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127-605: The village was called Safsofa in Roman times. According to Yaqut , it was harried in 950 CE by the Hamdanid ruler of Aleppo , Sayf al-Dawla . In the early sixteenth century CE, Safsaf was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire , and by the 1596 tax records , it was a village in the nahiyah ("subdistrict") of Jira, part of Sanjak Safad . It had a population of 25 households, an estimated 138 persons, all Muslim . The villagers paid

254-541: A destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Tel Lachish . None of the original seals has been found, but some 2,000 impressions made by at least 21 seal types have been published. LMLK stands for the Hebrew letters lamedh mem lamedh kaph (Hebrew: לְמֶלֶךְ , romanized:  ləmeleḵ ), which can be translated as: According to a 2022 study, traces of vanilla found in wine jars in Jerusalem might indicate that

381-650: A siege of Jerusalem , ultimately destroying the city and ending the kingdom. A large number of Judeans were exiled to Babylon , and the fallen kingdom was then annexed as a Babylonian province . After the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire , the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews who had been deported after the conquest of Judah to return. They were allowed to autonomous rule under Persian governance . It

508-680: A consequence they lost their frankincense trade privileges. The trade privileges were taken over by the Nabataeans, an Arab tribe whose capital was in Petra in Transjordan. They established themselves in the Negev where they built a flourishing civilization. Despite the devastating Greco-Persian Wars , Greek cultural influences rose steadily. Greek coins began to circulate in the late 6th and early 5th centuries. Greek traders established trading posts along

635-516: A dispute emerging between biblical minimalists and biblical maximalists on this particular topic. Due to geopolitical factors like security issues, isolation, and political changes, the core area of the Kingdom of Judah on the south-central highlands has seen limited archaeological exploration compared to regions west of the Jordan River . Few excavations and surveys have been conducted there, creating

762-462: A fixed tax rate of 25% on several agricultural items, including wheat, barley, olives and fruits, as well as other types of produce, such as beehives and goats; a total of 3,714 akçe . A quarter of the revenue went to a waqf (religious endowment). In 1838 Safsaf was noted as a village in the Safad district, while in 1875 Victor Guérin described it as a village with fifteen Muslim families. In 1881

889-420: A general of the army. The Ethiopians were pursued to Gerar , in the coastal plain, where they stopped out of sheer exhaustion. The resulting peace kept Judah free from Egyptian incursions until the time of Josiah , some centuries later. In his 36th year, Asa was confronted by Baasha of Israel , who built a fortress at Ramah on the border, less than ten miles from Jerusalem. The capital came under pressure, and

1016-507: A heavy loss of life on the Israel side. According to the Books of Chronicles , Abijah and his people defeated them with a great slaughter, so that 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain, and Jeroboam posed little threat to Judah for the rest of his reign. The border of the tribe of Benjamin was restored to the original tribal border. Abijah 's son and successor, Asa of Judah , maintained peace for

1143-410: A notable knowledge gap compared to the extensively-studied Shephelah to the west, which has undergone systematic surveys and numerous scientific excavations. While it is generally agreed that the narratives of David and Solomon in the 10th century BCE tell little about the origins of Judah, currently, there is no consensus as to whether Judah developed as a split from a unified kingdom Israel (as

1270-596: A number of walls, a religious shrine, and a 23-foot (7.0 m) tower with an internal staircase Jericho is believed to be one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world , with evidence of settlement dating back to 9000 BCE, providing important information about early human habitation in the Near East . Along the Jericho– Dead Sea – Bir es-Saba – Gaza – Sinai route, a culture originating in Syria , marked by

1397-527: A result, ten of the tribes rebelled against Rehoboam and proclaimed Jeroboam their king, forming the northern Kingdom of Israel . At first, only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David , but the tribe of Benjamin soon joined Judah. Both kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, co-existed uneasily after the split until the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 722/721. For

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1524-497: A siege, which lasted either eighteen or thirty months, and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and then destroyed both. After killing all of Zedekiah's sons, Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah to Babylon and so put an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah. According to the Book of Jeremiah , in addition to those killed during the siege, some 4,600 people were deported after

1651-669: A sizable army up to the Euphrates to aid the Assyrians . Taking the coastal route into Syria at the head of a large army, Necho passed the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon . However, the passage over the ridge of hills, which shuts in on the south the great Jezreel Valley , was blocked by the Judean army, led by Josiah, who may have considered that the Assyrians and the Egyptians were weakened by

1778-412: A stand against Assyria by refusing to pay tribute. In response, Sennacherib of Assyria attacked the fortified cities of Judah. Hezekiah paid three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold to Assyria, which required him to empty the temple and royal treasury of silver and strip the gold from the doorposts of Solomon's Temple . However, Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem in 701 BCE though

1905-527: A talent of gold (about 34 kilograms (75 lb)). Necho then took Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, never to return. Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians by paying a heavy tribute. However, when the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim changed allegiances to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon . In 601 BCE, in the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar attempted to invade Egypt but

2032-428: A total of 2,586 dunums were allotted to cereals; 769 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards, while a 72 dunams was built-up (urban) area. On October 29, 1948, Israeli forces assaulted the village as part of Operation Hiram . After the villagers surrendered, some 50-70 men were massacred while bound and four women reported being raped. The IDF records for this massacre remain classified . In 1949 Kfar Hoshen

2159-628: A tyrant and involved in many political and familial intrigues. Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age . Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea , the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem . It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries. Jews are named after Judah, and primarily descend from people who lived in

2286-507: A vassal of Israel, rebelled against it, destroying the main Israelite settlements in the Transjordan. In the 830s BCE, king Hazael of Aram Damascus conquered the fertile and strategically important northern parts of Israel which devastated the kingdom. He also destroyed the Philistine city of Gath . During the late 9th century BCE, Israel under King Jehu became a vassal to Assyria and

