In the Old Testament, the Kingdom of Judah is the nation formed from the territories of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin after the Kingdom of Israel was divided. It is often called the Southern Kingdom to distinguish it from the tribe of Judah. Its capital was Jerusalem. See History of ancient Israel and Judah.

This article is about what the Bible says. For how this relates to history, see The Bible and history.

When the disruption took place at Shechem, at first only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David. But very soon after the tribe of Benjamin joined the tribe of Judah, and Jerusalem became the capital of the new kingdom (Joshua 18:28), which was called the kingdom of Judah.

For the first sixty years the kings of Judah aimed at re-establishing their authority over the kingdom of the other ten tribes, so that there was a state of perpetual war between them. For the next eighty years there was no open war between them. For the most part they were in friendly alliance, co-operating against their common enemies, especially against Damascus. For about another century and a half Judah had a somewhat checkered existence after the termination of the kingdom of Israel till its final overthrow in the destruction of the temple (586 BC) by Nebuzar-adan, who was captain of Nebuchadnezzar's body-guard (2 Kings 25:8-21).

The kingdom maintained a separate existence for three hundred and eighty-nine years. It occupied an area of 8,900 km² (3,435 square miles).

The kings of Judah

928 - 913 Rehoboam

913 - 911 Abijam

911 - 871 Asa

871 - 848 Jehoshaphat

848 - 843 Jehoram

843 - 842 Ahaziah (Killed at a feast in Jezreel, Israel by Jehu)

842 - 836 (Queen Mother) Athaliah

836 - 798 Jehoash (Joash, son of Ahaziah).

In the first regnal year of Jehoash (836/798 BC) the High priest of Baal, Mattan, was killed (2 Chronicles 24:17). Refer to the chronology of the Phoenicians for this event.

798 - 769 Amaziah

769 - 733 Uzziah = Azariah

(George Syncellus wrote that the First Olympiad took place in Uzziah's 48th regnal year.)

751 - 743 Jotham

743 - 726 Ahaz

726 - 688 Hezekiah

See details for absolute dating under him. He was contemporary with King Sennacherib of Assyria, and Merodach-Baladan king of Babylonia. However, the latter kings cannot provide a reliable absolute date for his reign: Al-Biruni and Bar-Hebraeus mention a "King Sennacherib the Less" as well. Furthermore, there was another king named Merodakh Baladan ben Baladan, also known as Mardokempad. Ptolemy assumed, without any reason, that Mordac Empadus was contemporary with King Hezekiah.) These two Baladans remained pretenders during Sennacherib's reign, therefore it is not easy to identify their regnal years as Ptolemy attempted. This ancient scholar frequently attributed some observations to certain years of some kings for the sake of simplicity in his tabulation, but those were not part of the original observations. Also, he often arbitrarily fudged astronomical data in order to support his own theories. (See Robert R. Newton, The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, 1977.) Unfortunately many authorities still accept his list of rulers as the base of a perfect chronology.

688 - 642 Manasseh

642 - 640 Amon

640 - 609 Josiah

King Josiah died in 609 BC according to the chronology accepted by most scholars, in a battle against Necho II of Egypt.

609 Jehoahaz

609 - 597 Jehoiakim

597 Jehoiachin. (Perhaps from March to May as Chronicles 36: 10 allows.)

597 - 586 Zedekiah

Zedekiah rebelled twice, in the first rebellion (597 BC) Jerusalem was taken and most of its leaders were taken. In the second rebellion in 586 BC Jerusalem was taken, the temple burnt, the king taken and Judah utterly lost its independence to Nebuchadnezzar II.