Kings of Israel and Judah

(Click graphic for Timeline)

Search Kings

Kingdom

Select a King

Clear Search

Aristobulus I

Hebrew Name: Judah

Hasmonean Kingdom

Judah, (Aristobulus) was eldest son of John Hyrcanus. He succeeded his father in the office of high priest, while his mother was, by the will of his father, to rule as queen. After the death of his father, Aristobulus threw his mother into prison where she was starved to death.

See Details

Alexander Jannaeus

Hebrew Name: Alexander Yannai

Hasmonean Kingdom

Alexander Jannaeus was the Hasmonean ruler of Judea (103–76 B.C.). He was the son of John Hyrcanus and became high priest and king. According to Josephus, Alexander was hated by his father and for this reason was forced to spend his childhood in Galilee.

See Details

Salome Alexandra

Hasmonean Kingdom

The only Jewish regnant queen of the Hasmoneans, she was a supporter of a religious reform that favored the early Pharisees against their rivals, the Sadducees. She is seen in Jewish tradition as having instituted a brief golden age that helped lay the foundations for the later emergence of rabbinical Judaism.

See Details

John Hyrcanus II

Hasmonean Kingdom

John Hyrcanus II was the high priest of Judaea from 76 to 40 BC, and, with his brother Aristobulus II, last of the Hasmonean (Maccabean) dynastic rulers.

See Details

Aristobulus II

Hasmonean Kingdom

Aristobulus II was the youngest son of Alexander Jannæus, whose political and religious predilections he inherited. His elder brother, Hyrcanus II, seems to have leaned to the side of his mother.

See Details

Antigonus

Hebrew Name: Mattathias Antigonus

Hasmonean Kingdom

Antigonus was the younger son of Aristobulus II and the last Hasmonean to claim control over Judea.

See Details

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).

See Details

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.

See Details

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.

See Details

Details

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).