2413-452: A vast army and took many cities. In the sack of Jerusalem (10th century BCE) , Rehoboam gave them all of the treasures out of the temple as a tribute and Judah became a vassal state of Egypt. Rehoboam's son and successor, Abijah of Judah , continued his father's efforts to bring Israel under his control. He fought the Battle of Mount Zemaraim against Jeroboam of Israel and was victorious with

2540-595: Is clear from the position of Judaean strongholds that one of their primary purposes was to facilitate communications via fire signals across the Kingdom, a method well-documented in the Book of Jeremiah and the Lachish letters. Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) According to the biblical account, the United Kingdom of Israel was founded by Saul during the late-11th century BCE, and reached its peak during

2667-566: Is the earliest known record of the name "Judah" (written in Assyrian cuneiform as Ya'uda or KUR.ia-ú-da-a-a), while an earlier reference to a Judahite envoy seems to appear in a wine list from Nimrud dated to the 780s BCE. The status of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE is a major subject of debate. The oldest part of Jerusalem and its original urban core are the City of David , which does show evidence of significant Israelite residential activity around

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2794-666: The Amarna Letters . These refer to local chieftains, such as Biridiya of Megiddo , Lib'ayu of Shechem and Abdi-Heba in Jerusalem . Abdi-Heba is a Hurrian name, and enough Hurrians lived in Canaan at that time to warrant contemporary Egyptian texts naming the locals as Ḫurru . In the first year of his reign, the pharaoh Seti I (c. 1294–1290 BCE) waged a campaign to resubordinate Canaan to Egyptian rule, thrusting north as far as Beit She'an , and installing local vassals to administer

2921-608: The Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, the Babylonians routed the Egyptian forces, causing them to flee back to the Nile . The next year, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Philistine cities Ashdod , Ekron , Ashkelon , and Gaza . By 601 BCE, all the former states in the Levant had become Babylonian colonies. The Babylonians continued the practices of their predecessors

3048-726: The Caucasus mixed with the local population to produce the Canaanite culture that existed during the Bronze Age. During 1550–1400 BCE, the Canaanite city-states became vassals to the New Kingdom of Egypt , which expanded into the Levant under Ahmose I and Thutmose I . Political, commercial and military events towards the end of this period (1450–1350 BCE) were recorded by ambassadors and Canaanite proxy rulers for Egypt in 379 cuneiform tablets known as

3175-627: The Judaean Desert descending into the Jordan Valley to the east, formed the kingdom's core. The northern border of Judah extended east-west from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea , passing near Jericho to the area of Gezer . To the west, the border ran from Gezer across the Shephelah to Beersheba in the northern Negev. In the east, Judah's boundaries followed the Arabah to the western shore of

3302-475: The Judahite–Babylonian War . Nebuchadnezzar responded by laying siege to Jerusalem in 598 to end its revolt. In 597, the king Jeconiah of Judah, together with Jerusalem's aristocracy and priesthood, were deported to Babylon. In 587 BCE Nebuchadnezzar besieged and destroyed Jerusalem , bringing an end to the kingdom of Judah. A large number of Judahites were exiled to Babylon . Judah and

3429-703: The Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the PLO established the Palestinian Authority (PA), an interim body to run Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem), pending a permanent solution. Further peace developments were not ratified and/or implemented, and relations between Israel and Palestinians has been marked by conflict, especially with Islamist Hamas , which rejects the PA. In 2007, Hamas won control of Gaza from

3556-478: The PEF 's Survey of Western Palestine described Safsaf as a small village situated on a plain, with a population of about 100. They also noted that "ornamented stones of a preexisting public building" had been built into the doorway of the village mosque . The villagers cultivated olive and fig trees and vineyards. A population list from about 1887 showed Safsaf to have about 740 inhabitants, all Muslim. At this time it

3683-750: The Philistines occupied its southern coast. The Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE, then the Babylonians in c. 601 BCE, followed by the Persians who conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in the late 330s BCE, beginning Hellenization . In the late 2nd century BCE, the Hasmonean Kingdom conquered most of Palestine, but

3810-604: The Pleistocene , c. 1.5 million years ago. These are traces of the earliest migration of Homo erectus out of Africa. The site yielded hand axes of the Acheulean type. Excavations in Skhul Cave revealed the first evidence of the late Epipalaeolithic Natufian culture, characterized by the presence of abundant microliths , human burials and ground stone tools. This also represents one area where Neanderthals – present in

3937-726: The Rashiduns ; Umayyads , Abbasids ; the semi-independent Tulunids and Ikhshidids ; Fatimids ; and the Seljuks . In 1099, the Crusaders established the Kingdom of Jerusalem , which the Ayyubid Sultanate reconquered in 1187. Following the invasion of the Mongol Empire in the late 1250s, the Egyptian Mamluks reunified Palestine under its control, before the Ottoman Empire conquered

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4064-728: The West Bank (and East-Jerusalem ), annexed by Jordan , and the Gaza Strip occupied by Egypt , which were conquered by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Despite international objections, Israel started to establish settlements in these occupied territories. Meanwhile, the Palestinian national movement gained international recognition, thanks to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), under Yasser Arafat . In 1993,

4191-561: The 10th century. Some unique administrative structures such as the Stepped Stone Structure and the Large Stone Structure , which originally formed one structure, contain material culture dated to Iron I. On account of the alleged lack of settlement activity in the 10th century BCE, Israel Finkelstein argues that Jerusalem was then a small country village in the Judean hills, not a national capital, and Ussishkin argues that

4318-490: The 11th/10th-9th centuries BCE which feature "papyrus lines" on their backs. It has been argued that these seals provide evidence that papyrus texts were written and used in Jerusalem already from the 10th (perhaps 11th) century BCE onwards. LMLK seals are archaic Hebrew stamp seals on the handles of large storage jars dating from the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BCE) discovered mostly in and around Jerusalem . Several complete jars were found in situ buried under

