Demise of the United Kingdom

I Kings 12 –

After Solomon, the kingdom was split by the rivalry between his two sons.

Rehoboam, succeeding his father Solomon and counseled by the old men to lighten the burdens of the people, instead followed the urgings of his peers and vowed to increase their burden. The people rebelled, and Rehoboam and his followers fled to Jerusalem from which he ruled over Judah.

The people called his brother Jeroboam to rule over the rest of Israel from Shechem.

Israel, the northern kingdom, was the wealthier of the two kingdoms because of its proximity to the great trading routes. But there was no middle class – only the very wealthy and the very poor.

Judah, the southern kingdom, languished lacking only trade routes with Egypt, which were soon cut off by the Egyptians. As a poor country, Judah also lacked Israel’s great disparity in incomes.

Both kingdoms, with few exceptions, suffered from progressively worse kings.