History According to the REST of the OT

Religion
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Much is made of history as portrayed in Genesis and Exodus (Adam and Eve, young earth and Noah lived for 500 years, pillars of salt and gays should be killed etc.), especially by those who like to ZING Christians. This thread is NOT about that.
It’s about history according to the REST of the OT.

According to the Bible

  • in roughly 1290 BC Moses led the Jews out of Egypt.

  • in roughly 1250 BC Joshua and his roaming band of refugees invaded Canaan.

  • Beginning roughly 1200 BC the 12 tribes of Israel were ruled by men and women (Gideon, Deborah, Samson and nine others) called judges. They didn’t have black robes and gavels. They were more like “chieftains.”

  • Saul became King (in 1020 BC), but tensions remained, largely pitting the ten poorer tribes in the rural north, against the two richer tribes in the populated center and south.

  • David, struggles successfully and unites the Kingdom (in 1000 BC).

  • Solomon becomes King ~960 BC and builds the temple.

  • 40 years later (~920) the Kingdom divides into Israel, (north), and Judah (south). Jerusalem sits fully, 100% inside Judah, but its close to the border.

This begins a great, all-important 340 year period. (920 BC - 590 BC).

It is the period after the Great Kings, but before the Babylonian invasion and subsequent exile.

No more is the OT a bunch of writing in which the Jews ask “where did we come from” it is just the Jews being Jews, living everyday life of Jewdom in Israel/Judah.
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Though technically the Kingdom was divided, (and the northern part fell long before the main, southern part), today, we frequently refer to Israel/Judah during this period is collectively as "Israel.

Much of the OT was written about and for this time.

This is the time (920 BC - 590 BC) of the Great Prophets. According to an appendix in my Bible, it is the time of
Elijah
First Isaiah
Micah
Jeremiah, and
Ezekiel.

(Second Isaiah came later, early on DURING the Babylonian exile.)

More later. I’m not going anywhere PARTICULAR with this. I just find it helpful/interesting to divide the history into its various parts.

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Anyway when I was a kid I just sorta lumped all the OT into one great BC Israel lump.

As I got older (10 or 12 I think) I knew that “Jesus was a Jew” was not just trivia, that Ancient Israel had a lot of enemies including by Babylon"and that “in the time of Jesus Israel was part of Ancient Rome.”

Later, and now,
understanding things like tge Babylonian exile and how it plays a central role in the narrative of God, have become more meaningful to me.

Today I don’t think we can have more than a cursory understanding of Jesus without first understanding Babylon and the writings of people who predicted the invasion, exile release-ftom-exile.