4445-675: The 12th century BCE, the Philistines , who had immigrated from the Aegean region , settled in the southern coast of Palestine. Traces of Philistines appeared at about the same time as the Israelites. The Philistines are credited with introducing iron weapons, chariots, and new ways of fermenting wine to the local population. Over time, the Philistines integrated with the local population and they, like other people in Palestine, were engulfed by first

4572-509: The 5th century. Another people in Palestine was the Edomites . Originally, their kingdom occupied the southern area of modern-day Jordan but later they were pushed westward by nomadic tribes coming from the east, among them the Nabataeans , and therefore migrated into southern parts of Judea. This migration had already begun a generation or two before the Babylonian conquest of Judah, but as Judah

4699-554: The Assyrian empire and later the Babylonian empire. In the 6th century, they disappeared from written history. Two related Israelite kingdoms, Israel and Judah , emerged during the 10th and 9th centuries BCE: Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Israel was the more prosperous of the kingdoms and developed into a regional power. By the 8th century BCE, the Israelite population had grown to some 160,000 individuals over 500 settlements. Israel and Judah continually clashed with

4826-529: The Assyrians and deported populations that resisted its military might. Many of them were settled in Babylon and were used to rebuild the country which had been devastated through the long years of conflict with the Assyrians. In 601 BCE Nebuchadnezzar launched a failed invasion of Egypt which forced him to withdraw to Babylon to rebuild his army. This failure was interpreted as a sign of weakness, causing some vassal states to defect, among them Judah, leading to

4953-538: The Assyrians by refusing to pay tribute. In response, Sennacherib of Assyria attacked the fortified cities of Judah. In 701 BCE, Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem , though the city was never taken. The Assyrian expansion continued southward, gradually conquering Egypt and taking Thebes in 664 BCE. The kingdom of Judah, along with a line of city-states on the coastal plain were allowed to remain independent; from an Assyrian standpoint, they were weak and nonthreatening. Struggles over succession following

5080-472: The Bible tells) or independently. Some scholars suggested that Jerusalem, the kingdom's capital, did not emerge as a significant administrative center until the end of the 8th century BCE. Before then, the archaeological evidence suggests its population was too small to sustain a viable kingdom. Other scholars argue that recent discoveries and radiocarbon tests in the City of David seem to indicate that Jerusalem

5207-769: The British to announce its intention to terminate the Mandate in 1947. The UN General Assembly recommended partitioning Palestine into two states : Arab and Jewish. However, the situation deteriorated into a civil war . The Arabs rejected the Partition Plan, the Jews ostensibly accepted it, declaring the independence of the State of Israel in May 1948 upon the end of the British mandate . Nearby Arab countries invaded Palestine, Israel not only prevailed, but conquered more territory than envisioned by

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5334-401: The Canaanite urban civilization were destroyed around 2500 BCE, though there is no consensus as to why (for one theory, see 4.2-kiloyear event ). Incursions by nomads from the east of the Jordan River who settled in the hills followed soon thereafter, as well as cultural influence from the ancient Syrian city of Ebla . That period known as the Intermediate Bronze Age (2500–2000 BCE),

5461-401: The Dead Sea. In prosperous periods, Judah's influence expanded, stretching southward to Beersheba and beyond, including Kadesh Barnea and likely Kuntillet Ajrud . Its influence possibly extended to the Gulf of Eilat in the south, as well as the Coastal Plain in the west in Mesad Hashavyahu fortress. The formation of the Kingdom of Judah is a subject of heavy debate among scholars, with

5588-425: The Great . Judean independence was reestablished after the Maccabean revolt , and the establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in the 2nd century BCE. Jews are named after Judah, and primarily descend from people who lived in the former Kingdom. The major theme of the Hebrew Bible's narrative is the loyalty of Judah, especially its kings, to Yahweh , which it states is the God of Israel . Accordingly, all of

5715-448: The Hasmonean pretenders, as High Priest but denied him the title of king. Most of the territory the Hasmoneans had conquered were awarded to other kingdoms, and Judea now only included Judea proper, Samaria (except for the city of Samaria which was renamed Sebaste ), southern Galilee, and eastern Idumaea. In 57 BCE, the Romans and Jewish loyalists stamped out an uprising organized by Hyrcanus' enemies. Hoping to quell further unrest,

5842-402: The Negev, including Hurvat Uza , Tel Ira, Aroer, Tel Masos , and Tel Malhata. The main Judahite fortification in the Judaean Desert was found at Vered Yeriho ; it protected the road from Jericho to the Dead Sea . A few freestanding, elevated, isolated guard towers of the period were found around Jerusalem; towers of this type were discovered in the French Hill and south to Giloh . It

5969-418: The PA, now limited to the West Bank. In 2012, the State of Palestine (the name used by the PA) became a non-member observer state in the UN , allowing it to take part in General Assembly debates and improving its chances of joining other UN agencies. The earliest human remains in the region were found in Ubeidiya , 3 km south of the Sea of Galilee , in the Jordan Rift Valley . The remains are dated to

6096-435: The Partition Plan. During the war, 700,000, or about 80% of all Palestinians fled or were driven out of territory Israel conquered and were not allowed to return, an event known as the Nakba ("Catastrophe") to Palestinians. Starting in the late 1940s and continuing for decades, about 850,000 Jews from the Arab world immigrated ("made Aliyah ") to Israel. After the war, only two parts of Palestine remained in Arab control:

6223-456: The Persian period. Hebrew remained as a language for the upper class and as a religious language . Hellenistic Palestine is the term for Palestine during the Hellenistic period , when Achaemenid Syria was conquered by Alexander the Great in 333 BCE and subsumed into his growing Macedonian empire . The conquest was relatively uncomplicated as Persian control of the region had already waned. After his death in 323 BCE, Alexander's empire

