CONTENTS

The genealogy of the ancestors and descendants of King David of Israel is preserved in the Bible. David was Israel’s second/or third king, and the founder of a royal house, the Davidic Dynasty. The pedigree from Judah to David, reads: Judah, one of the twelve Hebrew patriarchs, the father of Perez [twin-brother of Zarah], the father of Esrom [Hezron], who and his family migrated to Egypt along with the extended-family of Jacob (Gen 46:12), his great-grandfather, and, was the father of Aram, who represents the generation of the Egyptian bondage, the father Aminadab, who represents the "Exodus" generation, the father of Nahshon, the chief of the tribe of Judah during the wilderness wanderings under Moses' leadership, the father of Salmon, who represents the generation of the conquest of Canaan/Palestine under Joshua, Moses' successor, who, by his wife, Rahab "The Harlot", was the father of Elimelech, who represents the generation of the Hebrew settlement in Israel/Palestine following the Canaanite wars, who, by his wife, Naomi, was the father of two sons, Chilion [who died childless, survived by a widow, Orpha] and Mahlon, the first husband of Ruth "of Moab", who died also without issue; and Ruth came to Israel/Palestine accompanying her mother-in-law, Naomi, and, married secondly Boaz, the nephew of Elimelech, whose brothers are un-named in scripture, thus, the father of Boaz was one of Salmon’s un-named sons, who lived during the period of "the Hebrew judges". The pedigree is abbreviated here in the Bible since the purpose of the Book of "Ruth" was to document the transference of the title of the Judahite sheikdom from one branch of the family to another, represented by Boaz. Boaz appears as a wealthy kinsman of an un-named Judahite sheik, and, by his wife, Ruth "of Moab", was the father of Obed, a Judahite sheik, the father of Jesse, a Judahite sheik, who resided at Bethlehem, the father of eight sons, the youngest of whom was David, who, as a boy was a shepherd whose job was to keep his father’s sheep. David was the youngest of the eight sons (1 Sam. 17:12) of Jesse "the Judahite" and, his wife, Abala[ya] [Habalit], grand-daughter of Ibzan "of Bethlehem", Israel’s 10th Judge. The seven older brothers of David were: (1) Eliab [the father of Abigail, wife of [her cousin] Jerimoth, one of King David’s sons], (2) Abinadab, (3) Shimeah [the father of three sons, i.e., [Jo]Nadab, Joel, and [Jo]Nathan], (4) Nethaneel, (5) Raddai, (6) Ozem (Asam), and (7) Elihu. David, beside seven older full-brothers, had two half-sisters [same mother], who were (a) Abigail, wife of Ithra (Jethro), an Arabic sheikh [mother of Amasa], and (b) Zeruiah (Cerouya), who, of her 1st husband, Suri "the Naphalite", was the mother of three sons, namely: (1) Abishai, the father of Absessalom, the father of Ahimaaz; (2) Joab; and (3) Asahel, father of Zebadiah; and, was the step-mother, by her 2nd husband, Nebat "the Ephraimite", to his illegitimate son, King Jeroboam of Israel, begotten of his mistress, Sariya "The Harlot".

3/1. DAVID reigned at Hebron as Judah’s first king for seven years, 1010-1003, then, reigned at Jerusalem for thirty-three years, 1003-970BC (2 Sam 5:5), as Israel’s third or second king depending on if one counts Eshbaal, who usually is not numbered in official regnal-lists. David was the greatest and most revered of Israel’s national heroes.

David, an athletic, charismatic, and handsome young teenager, slew a giant [Golaith], which made him instantly very popular among the people. [note: "the giants" in the Bible the Greeks say were the remnants of the survivors of the "great deluge".] King Saul summoned the lad and made him a captain in the army, whereupon, David enters his country’s service. He distinguishes himself in clashes fighting his country’s enemies, which greatly enhances his reputation with his countrymen. Earlier, Samuel, the country’s last "judge", who was a prophet and a priest, upon God’s instructions, had secretly anointed David with holy oil as king-elect, that is, to be King Saul’s successor, whom God had rejected, and, whom he eventually succeeded on Israel’s throne.

David began his reign as King of Israel by the capture of the Jebusite city of Salem, which was renamed "Jerusalem", which he made Israel’s capital-city. The city, situated on five hills, was centrally located among the twelve Hebrew tribes and was acceptable as their national capital and center of government. Here, David set in place a new administration and established an officialdom based partly on the model of Egypt's national government. To establish the city as the nation’s religious centre, David brought the Ark-of-the-Covenant there and placed it in the tabernacle which he had reassembled on the present site of the Temple-Mount, called Mount Moriah, one of the city’s five hills, the same mount a thousand years earlier on which Abraham built an altar and offered to God his son [Isaac]. David’s son [Solomon] later replaced the tabernacle with a grandiose temple in which to house "The Ark". "The Ark", usually kept at Shiloh, had been hidden for some time at an obscure retreat to prevent its capture by the Philistines. "The Ark", a holy relic, contained the stone tablets on which the "Ten Commandments" had been inscribed by Moses; and, at the same-time its lid [the "mercy seat"] doubled both as the temple’s high-altar onto which the blood of "the paschal lamb" was poured (Lev. 16:14,15) and also as God’s earthly throne (Ps. 99:1). Thus, Jerusalem became the centre of Jehovah-worship. The city also became the seat of David’s royal house. David renovated a Bronze Age stone hill-fort or castle in Jerusalem on Mount Zion, one of the city’s five hills, and later his son [Solomon] remodeled and enlarged it into a palace. The Bible says that Mount Zion was God’s foundation stone, and the later kingdom of Messiah is said to be founded on Mount Zion. Jerusalem thus served three purposes: (1) as the seat of David’s royal house; (2) as the centre of government of all the Hebrew tribes; and (3) as a new religious centre, replacing Shiloh, as the site of Yahweh/Jehovah-worship. David, thus, transformed the Hebrews from a rude confederacy of twelve tribes into a national-state. And, by his conquests of the remaining Canaanite [Palestinian] city-states in Israel David gave the Hebrews a period of peace. David also built a substantial empire for Israel by subjugating all the neighboring states. He made his tributaries the Philistines [Palestinians] of Gaza, the Jordanese [Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites] of Trans-Jordan, and the Phoenicians of Lebanon. He conquered Syria and stationed a garrison of Hebrew troops in its capital city, Damascus. He also took a yearly tribute from the Amalekites of Arabia which also became one of David's vassal-states. David, thus, took an insignificant nation, and, within a few years, built it into a mighty empire. The recent translation of some ancient script reveals that King David of Israel also defeated the mighty Assyrians in battle, who thereafter left him alone.

The doctrine of the "divine right of kings", which doctrine became the ideology of the Davidic Dynasty, was introduced by the covenant God made with David, which was the origin of the "Davidic Dynasty Tradition", that is, "royal Zionist theology", which tied the dynasty to the messianic prophecies of earlier times, and was the basis of the messianism of later times, which made the Davidic Dynasty a part of Israel’s religion, Judaism, and later of Christianity also. There are several Bible texts which tie the Davidic Dynasty to the messianic ideas of earlier times, which says that God would make for David a "house", that is, a dynasty of kings, which would produce "Messiah", whose kingdom the Bible says would be everlasting "from generation to generation" (Dan 4:34c). There are other Bible texts, such as Psalm 89, that reflect what may be referred to as the "Davidic Dynasty Tradition", or "royal Zionist ideology", which came to be Bible doctrine. The essence of the "Davidic Dynasty Tradition" is: (a) that God chose Jerusalem as the place of His presence [which replaced Shiloh as the cultic centre of Jehovah-worship]; (b) that God would make for David a "house", that is, an everlasting dynasty of kings, whose destiny was worldwide rule in great glory with a divine mandate, sitting upon God’s very throne (1 Chr 29:33), whose kingdom was to be established forever; and (c) the special intermediary role of the Davidic king between God and the people, whereby, the monarchy would be the channel through which God would bless the people. The covenant with David, paralleling God’s covenant with Israel, that God would channel His blessings to Israel through a dynasty of kings descended from David, made Yahweh/Jehovah the tutelary God or patron deity of David’s House, which thus became a "divine dynasty" (so to speak). This new status brought with it the inviolability of the person of the king, called "The Lord’s Anointed", and gave rise to a court rhetoric in which the king was called "the Son of God" (Ps 2:7) as the visible symbol of the invisible God, occupying God’s throne (Ps 2:6), representing God to the people; while at the same-time the king was called "the Son of Man" (Dan 7:13-14) as the corporate embodiment of the people representing them to God. The king was answerable to God alone, and was responsible to Him to care for the people, as the politique father ["parens patriae"] of a large family, his people worldwide. Too, the king was likened to a shepherd duty-bound to watch over his flock and provide for all its needs, and his people in return would attend upon the king as his servants and give him worship. The basic duties of the king were to feed his people [meal-tickets]: to house his people [vouchers]; to heal his people, i.e., "the royal touch" [health service]; to defend his people [the military to defend from without, and the police to defend from within], and, above all to lead his people, as a shepherd leads his flock.

The Israelite Monarchy under King David took on the political form of the messianic doctrine; and the king himself, David, and his successors and heirs, became the dominant element in messianism. The monarchy was/or is to be the agency through which God will fulfill the nation’s destiny, with David as the recipient of the inheritance of kings and as the founder of an everlasting dynasty, which would achieve worldwide domination and rule. And, an everlasting dynasty guarantees the survival, preservation, and the life of a nation, His [God's] nation, Israel, and its people [the Jews] forever. The stability of the dynasty was guaranteed by God on condition of a king’s obedience to His laws (Deut 17:20); disobedience would be punished, if any king of David’s House committed iniquity, God would chastise that one, however, in such circumstances was God promise not to cut-off David’s Dynasty as He had done to Saul’s House, and that David’s House would continue. Here, then, is the promise of an everlasting dynasty, free of conditions. There are several verses, which though not always citing the dynastic promise specifically, appear to presuppose it, and assert the ongoing nature of David’s House, that God’s throne would continue to pass through the descendants of King David forever unconditionally in an unbroken line. The psalm attributed to David in 2 Sam 23:1-7 in which reference is made to God’s covenant with David which is called unbreakable.

David, the king, had ten wives by whom he had twenty-two sons and at least one daughter. He =1 Michal, daughter of King Saul of Israel, his predecessor; =2 Ahinoam "the Jezreelite"; =3 Abigail, the widow of Nabal "the Carmelite"; =4 Maachah, daughter of King Talmai of Geshur; =5 Haggith; =6 Abital; =7 Eglah; =8 name unknown; =9 name unknown; =10 Bathsheba, daughter of Ammiel (Eliam) "the Gilonite", and, widow of Uriah "the Hittite".

(b) Chileab [a.k.a. Daniel], died young without issue

(c) Absalom, the crown-prince; the name of Absalom's wife is not given, but he begot three sons [who all died in infancy] and a daughter, Tamar, the wife of Uriel, Sheikh of Gibeah, and mother of Michaiah (Maachah), the 2nd wife of [her cousin] King Rehoboam

(d) Tamar (daughter), was Absalom's full-sister; who, after her rape by a half-brother, was married to a British prince

(e) Adonijah, heir-expectant after Absalom’s death

(f) Shephatiah (Chefatia), ancestor of a major secondary descent-line

six sons, who were: (h) Ibhar, (i) Elishua (Elishama), (j) Elpalet (Eliphelet), (k) Eliadah (Beeliada), (l) Abishai, & (m) Nogah

five sons, who were: (n) Japhia, (o) Nepheg, (p) Jerimoth [father of Mahalath, 1st wife of [her cousin] King Rehoboam], (q) Asahel, & (r) Joab

five sons, who were: (s) [name] infant son, who died a few days after birth, (t) Nathan, the ancestor of a major secondary descent-line, (u) Shammuah (Shimea), (v) Shobab, & (w) Jedidiah [a.k.a. Solomon], the youngest son, who changed his name on his accession.

The eventful, illustrious, and fruitful reign of King David was marred by the rebellion of his son Absalom, the crown-prince. Absalom rebelled against his father, David, and temporarily took possession of the kingdom. The civil war between father and son ended in Absalom’s defeat in battle, and the crown-prince was killed while in flight from the battle scene. King David then took back his kingdom, and was welcomed back in Jerusalem in great fanfare by the rejoicing city’s citizens.

