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Judah, Kingdom of


A kingdom in southern Palestine consisting of the tribal areas of Judah and Benjamin that was created by the dissolution of the United Monarchy at the death of Solomon (922 BCE). Following this division there was a period of civil war between Judah (the Southern Kingdom) and Israel (the Northern Kingdom), which finally terminated in the time of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah (868–847 BCE). Although Judah was considerably less populous than its sister kingdom, it enjoyed greater political stability due to the presence of Jerusalem and the Davidic monarchy. The kingdom of Judah outlasted the kingdom of Israel by some 135 years, but it too fell to a foreign power, bringing to an end a period of national independence that had lasted nearly a half millennium.

  • Powell, Mark Allan, ed. HarperCollins Bible Dictionary. Abridged Edition. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009.