The Fall of Israel in Biblical Times

You can read about the fall of Israel and Judah in the Bible just as you can read it in modern history books drawn from a variety of sources.

We read the story of the Israelites in the Old Testament of the Bible. The Israelites were the people from whom Jesus Christ was descended.

After King Solomon died, the Israelite nation was split into two kingdoms. Israel was in the north and Judah was in the south. Later, the people of Judah were called Jews. In the Bible, we read that both kingdoms failed to follow the commandments of God. They pursued the gods and evil practices of the peoples living around them. Prophets warned the people that unless they returned to God, they would be conquered and suffer much.

Below is a timeline taken from the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History.

Around 550 BC, the Persian King Cyrus II defeated the Medes and took over their lands. He went on to build a large empire that became the largest empire the world had yet seen. King Cyrus is mentioned many times in the Bible. Under his reign, the Jews were permitted to return to Israel after seventy years of captivity in Babylon.

This is an excerpt from my book, Ancient History at a Glance, How the Bible Connects History. You can purchase the book for just $12.75 here.