20151023 Friday, October 23 2015
Lamentations 05: How Judah Became Known Today As Israel

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

"Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities"

How the Israel of today (which is actually composed of the three tribes that composed the Kingdom of Judah; see below) came to exist:

Saul of Benjamin was Israel's first king, as the people demanded for themselves (see Saul Of Benjamin and Samuel The Seer). All of the tribes of Israel were briefly united as a single kingdom in the time of Saul (see King Saul of Israel).

When King Saul proved himself to be an unwise and unstable leader (see Saul's Impeachment), the LORD (see The Identity Of The LORD God and The LORD God Our Saviour) anointed David of Judah to be Israel's next king (see The Anointing Of David and Why Didn't David Kill Saul?). The Civil War between Judah, who supported David, and all of the other tribes, who remained loyal to Saul, continued until Saul was killed in battle against the Philistines (see Saul's Last Stand and Where Is Palestine?) and his successor was assassinated by his own troops (see The Assassination of Ishbosheth and The War Between The Houses of David and Saul).

The tribes of Israel then united under King David, who then moved his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem - which then for the first time ever became an Israelite city (see How Long Was Jerusalem The Capital Of Israel?). The Israelites then remained united, for the second, and last, time during David's reign after the Civil War, the entire reign of his son King Solomon, and the beginning of the reign of Solomon's son King Rehoboam.

Although very wise as a young man (see Solomon's Gift Of Wisdom), Solomon became corrupt in his later years (see What Caused Solomon's Idolatry?). For that, the LORD declared that the united kingdom would be divided, in the time of Solomon's son. Exactly as the LORD prophesied, the Israelites were then divided into two independent nations, in the time of King Rehoboam - who thereby became the last king of the united Kingdom of Israel and then the first king of the new Kingdom of Judah (see The First Kings Of Israel and Judah and Israel In History and Prophecy: Israel and Judah).

The Kingdom of Judah (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Kingdom Of Judah) consisted of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and part of Levi (as the priesthood, the Levites were given towns and fields throughout all of the other tribes, long before, in the time of Joshua; see Cities and Suburbs Of The Levite Clans and The Inheritance Of The Levites).

The Kingdom of Israel consisted of the other ten tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim/Joseph and Manasseh/Joseph, as well as part of Levi (those who had received their inheritance in those ten tribes). When the first king of Israel became hostile to them, the Levites of Israel left their towns and properties and moved to Judah (see No Levites In The Lost Ten Tribes? and How Did Israel Separate Itself From The Messianic King?).

The Kingdom of Israel lasted a little over 200 years - until they became so corrupt that the LORD had them conquered and taken into exile by the Assyrian Empire by 721 BC. The Kingdom of Israel thereafter became known as the "lost ten tribes of Israel" (see Israel In History and Prophecy: The Lost Ten Tribes).

The Kingdom of Judah lasted for about 135 years longer than the Kingdom of Israel - until they too became so corrupt that the LORD had them conquered and taken into exile in 586 BC by the Babylonian Empire that had by then conquered the Assyrian Empire (see Why Did Judah Fall To Babylon?). The prophet of Jeremiah lived and working during that time - he prophesied for forty years, and then witnessed the fall of Jerusalem, as documented in the Books of Jeremiah and Lamentations.

Unlike the "lost ten tribes" however, for the sake of the coming Messiah (see How The Messianic Line Survived In Babylon), the exile of the Kingdom of Judah lasted only 70 years - long enough to kill off the corrupt generations that had caused the exile. Their children and grandchildren were given to return, exactly as prophesied (see The Prophecies Of Cyrus of Persia and Why Was It Desolate For Seventy Years?), in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah (see Zerubbabel's Return, Ezra's Journey From Babylon and The Arrival Of Nehemiah's Cavalry).

The religion of the Kingdom of Judah, known today as Judaism (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Judaism), originated after the return from the Babylonian exile. The religious sects and cults of the Pharisees and the Sadducees also originated after the time of the return from Babylon. Moses and the Kingdom of Israel never knew Judaism (see Israel Never Knew Purim, Hanukkah Or Judaism).

From the history listed above, you can see where Jeremiah was, in time and place, when he wrote the Book of Lamentations.

"5:1 Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. 5:2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. 5:3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows. 5:4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us. 5:5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest. 5:6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

5:7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities. 5:8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand. 5:9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness. 5:10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine. 5:11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah. 5:12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured. 5:13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood. 5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick. 5:15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. 5:16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned! 5:17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

5:18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it. 5:19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation. 5:20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?

5:21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old. 5:22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us." (Lamentations 5:1-22 KJV)

Fact Finder: How did Benjamites and Levites come to be known as Jews today?
See Jews - Three Tribes and Three Meanings