2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35 If ever there was a point in biblical history when the worship of the Lord seemed all but extinguished, it was during the years leading up to King Josiah’s birth. Yet it was against this incredibly dark backdrop that the Lord raised up Josiah of Judah to bring about […]
Category Archives: Assyrian Period
Nebuchadnezzar’s Final Campaign against Judah
2 Kings 24-25; Jeremiah 39 The final collapse of the southern kingdom of Judah as an independent nation came at the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 B.C. Judah had already become a vassal of Egypt in 609 B.C. when King Josiah was killed by Pharaoh Neco at Megiddo (see “Josiah Battles […]
The Kenites at Jabez
Author’s Note: This article and the accompanying maps grew out of research on the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, Jabez, the Kenites, and the Rechabites provided by Nancy Dawson (independent scholar and author of the book, All the Genealogies of the Bible, Zondervan Academic, 2023) and location identifications provided by Chris McKinney (Director of […]
Prophets of the Old Testament
If you ask someone today what biblical prophets did, he or she will likely tell you that they divinely foretold of future events. While this was often the case, most prophets in the Bible focused as much on “forthtelling” God’s messages as they did on “foretelling” the future. That is, their primary role was to […]
Nomadic Range of Ishmael’s Descendants
Genesis 21:1-21; 25:1-18; 1 Chronicles 5:3-22 The book of Genesis twice records the origin of the Ishmaelites, who were descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham by Sarah’s handmaiden Hagar. Ishmael lived in the wilderness of Paran (Genesis 21:20-21), and his descendants eventually ranged from Shur near Egypt all the way around to Havilah on […]