David, while, lying on his death-bed, was advised to take a young secondary wife to sleep with to keep him warm. It just so happened the soldiers sent out to fetch the most beautiful girl they could find and among those chosen as candidates was Abishag of Shunem, the un-named Shulamite woman, with whom his son Solomon had secretly been courting. She did not know his true identity during the courtship and called him her "absent shepherd lover", when he disappeared one day and could not be found by her. Not, until she arrived at the palace did she find out that Solomon, her "shepherd lover" of "Canticles", was none other than the crown-prince. Her marriage to King David as a "secondary-wife" was never consummated, and she was free to marry her teenage lover, Solomon, as his [1st] "primary-wife", and queen, which she does.

King David was age 70 on his death. His tomb in Jerusalem became the official sepulchre of the Kings of Judah, and it was still in existence 1000 years later in Jesus’ time. King Hurkinos looted the tomb of its treasures, which he gave to King Antiochus Epiphanes. Later, King Herod stole whatever treasures Hurkinos had left behind in David's Tomb. Today, the tomb contains the mangled bones of the ancient Jewish kings, among whose one would presume include those of King David's.

note: The system of succession in the Jewish kingdom was in accordance to that written in "Samuel's Scroll", which undoubtedly was based on principles in the "Mosaic Law". The succession was dynastic inheritance in King David’s descendants, in a mix of (a) primogeniture, (b) the (so-called) "Salic Law", and (c) tanistry, which worked together to determine the succession. The principle of primogeniture was the fundamental principle determining the succession, however, the principle was not decisive, for in reality multiple factors contributed in determining the succession; for example the reigning monarch possessed the prerogative of designating the heir such as in the case of Solomon’s succession, who was the favorite son of King David’s favorite wife, then, the occasion when King Rehoboam's widowed-queen [2nd wife] Maachah (Michaiah) set her son, Abijah, on the throne in prejudice of King Rehoboam's issue begotten by his first wife; then, on another occasion the royal court [parliament] elevated Jehoahaz to the throne, the eldest son of King Josiah’s second-wife and widowed-queen in prejudice of the issue of [his father's] King Josiah’s late first wife; and, on another occasion we find foreign powers manipulating the succession as in the case of the deposition of King [Je]Coniah, and the elevation of his uncle, Zedekiah, which was sanctioned by God, who appears to have engineered the whole episode. Hence, the approval of God was a condition of succession in addition to birthright.

4/2. SOLOMON (SCHLOMO) reigned as king in Jerusalem for forty years, 970-930 (1 Ki 11:42). His name originally was Jedidiah which he changed upon his succession. He was the favorite son of King David’s favorite wife Bathsheba. He became king at age 18 [or 28], reigned 40 years, and died at age 58 [or 68], which contradicts the tradition that he lived 70 years.

The succession to the throne generally was regulated by the principle of primogeniture (2 Chr 21:3b), like it is in Britain today, however, the principle was sometimes overruled for the reigning monarch possessed the prerogative of designating his heir, such as in the case of Solomon (1 Ki 1:35b). Solomon, upon his succession at his father’s death, executed his half-brother, Adonijah, the heir-expectant, whom some considered to have been the rightful heir, who had political ambitions, when he covertly asserts his claim to the throne by asking Queen Bathsheba for Abishag in marriage, the [supposed] "virgin" widow [secondary-wife] of his father in marriage, who, obviously, was ignorant of Solomon’s earlier affair with her, which Solomon had kept secret until writing "Canticles" ["Song of Solomon"], possibly as a tribute following her early demise. The story of Abishag of Shunem, the un-named Shulamite woman of his youth, may have taken place chronologically at a later date under different circumstances if the tradition is true that Solomon was a minor on his succession.

The kingdom that Solomon inherited from his father, King David, was perhaps the most powerful country then existent in the world at that time. The great empires during King Solomon’s reign, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, were in eclipse, and the Hittite Empire was long time gone, so that King Solomon could rule over a sizable empire of his own with the splendor attributed to him in the Bible. The country was remarkably prosperous during his reign, and with this wealth King Solomon sought to make Jerusalem, the capital city, the most magnificent city in the world, and undertook great building projects. He built a grandiose temple to replace the tabernacle on the Temple-Mount, rebuilt David's Castle on Mount Zion into a great palace, and built many public works [the country’s intra-structure]. The country was at peace and King Solomon took advantage of the favorable conditions for trade expansion. He monopolized the entire caravan trade in the Middle East and thus was able to collect enormous revenue from merchants seeking passage through his territories. King Solomon built a merchant-fleet which made long-distance voyages to far-away places and brought back exotic merchandise from Ophir, India, and China. Ophir, a country in Africa, may have been Zimbabwe?

The promise and/or covenant that God made with David is renewed with Solomon in 2 Chr 7:18, adding the provision by which the "royal line" would pass through him also. The Bible tells us that God gave Solomon His promise that the title to the throne would pass through his descendants (1 Ki 9:5; 1 Chr 22:8-10; 2 Chr 7:18), which made the descendants of King David's other sons "non-royal" in status.

Solomon had a harem of 1000 secondary-wives [= 700 wives and 300 concubines]. He had only one primary wife, or queen, at a time; and, throughout his life had seven of them. They were: =1 Abishag of Shunem, the un-named Shulamite woman of his youth, his first love, about whom he wrote about in the Bible book "Song of Solomon" ["Canticles"]; =2 Nicaule [Tashere] of Egypt, the daughter or sister of Psusennes II [or Psusennes III] [note: the myth that she was Shishak's daughter is chronologically impossible]; =3 Bilqis, Queen of Arabia, according to Arabic tradition; =4 name unknown, daughter of Hamath, King of Lebanon; =5 name unknown, daughter of King Rezon [I] of Syria; =6 Makeda, Queen of Sheba, according to Ethiopian tradition; =7 Nabah (Naamah) "the Ammonite", daughter of King Hanun of Jordan

two daughters, who were:

(a) Basemath, wife of Ahimaaz, "the Naphalite", the mother of Ana, wife of [her cousin] King Abijah (below)

(b) Taphath, wife of Ben-Abinadab of Dor

(?) Kahtan (Qahtan; Cahtan), called 1st King of Arabia, possibly his step-son and not actually his son; Kahtan is given an Arabic/Arabian ancestry descended from Ishmael the ancestor of the Arabs, which is probably his correct parentage; that he was King Solomon's step-son may have been a later tradition reflective upon Solomon's glorious reign, which was remembered in ancient Arabic literature.

(x) El-Hakim [a.k.a. Menelik], called 1st King of Ethiopia

(x) Rehoboam, who succeeded his father as King of Judah alone

In contrast to his father, King David, a man of war, his son, King Solomon, was a man of peace. He was renown for his wealth, power, and wisdom. His reign was an era of great prosperity and abundance, and was described as glorious. The splendor of King Solomon’s reign was looked back to by the Jews of later generations as Israel’s "Golden Age". Towards the end of Solomon’s reign, his vassals abroad had begun to look for an opportunity to free themselves of Israeli domination; while, at home, the heavy burden of taxation for the upkeep of the grandiose royal court and the high costs of the grand-style monarchy was arousing discontent among his subjects. This discontentment surfaced as open rebellion after Solomon’s death.

Not all of the Hebrew People accepted the idea of an everlasting union of their nation, religion, and the Davidic Dynasty; and, in the time of David's grandson [Rehoboam, Solomon’s son], ten of the twelve Hebrew tribes rebelled against David’s House, called "Jeroboam's Rebellion", which caused the disruption of the Hebrew kingdom; and, Jeroboam founded Israel’s third dynasty.

The delegates of the twelve Hebrew tribes gathered in an assembly to crown Rehoboam, however, due to Rehoboam’s arrogance, instead of a coronation held what turned out to be a constitutional convention which rejected Rehoboam and elected another candidate, Jeroboam, an Ephraimite, as their king, who founded Israel’s third dynasty; and, the challenge of the Hebrew People to David’s Dynasty was: "now, see to thine own house" (v. 16). There are many comparisons between "this" generation of Hebrews and the 1776 generation of American colonists, who rebelled against King George, one of many descendants of King David, who had a "divine mandate".

The election of Jeroboam as King of Israel precipitated a crisis in the political history of the Hebrew People. It was the kingdom of Israel, not part of it, which was rent from David’s House, and, it is the part, one tribe, Judah [the Jews], which God left to David’s heir "for David’s sake". It is written that none followed David’s House, but the tribe of Judah only, however, reference is made to not one tribe but three, that is, the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi [which provided the priests], which remained loyal to the royal Davidic heir, Rehoboam, King Solomon’s son, and ceded from Israel to do so, establishing or re-founding the [separate] Kingdom of Judah.

There, then, existed two Hebrew kingdoms, the northern kingdom, called Israel, composed of ten tribes, with Samaria as its capital city, claimed to represent the "true" kingdom; and the southern kingdom, called Judah, composed of one tribe, with Jerusalem as its capital city, claimed its dynasty was Israel’s only legitimate royal house. There was a mass migration to Judah at this time of individuals from the other Hebrew tribes whose sympathies laid with David’s House, so that all twelve Hebrew tribes were represented in the Judahite kingdom. The throne of the northern kingdom, Israel, was seized by usurpers nine times during its existence, for the dynastic principle was not acknowledged as essential by the northern kingdom, whose kings attained the throne by a variety of means, by force of arms, by popular acclamation, or sometimes even by God’s designation, while, the throne of the southern kingdom, Judah, was occupied solely by King David’s House [dynasty] during its whole existence.

03. REHOBOAM (RICHAVUM), the son of King Solomon, by the Jordanese princess, was age 41 on his accession, and reigned seventeen years, 930-913 (1 Ki 14:21), and died age 59.

He succeeded his father, Solomon, as King of Judah only and not as King of Israel, due to the election of Jeroboam as Israel's king. Rehoboam was rivaled in his reign by King Jeroboam of Israel, with whom he never sought any relations. In the fifth year of his reign, King Rehoboam raised an army and threatened to put down the rebellion of the ten [northern] Hebrew tribes, however, Jeroboam, the rebel Hebrew king, whose wife was the daughter of the then reigning Egyptian pharaoh, appealed to Egypt for help; and King Shishak [Shoshonq I] of Egypt invaded Judah in support of his son-in-law. Rehoboam was caught by surprise and overwhelmed and besieged by the Egyptians in Jerusalem. He purchased peace by stripping Jerusalem of all its treasures and giving them to the Egyptian king. After this great humiliation, King Rehoboam occupied the remainder of his reign strengthening his country’s defenses.

Rehoboam had eighteen secondary-wives and a harem of sixty concubines, however, only had two primary wives, one at a time, whom he married one after the other.

He married 1st Mahalath [his cousin], daughter of King David's son Jerimoth and his wife, Abigail, grand-daughter [not "daughter"] of Eliab [an older brother of King David, i.e., one of Jesse's eight sons]; and, married 2nd Michaiah (Maachah) [his cousin’s daughter] and had issue.

five sons, who were: (a) Jeush, (b) Zizah, (c) Shemariah (Semariah), ancestor of a major secondary-line of the royal house, (d) Attai, & (e) Zaham

one son, namely, (f) Abijah (Abijam)

In 1 Ki 15:2 it says Michaiah (Maachah), the daughter of Absalom, the late crown-prince, his uncle, but in 2 Chr 13:2 she is said to be the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, which discrepancy is resolved by the supposition that she was the daughter of Tamar, Absalom's daughter, and her husband, Uriel of Gibeah, which makes her the "grand-daughter" of Absalom and not actually his "daughter". Michaiah (Maachah), the queen-consort, outlived her husband [the king] and placed her son, Abijah, on the throne in prejudice of her late husband’s sons by his first wife; and held a prominent place at court as queen-mother during the reign of her son, and lived on into the reign of her grandson.