6350-422: The Philistine city-states of Gaza, Ashkelon, Ashdod, and Ekron, were dissolved and incorporated into the Neo-Babylonian Empire as provinces. Judah became the province of Yehud , a Jewish administrative division of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Following Cyrus the Great 's conquest of Babylon in 539 BCE, Palestine became part of the Persian Achaemenid Empire . At least five Persian provinces existed in

6477-418: The Roman world brought by the Roman civil wars relaxed Rome's grip on Judea. In 40 BCE, the Parthian Empire and their Jewish ally Antigonus the Hasmonean defeated a pro-Roman Jewish force led by high priest Hyrcanus II , Phasael and Herod I , the son of Hyrcanus' leading partisan Antipater . They managed to conquer Syria and Palestine. Antigonus was made King of Judea. Herod fled to Rome, where he

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6604-655: The Romans restructured the kingdom into five autonomous districts, each with its own religious council with centers in Jerusalem, Sepphoris , Jericho , Amathus , and Gadara . Poleis that had been occupied or even destroyed by the Hasmoneans were rebuilt and they regained their self-governing status. This amounted to a rebirth for many of the Greek cities and made them Rome's trusty allies in an otherwise unruly region. They expressed their gratitude by adopting new dating systems commemorating Rome's advent, renaming themselves after Roman officials, or minting coins with monograms and imprints of Roman officials. The turmoil in

6731-399: The Shepehla, including the Judahite towns of Azekah, Socho, Goded, Lachish, and Maresha, could be seen from this fort. In the northern Negev, Tel Arad served as a key administrative and military stronghold. It protected the route from the Judaean Mountains to the Arabah and on to Moab and Edom . It underwent numerous renovations and extensions. There are several other Judahite forts in

6858-509: The accumulation of social power. Evidence of contact and immigration to Lower Egypt is found in the abundance of pottery vessels of southern–Levantine type, found in sites across the Nile , such as Abydos . During the last two hundred years of that period and following the Unification of Egypt and pharaoh Narmer , an Egyptian colony appeared in the southern Levantine coast, with its center at Tell es-Sakan (modern-day Gaza Strip ). The overall nature of this colony as well as its relation with

6985-421: The area in his name. The Egyptian Stelae in the Levant , most notably the Beisan steles , and a burial site yielding a scarab bearing the name Seti found within a Canaanite coffin excavated in the Jezreel Valley , attests to Egypt's presence in the area. The Late Bronze Age collapse had greatly affected the Ancient Near East, including Canaan. The Egyptians withdrew from the area. Layers of destruction from

7112-440: The auspices of the returned Jewish population. Major religious transformations took place in Yehud Medinata. it was during that period that the Israelite religion became exclusively monotheistic – the existence of other Gods was now denied. Previously, Yahweh , Israel's national god, had been seen as one god among many. Many customs and behavior that would come to characterize Judaism were adopted. The region of Samaria

7239-418: The border. Asa's successor, Jehoshaphat , changed the policy towards Israel and instead pursued alliances and cooperation with it. The alliance with Ahab was based on marriage. The alliance led to disaster for the kingdom with the Battle of Ramoth-Gilead according to 1 Kings 22 . He then allied with Ahaziah of Israel to carry on maritime commerce with Ophir . However, the fleet equipped at Ezion-Geber

7366-418: The city was entirely uninhabited. Amihai Mazar contends that if the Iron I / Iron II A dating of administrative structures in the City of David are correct, which he believes to be the case, "Jerusalem was a rather small town with a mighty citadel, which could have been a center of a substantial regional polity." William G. Dever argues that Jerusalem was a small and fortified city, probably inhabited only by

7493-451: The city was never taken. During the long reign of Manasseh (c. 687/686 – 643/642 BCE), Judah was a vassal of Assyrian rulers: Sennacherib and his successors, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal after 669 BCE. Manasseh is listed as being required to provide materials for Esarhaddon 's building projects and as one of a number of vassals who assisted Ashurbanipal 's campaign against Egypt. When Josiah became king of Judah in c. 641/640 BCE,

7620-448: The coast in the 6th century from which Greek ceramics, artworks, and other luxury items were imported. These items were popular and no well-to-do household in Palestine would have lacked Greek pottery. Local potters imitated the Greek merchandise, though the quality of their goods were inferior to the Greeks. The first coins in Palestine were minted by the Phoenicians followed by Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod. Yehud began minting coins in

7747-418: The crisis period were found in several sites, including Hazor , Beit She'an, Megiddo , Lachish , Ekron , Ashdod and Ashkelon . The layers of destruction in Lachish and Megiddo date back to about 1130 BCE, More than a hundred years after the destruction of Hazor circa 1250 BCE, and point to a prolonged period of decline in local civilization. Beginning in the late 13th century and continuing to

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7874-465: The daughter of Ahab. Despite the alliance with the stronger northern kingdom, Jehoram's rule of Judah was shaky. Edom revolted, and he was forced to acknowledge its independence. A raid by Philistines and Arabs or perhaps South Arabians looted the king's house and carried off all of his family except for his youngest son, Ahaziah of Judah . After Hezekiah became the sole ruler in c. 715 BCE, he formed alliances with Ashkelon and Egypt and made

8001-402: The death of King Ashurbanipal in 631 BCE weakened the Assyrian empire. This allowed Babylon to revolt and to eventually conquer most of Assyria's territory. Meanwhile, Egypt reasserted its power and created a system of vassal states in the region that were obliged to pay taxes in exchange for military protection. In 616 BCE, Egypt sent its armies north to intervene on behalf of

8128-490: The death of Pharaoh Psamtik I only a year earlier (610 BCE). Presumably in an attempt to help the Babylonians, Josiah attempted to block the advance at Megiddo , where a fierce battle was fought and Josiah was killed. Necho then joined forces with the Assyrian Ashur-uballit II , and they crossed the Euphrates and lay siege to Harran . The combined forces failed to hold the city after capturing it temporarily, and Necho retreated back to northern Syria . The event also marked

