Chapter 4 The World That Produced the Bible: 722-587 B.C. Summary and Analysis

After the fall of Israel in 722 B.C., Judah remains as a greatly-weakened country and a subject of more powerful empires. Judah stands as a gateway into Egypt and on a desirable trade route. Being under the dominion of other cultures with their own gods, the Judean king, by necessity, requires the priests to honor these foreign gods, but the priests highly resent such a move. Politically this works out to keep empires such as the Assyrian and Babylonian from simply crushing Judah and making the area its own territory. From a religious standpoint, the priests and prophets condemn the king as going against Yahweh's wishes. An additional major change is the evaporation of tribal leaders and the tribes themselves.

King Hezekiah, who...