordan River Valley in the distance.
Boss of Edom, Moab
Boss of Edom, Moab
Bosses of the Promised Land
Kings of Israel and Judah controlled their neighbor countries of Edom and Moab for part of the era of Israelite kings. Moab had apparently lived under the dominance of Israel since David conquered the nation (2 Samuel 8:12). This likely meant, in part, that they paid annual tribute to Israel’s king—essentially tax payments. This marks a turning point in the history of the northern Jewish kingdom, the beginning of the end of their empire.2 Kings 1-4, Israel's king, about to die
"1When King Ahab of Israel died, Moab decided to declare its independence from Israel. 2Israel’s King Ahaziah fell through the latticework of an upper window in Samaria. Injured, he wanted to know if he would recover. So, he sent messengers to ask Baalzebub, god of the people in the city of Ekron. 3But a messenger from the LORD told Elijah, a prophet from the town of Tishbe, to go and intercept the king’s people. Elijah was to say, “Tell me this, why are you going to Ekron to consult Baalzebub? Don’t we have a God here in Israel? 4Take this message as a reminder that we do. Tell the king the LORD says this: ‘You won’t leave your sickbed. You’ll die there.’” Elijah delivered that message."2 Kings 2:1-9, Moab declares independence
Israel declares war
1King Ahab’s son, Joram, became king of the northern Jewish nation of Israel. By that time, Jehoshaphat was into his 18th year as king of Judah. Joram reigned a dozen years.
2In God’s eyes, Joram was a poor excuse of a king. But Joram wasn’t as wretched and evil as his parents, Ahab and Jezebel. Joram tore down the Baal pillar [1] his father built. 3Still, he continued King Jeroboam’s long tradition of sinning.
Moab stops paying Israel
4King Mesha of Moab bred sheep. When King Ahab was alive and Israel was powerful, Mesha had to pay him to live in peace. Mesha gave Ahab 100,000 lambs and wool from 100,000 sheep. 5But Ahab was dead now. So, Mesha was done with that. He declared his independence by refusing to make those payments.Israel declares war
6King Joram mustered his army, pulling fighters in from all over Israel. They marched out of Samaria. 7Along the way, Joram sent a message to King Jehoshaphat in Judah: “Moab’s king has rebelled. Will you join the battle with me and fight Moab?” Jehoshaphat said, “I will. We are one. My people are your people. My horses are your horses. 8Which way should we go?” Joram said, “We’ll attack from the south, from Edom’s desert.”Moab's last city refuses to fall
Israelites defeat much of Moab's army and finally surround the last city, where Moab's king reigns. He sacrifices his son on the city wall, and Israelites give up and go home. The writer doesn't say why.
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Map of Israel, Judah, Moab, and Edom
Israel and Judah, one nation divided
Israel and Judah, one nation divided
CONSTANT WAR
Israel and Judah live in perpetual hostility toward one another. They are brothers in blood, united to their common and revered ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But they remain bitter rivals for as long as they exist...until one at a time, invaders from what is now Iraq, erase them from the world map. JUDAH AND SYRIA FIGHT ISRAEL War between Israel and Judah continued throughout the lives of King Asa and King Baasha of Israel. King Baasha reinforced the border town of Ramah. He wanted to shut the door on anyone trying to come or go between Israel and Judah.King ASA BUYS AN ALLY
Asa collected all the silver and gold in the Temple treasury. He told some officials to deliver it to King Ben-hadad at Damascus in Syria. Ben-hadad was the son of Tabrimmon and grandson of Hezion. Asa sent this message to Ben-hadad: “Let’s become allies. King Baasha of Israel is trying to invade and defeat me. I need your help. Please accept this gift of silver and gold. Then walk away from your treaty with Baasha, join forces with me, and help me push Baasha back where he belongs.It's a deal
Ben-hadad agreed to Asa’s deal. Then he unleashed his commanders and their armies. They attacked Israel and captured the cities of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all the territory of Chinneroth and all the tribal land of Naphtali. When Baasha heard what Syria was doing, he stopped work on Ramah and retreated to the safety of his capital at Tirzah.Taking down Ramah
King Asa drafted all the men in Judah, no exceptions. He mobilized everyone to carry stones and timber that Baasha used to fortify Ramah. He used the material to fortify the town of Geba in the tribe of Benjamin, along with the town of Mizpah. (1 Kings 15:16-22)Israel, Judah: One nation divided
Solomon’s Jerusalem add-on
Solomon's Jerusalem add-on
SOLOMON’S JERUSALEM
King Solomon's Jerusalem sat on ridge and stretched about one kilometer (3/4 miles) from the Temple Mount on the top of the ridge, down to Lower Jerusalem called the City of David. King David's Jerusalem was about half as big. Solomon added the Temple and surrounding area later.Kings after Solomon began extending Jerusalem to the west. The Jerusalem of Jesus, during the Roman occupation of Israel, was much larger...until Rome crushed a Jewish revolt and destroyed the city in AD 70. That was the last Temple the Jews ever had. Arab invaders conquered the land and 1400 years ago built a Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount.
