With its pivotal position at the nexus of some of the greatest civilizations of ancient times, the broad plains of the northern Levant and its many important routes served as the crossroads of the ancient Near East. The region itself was home to some of the oldest civilizations in history, and it has been ruled […]
Category Archives: Divided Monarchy Period
Western Europe and Africa
To the ancient Israelites, the distant regions of western Europe and Africa would have been regarded as the edge of the world, for beyond the Strait of Gibraltar and the coasts of Spain lay the vast, impassable Atlantic Ocean. Some scholars speculate that Tarshish, mentioned throughout the Old Testament as a far off land (Genesis […]
The Nation of Moab and the Tribe of Reuben
Throughout the Old Testament, the land immediately east of the Dead Sea was home to the nation of Moab and also to the Israelite tribe of Reuben. The Moabites were distantly related to the Israelites through Abraham’s nephew Lot (Genesis 19), and as the Israelites made their way to the Promised Land under Moses’ leadership, […]
Oases of the Arabian Desert
One of the most overlooked locations of biblical history is the desert region encompassing the oases of Dumah, Tema, Dedan, and Yathrib. While Dumah, Tema, and Dedan are mentioned by name only a few times in the Old Testament and Yathrib is not mentioned at all, the history of these cities often overlaps with biblical […]
The Land of Exile
When the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated by the Assyrians around 740 B.C. and 722 B.C., the Assyrians carried away many people to places along the Habor River (2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chronicles 5:26) and to cities in Media (2 Kings 17:1-6), and the nation essentially ceased to exist. Over a hundred years later, […]