Ancient Israel and Phoenicia

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The 12 Tribes of Israel

Israel Under King Saul (1010 BC)

Israel Under King David (980 BC)

Israel Under King Solomon (940 BC)

The Divided Kingdom (900 BC)

   At the end of the Bronze Age, a series of invasions threw the Near East into political turmoil, severely weakening the established powers there. Thus at the start of the Iron Age, the old powers that had ruled over the Levant such as Egypt and the Hittite Empire, were no longer strong enough to control the region. This political vacuum was filled by three main groups; the Philistines, the Phoenicians, and the Israelites. The origin of these three peoples is not clearly understood.

    The Philistines were one of the 'Sea Peoples' that had invaded Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age and then settled on the coastal plain around the area of Gaza. The Philistines came from somewhere in the Mediterranean, many scholars have suggested somewhere in the Greek World.
    The Phoenicians were the Iron Age peoples that lived in the coastal area roughly corresponding to modern Lebanon. Some scholars have suggested that the Phoenicians may have migrated to the region from elsewhere, whilst others argue that their culture simply evolved from the Bronze Age Canaanite peoples of the same region.

   According to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites were a people that had originated in the Levant but subsequently moved to Egypt where they were persecuted and enslaved. At the end of the Bronze Age, the Israelites migrated back to their homeland to escape persecution at the hands of the Egyptians in what is referred to in Biblical texts as the 'Exodus'.   According to Biblical texts, the Israelites were divided into 12 separate tribes and each was allotted a particular area of the Levant as their homeland by God himself. (See map 1- the Twelve Tribes of Israel)

    By the 11th Century BC, King Saul had managed to unite most of the Israelites into a single Kingdom (see map 2 - 1010 BC). King Saul died fighting the Philistines and was succeeded by his only surviving son: Ish-bosheth. However, the tribe of Judah ceded from the rule of the House of Saul by proclaiming David as its king, and war ensued. (2 Samuel 2:12) David eventually prevailed against Ish-bosheth and was pronounced the new King of Israel. (2 Samuel 3:1) David then went on to conquer many of the surrounding areas and carve out a large empire, Biblical texts state that his Empire reached as far as the Euphrates River, which would have included the area to the North of Israel known as Hamath. (See map 3 - 980 BC). David was succeeded by his son Solomon who enjoyed a long and prosperous reign which included an alliance with the Phoenician King Hiram I of Tyre. The Kingdom of Israel was however unstable due to it's disparate tribal origins, and it began to disintegrate quickly. During the reign of King Solomon, Damascus revolted and became independent. (See map 4 - 940 BC). Then, after Solomon's death, the Kingdom was divided into the northern Kingdom of Israel, and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. (See map 5 - 900 BC) Both of these Kingdoms would be conquered by the Assyrians in subsequent centuries.
    Contemporaneous with the Kingdom of Israel was the golden age of the Phoenician merchant city states. From their bases along the coast of Lebanon, the Phoenicians began establishing trade colonies in Cyprus, and then further afield, in North Africa, Spain, and the Islands of the Western Mediterranean.

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