04. ABIJAH (AVAYAH) (ABIJAM; ABIYAH), the son of King Rehoboam and his second wife, reigned three years, 913-910 (1 Ki 15:2). In 1 Ki 15:1 it says he began his reign in the 18th year of King Jeroboam I of Israel, his rival to God’s throne. King Abijah, who considered the separation of the ten Hebrew tribes as rebellion, made a vigorous attempt to bring them back to their former allegiance to King David’s House. King Abijah is noted for a famous speech he gave on the battle-field in which he rebukes the usurper King Jeroboam of Israel saying, "Hear me, Jeroboam, and all Israel, ought ye not to know that the eternal God gave the kingship over Israel to David’s House forever, even to him and his sons [descendants] by a covenant…", which indicates that God will continue to express His kingship through David’s descendants despite usurpers. He declared (v. 8) that God’s kingdom is in the hands of King David’s sons [descendants], the Davidic Dynasty, and that God’s kingdom is permanent and indestructible. The speech of King Abijah makes no allowance for a hiatus in the continuity of the Davidic kingship. The Davidic Dynasty, the author of "The Chronicles" says, was divinely appointed and therefore the only legitimate dynasty of Israel, accordingly, the point of King Abijah’s speech to the northern tribes, Israel, by their rebellion against their divinely appointed kings, was in fact in rebellion against God Himself! Note the correlation referred to by Britain's King George III in connection to the rebellious American colonies. King Abijah won several victories over King Jeroboam, and took some border towns, but failed to decisively defeat him in battle. [note: 1 Ki 15:6 should read "Abijah" instead of "Rehoboam"]

King Abijah had fourteen wives, by whom he begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. His primary wife, or queen, was [his cousin] Ana, daughter of Ahimaaz "the Naphalite", who was Solomon’s purveyor, and his wife Basemath, daughter of Solomon by Pharaoh’s daughter. It is through her, Ana, that the bloodline of the Egyptian Pharaohs enters into the veins of the Jewish royal house. The name of Abijah’s queen, Ana, is not given in the "Masoretic Text", the parent-manuscript of most Bible translations, but is given in the "Septuagint" [commonly denoted "LXX"], the Greek Bible, 3 Ki 15:10 [III "Basileion" 15:10] [note: I & II "Samuel" in the "Masoretic Text" is I & II "Kings" in the "LXX"; and III & IV "Kings" in the "LXX" is I & II "Kings" in the "MT"]. The omission in the "Masoretic Text" is probably due to a textual corruption, the name very likely became illegible with the ageing and deterioration of the original manuscript, and was dropped out of the text sometime during the process of its copying and re-copying by scribes. Too, there is some confusion over her parentage. In the "LXX" she is called the "daughter" [or "descendant"] of Absessalom; but, here is another instance of the term of a relationship used in a loose sense. This Absessalom [son of Abishai, one of King David’s generals], was the tribal-chief or "sheikh" of the Hebrew Naphtali tribe, and, by wife [daughter of Shebuel (alive 1000BC), the last of his line, descendant of Israel's Founder and 1st Judge Moses], was father of Ahimaaz, one of King Solomon’s officials, who married Basemath, Solomon’s daughter.

(a) Asa, was the crown-prince.

05. ASA, the son of King Abijah and wife, Ana, reigned 41 years, 910-869 (1 Ki 15:10). His long reign overlapped the reigns of seven kings of "the northern kingdom" (so called). 1 Ki 15:19 says that he began his reign in the 20th year of King Jeroboam I of Israel’s reign.

His grandmother, Michaiah (Maachah), is called his "mother" in the "Masoretic Text" (1 Ki 15:9-10), which has caused some confusion since the "MT" does not give his mother’s name, however, the "LXX" corrects this by giving his mother’s name, which was "Ana". The confusion was created by the fact that Ana died before her husband’s succession, and, upon his succession, his grandmother, Michaiah (Maachah), the queen-mother of his father’s reign, was still alive, and, in the absence of Asa’s mother, Ana, filled a vacuum in the royal court. It appears that the Judahite monarchy had a "madonna and child" cult in its ideology represented by the office of "queen-mother". It appears that "queen-mother" was an office, however, there was no such office as "queen-mother" in the Hebrew monarchy of the "northern kingdom"; which is the reason that the mothers of the "northern kings" are seldom mentioned if ever but in passing, whereas, the mothers of the "southern kings" are nearly always given by name. Michaiah (Maachah) retained her position in that office until her impeachment and expulsion from the royal court because of her abuse of her royal privilege (1 Ki 15:13; 2 Chr 15:16).

King Asa married Azuba, daughter/or granddaughter of Shilhi, one of the sons/or grandsons of Jeroboam, the rebel Hebrew king, of his wife, Karamat, daughter of King Shishak of Egypt. Azuba fled south to Judah during the massacre of King Jeroboam’s House by the usurper Baasha where she found refuge. Another descent-line from the Egyptian Pharaohs may be trace through Azuba [via, her paternal grandmother, Karamat] to the Jewish Royal House. He, of his wife, Azuba, had issue.

(a) Jehoshaphat, the crown prince.

The relationship between Judah and Israel under their early rulers was tense, and eventually war broke out. The critics agree that in 2 Chr 15:19; 16:1, where it says that King Bassha of Israel warred with King Asa of Judah in his "35th" and "36th" years, are a coypist’s mistake for either "15th" and "16th" or "25th" and "26th", because Baasha died in Asa's 26th year (1 Ki 16:6,8). Bassha was succeeded in the northern kingdom by his son Elah, who was overthrown by Zimri, who reigned only 7 days. The northern kingdom broke out into civil war over rivaling claimants, and Tibni [Zimri’s brother] reigned over one half of the northern kingdom while Omri, another claimant, reigned over the other half of the country. Omri prevailed over Tibni in a decisive battle and united the northern kingdom, which he left to his son Ahab, who became King of Israel in the "38th" year of King Asa’s reign. King Asa of Judah sought an ally against King Ahab of Israel and made an alliance with King Ben-Hadad of Syria. The Syrian king made a diversion in King Asa’s support by invading Israel, whereupon King Ahab pulled back from fighting Judah to defend himself against the Syrians. The alliance with Syria was denounced by the seer Hanani, and, King Asa, angered by this, put him in prison. For which the Bible implies that Asa was smote with a disease by God in his 39th year which proved fatal in his 41st year (1 Ki 15:23; 2 Chr 16:12), whereupon Hanani was released from prison.

06. JEHOSHAPHAT (YEHOSEPHAT), reigned 869-848, regent from 872. He reigned twenty-five years, 872-848BC (1 Ki 15:23; 2 Chr 16:12), including the three years he was regent during his father’s illness (1 Ki 22:42). In 1 Ki 22:41 it says he began his reign in the fourth year of King Ahab of Israel’s reign. He was age 35 when he began to reign.

King Jehoshaphat carried out a series of reforms, political, religious, and military. He put judges in all the country’s cities, and tried to remedy the defects in the local administrations as part of his political reforms. He organized a system of public instruction, sending priests on regular circuits to all the country’s cities with the "Torah" to teach the people, as part of his religious reforms. And, as part of his military reforms, he placed garrisons in all the country’s cities.

The name of the wife of Jehoshaphat is not given in scripture. This is unusual in the record of the Judahite kings, and there must be some story behind this "cover-up". His wife may have been a Syrian princess [Anonyma], who was unpopular with the Hebrew People for their wars with her country, Syria? His wife had to be someone of importance for her to be the mother of the "crown-prince".

(a) Jehoram, the crown-prince

The accession of Jehoshaphat’s son, Jehoram, the crown-prince, as an associate-ruler with his father in 853 was no doubt prompted by concern regarding the forthcoming war with Syria. The war was a disaster. The Israeli King Ahab was mortally-wounded in battle, and King Jehoshaphat was obliged to make a humiliating peace with Syria.

07. JEHORAM (YEHORAM) (JORAM), reigned 848-841, was associate-ruler with his father at the time for concerns over the up-coming war with Syria in 853BC, and after his father’s death, reigned as king in his own right for eight years, 848-841 (2 Ki 8:17; 2 Chr 21:5). The years of his co-rule with his father are not counted in his official regnal-years; for, in the 2nd year of his co-rule with his father, King Jehoram of Israel began to reign (2 Ki 1:17), then, on his father’s death, in the 5th year of King Jehoram of Israel, he began his sole rule (2 Ki 8:16). He was age 32 on his accession.

The fact that his mother’s name does not appear in scripture is unusual for Judahite annalists, especially since he was crown-prince, which suggests that there is a story the annalists wished to "cover-up".

He, as crown-prince, married the Hebrew princess Athalia, the daughter of King Ahab of Israel, and his wife Jezebel of Tyre, a Phoenician princess. His marriage was arranged between his father, the King of Judah, and her father, the King of Israel, perhaps in hope of the reunion of all the Hebrew tribes under one crown.

(a) Jehoahaz [who changed his name to Ahaziah on his accession], the crown-prince

(b) Jehosheba (daughter), the wife of Jehoiada I, High-Priest, and mother of Jehoadda, the wife of [her cousin] King Jehoash, of whom later.

It was at the insistence of Athalia that King Jehoram introduced Baal-worship into Judah. A warning from the prophet Elijah failed to produce any good effect on him. And, shortly after, there followed a series of calamities. First, the Jordanese, who had been tributary to his father, revolted and won their independence. Then, there was a rebellion within his own kingdom. The rebellion was suppressed and many of the country’s most prominent nobles were executed, along with six of the king’s own brothers. That was followed by raids of armed-bands of Philistines [Palestinians] from Gaza. Then an invasion of Arabs from Arabia overran the country. The Arabs stormed Jerusalem, plundered the city, captured King Jehoram’s harem of secondary wives and all their children, whom they carried into captivity and later slew. In 2 Chr 21:16,17 it says that Jehoram’s sons were taken captive, but in 2 Chr 22:1 it says that they were slain, the presumption is that they were first taken captive and afterwards slain.

Jehoram came down with a terrible disease (2 Chr 21:18,19), and on account of his illness his son Ahaziah, the crown-prince, was regent for him the last year of his life.

08. AHAZIAH (AACHAZ), originally named JEHOAHAZ, reigned 841, regent from 842. He was regent for his father about a year, 842BC (2 Chr 21:19), and reigned in his own right as king after his father’s death for one year, 841BC (2 Ki 8:26). In 2 Ki 8:25 it says he began his reign in the 12th year of King Jehoram of Israel; while, in 2 Ki 9:29 it says he began to reign in the 11th year of King Jehoram of Israel, which statements are both correct, that is, one, the "12th", is when he began to reign as king (2 Ki 8:26), and the other, the "11th", is when he began to reign as regent for his sick father (2 Chr 21:19). In 2 Ki 8:26 it says he was age 22 when he began to reign, but in 2 Chr 22:2 his age is given as 42. The "22" is undoubtedly correct, as 2 Chr 21:20 we see that his father was 40 when he died, which would have made him younger than his son.

King Ahaziah was dominated by his mother, Queen Athalia, and followed her advice without question. When his uncle, King Jehoram of Israel, was wounded in battle fighting Syria, King Ahaziah went to visit him at Jezreel where he was laid up recuperating from his wounds. It was during this visit that a conspiracy was underway against King Jehoram by an army faction led by one of his generals, Jehu [Yahou], who slew all of Omri’s House he could get his hands on, and took the throne. Jehoram was murdered, and Ahaziah fled for his life, however, was pursued by his uncle’s assassins and was mortally wounded in his flight. He had strength enough to reach Megiddo where he died. His body was conveyed by his servants back to Jerusalem for burial in the royal crypt.

He, by his wife, Zibiah "of Beersheba", had several sons, who were murdered by the queen-mother [Athalia] along with all their children save one.

(x) Jehoash (Joash), the youngest son, an infant at the time of the massacre of the royal family, was rescued from the slaughter by his aunt [father's sister]

09. ATHALIA, the queen-mother, widow of King Jehoram and mother of the late King Ahaziah, usurped the throne on the death of her son, King Ahaziah, and reigned seven years, 841-835BC (2 Ki 11:3; 2 Chr 22:12) as sole ruler. To secure herself on the throne, she had all of her grandsons as well as other members of the royal house put to death, only Jehoash, the late king’s infant son, perhaps 9-11 months of age, escaped the massacre. He was rescued by his aunt, Princess Jehosheba, with wife of Jehoiada, the High-Priest, who concealed him in the temple. The young prince, Jehoash, grew up secretly in the temple for fear of Queen Athalia, who sought to slay him. Her whole reign was devoted to the promotion of idolatry, paganism, and every heathen practice. She closed the Temple, dedicated to Yahweh or Jehovah-worship, and completed and opened a temple originally begun by her late husband, which was dedicated to Baal-worship. Athalia was overthrown by a counter-coup engineered by the High-Priest Jehoiada, who set Prince Jehoash, the rightful king, on the throne. The High-Priest, when he thought the time was right, organized an insurrection. He brought the prince out of hiding in the temple and presented him to the city’s garrison which thereupon proclaimed him king. The boy-king, Jehoash, under advisement of the High-Priest issued the order to arrest Queen Athalia which the city-garrison obeyed and put her to death. Too, Mattan, the High-Priest of Baal, who was Athalia’s Prime Minister, was put to death also.