8255-490: The demise of the Ghassulian village-culture of the late Chalcolithic period. It begins in a period of around 600 years of a stable rural society, economically based on a Mediterranean agriculture and with a slow growth in population. This period has been termed the Early Bronze Age I (c. 3700 – 3100 BCE), parallel to the Late Uruk period of Mesopotamia and the pre-dynastic Naqada culture of Egypt . The construction of several temple-like structures in that period attests to

8382-409: The development of new pottery forms, the cultivation of grapes, and the extensive use of bronze. Burial customs from this time seemed to be influenced by a belief in the afterlife. The Middle Kingdom Egyptian Execration Texts attest to Canaanite trade with Egypt during this period. The Minoan influence is apparent at Tel Kabri . A DNA analysis published in May 2020 showed that migrants from

8509-401: The discovery of several Judahite fortresses and towers. The fortifications had a large central courtyard surrounded by casemate walls with chambers on the outside wall, and they were square or rectangular in shape. Khirbet Abu et-Twein , which is situated on the Judaean Mountains between modern day Bat Ayin and Jab'a , is one of the most noteworthy fortresses from the period. Great views of

8636-406: The disintegration of the Assyrian Empire. On his return march to Egypt in 608 BCE, Necho found that Jehoahaz had been selected to succeed his father, Josiah. Necho deposed Jehoahaz, who had been king for only three months, and replaced him with his older brother, Jehoiakim . Necho imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver (about 3 3 ⁄ 4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons) and

8763-442: The early 11th century, hundreds of smaller, unprotected village settlements were founded in Canaan, many in the mountainous regions. In some of them, the characteristics identified in a later period with the inhabitants of Israel and Judah, such as the four-room house , appear for the first time. The number of villages reduced in the 11th century, counterbalanced by other settlements reaching the status of fortified townships. After

8890-440: The existence of the United Monarchy, but the datings and identifications are not universally accepted. The Tel Dan stele shows a historical " House of David " ruled a kingdom south of the lands of Samaria in the 9th century BCE, and attestations of several Judean kings from the 8th century BCE have been discovered, but they do little to indicate how developed the state actually was. The Nimrud Tablet K.3751 , dated c. 733 BCE,

9017-416: The extent of its power. Recent excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa , however, support the existence of a centrally organized and urbanized kingdom by the 10th century BCE, according to the excavators. In the 7th century BCE, the kingdom's population increased greatly, prospering under Neo-Assyrian vassalage , despite Hezekiah's revolt against the Assyrian king Sennacherib . Josiah took advantage of

9144-460: The fading Assyrian empire against the Babylonian threat. The intervention was unsuccessful; Babylon took Assyria's Nineveh in 612 BCE and two years later Harran . In 609 the Egyptian pharaoh Necho II again marched north with his army. For some reason, he executed the Judahite king Josiah at the Egyptian base Megiddo and a few months later he installed Jehoiakim as the king of Judah. At

9271-434: The fall of Judah. By 586 BCE, much of Judah had been devastated, and the former kingdom had suffered a steep decline of both its economy and its population. Jerusalem apparently remained uninhabited for much of the 6th century BCE, and the centre of gravity shifted to Benjamin, the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom, where the town of Mizpah became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud for

9398-609: The first 35 years of his reign, and he revamped and reinforced the fortresses initially built by his grandfather, Rehoboam. II Chronicles states that at the Battle of Zephath , the Egyptian-backed chieftain Zerah the Ethiopian and his million men and 300 chariots were defeated by Asa's 580,000 men in the Valley of Zephath near Maresha . The Bible does not state whether Zerah was a pharaoh or

9525-414: The first 60 years, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over Israel, and there was perpetual war between them. Israel and Judah warred throughout Rehoboam 's 17-year reign. Rehoboam built elaborate defenses and strongholds, along with fortified cities. In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Shishak , who is identified as the pharaoh Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt , brought

9652-468: The fortified cities of the Kingdom of Judah during the 10th century BCE were located at Khirbet Qeiyafa , Tell en-Nasbeh , Khirbet el-Dawwara (by Halhul ), Tel Beit Shemesh , and Tell Lachish. Tel Be'er Sheva , believed to be the site of the ancient biblical town of Be'er-sheba , was the main Judahite center in the Negev in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. The Judaean Mountains and Shephelah have seen

9779-450: The goodwill of the people in the empire's provinces. In 538 BCE, the Persians allowed the return of exiled Judeans to Jerusalem. The Judeans, who came to be known as Jews , settled in what became known as Yehud Medinata or Yehud, a self-governing Jewish province under Persian rule. The First Temple in Jerusalem, which had been destroyed by the Babylonians, was rebuilt under

9906-470: The hinterlands has been debated by archaeologists. Around 3100 BCE the country saw radical change, with the abandonment and destruction of many settlements, including the Egyptian colony. These were quickly replaced by new walled settlements in plains and coastal regions, surrounded by mud-brick fortifications and relied on nearby agricultural hamlets for their food. The Canaanite city-states held trade and diplomatic relations with Egypt and Syria. Parts of

10033-526: The international situation was in flux. To the east, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was beginning to disintegrate, the Neo-Babylonian Empire had not yet risen to replace it and Egypt to the west was still recovering from Assyrian rule. In the power vacuum, Judah could govern itself for the time being without foreign intervention. However, in the spring of 609 BCE, Pharaoh Necho II personally led

10160-788: The kingdom and maintained relations with Rome and Egypt. However, internal strife and external pressures, particularly from the Seleucids and later the Romans, led to the decline of the Hasmonean dynasty. In 63 BCE, a war of succession in the Hasmonean court provided the Roman general Pompey with the opportunity to make the Jewish kingdom a client of Rome, starting a centuries-long period of Roman rule. After sacking Jerusalem , he installed Hyrcanus II , one of

