Excerpt from The History of the Hebrew Nation and Its Literature: With an Appendix on the Hebrew Chronology

The Hebrew nation had a history of about twelve hundred years, from the time of the Judges to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The earlier traditions about the Patriarchs and even the residence in Egypt, we can hardly include under the name of history. We first find the nation divided into several little tribes of herdsmen, some dwelling among the conquered natives on the east of the Jordan, and some struggling against the unfriendly Canaanites on the west of that river. The river did not make any marked division among the Hebrew tribes. The strong division was between the northern and; the southern tribes. When the needs of war led them to choose a king, they chose Saul of the tribe of Benjamin, a middle tribe whose feelings were with the north. On his overthrow by the Philistines, David of the southern tribe of Judah made himself king. His warlike skill subdued most of the Canaanites, and thus he united all the Hebrew tribes and the subject races into one monarchy. He made Jerusalem his capital.

His son Solomon was a man of peace; and during his reign the country was prosperous. He built the Temple of Jerusalem for the worship of Jehovah, established the Levites to conduct the worship there, and surrounded his throne with magnificence. But his heavy taxes raised discon tent among his subjects; and upon his death the northern tribes revolted from his son Rehoboam. Henceforth the nation was divided into two kingdoms; and our history is very much limited to that of Judah.

These two little kingdoms were unfortunately often at war with one another. Judah was usually the stronger, and it increased in wealth until the reign of Ahaz, who unwisely paid the neighbouring Assyrians to help him in his wars.

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