10. JEHOASH (YOHASH) (JOASH), the sole survivor of the massacre of the royal house, reigned 40 years, 835-796BC (2 KI 12:1; 2 Chr 24:1). He was age 7 on his accession. The High-Priest Jehoiada, as long as he lived, was the real ruler of the country as King Jehoash’s Prime Minister. Under his tutorship King Jehoash cleared the country of baalsim, demolished the temple dedicated to Baal-worship, and destroyed all the pagan altars and idols. This was all part of a counter-cultural reaction that set-in the country following Queen Athalia’s regime.

King Jehoash married the daughter of the High-Priest, Jehoiada, namely, Jehoadda, who bore him two sons.

(a) Amaziah, the eldest son and heir

(b) Amateza, "the spare".

King Jehoash behaved as long as the High Priest Jehoiada lived, but after the death of this aged counselor, evil advisors led him into ruin. In his 23rd year, Jehoahaz, succeeded his father Jehu as King of Israel. He was succeeded by his son, Jehoash (Joash), in the 37th year of King Jehoash of Judah’s reign, whose son, Amaziah, was regent for his father by that date. King Jehoash apostatized during his latter years and set up idols. The Syrians invaded during the latter part of King Jehoash’s reign. They overcame his forces in battle, and appearing before Jerusalem demanded tribute. King Jehoash stripped the city of its valuables and bought-off King Hazael of Syria who thereupon withdrew back into his own country.

Jehoash suffered from a painful malady the last year of his life (2 Chr 24:25), during which the crown-prince reigned as regent and carried out all of his father’s official duties. Still, his illness did not prevent Jehoash from leading his army into battle against his country’s enemies, in which he was severely wounded in a battle. Surviving these misfortunes, he was later murdered by a conspiracy of his own ministers.

11. AMAZIAH (AMATZIA), reigned 796-767, regent from 801; captured, released and restored 792. He reigned as regent during his father’s suffering [who had been severely wounded in battle] (2 Chr 24:25), and, after his father’s murder, reigned as king 29 years (2 Ki 14:2; 2 Chr 25:1). In 2 Ki 14:2 it says he was age 25 when he began to reign, but this must be an error, for it would mean that he was only 12 when his son [Uzziah] was born. He, of his wife, Jecolia[h], had issue, namely:

(a) Uzziah (Azariah), the crown-prince, who was twice king

He commenced his reign by the executions of those who had murdered his father. Soon after his accession King Amaziah undertook an expedition and brought the Jordanese back into subjection. His victory went to his head and in his pride he foolishly sent a challenge to King Jehoash of Israel to meet him in battle. Amaziah was defeated and humiliated by King Jehoash, who took him prisoner, and brought him to Jerusalem, his capital city, a captive in chains. The city’s citizens closed the city’s gates, and placed the crown-prince, Uzziah, age 16, on the throne, and defended the city against seizure. The city was besieged for several months. The city’s walls were eventually breached, and the enemy entered the city, plundered it for weeks, and his son, Uzziah, was taken hostage by King Jehoash of Israel to ensure the future good behavior of King Amaziah who was released and restored to the throne, 792 BC. After this humiliation there was nothing more recorded of his reign until his death. These events are recorded in 2 Ki 14:21 & 2 Chr 26:1-3 as a postscript to the account of Amaziah’s reign, but it should more properly have been placed immediately after the account of the war between Amaziah and Jehoash in 2 Ki 14:12-14 & 2 Chr 25:21-24. In his 15th year, Jeroboam II, succeeded his father, King Jehoash of Israel, and released King Amaziah’s son, Uzziah, who was escorted by armed-guard back to his own country.

In his last year, King Amaziah learned of a conspiracy formed against him by his courtiers, and fled Jerusalem, but hired assassins caught up with him at Lachish and killed him. His body was brought upon horse-back to Jerusalem, and he was buried in the royal sepulchre.

12. UZZIAH (AVOZIHU) (AZARIAH) (OZIAH), reigned 767-740, reign dated from 792, his first accession. He reigned 52 years (2 Ki 15:2; 2 Chr 26:3). He had a double accession: the first in 792 when his father was taken prisoner following his defeat in battle; and, the second in 767 on his father’s demise. In 2 Ki 14:17 it says he began to reign in the 15th year of King Jeroboam II of Israel [from 767 date]; while 2 Ki 15:1 says he began to reign in the 27th year of King Jeroboam of Israel [from 792 date]. This means that 2 Ki 14:21 and 2 Ki 15:2 are chronologically out of place and should be inserted between 2 Chr 26:22 and 2 Chr 26:23. These references compared to 2 Ki 15:8 reveals that his 38th year is synchronist to the 14th anniversary of his father’s demise. Jeroboam II of Israel reigned 41 years, and that is 14 years after his 27th year, which is the synchronism for Uzziah’s accession. Jeroboam II was succeeded in 753 by Zechariah in the 38th year of Uzziah (2 Ki 15:8). If in 753 Uzziah had been made king 38 years earlier, and if Amaziah [his father] had died 14 years before, then Uzziah succeeded 24 years before his father’s demise, which gives us the 792 date. This means that 2 Ki 14:21 and 2 Ki 15:2 are chronologically out of place and should be inserted between 2 Chr 26:22 and 2 Chr 26:23. These references compared to 2 Ki 15:8 reveals that his 38th year is synchronist to the 14th anniversary of his father’s death.

Uzziah married Jerusha, daughter of High-Priest Zadok II, and begot

(a) Jotham, the crown-prince

(b) Tabael (Isa 7:6), the father of Elkanah, rival claimant versus [his cousin] King Ahaz (below)

The country was prosperous during Uzziah’s reign. This, and his military successes over Gaza, Arabia, and Jordan, made Uzziah a popular king. Elated with his splendid career he became arrogant, and determined to burn incense on the altar in the temple, which was the priests’ prerogative. The High-Priest and other temple priests opposed Uzziah who was angered at their resistance, and, suddenly there was a great earthquake [which is recorded in the annals of other nations], and Uzziah was smitten with leprosy. Uzziah, a leper, retired from public life, and lived in quarantine the remainder of his natural life.

His son Jotham, the crown-prince took over affairs and reigned as prince-regent in his father’s name. King Uzziah during his retirement "in a separate house" took up agriculture and made it his second career [like George III of Britain]. In his 38th year, Zechariah, succeeded his father Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom. He reigned six months, and was overthrown by Shallum, an usurper, who reigned one month in King Uzziah’s 39th year. He was himself murdered, and another usurper, Menahem, took the throne. Menahem was succeeded by his son Pekahiah in King Uzziah’s 50th year. In his 52nd year, Pekah, slew Pekahiah and usurped the throne.

13. JOTHAM (YOTEM), reigned 740-735, regent from 750BC. He reigned 16 years (2 Ki 15:33), which includes the years he was prince-regent during his father’s retirement (2 Ki 15:5; 2 Chr 26:1). He was regent for 11 years (2 Ki 15:32).

He married Ahia, the Hebrew princess, traditionally the daughter of Azrikam, the Benjaminite sheikh of King Saul’s House (1 Chr 9:44), in a strategic move as part of a feasible plan to re-unite the Hebrew tribes.

(a) Ahaz, the crown-prince [who was named after his mother's relatives, which name was common in the Saulite family-clan]; and

(b) Yaba, a daughter, who was later given by her brother in marriage to Tiglath-pileser, III, King of Assyria 745-727BC.

Prince Jotham, during his regency, made an alliance with King Jeroboam II of Israel, who gave him his grand-daughter, Abija[h], the daughter of his son, Zechariah, the crown-prince and future king of the "northern kingdom", in marriage to his [Jotham’s] son, Ahaz, the crown-prince, in a long-range scheme to reunite the Hebrew Nation. The alliance collapsed on the murder of King Zechariah of Israel the year before Jotham, the Prince-Regent of Judah, became king; and the throne of Israel passed to a series of usurpers. The overthrow of King Jehu’s House dashed all hope for the re-unification of the Hebrew tribes.

King Jotham was a godly man, and tried but was unable to correct the corrupt practices of his subjects, who had taken on the heathen customs of the country’s minorities and its neighbors. The secularization of society became a point of contention between he and his son, and it appears King Jotham was "retired" (so to speak) by his son, Ahaz, in a palace coup, and lived the remainder of his days under house-arrest though retaining his status, office, and title.

14. AHAZ, reigned 735-726, regent from 743. He reigned 16 years, including the years of his regency (2 Ki 16:2). 2 Ki 16:2 & 2 Chr 28:1 give his age at 20 on his accession, but this must be in error or else he was 11 when his son [Hezekiah] was born [compare 2 Ki 16:2; 18:2], or, the probable interpretation of these verses may be that Ahaz, supported by the pro-Assyrian faction in the royal court, in a coup (2 Ki 16:7), forced his father, Jotham, the king, to "retire", neutralizing the anti-Assyrian faction in the royal court which hitherto had influenced the country’s politics, in Pekah’s 17th year; and that Jotham, the ex-king, continued to live under house-arrest to his 20th year (2 Ki 15:30), which would explain the overlapping reign of Ahaz with his father.

The political sentiments of King Ahaz were decidedly pro-Assyria. He gave his sister, Yaba, to Tiglath-pileser III, King of Assyria 745-727, to be his wife. Ahaz pursued a policy that brought him into serious difficulties with his anti-Assyrian neighbors, who assailed him from all sides. The prophet Isaiah preached against Ahaz’s policies, both political and religious, which were actually regarded by the general population as "progressive". In religious matters, Ahaz, here, too, was totally different from his father, and set himself against his father’s religious policies. He introduced Moloch-worship, which required the sacrifices of human infants [comparable today to "abortion"], and restored idol-worship. The simple fact is that Ahaz was a "man of his times" (so to speak), in that he was representative of his generation's "mind-set", its values, and its views of "political correctness".

King Ahaz married Abijah, daughter and heiress of King Zechariah of Israel [House of Jehu], and begot

(a) [name] infant son, his eldest, who was offered by his father as a sacrifice in Moloch-worship (2 Ki 16:3)

(b) Maaseiah, the crown-prince, who was captured during war-time by Judah’s neighbors, and was murdered along with other hostages (2 Chr 28:7)

(c) Hezekiah, the future king.

Judah, during Ahaz’s reign, was attacked by all of its neighbors, who plundered Judahite cities and besieged Jerusalem. Maaseiah, the crown-prince, was murdered in 735 by Zichri, an officer of King Pekah of Israel, with whom Ahaz was at war (2 Chr 28:7). King Pekah of Israel and his allies, Syria, Jordan, and Gaza, besieged Jerusalem, intending to place the cousin of Ahaz, namely, Elkanah [son of Prince Tabael, one of King Jotham’s younger brothers], on the throne (Isaiah 7:6), who was sympathetic to their cause. King Ahaz, in his extremity, applied to King Tigath-pileser III of Assyria for help. The Assyrians came to Judah’s assistance and subjugated Syria, Jordan [Moab, Ammon, & Edom], and Israel, and Judah too became one of Assyria’s vassal-states. Pekah, in Israel, was despoiled of at least half his kingdom, and was murdered by Hoshea, who succeeded him. After the crisis had passed, King Ahaz sank further into idolatry and raised shrines to pagan deities everywhere, even in the temple. He was one of Judah's worst kings, and died unlamented by his people.

15. HEZEKIAH (HEZAKIA), reigned 29 years, 726-697 (2 Ki 18:2; 2 Chr 29:1). 2 Ki 18:1 says he began his reign in the 3rd year of King Hoshea of Israel. He was age 25 on his accession.

