Kings of Judah

The genealogy of the kings of Judah, along with the kings of Israel.

Template:Kings of Judah The Kings of Judah ruled the ancient Kingdom of Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David to rule over it. After seven years, David became king of a reunited Kingdom of Israel. However, in about 930 BC the united kingdom split, with ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel rejecting Solomon's son Rehoboam as their king. The Tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam, and reformed the Kingdom of Judah, while the other entity continuing to be called the Kingdom of Israel, or Israel.

The capital of the Kingdom of Judah was Jerusalem. All the kings of Judah lived and died in Judah except for Jehoiachin who died a prisoner in Egypt and Jeconiah and Zedekiah who were deported as part of the Babylonian captivity.

Judah existed until 586 BC, when it was conquered by the Babylonian Empire under Nebuzar-adan, captain of Nebuchadnezzar's body-guard. With the deportation of most of the population and the destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem, the destruction of the kingdom was complete.

The Davidic dynasty began when the tribe of Judah made David its king, following the death of Saul. The Davidic line continued when David became king of the reunited Kingdom of Israel. When the united kingdom split, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin continued to be loyal to the Davidic line, which ruled it until the kingdom was destroyed in 586 BC. However, the Davidic line continued to be respected by the exiles in Babylon, who regarded the Exilarchs as kings-in-exile.

For this period, most historians follow either of the older chronologies established by William F. Albright or Edwin R. Thiele, or the newer chronologies of Gershon Galil or Kenneth Kitchen, all of which are shown below. All dates are BC.

A more complete biography of the Kings of Judah than that of the Hebrew Bible were written by Iddo the Seer and in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, both of which are mentioned in the Bible. However, both of these works have been lost.

List of Kings

Common/Biblical name	Albright	Thiele	Galil	Kitchen	Regnal Name and style	Notes
David	1000–962		1010–970	1010–970	דוד בן-ישי מלך ישראל David ben Yishai, Melekh Ysra’el	Reigned over Israel & Judah in Jerusalem for 33 years and 7 years in Hebron, 40 years in total. Death: natural causes
Solomon	962–922		970–931	971–931	שלמה בן-דוד מלך ישראל Shelomoh ben David, Melekh Ysra’el	Reigned over Israel & Judah in Jerusalem for 40 years. Death: natural causes Son of David by Bathsheba, his rights of succession were disputed by his older half-brother Adonijah
Rehoboam	922–915	931–913	931–914	931–915	רחבעם בן-שלמה מלך יהודה Rehav’am ben Shlomoh, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 17 years. Death: natural causes
Abijah	915–913	913–911	914–911	915–912	אבים בן-רחבעם מלך יהודה ’Aviyam ben Rehav’am, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 3 years. Death: natural causes
Asa	913–873	911–870	911–870	912–871	אסא בן-אבים מלך יהודה ’Asa ben ’Aviyam, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 41 years. Death: severe foot disease
Jehoshaphat	873–849	870–848	870–845	871–849	יהושפט בן-אסא מלך יהודה Yehoshafat ben ’Asa, Melekh Yahudah	Reigned for 25 years. Death: natural causes
Jehoram	849–842	848–841	851–843	849–842	יהורם בן-יהושפט מלך יהודה Yehoram ben Yehoshafat, Melekh Yahudah	Reigned for 8 years. Death: severe stomach disease
Ahaziah	842–842	841–841	843–842	842–841	אחזיהו בן-יהורם מלך יהודה ’Ahazyahu ben Yehoram, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 1 year. Death: killed by Jehu, who usurped the throne of Israel
Athaliah (Queen)	842–837	841–835	842–835	841–835	עתליה בת-עמרי מלכת יהודה ‘Atalyah bat ‘Omri, Malkat Yehudah	Reigned for 6 years. Death: killed by the troops assigned by Jehoiada the Priest to protect Joash. Queen Mother, widow of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah
Jehoash	837–800	835–796	842–802	841–796	יהואש בן-אחזיהו מלך יהודה Yehoash ben ’Ahazyahu, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 40 years. Death: killed by his officials namely: Zabad, son of Shimeath, a Moabite Woman, and Jehozabad, son of Shimrith, a Moabite Woman.
Amaziah	800–783	796–767	805–776	796–776	אמציה בן-יהואש מלך יהודה ’Amatzyah ben Yehoash, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 29 years. Death: killed in Lachish by the men sent by his officials who conspired against him.
Uzziah (Azariah)	783–742	767–740	788–736	776–736	עזיה בן-אמציה מלך יהודה ‘Uziyah ben ’Amatzyah, Melekh Yehudah עזריה בן-אמציה מלך יהודה ‘Azaryah ben ’Amatzyah, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 52 years. Death: Tzaraas George Syncellus wrote that the First Olympiad took place in Uzziah's 48th regnal year.
Jotham	742–735	740–732	758–742	750–735/30	יותם בן-עזיה מלך יהודה Yotam ben ‘Uziyah, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 16 years. Death: natural causes
Ahaz	735–715	732–716	742–726	735/31–715	אחז בן-יותם מלך יהודה ’Ahaz ben Yotam, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 16 years. Death: natural causes The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III records he received tribute from Ahaz; compare 2 Kings 16:7-9
Hezekiah	715–687	716–687	726–697	715–687	חזקיה בן-אחז מלך יהודה Hizqiyah ben ’Ahaz, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 29 years. Death: Natural Causes Contemporary with Sennacherib of Assyria and Merodach-Baladan of Babylon.
Manasseh	687–642	687–643	697–642	687–642	מנשה בן-חזקיה מלך יהודה Menasheh ben Hizqiyah, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 55 years. Death: natural causes Mentioned in Assyrian records as a contemporary of Esarhaddon
Amon	642–640	643–641	642–640	642–640	אמון בן-מנשה מלך יהודה ’Amon ben Menasheh, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 2 years. Death: killed by his officials, which were killed later on by the people of Judah.
Josiah	640–609	641–609	640–609	640–609	יאשיהו בן-אמון מלך יהודה Yo’shiyahu ben ’Amon, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 31 years. Death: shot by archers during the battle against Neco of Egypt. He died upon his arrival on Jerusalem.
Jehoahaz	609	609	609	609	יהואחז בן-יאשיהו מלך יהודה Yeho’ahaz ben Yo’shiyahu, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 3 months. Death: Neco, king of Egypt, dethroned him and was replaced by his brother, Eliakim. Carried off to Egypt, where he died.
Jehoiakim	609–598	609–598	609–598	609–598	יהויקים בן-יאשיהו מלך יהודה Yehoyaqim ben Yo’shiyahu, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 11 years. Death: Natural Causes The Battle of Carchemish occurred in the fourth year of his reign (Jeremiah 46:2)
Jehoiachin (Jeconiah)	598	598	598–597	598–597	יהויכין בן-יהויקים מלך יהודה Yehoyakhin ben Yehoyaqim, Melekh Yehudah יכניהו בן-יהויקים מלך יהודה Yekhonyahu ben Yehoyaqim, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 3 months & 10 days. Death: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon sent for him and brought him to Babylon, where he lived and died. Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and Jehoiachin deposed on 16 March, 597 BC. Called Jeconiah in Jeremiah and Esther
Zedekiah	597–587	597–586	597–586	597–586	צדקיהו בן-יהויכין מלך יהודה Tzidqiyahu ben Yo’shiyahu, Melekh Yehudah	Reigned for 11 years. Death: unknown. His reign saw the second rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar (588-586 BC). Jerusalem was captured after a lengthy siege, the temple burnt, Zedekiah blinded and taken into exile, and Judah reduced to a province.

