Kings of Israel and Judah

Herod
Hebrew Name: Herod "the Great"
Roman Client Kingdom
Herod the Great, one of the most well-known rulers in Jewish history, is praised to this day for magnificent building projects such as the temple in Jerusalem and fortresses like Herodium and Masada. Yet many are disgusted by his acts of cruelty. Even the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, struggled to evaluate the “inconsistency” between Herod’s benevolence and his brutality (Ant. 16.150-159).

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Archelaus
Hebrew Name: Herod Archelaus
Roman Client Kingdom
On the death of Herod the Great, Herod Archelaus was made ethnarch, ("Prince of princes"), of Judea, Samaria and Idumea by Augustus Caesar. His rule proved to be a short one, that was ended by his Roman overlords.

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Herod Antipas
Roman Client Kingdom
Prophets: John the Baptist
Herod Antipas was the son of Herod I the Great, and became tetrarch (ruler of a minor principality in the Roman Empire) of Galilee, in northern Palestine, and Peraea, east of the Jordan River and Dead Sea. He ruled throughout Jesus of Nazareth’s ministry.

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The Jewish kings ruled over vastly different kingdoms in different periods of history. Starting in the early iron age with Saul, several kings ruled over an expanding, "United Kingdom." After the death of Solomon a fissure developed, with ten tribes separating into the Northern Kingdom of "Israel..."

( see table )

and the tribes of Benjamin and Judah continuing the Davidic line in the Southern Kingdom of "Judah."

( see table )

After the north was conquered by Assyria and the south by Babylon, a Jewish kingdom did not reappear until the second century BC with the establishment of the Hasmonean dynasty. The Hasmoneans were then followed in the first century BC by the Herodian rulers, this final group being clients of Rome, (and actually Idumean).