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===Divided Monarchy===
[[Image:Ancient Israel 830 BC.jpg|thumb|A map of the region around 830 BC]]
Following the death of King Solomon, the kingdom of Israel underwent a schism. This is described in 1 Kings 12. The remainder of the book [[1 Kings]] and all of the book [[2 Kings]] describes the history of Israel during this period of a divided kingdom. It explains from a theological view the political developments that occurred in this time. Both kingdoms progressively lost sight of God and began to follow pagan gods.
There was especially rapid decline into polytheism in the northern kingdom, ultimately resulting in God's judgement against the kingdom with the invasion of the Assyrian army and the deportation of the people, who ceased to exist in history as an independent culture or people.
In the southern kingdom of Judah, the decline was slower, with certain kings, such as Hezekiah and Josiah, refocussing the nation on God. Ultimately however the southern kingdom also received God's judgement for their abandonment of him in place of other gods, and the kingdom was invaded by the Babylonian army and the people deported to Babylon. The Jews of the southern kingdom however maintained their identity and culture and so did not cease to exist in history.
During this period, there was intense prophetic activity with prophets such as [[Isaiah]] and [[Jeremiah]] calling the people back to God.
Below is a table showing the kings of the two kingdoms during this period, with estimated dates of when the kings ruled.
{{Divided_kingdom_kings}}