It's now Jerusalem's most famous landmark: the Dome of the Rock. For another angle on Jerusalem, see the map with Nehemiah 7.
Here's a sampling of King Solomon's unusual writing, which many scholars say was written centuries later by a writer borrowing Solomon's name.
WHATEVER WE DO, IT’S A WASTE OF TIME
1David’s son, the Scholar and King of Jerusalem, offers these observations2It’s a pitiful waste of time, the Scholar says. It’s all worthless and meaningless.
3What do people get for all their hard work, For spilling their sweat under the sun?
4A generation dies and another is born, But it makes no difference to the everlasting earth.
5The sun rises. The sun sets. Then it races all night to rise again.
6The wind blows north. The wind blows south. The wind blows round and round. It follows its route, comes back home, Then it starts all over again.
7Rivers and streams flow into the sea But the sea always has room for more. So, water returns to the streams where it came from And the streams flow back to the sea.
8Everything is exhausting, Too exhausting for words. What we see isn’t satisfying. What we hear isn’t good enough. Ecclesiastes 1:1-8, Casual English Bible
King Solomon's Jerusalem
Solomon's Jerusalem
King Ishbosheth murdered, beheaded
King Ishbosheth murdered, beheaded
End of King Saul's family dynasty
King Ishbosheth died in his sleep, with the help of two of his bodyguards, both of whom commanded soldiers.
From 2 Samuel 4, Casual English Bible:
ISHBOSHETH’S TWO COMMANDERS
1News of Abner’s death stunned the people of Israel and terrified Ishbosheth.
2Saul’s son had two raiding parties. A pair of brothers commanded them: Baanah and Rechab. The men came from Beeroth, [1] a city considered part of Benjamin’s tribe. 3Original citizens of Beeroth fled earlier to Gittaim. [2] That’s where they live today, as foreigners.
4Saul’s son Jonathan had a young boy who couldn’t walk. The son, named Mephibosheth, was five years old when his father and grandfather died in battle. When the boy’s nurse got that news, in her panic to escape the enemy, she dropped him. He couldn’t walk right after that.
ISHBOSHETH’S LAST SEISTA
5One hot day about noon, the brothers Baanah and Rechab went into Ishbosheth’s house while he was resting. 6They said they were coming for some wheat supplies. But they stabbed Ishbosheth in the abdomen and ran away. 7They snuck into his bedroom while he was sleeping, stabbed him to death, hacked off his head, and ran away with it. They walked south along the Jordan River Valley all night. 8They took the head of Ishbosheth to David in Hebron. They told him, “This is the head of your enemy, Ishbosheth, the son of Saul who tried to kill you. Today the LORD is giving you justice for what Saul and his family did to you.”
9David told Rechab and Baanah, sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, “As God is my witness—the same God who saved me from every danger I’ve faced— 10I killed the man who told me Saul was dead. He came to me in Ziklag to deliver what he thought was welcome news. I welcomed him to death. That was his reward. 11I’m going to do more than that to you, a couple of men evil enough to assassinate a good man sleeping at home in his own bed. You’ll pay for that with your blood and your death.”
12David ordered his men to kill the two, cut off their hands and feet, [3]and hang their bodies by the Hebron pool so everyone could see them. David’s men buried Ishbosheth’s head in Abner’s tomb at Hebron.
Notes
1 4:2 The people of Beeroth, some scholars say, were likely not the original Canaanites, but Israelites who had moved into the city. That would mean Baanah and Rechab were Israelites of Benjamin’s tribe and not Canaanites from a town annexed by Benjamin. Centuries earlier, Beeroth was one of four cities of Gibeon that had tricked Joshua into making a peace treaty with them. The location of Beeroth is uncertain, but likely near Gibeon. Original citizens of the town were among the people Saul tried to wipe out, in spite of the ancient treaty (2 Samuel 21:1-9). Survivors later convinced King David to give them revenge and let them kill everyone in Saul’s family except Jonathan’s son, a crippled boy named Mephibosheth. As a cripple, he was no threat to becoming king. People considered him unfit.
2 4:3 Gittaim’s location remains uncertain. The name means “two winepresses,” which is double the meaning of “Gath.” One guess is a town in Philistine territory, about five miles (8 km) northeast of the Philistine town of Ekron. It was called Gath but wasn’t the large Philistine town of Gath. “Gath” was a common name for a town, often half the name, as in Gath-Rimmon (Joshua 19:45). Some say Gittaim may have been Gath-Rimmon.
3 4:12 It’s unclear why David cut off the hands and feet of the men’s bodies. People in ancient times occasionally cut off the hands and feet of living people, to disable them and force them to live in misery. But here, cutting off the hands and feet of the dead may have been to simply show contempt for two dishonorable human beings.
King Saul's son murdered, beheaded