Chronology

The break up of the united Kingdom of Solomon

Main article: Edwin R. Thiele

Using the information in Kings and Chronicles, Edwin Thiele has calculated the dates of the reigns of the kings of Judah from the division of the kingdom, which he calculates to have been in 931-930 BC. Thiele noticed that for the first seven kings of Israel (ignoring Zimri's inconsequential seven-day reign), the synchronisms to Judean kings fell progressively behind by one year for each king. Thiele saw this as evidence that the northern kingdom was measuring the years by a non-accession system (first partial year of reign was counted as year one), whereas the southern kingdom was using the accession method (it was counted as year zero). Also he concluded that the calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). This is the conclusion from cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms which often allows the narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range, indicating the difference being due to the calendar starting date. Once these were understood, the various reign lengths and cross-synchronisms for these kings was worked out, and the sum of reigns for both kingdoms produced 931/930 BC for the division of the kingdom when working backwards from the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC.

Thiele showed that for the reign of Jehoram, Judah adopted Israel's non-accession method of counting the years of reign, meaning that the first partial year of the king's reign was counted as his first full year, in contrast to the "accession" method previously in use whereby the first partial year was counted as year "zero," and "year one" was assigned to the first full year of reign. Thiele attributed this change to the rapprochement between Judah and Israel, whereby Jehoshaphat, Jehoram's father, made common cause with Ahab at the battle of Ramoth-Gilead, and chose a daughter for his son from the house of Ahab (1 Kings 22:1-38, 2 Kings 8:18). This convention was followed in Judah for the next three monarchs: Ahaziah, Athaliah, and Jehoash, returning to Judah's original accession reckoning in the time of Amaziah. These changes can be inferred from a careful comparison of the textual data in the Scripture, but because the Scriptural texts do not state explicitly whether the reckoning was by accession or non-accession counting, nor do they indicate explicitly when a change was made in the method, many have criticized Thiele's chronology as being entirely arbitrary in its assignment of accession and non-accession reckoning. The arbitrariness, however, apparently rested with the ancient kings and their court recorders, not with Thiele. The official records of Tiglath-Pileser III show that he switched (arbitrarily) to non-accession reckoning for his reign, in contrast with the accession method used for previous kings of Assyria. Tiglath-Pileser left no record explaining to modern historians which kind of method he was using, nor that he was switching from the method used by his predecessors; all of this is determined by a careful comparison of the relevant texts by Assyriologists, the same as Thiele did for the regnal data of Judah and Israel.

Another source of confusion is the convention of dating the reigns of the Israelite kings in terms of the Gregorian calendar. This potential confusion arises because year numbers of the Gregorian calendar commence in January, while the biblical dating is in terms of year numbers starting in the month of Tishri of the Hebrew calendar, which usually occurs in September–October.

See also

• Chronicles of the Kings of Judah
• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
• Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)
• Kingdom of Judah

External links

• The Jewish History Resource Center Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Complete Bible Genealogy A synchronized chart of the kings of Judah and Israel