10287-575: The kingdom became a vassal of Rome , which annexed it in 63 BCE. Roman Judea was troubled by Jewish revolts in 66 CE, so Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Jewish Temple in 70 CE. In the 4th century, as the Roman Empire transitioned to Christianity , Palestine became a center for the religion, attracting pilgrims, monks and scholars. Following Muslim conquest of the Levant in 636–641, ruling dynasties succeeded each other:

10414-527: The kingdom the anger of Yahweh. King Josiah (640–609 BCE) returned to the worship of Yahweh alone, but his efforts were too late, and Israel's unfaithfulness caused God to permit the kingdom's destruction by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the Siege of Jerusalem (587/586 BCE) . It is now widely agreed among academic scholars that the Books of Kings are not an accurate portrayal of religious attitudes in Judah or Israel of

10541-523: The kingdoms of Ammon , Edom and Moab , located in modern-day Jordan, and with the kingdom of Aram-Damascus , located in modern-day Syria. The northwestern region of the Transjordan, known then as Gilead , was also settled by the Israelites . Hebrew flourished as a spoken language in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the period from about 1200 to 586 BCE. The Omride dynasty greatly expanded

10668-444: The kingdoms' populations were deported. The Kingdom of Israel was eradicated in 720 BCE as its capital, Samaria , fell to the Assyrians. The records of Sargon II indicate that he deported 27,290 inhabitants of the kingdom to northern Mesopotamia. Many Israelites migrated to the southern kingdom of Judah. When Hezekiah rose to power in Judah in 715 BCE, he forged an alliance with Egypt and Ashkelon, and revolted against

10795-478: The kings of Israel (except to some extent Jehu ) and many of the kings of Judah were "bad" in terms of the biblical narrative by failing to enforce monotheism . Of the "good" kings, Hezekiah (727–698 BCE) is noted for his efforts at stamping out idolatry (in his case, the worship of Baal and Asherah , among other traditional Near Eastern divinities), but his successors, Manasseh of Judah (698–642 BCE) and Amon (642–640 BCE), revived idolatry, which drew down on

10922-649: The land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire . Among them was Ezekiel . Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah , Jehoiakim's brother, the king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon. Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar by ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra . In 589 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah and again besieged Jerusalem . Many Jews fled to surrounding Moab , Ammon , Edom and other countries to seek refuge. The city fell after

11049-437: The late 8th century BCE is too weak, and that the methodology used to obtain the evidence is flawed. In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE, the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated, limited to small rural settlements, most of them unfortified. The Tel Dan Stele , discovered in 1993, shows that the kingdom existed in some form by the middle of the 9th century BCE, but it does not indicate

11176-605: The leadership of Yohanan ben Kareah . They ignored the urging of the prophet Jeremiah against the move. In Egypt, the refugees settled in Migdol , Tahpanhes , Noph and Pathros , and possibly Elephantine , and Jeremiah went with them as a moral guardian. The numbers that were deported to Babylon and that made their way to Egypt and the remnant that remained in the land and in surrounding countries are subject to academic debate. The Book of Jeremiah reports that 4,600 were exiled to Babylonia . The two Books of Kings suggest that it

11303-469: The local elite enjoyed wine flavored with vanilla during the 7–6th centuries BCE. Until very recently, vanilla was not at all known to be available to the Old World. Archeologists suggested that this discovery might be related to an international trade route that crossed the Negev during that period, probably under Assyrian and later, Third Intermediate Period Egyptian rule. According to Yosef Garfinkel ,

11430-492: The local population. The Maccabean Revolt , led by Judas Maccabeus , highlighted the growing unrest and resistance against Seleucid authority, eventually leading to significant shifts in power dynamics within the region. The local Hasmonean dynasty emerged from the Maccabean Revolt, with Simon Thassi becoming high priest and ruler, establishing an independent Judea. His successors, notably John Hyrcanus , expanded

11557-572: The military situation was precarious. Asa took gold and silver from the Temple and sent them to Ben-Hadad I , the king of Aram-Damascus , in exchange for the Damascene king cancelling his peace treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad attacked Ijon, Dan and many important cities of the tribe of Naphtali , and Baasha was forced to withdraw from Ramah. Asa tore down the unfinished fortress and used its raw materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah in Benjamin on his side of

11684-417: The northern kingdom of Israel. In the mid-9th century, it stretched from the vicinity of Damascus in the north to the territory of Moab in the south, ruling over a large number of non-Israelites. In 853 BCE, the Israelite king Ahab led a coalition of anti-Assyrian forces at the Battle of Qarqar that repelled an invasion by King Shalmaneser III of Assyria. Some years later, King Mesha of Moab,

11811-424: The political vacuum that resulted from Assyria's decline and the emergence of Saite Egyptian rule over the area to enact his religious reforms. The Deuteronomistic history , which recounts the history of the people of Israel from Joshua to Josiah and expresses a worldview based on the legal principles found in the Book of Deuteronomy , is assumed to have been written during this same time period and emphasizes

11938-514: The province was Mizpah in Benjamin , not Jerusalem. On hearing of the appointment, many of the Judeans who had taken refuge in surrounding countries were persuaded to return to Judah. However, Gedaliah was soon assassinated by a member of the royal house, and the Chaldean soldiers killed. The population that was left in the land and those who had returned fled to Egypt for fear a Babylonian reprisal, under

12065-809: The region from 200,000 to 45,000 years ago – lived alongside modern humans dating to 100,000 years ago. In the caves of Shuqba in Ramallah and Wadi Khareitun in Bethlehem , stone, wood and animal bone tools were found and attributed to the Natufian culture (c. 12,800–10,300 BCE). Other remains from this era have been found at Tel Abu Hureura, Ein Mallaha, Beidha and Jericho . Between 10,000 and 5000 BCE, agricultural communities were established. Evidence of such settlements were found at Tel es-Sultan in Jericho and consisted of

