Judah, Kingdom of

The Kingdom of Judah, a state that emerges in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age, is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel.Judah emerged as a state probably no earlier than the 9th century BCE, but the subject is one of considerable controversy.

In the 7th century BCE, The Kingdom’s capital, Jerusalem, becomes a city with a population many times greater than before and clear dominance over its neighbors, probably as the result of a cooperative arrangement with the Assyrians, who wish to establish Judah as a pro-Assyrian vassal state controlling the valuable olive industry.

Judah prospers under Assyrian vassalage, (despite a disastrous rebellion against the Assyrian king Sennacherib), but in the last half of the 7th century BCE Assyria suddenly collapses, and the ensuing competition between the Egyptian and Neo-Babylonian empires for control of the Land of Israel leads to the destruction of the kingdom in a series of campaigns between 597 and 582.

An independent Jewish kingdom in Judea is revived by the Maccabees in 164 BCE.

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