He married Hephzibah, and begot

(a) Bilhah (daughter), who married a foreign-prince

(b) Manasseh, the crown-prince

(c) Amariah, another son, father of Gedaliah, father of Ahikam, father of (?) Gedaliah, governor [alternate pedigree, compare].

Hezekiah inherited a disorganized state and a heavy burden of tribute to Assyria, which his father had saddled on the country. He began his reign with a great reformation. His first acts were to purge, repair, and re-open the temple, and restore the temple service. He destroyed the idols his father had set up and rooted out all pagan cults. In the zeal of "the reformation" Hezekiah ordered destroyed the "brazen serpent" on the pole that Moses made in The Wilderness (Num 21:19) because it had become an object of veneration. [note: this object was likened to Jesus by "John" (3:14) to His crucifixion and to be a picture of salvation.] He re-instituted the observance of the Levitical Festivals, including the "Passover Feast".

2 Ki 18:10 says in his 6th year (721BC) the "ten northern tribes", Israel, were conquered when its capital city, Samaria, fell to its enemies, the Assyrians, following a 3-year siege, in 721BC. It ended the "northern kingdom", and, the nation, Israel, and its populace, the "ten Hebrew tribes", were deported by Assyria and resettled elsewhere (2 Ki 17:6), and the territory of the northern kingdom became an Assyrian province. "Josephus" says that it took place in Hezekiah’s 7th year (722BC).

King Hezekiah, had also withheld Judah's yearly tribute, along with Israel and its neighbors, and had rebelled also against the country’s vassalage to Assyria, which brought Sennacherib’s first invasion of Judah in 713BC (2 Ki 18:13-16). Sennacherib at this time was not yet King of Assyria but he was his father's [Sargon II's] army-commander. The alliance fell apart when Assyria conquered Israel. Its neighbors were terrified and rallied to make peace with Assyria. King Hezekiah purchased peace by the payment of a large tribute, and Judah’s vassalage to Assyria was renewed or re-affirmed by the restoration of the tribute. Hezekiah attempted to revive the religious unity of Israel by inviting the people of the Assyrian province of Samaria, formerly the Israelite kingdom, to come to Jerusalem to worship, but his attempt was rendered ineffective due to the opposition of the Assyrian military-governor of the province.

In the latter part of his reign King Hezekiah became dangerously ill but recovered (2 Ki 20:1-11). His recovery was followed by the long-awaited birth of a son, Manasseh. It was an event of much rejoicing that a boy had been born, for they only had an older daughter, Bilhah, who married a foreign prince and left the country that same year.

Hezekiah received an embassy from Babylonia to whom he showed all his wealth, and was rebuked by Isaiah "The Prophet" (2 Ki 20:12-19).

King Hezekiah's alliance with King Shabako of Egypt brought about Sennacherib’s second invasion of Judah in 701BC. Sennacherib had become King of Assyria in the meantime having succeeded his father, Sargon II, in 705BC. The Egyptian Army led by Taharqa (Tirhakah), the nephew of Egypt’s King Shabako, came to Judah’s support but was turned back by the Assyrian Army. It was at this time that Hezekiah constructed the underground tunnel to bring water from the spring of Gihon to inside the walls of Jerusalem (2 Ki 20:20) to give the city a never-failing water supply, in anticipation of the city's siege (2 Ki 18:17-19:37). Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem a second time. Here was the miraculous deliverance of "God’s Angel" spoken of in "2 Kings" (19:35) in which a great pestilence disabled the Assyrian Army, and the Assyrians returned to their own country without having taken Jerusalem. This victory gained Judah independence from Assyria, and gave King Hezekiah much prestige. Hezekiah died peacefully about five years later, and was much lamented by his people.

16. MANASSEH (MENASHA), reigned 55 years, 697-642BC (2 Ki 21:1; 2 Chr 33:1). He was a minor [age 12] on his succession, and his mother, Queen Hephzibah, governed the kingdom until he came of age. Thus, it is not possible that he could have served as regent during any part of his father’s reign as some writers have claimed in order to work out their faulty chronologies.

He grew up to be the most wicked of all of Judah’s kings. His reign began with such great promise.

He married Meshullemeth, and begot

(a) Amon, the crown-prince

The breakup of his marriage put an end to the honeymoon the country was having with their popular young king. Manasseh grew into a fanatical idolater. He introduced a secular constitution to the state, separating temple [church] and state, and allowed the practice of all pagan religions of every heathen ethnic group represented in the kingdom. The old Canaanite/Palestinian paganism was revived, the altars to foreign pagan deities were set back up, and he even removed The "Ark" and in its place set up a pagan idol statute in the inner sanctum of the Temple (2 Chr 33:7). The state-religion of Yahweh/Jehovah-worship was disestablished and even forbidden; and the temple priests were executed along with the prophets. This apostasy did not go un-rebuked by the prophets, whom King Manasseh endeavored to silence by the fiercest persecution recorded in the country’s annals. Legend says that the prophet Isaiah was among King Manasseh’s victims. The prophet Isaiah was placed inside an hollowed-out tree trunk and sawn in half by King Manasseh's executioners. The Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, as well as the Philistines, who had been his father’s tributaries revolted against King Manasseh and gained their independence. The great blow came from Assyria, which captured Jerusalem, took King Manasseh prisoner, and humiliated him by having him walk to Nineveh, the Assyrian capital [the text says Babylon, 2 Chr 33:11, which maybe a copyist’s error], naked with a ring in his nose onto which was fastened a chain held by his captors, and brought into an audience with the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, to give an account for his rebellion. Manasseh’s name actually appears on two Assyrian lists of tributary kings, one telling how he was one of a group summoned to Nineveh to hear their overlord’s demands, and the other telling the story of his captivity by the Assyrian king. There, at Nineveh, King Manasseh was held a prisoner for several years. Manasseh came to repentance while a prisoner in a cell in a dank, deep, dark dungeon; and later was restored to his kingdom, but under Assyria’s vassalage. King Manasseh first acts on his restoration were to destroy all the idols and pagan altars, cleanse and re-open the temple, place The "Ark" back into the temple's "inner sanctum", restore Yahweh/Jehovah-worship, and all its services. The country enjoyed peace and renewed prosperity during King Manasseh’s restoration.

17. AMON, reigned 2 years, 642-640BC (2 Ki 21:19; 2 Chr 33:21). He was age 22 on his accession.

He married Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah, a temple-priest of the Aaronic High-Priest's House, and begot

(a) Josiah, the crown prince

(b) Kareah, the father of Johanan, a later claimant to the throne. Prince Johanan maybe identified with "Ion, son of Kari" in ancient Irish annals. If so, he was the ancestor of a dynasty of rival claimants to King David's Throne in "a far off place" or "in the isles of the seas". Here, according to British-Israelism, "the isles of the seas" in "a far off place" refers to the British Isles.

King Amon was wicked and followed his father’s old idolatries, without sharing his repentance. He even closed the Temple and prohibited Jehovah-worship. He fell victim to court conspiracy, which may have been intended as a gesture of independence from Assyrian vassalage, and was murdered in the palace. The citizens of Jerusalem sought out his murderers and avenged his death by slaying the conspirators.

18. JOSIAH (YOSHEAU), reigned 31 years, 640-609BC (2 Ki 22:1; 2 Chr 34:1). He was age 8 on his accession. The country was in terrible social and moral conditions when Josiah came to the throne. He was a godly man, and when he came of age he discharged the regency and began religious reforms. The temple was cleansed, repaired, and re-opened, and the temple services was restored. It was during this time that a copy of the "Torah" was discovered by some workmen in the temple, and brought to the king who read it. He was inspired by it, so much so that he convened the country’s whole population at Jerusalem, where, after the priests read the "Torah" to the congregation, all the people were moved to take a solemn oath to Yahweh/Jehovah-God and renewed their covenant with Him. This was followed by further religious reforms, including the destruction of all pagan idols and altars.

King Josiah married first Zebidah of Rumah, and married secondly Hamutal of Libnah, and had issue by both wives.

(a) Johanan [Yohannan], the eldest, the crown prince

(b) Eliakim [who changed his name to JEHOIAKIM on his accession]

(c) Shallum [who changed his name to JEHOAHAZ on his accession]

(d) Mattaniah [who changed his name to ZEDEKIAH on his accession]

(18) Johanan [Yohannan], the crown-prince (above), eldest son of (17) King JOSIAH, was the father of an only child, a daughter, Tamar[-Dephi]

(19) Tamar[-Dephi] (daughter), who, according to the judicial-ruling made by Moses (Num 28:8) and its conditional clause (Num 36:8), was technically the dynasty's heiress. The possibility that Tamar [whose epithet was "Tephi"] may have been the heiress to the throne is not improbable, for, although inheritance among the Jews was according to the male-line, if there were no sons the inheritance of property [in this case, the kingdom] went to the daughter (Num 27:8), on the condition (Num 36:8) that she marry "inside her father’s house" [in this case, the Davidic Dynasty, i.e., the royal house], usually to the next-of-kin in the male-line, otherwise she would forfeit the inheritance. The Jewish scribes normally did not include daughters in the Bible genealogies, and left Tamar out in 1 Chr 3. Her insertion into the royal pedigree at this point resolves all the problems in this portion of the royal genealogy that without her there would be no solutions.

Meantime, the Assyrian Empire was in a state of revolt and collapse following the fall of Nineveh, the capital city, to the Scythians in 612BC. Its king, Sin-shar-ishkun, apparently died in the defense of the city, and the remnants of the Assyrian Army were collected by Prince Ashur-uballit, the last Assyrian king, who established his headquarters at Carchemish on the Upper Euphrates. He was encouraged by a number of victories in a counter-offensive, and made a desperate last-ditch attempt to regain Nineveh, the capital city, however, was opposed by the Babylonians, who defeated Ashur-uballit at Carchemish. He fled with the remnant of his army to Haran, where the Babylonians, under their army-commander, Nebuchadnezzar, delivered the final blow to Assyria in the "1st" Battle of Haran, and Assyria was no more! Meantime, the Egyptian Pharaoh, Necho II, saw the collapse of the Assyrian Empire as an opportunity to restore Egypt’s former empire in Asia. Pharaoh Necho sought passage through Judah on his way to Carchemish, but King Josiah refused the Egyptian pharaoh obstructing Egypt’s ambition to regain control of the Middle East, for King Josiah sought to restore his own country’s former borders. And, upon Assyria’s collapse, he occupied and annexed the former Assyrian province of Samaria, which had once been the territory of the Israeli "northern kingdom", which Assyria had conquered a century earlier. Pharaoh Necho, wishing for a speedy advance, sent an embassy to King Josiah to persuade him to join his side, but King Josiah refused and met the Egyptian pharaoh in battle at Megiddo. The battle went against King Josiah, who was mortally wounded and was carried off the battlefield and died shortly after, 609BC. His eldest son, the Crown-Prince Johanan, his heir, is thought to have been killed in the Battle of Megiddo along with his father, but how the crown-prince died is a matter of speculation. King Josiah was taken back dead in a chariot to Jerusalem by his servants. His death may not have been in vain, for he delayed the Egyptians long enough to influence the outcome of events. The Egyptians went on from there; and, in the "2nd" Battle of Haran that year the issue shifted to a Babylonian-Egyptian struggle over the control of Syria-Palestine.

In Jerusalem, on the news of the death of King Josiah at Megiddo, the Queen, the late king’s 2nd wife and widow, Hamutal, acted quickly and set her son, Jehoahaz on the throne in prejudice of both the brother of the late crown-prince, namely, Prince Jehoiakim, and [his niece], the daughter of the late crown-prince, Tamar, who could have been considered the heiress to the throne or queen on the basis of Num. 28:8 and Num. 36:8.

