After the death of King Solomon, the kingdom was divided in two. The southern kingdom consisted only of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and thus became the kingdom of Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital. The northern kingdom consisted of …

The phrase “kingdom of Israel” in the Bible may refer either to the “united” kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon, which incorporated some or all of the later kingdoms of Israel and Judah, or the breakaway northern kingdom of Israel that Jeroboam established after Solomon’s death.

Israel during this time had no fewer than eighteen kings, and Judah twelve kings. Although political leadership during the Divided Kingdom lacked distinction, included in the period are great eighth-century BCE prophets such as Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah.

David’s predecessor and rival, Saul, the first king of Israel, had controlled lands north of Jerusalem, whereas David’s support came from the south. Thus, the united monarchy split along borders that recollect divisions prior to David’s rule, and the borders during the period of the divided monarchy continued to follow these lines.

They are the ones that are ruled, if fitfully, by the titular figures of the book of Judges and then by Saul, David, and Solomon during Israel’s United Monarchy. In 1Kgs 11:1-12:33, the kingdom of Israel splits into two, Israel and Judah, never really to be united.

This timeline tracks the rulers of Israel and Judah in parallel with other ancient events from 1025 B.C.E. To 586 B.C.E.

Upon his death in 4 B.C.E., the kingdom of Herod the Great was divided among three of his surviving sons. Antipas was given the region to the east of the Jordan known as Perea, along with the Galilee. Philip was given the region to the northeast of the Sea of Galilee known as Gaulanitis.

The term “Israel” here encompasses a united kingdom that included both the tribe of Judah in the south, David’s home territory where he first came to power, and the ten northern tribes of Israel, where Saul ruled before David took over his kingdom.

The shaded areas in this map represent the tribal allotments of land as described in the book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible. There are 12 tribal territories, though out of the original 12 tribes, Levi did not receive land and the territory of Joseph was divided between his two sons.

The kingdoms of Judah in the south and Israel in the north emerged in this power vacuum, along with Ammon, Moab, Edom, Aram-Damascus, and Philistine and Phoenician city-states, between the 10th and eighth centuries B.C.E.