12192-595: The region in 1516 and ruled it as Ottoman Syria to the 20th century, largely undisrupted. During World War I the British government issued the Balfour Declaration , favoring the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, and captured it from the Ottomans. The League of Nations gave Britain mandatory power over Palestine in 1922. British rule and Arab efforts to prevent Jewish migration led to growing violence between Arabs and Jews , causing

12319-660: The region of Palestine has a tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region was among the earliest to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization . In the Bronze Age , the Canaanites established city-states influenced by surrounding civilizations, among them Egypt, which ruled the area in the Late Bronze Age. During the Iron Age , two related Israelite kingdoms, Israel and Judah , controlled much of Palestine, while

12446-634: The region's control fluctuated due to the military campaigns and political maneuvers. Seleucid rule began in 198 BCE under Antiochus III the Great , who, like the Ptolemies, allowed the Jews to retain their customs and religion. However, financial strains due to obligations to Rome led to unpopular measures, such as temple robberies, which ultimately resulted in Antiochus III's death in 187 BCE. His successors faced similar challenges, with internal conflicts and external pressures leading to dissatisfaction among

12573-404: The region. The Hebrew Bible depicts the Kingdom of Judah as one of the two successor states of the United Kingdom of Israel , a term denoting the united monarchy under biblical kings Saul , David , and Solomon and covering the territory of Judah and Israel . However, during the 1980s, some biblical scholars began to argue that the archaeological evidence for an extensive kingdom before

12700-525: The region. Ptolemy I and his successor, Ptolemy II Philadelphus , maintained control over Yehud Medinata, with the latter bringing the Ptolemaic dynasty to its zenith by winning the first and second Syrian Wars . Despite these successes, ongoing conflicts with the Seleucids, particularly over the strategic region of Coele-Syria, led to more Syrian Wars. The peace and stability enjoyed by the local population under Ptolemaic rule were disrupted by these wars, and

12827-605: The region: Yehud Medinata , Samaria, Gaza, Ashdod, and Ascalon. The Phoenician city-states continued to prosper in present-day Lebanon, while the Arabian tribes inhabited the southern deserts. In contrast to his predecessors, who controlled conquered populations using mass-deportations, Cyrus issued a proclamation granting subjugated nations religious freedom. The Persians resettled exiles in their homelands and let them rebuilt their temples. According to scholars, this policy helped them to present themselves as liberators, gaining them

12954-497: The remnant of the Jewish population in a part of the former kingdom. That was standard Babylonian practice. When the Philistine city of Ashkelon was conquered in 604 BCE, the political, religious and economic elite (but not the bulk of the population) was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location. Gedaliah was appointed governor of the Yehud province, supported by a Babylonian guard. The administrative centre of

13081-413: The royal court, priests and clerks. A collection of military orders found in the ruins of a military fortress in the Negev dating to the period of the Kingdom of Judah indicates widespread literacy, based on the inscriptions, the ability to read and write extended throughout the chain of command from commanders to petty officers. According to Professor Eliezer Piasetsky, who participated in analyzing

13208-563: The rule of David and Solomon . After the death of Solomon circa 930 BCE, the Israelites gathered in Shechem for the coronation of Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam . Before the coronation took place, the northern tribes, led by Jeroboam , asked the new king to reduce the heavy taxes and labor requirements that his father Solomon had imposed. Rehoboam rejected their petition: “I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions" ( 1 Kings 12:11 ). As

13335-451: The second quarter of the 4th century. In 404 BCE, Egypt threw off the Persian yoke and began extending its domain of influence and military might in Palestine and Phoenicia, leading to confrontations with Persia. The political pendulum swung back and forth as territory was conquered and reconquered. For a brief period of time, Egypt controlled both coastal Palestine and Phoenicia. Egypt

13462-484: The siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and carted all of his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from

13589-478: The significance of upholding them. With the final fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 605 BCE, competition emerged between Saite Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire over control of the Levant , ultimately resulting in Judah's rapid decline. The early 6th century BCE saw a wave of Egyptian-backed Judahite rebellions against Babylonian rule being crushed. In 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II engaged in

13716-561: The south. Unlike the people in the provinces, the tribes were considered "friends" with the empire rather than subjects and they enjoyed some independence from Persia. Until the middle of the 4th century, the Qedarites were the dominant tribe whose territory ran from the Hejaz in the south to the Negev in the north. Around 380 BCE, the Qedarites joined a failed revolt against the Persians and as

13843-538: The texts, "Literacy existed at all levels of the administrative, military and priestly systems of Judah. Reading and writing were not limited to a tiny elite." That indicates the presence of a substantial educational infrastructure in Judah at the time. Archaeological research near the Gihon Spring in the City of David has revealed many anepigraphical bullae (that is, bullae bearing only iconography, no inscriptions) dated to

13970-484: The use of copper and stone tools, brought new migrant groups to the region contributing to an increasingly urban fabric. In the Early Bronze Age (c. 3700–2500 BCE) period, the earliest formation of urban societies and cultures emerged in the region. The period is defined through archaeology, as it is absent from any historical record either from Palestine or contemporary Egyptian and Mesopotamian sources. It follows

14097-515: The withdrawal of the Egyptians, Canaan became home to the Israelites and the Philistines . The Israelites settled the central highlands, a loosely defined highland region stretching from the Judean hills in the south to the Samarian hills in the north. Based on the archaeological evidence, they did not overtake the region by force, but instead branched out of the indigenous Canaanite peoples. Sometime in

14224-469: Was 10,000 and later 8,000. In 539 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire conquered Babylonia and allowed the exiles to return to Yehud Medinata and to rebuild the Temple, which was completed in the sixth year of Darius (515 BCE) under Zerubbabel , the grandson of the second to last king of Judah, Jeconiah . Yehud Medinata was a peaceful part of the Achaemenid Empire until its fall in c. 333 BCE to Alexander

