Biblical Geography

Israel

Kingdom and people · Old and New Testament

Scripture first

Genesis 32:28 · WEBU

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The name Israel is given to Jacob at the Jabbok, and the people take their name from that night.

Israel is first a people, the descendants of Jacob, before it is ever a state. The people become a nation in , receive the law at Sinai, and enter the land under Joshua.

Under David and Solomon reaches its widest extent. After Solomon's death it splits: Israel in the north with its capital finally at Samaria, Judah in the south with Jerusalem. Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom in 722 BC.

The covenant people and their land between the Jordan and the sea; after Solomon, the northern kingdom of ten tribes.

Biblical names
Israel, the land of promise, Canaan (earlier), Samaria (the northern kingdom, by its capital)
Later names
Judaea and Galilee (Roman period)

Identification note. Ancient Israel's territory overlaps parts of the modern states of Israel and Palestine; the biblical and modern uses of the name are related but not identical claims.

The land is a narrow bridge between Africa, Asia and Europe, with the great empires always marching through it. Israel's story of trade, invasion and dependence on God is written by that corridor.

Rain, not river irrigation, waters the hill country, which is why Scripture so often ties rain to obedience.

  • The name Israel is given to Jacob at the Jabbok, and the people take their name from that night.
  • Israel settled in the land promised to the fathers
  • The kingdom divides; Israel becomes the northern ten tribes
  • Samaria falls to Assyria and the northern kingdom ends
  • The land is still called the land of Israel in the New Testament

What we know

Certain

  • Scripture names Israel as the covenant people and their land from Genesis onward.
  • The division into Israel (north) and Judah (south) after Solomon is stated directly in 1 Kings 12.
  • The fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria is recorded in 2 Kings 17 and in Assyrian royal records.

Probable

  • The Merneptah inscription (c. 1208 BC) is the earliest known reference to Israel outside the Bible, naming it as a people already in Canaan.