19. JEHOAHAZ (JOAHAZ), reigned three months Year 609 (2 Ki 23:31; 2 Chr 36:2). He was age 23 when his mother, Queen Hamutal, engineered his succession in prejudice of her late husband’s issue of his late first wife, on the news of the death of her husband, King Josiah, and the crown-prince, Johanan, in the Battle of Megiddo. Queen Hamutal dominated the royal court and had a big influence over her son, King Jehoahaz. Jehoahaz, during his short reign, began a reversal of his father’s religious reforms, for the Bible says "he did evil in God’s eyes". Pharaoh Necho, on his way back to Egypt following the "2nd" Battle of Haran, occupied Jerusalem, removed King Jehoahaz from the throne and placed his older half-brother, Jehoiakim, on the throne. The ex-king Jehoahaz, along with his mother, Queen Hamutal, were taken prisoners by Pharaoh Necho. Jehoahaz was taken first to Riblah, where Pharaoh Necho had established his headquarters. Then, from there he was taken to Egypt where the ex-king Jehoahaz died as predicted by Jeremiah (Jer 22:11-12), without any known descendants.

20. JEHOIAKIM (YAHIAKEEM) was set on the throne by Pharaoh Necho, and Judah became an Egyptian vassal-state. He was age 25 on his accession, and reigned eleven years, 609-598 (2 Ki 23:36; 2 Chr 36:5).

He married Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem [cousin], and begot

(a) JECONIAH (JECHONIAS), called "CONIAH" for short, who took the name JEHOIAKIN (JEHOIACHIN), on his accession.

He is portrayed in the Bible as a wicked king who sought repeatedly to kill Jeremiah "The Prophet", who continually spoke against his policies. He imprisoned anyone who dared to criticize him. He continued the evils begun during his half-brother’s short reign. The country was harassed by its neighbors during his reign. The tide of history changed with Egypt's defeat by the Babylonians, in 605, after which the Babylonians came and occupied Jerusalem. King Jehoiakim was bound in chains by the Babylonian general-prince Nebuchadnezzar [the future Sumerian/Babylonian emperor] with the intention of carrying him to Babylon (2 Chr 36:6), but the news of his father’s death caused him to delay his plans and restored Jehoiakim to the throne to hurry home to Babylon to secure his succession. King Jehoiakim, formerly a vassal of Pharaoh Necho of Egypt, now became the vassal of Emperor Nebuchadnezzar [II] of Babylonia. The Babylonians returned to their own country, and took back with them many Jewish hostages [including Daniel and his three friends]. This was the first of three mass deportations. The defeat of the Babylonians by the Egyptians in another battle, in 601, encouraged Jehoiakim to attempt to free himself of his vassalage to anyone, and withheld the yearly tribute to the Babylonian emperor. In response the Babylonians again appeared before Jerusalem’s walls. The siege of the city was grievous, and the city’s citizens slew King Jehoiakim and threw his body over the walls to convince the enemy that he was dead, that is, his body was "cast forth beyond the gates" (Jer 22:19). His corpse was exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night (Jer 36:30), and ignominiously treated by the enemy, the Babylonians, who gave him "the burial of an ass" (Jer 22:19), that is, he was buried in an unmarked grave in the trash heaps of the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem. In Jer 36:30 it says that Jehoiakim "shall have none to sit on the throne"; while in 2 Ki 24:6 it says that Jehoiakim "slept with his fathers; and Jehoiachin, his son, reigned in his stead." This curse was fulfilled with the early death of the crown-prince Zedekiah, son of Jehoiachin, by wife Tamar (heiress), her 2nd marriage.

21. JEHOIAKIN (YOHOIKANE) (JEHOIACHIN) ([JE]CONIAH) (JECHONIAS), called "THE CAPTIVE" ["ASSIR"], also referred to as [JE]CONIAH in scripture, reigned three months Year 598/597 BC (2 Ki 24:8; 2 Chr 36:9). [Je]Coniah was placed on the throne by the citizens of Jerusalem after they had killed his father during the siege of the city by the Babylonians. 2 Ki 24:8 says he was 18 on his accession, but 2 Chr 36:9 says he was age 8. The accepted explanation of this discrepancy is that in 2 Chr 36:9 the "yodh" [= 10] was dropped out by a copyist due to a corruption in the text, for he is known to have been married with at least one child, Zedekiah, at the time of his succession (1 Chr 3:16). Too, some cuneiform tablets discovered at Babylon by archaeologists mention King [Je]Coniah by name as well as his sons ["step-sons"], indicating that his sons ["step-sons"] were already born at the time he was taken captive, which points to his marriage to a widow with children.

He married [Jewish Queen] Tamar-Tephi, his cousin, the widow of Prince Neri[ah], her first husband, the daughter of the late crown-prince, Johanan, his uncle, and had issue. Here, Tamar, is the pivotal figure who transfers the title of the throne from the main-line [the Solomonic line] of the royal house, which she was [technically] the dynasty's heiress, to a secondary-line of the royal house [the Nathanite-line]. The Nathanite-line heretofore was a non-royal branch of the Davidic royal house, however, came into possession of the throne, that is, the royal Davidic heirship via the heiress of the dynasty's main [Solomonic] line. The right of a man's daughter [if she was an only child] to inherit her father's estate [the kingdom, in this case] was upheld by the judicial-ruling of Moses recorded in Num 27:8 that gave her the right to be the heiress of the throne, or queen, but that she must satisfy the one condition Moses made on this ruling, recorded in Num 36:8, which was the stipulation that for an only daughter to have the right of inheritance [in this case the throne] she must marry or be married to a member of her father’s house [in this case the "Davidic Dynasty" [= "gens davidica"], i.e., the old royal house]. This was fulfilled by her marriage to Prince Neri[ah] and then to King [Je]Coniah, both of whom were male-line descendants of King David's House, "so that the inheritance [the kingdom, in this case] would not pass out of her father’s house".

(a) Zedekiah, the crown-prince

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------note: the early death of the crown-prince was the fulfillment of "Coniah's Curse", made by Jeremiah "The Prophet" (Jer 22:30)

issue of Queen Tamar by Prince Neriah, her 1st husband, was:

(b) Shealtiel (Salathiel), the acknowledged heir [after the death of the crown-prince], father of Zerubabel, the post-exilic royal heir

(d) Pedaiah (Phadaia), father of Esthra (daughter), 3rd wife of Zerubabel [her cousin]

(e) Shenazzur (Sin-ab-Usur), ancestor of a noble descent-line

(h) Nedabiah, father of Shemphat (S[u]mbat) about whom an unusual occurrence is recorded that when King Hraceay (Hratchea) of Armenia, while accompanying Nebuchanezzar on his campaigns as one of his vassals, for reasons unknown but to himself asked for a certain Jewish captive prince, Shemphat (Sumbat), the son of Nedabiah, one of Shealtiel’s brothers, to return with him to Armenia. He did, and King Hraceay (Hratchea) of Amernia, gave him a pension and an estate at Sper. The male-line descendants of Shemphat (Sumbat) survive today as the Bagratuni Family, i.e., the Bagratids, however, since they do not descend from Zorobabel but rather from his cousin the family is classified as a non-royal Davidic descent-line, and not included in the registry of the Davidic Dynasty nor represented in its genealogy except as a footnote. There are huge gaps in the Bagratuni Pedigree, however, some names are known, such as Shamba/Bagarat, who was forced to convert to zoroastrianism by the Persian Shah [Arsaces I, 128-115BC].

(01) David, King of Israel, who, by Bathsheba, begot (02) Nathan, ancestor of the Nathanite-line of the royal house, the father of (03) Mattatha[n], the father of (04) Menon (Menna), the father of (05) Melea, the father of (06) Eliakim, the father of (07) Jonam, the father of (08) Joseph, the father of (09) Jude, the father of (10) Simeon, the father of (11) Levi, the father of (12) Mattatha[n], the father of (13) Joram, the father of (14) Eliezer, the father of (15) Jose (Joshua), the father of (16) Er, the father of (17) Elmodam, the father of (18) Cosam, the father of (19) Addi, the father of (20) Melchi, the father of (21) Neri[ah], "1st" husband of Tamar [daughter of the late crown-prince, Johanan, King Josiah's eldest son], representing the dynasty's main-line, the parents of (22) Shealtiel (Salathiel), heir-presumptive, father of (23) Zerubabel, post-exilic royal heir

(story-line continues)

In 598/597BC the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem’s walls. Three months later upon the early death of the crown-prince, Zedekiah, his father, King Jehoiakin, that is, [Je]Coniah, broken in spirit by the early death of his son, decided to surrender, and packed his bags, and gathered together the royal family, including his wife, Tamar Tephi, the queen-mother, Nehushta, and, in a grand entourage of ministers and servants rode out of the city’s gates to meet the Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar (2 Ki 24:12), who placed them all under arrest. Nebuchadnezzar occupied Jerusalem, and sat the ex-king’s uncle, Mattaniah [who changed his name to Zedekiah on his accession], on the throne, and Judah became a Babylonian vassal-state.

The ex-king, Jehoiakin, called "The Captive" ["Assir"] in 1 Chr 3:17, and his family and entourage were carried to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar where they lived in comfortable confinement in Babylon for the remainder of their lives. Some cuneiform tablets discovered at Babylon by archaeologists mention King [Je]Coniah by name and those of his sons [step-sons], which points to the fact that his sons [step-sons] were born before his captivity; which, this, and the fact that he was only age 18 on his accession, points to his marriage to a widow with children, that is, Tamar [epithet: "Tephi"], the queen-consort and princess-heiress, who was taken into captivity with her husband, King [Je]Coniah, along with her children. 2 Ki 24:12 puts the royal house hostage in Nebuchadnezzar's 8th year; but Jer 52:28 puts it in Nebuchadnezzar's 7th year, which discrepancy may have arisen due to the differences in the Hebrew and Babylonian calendars. Too, Nebuchadnezzar sent more of the country’s population to Babylonia in another mass deportation, among whom this time was Ezekiel, the prophet. This was the second of the three mass deportations of the Jews to Babylonia. Jehoiakin, i.e., [Je]Coniah, the Jewish ex-king, had his own residence at Babylon, with a personal staff and a retinue of retainers, and held court as if he were still the king. He enjoyed favorable treatment by Nebuchadnezzar, until [Je]Coniah raised a rebellion of the Jewish exiles against their Babylonian masters, and was put in prison. [Je]Coniah, the ex-king, was released from prison on Nebuchadnezzar's death by his successor, Babylonian-Emperor Evil-Merodach, who admitted him into the hospitality of the imperial Babylonian court, and [Je]Coniah even had his own seat at the emperor’s table as if he were a member of the Babylonian royal house (2 Ki 25:27-30; Jer 52:31-34). It was at this time that the Exilarchate was created by King [Je]Coniah at Babylon to service the "Diaspora". His court at Babylon was recognized as the royal court transferred from Jerusalem, while "King" Zedekiah at Jerusalem was reigning as "regent" [not "king"] in the absence of the recognized king, King [Je]Coniah.

22. ZEDEKIAH (TSIDQIYAH) (SIDIAHU; SIDKIAL), the youngest son of King Josiah and his 2nd wife, Hamutal, reigned for 11 years, 598/597-587/586 BC (2 Ki 24:18; 2 Chr 36:11). He was to be Judah’s last king.

He, by an un-named wife, begot six sons and three daughters, including his eldest son, the crown-prince

(a) Malchijah (Melchiah) (Jer 38:6), mur

(b) Jerahmeel, exec

(c) Mulek, not mentioned in scripture, who, according to mythology, escaped the massacre of the royal family

(d),(e),(f), three sons, names not given, all executed by Nebuchadnezzar

(g) Maacha (daughter), who died of an illness in Egypt during her sojourn there

(h) [name not given], another of the king's daughters, married the ruler of the House of Saragossa, then Spain's reigning dynasty

(i) Tamar [another of the same name], married a British king [Eochaid]

The reign of Zedekiah saw nothing but continual agitation and sedition until the nation, seemingly bent on destroying itself, finally succeeded in bringing the roof down upon itself. King Zedekiah, though he seems to have had well intentions (cp. Jer 37:17-21; 38:7-28), was a weak king unable to stand up to the nobles (Jer 38:5). His feeble vacillations is evidence that he was fearful of public opinion (Jer 38:19). His situation was anything but easy due to the internal divisions in the royal court. Too, since his nephew, [Je]Coniah, the ex-king, was still regarded by the people as the legitimate king, it made the position of Zedekiah ambiguous and his authority questionable. His advisors were ungodly. He consulted with the prophet Jeremiah, even while Jeremiah was in prison, but was unable to act on his advise due to pressure from the nobles most of whom were Jeremiah’s enemies. He saved Jeremiah’s life, but was incapable of saving the prophet from ill-treatment by his enemies.

