II. THE DURATION OF THE KINGDOM. The kingdom lasted from B. C. 975 to 587—more than one hundred and thirty years longer than Israel. Reasons for its endurance may have been:
1. Its retired situation: hemmed in by mountains and deserts; at a distance from the ordinary lines of travel; not in the direct path of conquest from any other nation. Judah had few foreign wars as compared with Israel.
2. The unity of its people. They were not ten tribes loosely connected, but one tribe, with a passionate love of their nation and a pride in their blood.
3. Its concentration at Jerusalem. Through all its history there was but one capital, where the palace of the king and the temple of the Lord were standing together.
4. The reverence for the House of David also kept the people together. There was no change in dynasty, and the loyalty of the people grew stronger through the generations toward the family on the throne. There being no usurpers, the throne was permanent until destroyed by foreign power.
5. The purity of its religion tended to keep the nation united, and to keep it in existence. No bond of self-interest or of blood will hold a people together as strongly as the tie of religion. Judah's strength was in the measure of her service of God, and when she renounced Jehovah her doom came speedily.
III. PERIODS IN THE HISTORY. Though Judah was not without political contact with other nations, yet its history is the record of internal events rather than external relations. We may divide its history into four epochs:
1. The first decline and revival. (B. C. 975-889.) 1.) The reigns of Rehoboam and Abijah marked a decline indicated by the Egyptian invasion and the growth of idolatry. 2.) The reign of Asa and Jehoshaphat showed a revival in reformation, progress, and power. Under Jehoshaphat Judah was at the height of prosperity. This was the time of peace with Israel, and of strength at home and abroad (2 Chron. 17. 5; 20. 30).
2. The second decline and revival. (B. C. 889-682.) 1.) For nearly two hundred years after the death of Jehoshaphat the course of Judah was downward. Edom was lost under Jehoram (2 Chron. 21. 8); the Baalite idolatry was introduced by the usurping queen, Athaliah (2 Kings 11. 18); the land was again and again invaded under Joash and Amaziah, and Jerusalem itself was taken and plundered. 2.) But a great reformation was wrought under Hezekiah, who was the best and wisest of the kings of Judah, and the kingdom again rose to power, even daring to throw off the Assyrian yoke and defy the anger of the mightiest king then on the earth. At this time came the great event of the destruction of the Assyrian host (2 Kings 19. 30).
3. The third decline and revival. (B. C. 682-610.) 1.) The reforms of Hezekiah were short lived, for his son Manasseh was both the longest in reigning and the wickedest of the kings, and his late repentance did not stay the tide of corruption which he had let loose (2 Kings 21. 10-17; 2 Chron. 33. 1-18). The wickedness of Manasseh's reign was the great moral cause of the kingdom's destruction, for from it no reform afterward could lift the mass of the people. 2.) Josiah, the young reformer, attempted the task, but his efforts, though earnest, were only measurably successful, and after his untimely death the kingdom hastened to its fall (2 Kings 23. 29).