Bible map of Assyria’s provinces in Israel
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
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
Elijah’s chariot of fire
Elijah's chariot of fire
Elijah's walk into the wind
Elijah didn't die, according to Bible writers. He was carried away on the wind while his colleague, Elisha, watched as "horses of fire pulling a chariot of fire charged at the men—driving between them and separating them. Then a powerful wind knocked Elijah off his feet and carried him into the sky" (2 Kings 2:11). Elisha started screaming, “Father! Father! Israel’s chariots and calvary!” (2 Kings 2:12).Experts try to explain what happened
Scholars don’t agree about how to explain what just happened. Was it a theophany—a physical expression of a spiritual or celestial event? Or was it physical and literal—horses that could toast a hotdog? Was it physical and metaphorical—lightning and a tornado or maybe an intense thunderstorm associated with a powerful dust storm? Or was it a vision of heaven’s military carrying Elijah away.Did Elijah die?
What remains of the story is the teaching that Elijah never died. Jews today set a cup of wine out for Elijah at every annual Passover meal known as a seder. Some teach that Elijah will come before the Messiah comes, as one prophet seemed to predict (Malachi 4:5). Jesus later taught that John the Baptist fulfilled that prophecy (Matthew 11:14).Elisha's request
Before the windstorm, while still on the walk, Elisha asked if he could take Elijah's role as the lead prophet: “Please, let me be the one to inherit the position you’re leaving behind" (2 Kings 2:9). And that's what happened. A group of prophets in Jericho said so: “The ministry of Elijah now rests on Elisha’s shoulders” ( 2 Kings 2:15).Elisha's ministry
The Hebrew word for “ministry” is ruah, which has many meanings: breath, wind, spiritual essence of a person, spirit being. In the context of the story, the prophets seemed to recognize that Elijah’s ministry as Israel’s leading prophet had just fallen to Elijah’s apprentice, Elisha.For more Bible features
Map Persian province of Judah
Map Persian province of Judah
Map of the Persian province of Judah
After the Jewish nation of Judah fell to Babylonian invaders in 586, many survivors lived in exile. Some returned 50 years later, when Persians freed them.
It was only a partial freedom. The Jews lived for the next 200 years as a tiny province of Persia: Yehud, which is translated "Judah" or "Judea."
It was roughly a 40-mile-wide square plug of ground (60 km), in territory that became known as Palestine. The Jewish province included Jerusalem and beyond, into what are now central parts of Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Jerusalem is where Jews sacrificed animals to God. So when the Jews returned, they built a new temple and later restored some of the walls around the city, but not to the larger size it was before the defeat.
Map of Judah as a Persian province