75. Judah - the Southern Tribe

The Fall of Judah

From the time that Rehoboam, king of  Judah, took the royal chair in 931 BCE (maybe 975) until the temple was destroyed in Judah by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, in 586 BCE was 345 (maybe 389) years.  In that time Judah had 20 kings and their average time on the throne was about 17 years.  This number, just as the number for Israel, is not exactly right because there were several times when two kings, from different dynasties, ruled at the same time.

In those years they had spent most of their time fighting with their northern brothers or else they would fight with other neighbouring countries.  Sometimes countries that had fought each other would join forces to fight some other country.  What a maze of loyalties (and dis-loyalties) there were.  Our posts concerning Israel also included Judah's involvement with them and so we will not spend any time repeating all that history here.

Jehovah had promised King David that his kingdom would last forever; There is no end of the increase of His government and peace on the throne of David, and on His kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on, even forever. Isa. 9:7.  Even though the Babylonians invaded and captured the people of Judah and deported them to Mesopotamia, they did not completely destroy Judah as the Assyrians had destroyed Israel only 140 years earlier.

Manasseh and Amon were two notably wicked kings in Judah immediately before King Josiah.  Shortly before the end of Judah's place in the promised land, they had one righteous king; his name was Josiah and he started ruling Judah at the age of eight.  He rid his country of false priests, false prophets and false gods.  By force, he cleaned up the moral scene.

Things went well for Judah for a little while, till Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by Euphrates.  He marched towards Babylon to regain some cities which had been re-taken from Pharaoh of Egypt.  The problem was that they needed to march through Judah to get to Babylon, and while they were doing that, King Josiah went out against him to intercept him, and the archers shot at King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am grievously wounded. And his servants ... brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 2 Chron. 35:20-24.

Jehovah's Anger

In spite of Josiah's reformations, Jehovah did not turn from the heat of His great wrath, with which His anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him. And Jehovah said, I will also remove Judah out of My sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. 2 Kings 23:26-27.   

We have run into statements of this nature before and every time these questions arise;

• did the unchanging Jehovah change His mind?  
• If Jehovah is omniscient did He not see the outcome of this situation?  
• Is Jehovah's mindset influenced by the decisions people make?  
• Has Jehovah purposely limited Himself to act in kindness or retribution depending on people's behaviour?

What horribly awful times the people of Judah had to survive before starvation or the sword, in mercy, put an end to their plight.  Jehovah, the God of their fathers sent (warnings) to them by His messengers, ... for He had pity on His people and on His dwelling-place.   But they mocked the messengers of God and despised His words, and ill-treated His prophets until the wrath of Jehovah arose against His people, until there was no healing (they were past hope).  And He, Jehovah, caused the king of the Chaldeans to go up against them. And he killed their choice ones by the sword in the house of their holy place, and had no pity on the young man and the virgin, the old man and the very aged; He, gave all into his hand. 2 Chron. 36:15-17.

Nebuchadnezzar and his army surrounded Jerusalem until there was no food or water left in the city.  Of those who survived the siege, all the nobility was either killed or taken to Babylon as prisoners.  The promising young lads and maidens were also taken prisoners; the poor of the country were left behind to keep on being farmers and keepers of sheep, but the city was gone!

What a dreadful way for a nation to end!   They had had valiant leaders, heroes, judges-both male and female, prophets and prophetesses.  The New Testament gives us a list of some of them, Moses, Joshua, Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah; also David, and Samuel and the prophets. Heb.11.  If only the people would have listened to, and obeyed, their righteous leaders!

We, in Canada, had a prime minister, Joe Clark, who was not elected for the second term in office.  The reason given was that "he was too honest".  If that is true, what does that say about us?  Would we rather have polished politicians than honest politicians?  A similar question could also be asked about American presidents.  Are they elected because they have high moral standards or because they debate better?

Just because Judah had been captured and Jerusalem had been destroyed, does not mean that we have come to the end of the history of the Sons of Jacob.  We have delved as deeply into the books of The Kings and Chronicles as I plan to.

Next, we take a brief look at what happened to the tribe of Judah in Babylon and their return to the land of Israel.