In the eighth year of King Zedekiah's reign we find ambassadors from all of the neighboring countries at his court in Jerusalem discussing how to free themselves from their Babylonian vassalage. They were encouraged to do so upon hearing of an on-going rebellion of the Jews in Babylonia under [Je]Coniah, the ex-king, against the Babylonian authorities.

It was at this time that he and Judah's neighbor-states, supported by Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt, rebelled against Babylonian vassalage, to which Nebuchadnezzar responded by re-conquering the Middle East. Soon, Jerusalem, again found itself under siege. The siege was lifted temporarily while the Babylonians marched to meet the advancing Egyptians under Pharaoh Hophra, whom the Babylonians defeated and turned back to their own country. Jerusalem was wild with joy by the departure of the Babylonians, thinking deliverance had come, however, news of the defeat of the Egyptians changed the city’s mood to deep consternation. The defeat of the Egyptians in battle caused the collapse of the coalition of the Middle East states. The Babylonians then once more appeared before Jerusalem’s walls. From this point onwards the siege progressed slowly but surely until its consummation. The city held out for nearly one-and-a-half years through famine, pestilence, and internal discords, when at last after sixteen dreadful months the end finally came. The city’s walls were breached and the enemy poured into the city. They made their way to the center of the city from where they fanned-out and began fighting street to street, sacking and pillaging the city and massacring its citizens. The city of Jerusalem was torched and destroyed and left in splendid ruins. This was the destruction of the "First" Temple. The "Ark" was removed from the temple before the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, according to 2 Esdras 10:21,22. The royal family, King Zedekiah, his queen, and their children, fled along with government ministers and army officers, but they were betrayed by one of their servants, and the party was captured by Babylonian troops on the plains of Jericho on their way to Jordan [Edom, Ammon, & Moab], which country had joined the alliance (Jer 27:3). They were brought before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, where he had made his headquarters. There Nebuchadnezzar reproached King Zedekiah for breaking his oath to him. He had King Zedekiah’s sons slain before his eyes, and then had his eyes gouged-out so that the slaughter of his sons would be the last thing he was ever to see. King Zedekiah was then bound in chains and taken to Babylon where he languished in prison until his death nine years later. The queen and Zedekiah’s daughters were spared and were entrusted into the custody of Prince Gedaliah whom Nebuchadnezzar made Governor [not King] of Judah, which now became a Babylonian province. Gedaliah was accountable to the Babylonian emperor, as one of his officers. It was the end of the Jewish kingdom.

Those Jews who had fled seeking refuge on the news of the advancing Babylonians, as well as the troops of King Zedekiah who were dispersed over the plains of Jericho, quitting their retreats, began to gather around Governor Gedaliah at Mizpah. Gedaliah after two months in office, was murdered by Prince Ishmael, a claimant to the throne.

Meanwhile, in Babylon, the ex-king [Je]Coniah (Jehoiakin) was still alive, and it was the hope of the Jewish remnant in Canaan/Palestine who escaped the mass deportation of the country’s population into the "Babylonian Captivity" that he would in time be returned and restored to his country's throne.

The execution of the sons of the ex-king Zedekiah by the Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar II, and the carrying-away of King Zedekiah in chains to Babylon where he languished in prison until his death nine years later, caused several claimants of the royal house to come forward asserting their claims to the Hebrew throne; these were the dynasty's Babylonian conquest-period royal heirs. They included "Prince" Gedaliah, "Prince" Ishmael, and "Prince" Johanan, among others. British Israelism Theory says that the conquest-period queen of the Jewish refugees was King Zedekiah's daughter, Tamar-Tephi, called "Queen of the Hebrews", who married the King [Eochaid] of "the Britannic Islands".

01. GEDALIAH, a Jewish prince, was the first governor of the Babylonian province of Judea as an officer in the service of a foreign country, Babylonia. He governed the remnant of the country’s Jewish population left behind in the name of the Babylonian emperor, and, under him, the Jewish remnant in Canaan/Palestine resumed their daily lives, most of whom were in a demoralized

state. His pedigree was either

(1) Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, the son of King Hezekiah; or,

(2) [name], claimant, son of Yerahmeel, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Elkanah [rival claimant versus King Ahaz, his cousin], the son of Tabael, the brother of King Jotham (above). If the first pedigree represents his lineage, then, the second pedigree represents the lineage of an important prince whose identity is unsure.

The capital of the Babylonian province of Judea was Mizpah where Gedaliah made his residence, since Jerusalem had been destroyed and was empty of inhabitants. The remainder of the country’s population "except the poorest of the land" was carried-off in the third and last mass deportation of the country's population to Babylonia into captivity.

02. ISHMAEL was the leader of a party of nationalistic patriots who wished to re-establish an independent Jewish state under himself as king. Ishmael was opposed by another claimant, Prince Johanan, whose claim to the throne was even stronger than either of his opponents.

Ishmael, was the son of Nathaniah, the son of Elishama, the son of Achbor, the son of Michaiah, the son of Azrikam, who descended in the ninth degree from Prince Shamariah (Semariah), middle of the five sons of King Rehoboam by his first wife.

The Jewish population, however, was in no mood to support the ambitions of any would-be claimants at that time; and, without the support of the general population, the plans of Ishmael faltered, and he and his party fled to Jordan, whose king [Baalis] gave him and his family refuge (Jer 41:4-16).

03. JOHANAN, son of Prince Kareah, the brother of King Josiah, expelled Prince Ishmael, and took over the country's rule. Prince Johanan, anticipating reprisals from Nebuchadnezzar, despaired and fled to Egypt forcing Jeremiah "The Prophet" to accompany him. The daughters of King Zedekiah were among the refugees (Jer 43:5-7) in Prince Johanan's Party. They settled at Tahpanhes [Daphnae], just within the frontier (Jer 43:7). The remains of Taphanhes are today known as "Quasr Bint el Yehudi", which means "The Palace of the Jews' [King] daughter", which must be a reference to Tamar-Tephi, either the daughter of Crown-Prince Johanan, or the eldest of King Zedekiah's daughters?

The Babylonian Emperor Nebuchadnezzar [II] sent another army to subdue Canaan/Palestine to avenge Gedaliah's murder, and, in 582 established a military-governor over Israel/Palestine. The news of Nebuchadnezzar’s advance, caused alarm among the Jews of Judea [Israel], and, upon the advance of the Babylonians to Egypt, the Jewish refugees in Egypt under Prince Johanan took ships and went to "a strange land which they knew not" (Jer 15:11-14), which one theory claims was the British Isles.

The story that Jeremiah The Prophet anointed Tamar-Tephi at Taphanhes as Queen of the Hebrews upon the "Lia Fail" stone is incredible! It could not have happened with Prince Johanan as the leader of the Jewish refugees, for he was then an active claimant to the throne, that is, unless, however, the Jewish refugees had split into separate camps.

Legend says that Maacha, another of "the king's daughters", became ill and died while in Egypt as foretold by Jeremiah "The Prophet" to pressure the Jewish refugees to return to Canaan-Palestine, under their own prince, Johanan. The exiled Jews reluctantly returned to Judea upon Jeremiah's insistence (Jer. 44:28), while the others dispersed and settled in various Egyptian cities (Jer 44:1), and beyond Egypt to Spain and the British Isles.

Their descendants remained there throughout the Persian period (cp Isa. 18:18ff), to be joined later by another flow of Jewish immigrants to Egypt during the reign of the Ptolemies. Some settled at Elephantine, at the first cataract of the Nile river.

It is thought that the Jewish colony at Elephantine was originally founded during the great persecution of Yahweh/Jehovah-worshippers by King Manasseh, because its religious practices show that the colony must pre-date King Josiah’s reforms. The Jewish community existed through the fifth century BC at Elephantine, under an off-shoot of the Davidic Dynasty, descended from King Manasseh’s uncle; who could be potential claimants to the disputed throne. The Jewish colony in Egypt was in existence when the Persians conquered Egypt in 525BC. It is unsure exactly when this colony of Jews settled there, but the surprising thing is that they had a temple. Surely, they were aware that Moses specified that there could only be one place of sacrifice to God (Deut 12:1,10), however, Isaiah (19:19) speaks of a positive tone of the day when "there will be an altar to God in the midst of the land of Egypt…", which seems to endorse a sacrificial cult outside of Israel-Palestine. The temple was destroyed by the Egyptians in 411BC, and the leaders of the Jewish community at Elephantine appealed to the Persian authorities in 407BC for permission to rebuild it. They also sent a letter to the Israeli/Palestinian "Nasi", Anani, the royal Davidic heir, in post-exilic Jerusalem, making requests. The Jewish colony at Elephantine at some time migrated to Ethiopia, where they became the Ethiopian tribe called the "Falashas".

The British-Israel Theory of the origin of the British Monarchy has developed into an elaborate doctrine over the past century on the basis of the interpretation of certain scripture and apocryphal literature. It maintains that "Ion, son of Kari" in ancients Irish annals is to be identified with Prince Johanan, the Jewish claimant (587BC), the son of Kareh, a brother of Judah’s king Josiah; and, that, it was to the British Isles that the Jewish refugees migrated and settled and became the Irish tribe "Tuathe-De" and the British "Bragantes". The term "Tuathe-De" is not short for "Tuatha-da-Danaan", who were an entirely different "tuatha" or tribe. The term "Tuathe-De" pre-dates the "Lebor Gabala" and refers to the Jews in the Irish translation of the "Bible" in the Gaelic language. The term "Tuathe-De" ["tuatha" = "people", "tribe", or "nation"; and "De" = "god/God"] means "People of God". The Tuathe-De may be identified with the Irish "Fir-De", that is, "Men of God". The Tuathe-De, or Fir-De, were so-called say some scholars in reference to the old Irish gods, however, adherents of the "British-Israelite Theory" contend that they were so called in reference to the God of the Bible, which seems to be the case since the Jews are called "Tuathe-De" or "Fir-De" in early Irish translations of the Bible. The dispersed Jewish exiles of the "Diaspora" are called "Plebes-Dei" in the Latin text, which is translated into Gaelic as the "Tuathe-De". The Tuathe-De, or Fir-De, are not to be confused with later Christians who are called in ancient Irish annals the "Fir Tri-nDea", which means the "men of the three gods" [referring to the Roman Catholic doctrine of the "Trinity"]. The Tuathe-De are said in ancient Irish annals to have come to Ireland before the Gaels arrived and conquered the isle [except Ulster]. In fact, it was the Gaels who overthrew the Jewish kingdom in Ancient Ireland, circa 250BC, and the fate of the Tuathe-De [Jews] after that is unsure for the “Lebor Gabala” does not mention the Tuathe-De, or Fir-De, again. The first king of the Irish Tuathe-De is called "Ion, son of Kari", in ancient Irish annals. Ion, son of Kari, may be identified with Johanan, son of Kareah, the leader of the Jewish refugees, who was a prince of the old Jewish Davidic royal house. His father, Kareah, was a younger brother of the earlier Jewish King Josiah, and, therefore, Prince Johanan was a cousin of Judah's last king, Zedekiah (587BC). Legend says that the Irish prince Eochaid, whose father is called the "King of Ireland" in British lore, was visiting Jerusalem at the time of its conquest by the Babylonians and had become betrothed to the Jewish princess Tamar [or, Tea], one of King Zedekiah’s daughters, identified by many with "Tamar-Tephi". Indeed, it was the Irish prince Eochaid who invited Tamar-Tephi and her party of Jewish refugees [under Prince Johanan’s leadership] to Ireland to where they apparently came, about 582BC.

The Jewish refugees docked their ships in Iberia/Spain to get supplies. There, another of the king's daughters, name unsure, was married to the ruler of the House of Saragossa, then, Spain's reigning dynasty. Continuing their journey, the Jewish refugees went onto the "islands of the sea". They were shipwrecked in the Irish Sea and settled in the British Isles, called "islands of the sea" in Isaiah 11:11, under the protection of the "King of Ireland" [that is, the King of Ierne, who was then one of Ireland’s most powerful chieftains], and became the Irish "Tuathe-De" ["Tribe/People/Nation of God"], or "Fir-De" ["Men of God"].