14351-456: Was already a significant city by the 10th century BCE. Much of the debate revolves around whether the archaeological discoveries conventionally dated to the 10th century should instead be dated to the 9th century, as proposed by Israel Finkelstein . Recent archaeological discoveries by Eilat Mazar in Jerusalem and Yosef Garfinkel in Khirbet Qeiyafa have been interpreted as supporting

14478-469: Was also granted to Tyre. In the middle of the 4th century the Phoenicians occupied the entire coast as far as Ascalon in the southern coastal plain. Nomadic Arabian tribes roamed the Negev desert. They were of paramount strategic and economic importance to the Persians due to their control of desert trade routes stretching from Gaza in the north, an important trading center, to the Arabian peninsula in

14605-596: Was defined recently out of the tail of the Early Bronze Age and the head of the preceding Middle Bronze Age. Others date the destruction to the end of Early Bronze Age III (c. 2350/2300 BCE) and attribute it to Syrian Amorites , Kurgans , southern nomads or internal conflicts within Canaan. In the Middle Bronze Age (2000–1500 BCE), Canaan was influenced by the surrounding civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia , Phoenicia , Minoan Crete, and Syria. Diverse commercial ties and an agriculturally based economy led to

14732-549: Was divided among his generals, the Diadochi , marking the beginning of Macedonian rule over various territories, including Coele-Syria . The region came under Ptolemaic rule beginning when Ptolemy I Soter took control of Egypt in 322 BCE and Yehud Medinata in 320 BCE due to its strategic significance. This period saw conflicts as former generals vied for control, leading to ongoing power struggles and territorial exchanges. Ptolemaic rule brought stability and economic prosperity to

14859-469: Was elected " King of the Jews " by the Roman Senate and was given the task of retaking Judea. In 37 BCE, with Roman support, Herod reclaimed Judea, and the short-lived reemergence of the Hasmonean dynasty came to an end. Herod I, or as became known, Herod the Great , ruled from 37 to 4 BCE. He became known for his many building projects, for increasing the region's prosperity, but also for being

14986-503: Was established on village land, followed by Bar Yohai in 1979, also on village land. In 1992 the village site was described: "The site is overgrown with grass and scattered trees among which can be seen a few terraces and piles of stones from destroyed houses. A few houses are inhabited by Israelis. A fraction of surrounding land is cultivated by the settlements, and the rest is forested." History of Palestine#Late Antiquity period Situated between three continents,

15113-461: Was eventually reconquered by Persia in 343. By the 6th century, Aramaic became the common language in the north, in Galilee and Samaria , replacing Hebrew as the spoken language in Palestine, and it became the region's lingua franca . Hebrew remained in use in Judah; however the returning exiles brought back Aramaic influence, and Aramaic was used for communicating with other ethnic groups during

15240-445: Was forced to pay tribute. King Tiglath Pileser III of Assyria was discontent with the empire's system of vassal states and set to control them more directly or even turn then into Assyrian provinces. Tiglath Pileser and his successors conquered Palestine beginning in 734 BCE to about 645 BCE. This policy had lasting consequences for Palestine as its strongest kingdoms were crushed, inflicting heavy damage, and parts of

15367-710: Was immediately wrecked. A new fleet was fitted out without the cooperation of the king of Israel. Although it was successful, the trade was not prosecuted. He joined Jehoram of Israel in a war against the Moabites , who were under tribute to Israel. This war was successful, and the Moabites were subdued. However, on seeing Mesha 's act of offering his son in a human sacrifice on the walls of Kir of Moab (now al-Karak ) filled Jehoshaphat with horror, he withdrew and returned to his land. Jehoshaphat 's successor, Jehoram of Judah , formed an alliance with Israel by marrying Athaliah ,

15494-471: Was inhabited by the Samaritans , an ethno-religious group who worship Yahweh, like the Jews, and who claim descent from the original Israelites. The Samaritan temple cult, centered around Mount Gerizim , competed with the Jews' temple cult centered around Mount Moriah in Jerusalem and led to long-lasting animosity between the two groups. Remnants of their temple at Mount Gerizim near Shechem dates to

15621-630: Was not until 400 years later, following the Maccabean Revolt , that Judeans fully regained independence. The Kingdom of Judah was located in the Judean Mountains , stretching from Jerusalem to Hebron and into the Negev Desert . The central ridge, ranging from forested and shrubland-covered mountains gently sloping towards the hills of the Shephelah in the west, to the dry and arid landscapes of

15748-508: Was part of Beirut vilayet . Safsaf became a part of the British Mandate in 1922. During this time, the village lay on the eastern side of the Safad - Tarshiha highway and extended in a northeast–southwest direction. All the residents of Safsaf were Muslims . A mosque and several shops were located in the village center, and an elementary school was established during this period. Agriculture

15875-510: Was repulsed with heavy losses. The failure led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant that owed allegiance to Babylon. Jehoiakim also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and took a pro-Egyptian position. Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with the rebellions. According to the Babylonian Chronicles , after invading "the land of Hatti (Syria/Palestine)" in 599 BCE, he laid siege to Jerusalem . Jehoiakim died in 598 BCE during

16002-479: Was the main economic activity, and it was both irrigated from springs and rainfed. Fruits and olives were cultivated on the land north of the village. In the 1922 census of Palestine Safsaf had a population of 521 Muslims, increasing in the 1931 census to 662, still all Muslims, in a total of 124 houses. In the 1945 statistics the population was 910 Muslims, with a total of 7,391 dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,

16129-512: Was weakened the pace accelerated. Their territory became known as Idumea. Around the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, the Persians gave the Phoenician kings of Tyre and Sidon , based in modern-day Lebanon , control over the coastal plain all the way to Ashdod. Perhaps to facilitate maritime trade or as a repayment for their naval services. At about the same time, the Upper Galilee

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