At about ts.c. 1050 we find a certain measure of hegemony exercised by the clan Benjamin, because of the presence in its midst of a power ful warrior, Saul. But soon a youthful rival appeared from Bethlehem in the person of David, who became the leader of a elan known as Judah, itself composed of several elements. After the death of Saul, David succeeded in extending his authority to the north over the clans controlled by Saul. David designated Solomon as his suc cessor, and the confederation seemed destined to lead to a permanent union. The political organ ization assumed definite shape. A genuine king dom was established, with its centre in Jerusa lem. the old fortress of the .Jebusites, conquered by David. The union, however, of north and south lacked tenacity, and, after Solomon's death (e.030 u.c.), was dissolved. in the north the tribe of Ephraim obtained the supremacy, in the south the tribe of Judah. Under the designation kings of Israel and kings of Judah a series of rulers (representing various dynasties in the ease of 'Israel) arose whose reigns were largely occupied with attempts of the one to obtain con trol of the kingdom of the other. The northern kingdom. representing a more powerful combina tion, succeeded in reducing the south at various times to a position of vassalage, but the former also paid the penalty of its greater power by exhausting its vitality more rapidly in conflicts with surrounding nations. At times north and south combined for defense against a common enemy, hut a permanent union was never agaiI effected. The northern kingdom succumbed to the Assyrian monarchy in B.C. 722, when,argon cap tured Samaria. The people were carried into captivity and their place supplied by Assyrian colonists from the east, who, mingling and in termarrying with the remnant left behind. formed the mixed people known as Samaritans '(q.v.). The captives disappeared among the people of Alesopotamia and Medea, in whose midst they had been settled, and constitute "the lost ten tribes of Israel." who have been the subject of much psendo-seientifie literature. (For the real significance of some of the facts misused by the orists, consult Heine. The British Nation Idea tilied with Lost Israel, London, 1371, and .1allery's address, "Israelite and Indian," pub lished in the I'roeeedieys of the American As sociation fur the Adran•ement of Science for 1889.) The kingdom of Judah was spared an nihilation when the northern kingdom fell, though forced to pay tribute to Assyria. Surviving the Assyrian power, it aroused the anger of Nebu chadnezzar H., the powerful ruler of the Neo Babylonian kingdom, and, in punishment for attempting to throw off the Babylonian yoke, Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed in i.e.' 530. To avoid further trouble, the King and the in fluential section of the people were carried as captives to Babylonia, and they were followed by others, so that ere long Babylonia had a large Hebrew population in its midst.. See BABYLONISIL CAPTIVITY.
Of supreme importance in Hebrew history is the remarkable development of religious thought which took place chiefly during the last three centuries before the fall of .Jerusalem. When the Hebrew nomads exchanged the pastoral for the agricultural life, they also adopted the cult of the Canaanitish hiaalim (see BAAL ) , who were re garded as the owners of the soil, and upon whose favor its fertility depended, identifying the Baal of each sanctuary (usually situated on an emi nence) with Yahweh. The practices, however, at the Baal sanctuaries differed considerably from those which marked the worship of Yahweh. Agricultural festivals represented innovations for a people who had hitherto led a pastoral life.
As a consequence, there were always some sections of the Hebrew populace who discountenanced the new modes of worship, and clung tenaciously to the older Yahweh ritual. These followers of Yah weh gradually were brought into an attitude of opposition to the Baal-Yahweh amalgamation; and in the ninth century B.C., under the leader ship of Elijah (q.v.), the opposition between Yahweh and Baal led to a severe struggle, the outcome of which, while not permanently de cisive, was favorable to the Yahwists. At all dents, a halt was called upon the spirit of reli gious syncretism, and the way was cleared for a more decisive movement toward the purification of the mode of worship by eliminating objection able elements. A class of men arose known as the prophets, who, by way of emphasizing the con trast between Yahweh and Baal, attached con ceptions to the former which separate him sharp ly from the gods of all other nations. Under the influence of the prophets, Yahweh became a deity whose acts are regulated by motives of strict morality and justice. While still the national god of the Hebrews. be applies strict standards of conduct and withholds his favor from his own people if they fail in attaining these standards. This movement led eventually to the establish ment of the principle of ethical monotheism, though the process was not completed till the post-exilie period, when the thought took firm hold of the Hebrews that their god was not only different from the gods of other nations, hut that such a god was in every sense a unique as well as an only power. As a trace of the older na tional conception the doctrine arose that Yahweh had singled out the Hebrews as his own special people, but that he guides the destinies of all nations and that the world and mankind are the works of his hands. Concomitant with the doc trinal advance went a movement to give expres sion to the higher conceptions regarding Yahweh by a proper cult and a regulation of public and private conduct. Codes were worked out, based on the prophets' conceptions of Yahweh, which contain ordinances for the cult, the courts and the general social life. Of these codes, four have been embodied in the present Pentateuch, the oldest of which, the so-called 'Book of the Cove nant,' dates from the ninth century, and the latest, the 'Priestly Code.' from about the begin ning of the fifth century. (See PENTATEUCH.) Under the profound impression made upon the south by the destruction of the northern kingdom, an intense religious spirit began to manifest it self, particularly in Jerusalem, by that time in every sense the religious centre of the Hebrews, and in the year B.C. 621 one of these codes, the kernel of the present book of Deuteronomy (q.v.), was officially adopted by King Josiah. The ap proaching disaster of the southern kingdom in tensified the religious spirit of the masses and prepared them for accepting the view taken of the situation by the prophets, who declared that the national calamity in the north was a punish ment sent by Yahweh. and the approaching disas ter in the south a proof that Judah, too, had sinned and thereby merited the anger of its God. The Babylonian exile fulfilled the conditions necessary for carrying back the sins of the people to the very beginning of existence. The entire past thus became one long chronicle of trans gression and falling away from Yahweh, and the theory arose tracing back the entire religious constitution of the people to a leader, Moses, who had been instrumental in bringing the Hebrews out of Egypt.