The Jewish refugees, according to legend, carried along with them: (a) David's Harp, whence the emblem of Ireland; (b) a sacred stone, the "Lia Fail" stone ["Stone of Fate"], also called "Stone of Destiny" and "Jacob’s Pillar-Stone", reputed to be the coronation stone of first Irish, then Scottish, then English kings [the three "overturn[s]" of Ezekiel 21:27]; and (c) the "ark-of-the-covenant". The adherents to the "British-Israel Theory" derive the name "Britain" from the Hebrew word "beriyth" for "covenant", thus, "Britain" could possibly mean "people of the covenant"? The word "British" equates with the term "b'rit-ish" meaning "covenant-man". There are other traditions of the whereabouts of the "Lost Ark": one, that it was hidden by Jeremiah The Prophet either in one of the secret rooms underneath the Temple-Mount in Jerusalem, or in a cave in Mount Pisgah; another, that it was taken to Ethiopia by Jewish refugees, who became the Ethiopian "Falashas", and is now supposedly kept in the Church of Zion of St. Mary in the old Ethiopian capital-city of Axum [Aksum], however, the description of the "ark" in the Bible and the "box" in St. Mary’s do not square. Not the Jews only, but many ancient nations kept boxes to store sacred objects [e.g., Japan], and, the one in St. Mary’s in Axum is just another one of these ancient boxes and cannot be identified with "The Lost Ark". This Jewish colony in the British Isles became a kingdom, for God commissioned Jeremiah The Prophet to restore the Davidic Dynasty over the "Lost Tribes" of Israel which were scattered throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa, with some in the British Isles. His commission is recorded in Jeremiah 1:10 where God tells him to "pluck up" or "root out" the throne of David in Judah and to re-plant the "royal seed", i.e., the throne, in Israel, "these many days without a king"; but, here the question is: where was Israel in exile? Psalms 89:25 reads: "I will set his hand also in the sea." Here God appears to be saying that David's Throne would be planted in the sea, that is, on an isle in the sea. In Jeremiah 31:10 the message is to be declared "in the isles afar off", and is to be shouted to "the chief of the nations" [verse seven], that is, Israel, in her new home, while Palestine was lying idle and in the possession of the Gentiles. He continues: "I have dried up the green tree [Judah] and have made the dry tree [Israel] to flourish" [compare this to Eze 21:26, etc]. The mystery of the re-planting of David's Throne is also revealed in the Bible in a riddle and a parable. The riddle is found in Ezekiel 17:3-10, the meaning of which is given beginning with verse eleven; and the parable is found in verses 22-24, which all means that David’s Throne after being up-rooted from Judah was to be re-planted in Israel which was in exile "in the isles afar off", that is, the British Isles.

Jeremiah The Prophet [in the spirit of Samuel before him] re-founded the Hebrew kingdom in Ireland by anointing the Jewish prince Johanan as king of the Jewish exiles in Ireland or as the first king of the Irish tribe "Tuathe De" ["People of God"], which was what the native Irish called the Jewish settlers. Thus, the royal Davidic line was replanted by Jeremiah The Prophet in "the isles". Prince Johanan, not Tamar-Tephi, was the "tender young twig" of Ezekiel 17:22 that God said He would plant "upon a high mountain", for this Jewish prince [not Princess Tamar-Tephi] was to become the royal seed for the planting again of King David’s family-tree. In scripture a "mountain" is symbolic of a nation; but which nation? "In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it", God answers (Jer 17: 23). The nation of Israel?; but Israel was in exile! Its locale is specified by the reference to "the isles of the sea", which is claimed to mean the British Isles. Tradition says that Jeremiah The Prophet died in Ireland. His tomb, "Jeremiah's Tomb", is located by popular legend on Devenish Island in the beautiful lake, Lough Erne.

There have been books written about Tamar-Tephi that claim she was the "tender young twig" of Ezekiel 17:22, however, those who make that claim either ignore or are ignorant of Moses' judicial-ruling concerning heiresses, which was that if a man has no sons and only a daughter, the daughter may inherit her father's legacy (Num. 28:8), however, she could not pass it onto her children unless her husband and/or the father of her children were of "her father's house" (Num. 36:8), so as to keep the estate [in this case the kingdom, or throne] in her father's [or ancestor's] house [in this case, the Davidic Dynasty]. Hence, though Tamar-Tephi could have inherited the throne, she could not have left it to her children since the father of her children were not of her "father's house" but was an Irish prince. Indeed, none of the claims made for Tamar-Tephi by British-Israelist writers to have bequeathed the royal Davidic legacy to her offspring are valid, hence, the fact that British Royalty may trace a descent-line from Tamar-Tephi does not convey any rights to King David's throne and is therefore of no consequence.

The "three overturn(s)" of Ezekiel 21:27 is interpreted to refer to three transfers of the royal house, until Him to whom the throne belongs returns and takes His own, namely, Jesus. This implies that David’s throne did not cease to exist after the Babylonian conquest, for how else could it be overturned three times if it ceased to exist? And, how after these three transfers of the kingdom, could it be given "to Him [Jesus] whose right it is", at His "Second Coming", if the throne ceased to exist altogether?

The first "overturn" was from Judah to Ireland, the second "overturn" was from Ireland to Scotland [when the Irish Gaels drove the "Tuathe-De" out of Ireland and into Scotland during a series of wars], and the third "overturn" was from Scotland to England [when the Stewards/Stuarts inherited the English kingdom]. Hence, according to the "British-Israel Theory", the Davidic Dynasty has continued, unbroken, through a line of Irish kings, which, "overturn", continued through a line of Scottish kings, which, "overturn", continues to this day in the English line of kings, as God had sworn, which makes the British Monarchy to be the cousin to both the Babylonian Exilarchate and the Palestinian Patriarchate. The tradition of a divinely ordained ongoing Davidic Dynasty is attested to in many Bible texts.

The Irish Tuathe-De grew into a great tribe in Ireland and even found some colonies in Britain. The British "Brigantes", or "Britanni", who settled in Britain about 500BC, appear to have been a colony of the Irish Tuathe-De. The Tuathe-De were a major power in the British Isles during the Middle Iron Age (500-250BC). The names of only a few kings of the Irish Tuathe-De have been identified with persons in ancient Irish annals, who are: (a) Ion, the first king, c. 575BC, identified with the Jewish prince Johanan; (b) Con[aran], a Tuathe-De chieftain who is mentioned in the Fenian Cycle; and (c) Dua[ch] "The Dark", the last king, c. 250BC, who fell in battle fighting invading Gaels [Gauls], who conquered the country. His son, Eochu, may have been the father of Cas "The Exile" [the father of Huu "The Mighty", who founded a new British dynasty], and, if so, then, the Late Iron Age British Royal House would have been one of the branches of Israel's Davidic Dynasty! The royal house of the Tuathe-De claimed to have been a "divine dynasty", so to speak, as per its "covenant" with its God [Jehovah] as recorded in the Bible. The Tuathe-De were reduced to vassalage by invading Gauls/Gaels about 250BC. The Gauls who settled in Ireland at that time became the Irish Gaels. The later Milesians are believed by some to have been "Gaelicized" descendants of the old royal house of the Tuathe-De, however, the identification is unsure. If so, that would place Milesius in history around 100BC, and Ireland's great Milesian Dynasty [ancestors of the royal O'Neills] as one of many secondary-lines of Israel's Davidic Dynasty.

In 538 BC the Neo-Babylonian Empire was overthrown and Babylon was captured by Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire. He allowed the Jews to return to their homeland but only a proportion did so, apparently about 40,000; the remainder, probably the majority, stayed in Babylon/Mesopotamia. Thus there were, until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 135 AD, two principal centres of world Jewry, namely Jerusalem/Judea and Babylon/Mesopotamia, as follows. The Exilarch at the time of the ending of the Babylonian exile, Zerubabel, 3rd Exilarch, returned to Israel-Palestine and Jerusalem as governor of the new Persian province of Judea.

The Jews returning from the "Babylonian Captivity" under the leadership of another branch of King David's descendants, refounded the Jewish state, but instead of taking the title "king" chose the title "prince" ["Nasi"], that gave rise to the Jewish Palestinian "Nasi'im" as an institution, who came to be the rivals of the Jewish Babylonian Exilarchs, who were members of the royal house who remained in exile to rule and reign over the "Diaspora", i.e., exiled Jews scattered everywhere.

The dynasty's post-exilic royal heirs were styled as princes of Israel and as patriarchs of Jerusalem, from the "royal heir" Zerubabel, the 1st "Nasi" [="Prince of Israel"], to Hillel The Great, 60th "Nasi" [="Prince"], who founded a new dynasty of Nesi'im, c. 20/10BC, the Hillelite Line.

=1(562) Amytis, a Babylonian princess, daughter of Babylonian Emperor Amel-Marduk [Evil-Merodach], called his first "foreign wife"; marriage annulled due to shift in politics

=2(559) Rhodah, a Persian princess, may be identified with Rhodogune, the sister of Cyrus "The Great", the 1st Persian Shah; called his other "foreign wife"; marriage ends in divorce under pressure of Levitical priests; she re-marries [her cousin] a Persian prince, Hystaspes, and was the mother of Darius "The Great"

=3(536) Esthra, a Jewish princess [his cousin], daughter of Pedaiah, his father's brother [maybe this is the source why Zerubabel is called "son["in-law"] of Pedaiah" in a source, rather than "son of Shaltiel", his true parentage]

(a) Shazrezzar [a Babylonian name], the ancestor of Judea's greatest governor, Nehemiah, whose brother was the ancestor of the Abiudite Line, a major Davidic line. The Abiudite Line is basically the family and descendants of the famous Jewish Governor Nehemiah, a royal Jewish prince, whose family developed into a major Davidic descent-line. The main-line of the Abiudite Line ended with St. Joseph and his younger twin-brothers and their families as well as that of Miriam, their older half-sister, and, also that of St Joseph's two uncles and their families. The Abiudite Line was formerly an illegitimate descent-line since it descended from Zerubabel and his "foreign [1st] wife" but was legitimated by the Sanhedrin at the time of Herod's marriage to Doris "of Jerusalem," in 37BC, then, upon the failure of the Davidic Dynasty's [legitimate] senior-line in 4BC, the Abiudite Line became eligible for the succession.

(b) Reza (Rhesa) [a Persian name], called "Nasi" as Jewish "Prince" [the half-brother through his mother of the Persian Shah Darius "The Great"], the ancestor of the Rhesaite Line, a[nother] major Davidic line, grew up as a Persian prince, was the Persian Shah's half-brother, through their mother, which explains the shah's pro-Jewish attitude. The Rhesaite Line was formerly an illegitimate descent-line but was legitimated by the Sanhedrin in 37BC and became eligible for the succession upon the failure of the Davidic Dynasty's [legitimate] senior-line in 4BC. The genealogy includes the Virgin Mary's relatives: among whom were her famous uncle, Joseph of Arimathea [ancestor of the so-called "Grail-Kings"], on her father's side; and, her famous cousin, John "The Baptist", on her mother's side. The Rhesaite Line did not end with "The Virgin" Mary, but continued through the descendants of her uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, who were the medieval "Grail-Kings".

(c) Meshullam, considered heir, had precedent as 4th Exilarch (below), the ancestor of the Palestinian "Nesi'im", 1st Dynasty

(d) Hananiah (Khanayia) (Chanania), 5th Exilarch, the ancestor of the Babylonian Exilarchs, 1st Dynasty

(e) Shelomith, a daughter, the wife of Elnathan, Governor of Judea 510-490BC, who represented another Davidic lineage [ancestors & descendants of Hillel "The Great", who founded a dynasty of "nasi'im"], which was considered a non-royal Davidic descent-line since it descended from Shephatiah, one of King David's sons by a secondary wife. This marriage, however, elevated the (so called) "Hillel Pedigree" to royal status making it eligible for the succession.

(1)/(25A) Hashubah (Hashabniah), one, father of (26) Hattush ["A"] "Nasi", Prince 455-445, whom EZRA "THE SCRIBE" declared "royal Davidic heir", the father of (27) Anani [Hananiah"B"] "Nasi" [="Prince/Patriarch"] of Israel 425-405BC, identified with the Israeli/Palestinian "Nasi" mentioned by name in a letter from priests from Elephantine, Egypt, in 407BC; the father of twin sons, namely: