Kings of Israel and Judah

Jehoiachin
Hebrew Name: Yehoyakhin ben Yehoyaqim
Judah (Southern Kingdom)
Prophets: Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Zephaniah
Reigned for 3 months & 10 days. Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians and Jehoiachin deposed on 16 March, 597 BC and taken captive to Babylon. Judah kept hoping for his return. After 37 years in prison, he was freed, but never returned to Jerusalem.

He was called Jeconiah in Jeremiah and Esther.

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Zedakiah
Hebrew Name: Tzideqiyahu ben Yo'shiyahu
Judah (Southern Kingdom)
Prophets: Jeremiah
Appointed to throne by Nebuchadnezzar, who changed his name from Mattaniah, Zedekiah ruled under a handicap: his subjects considered Jehoiachin their king. Moreover, the land was desolate, and most skilled laborers had been deported to Babylon. Nevertheless, he rebuilt Jerusalem’s defenses and saved the city from the Edomites.

He then conspired against Babylon so that Nebuchadnezzar laid siege and destroyed Jerusalem. Zedekiah was taken in chains to Nebuchadnezzar, who forced him to watch the execution of his sons and then blinded him and sent him in chains to Babylon, where he died.

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Jeroboam I
Israel (Northern Kingdom)
Prophets: Ahijah
Son of Nebat of Ephraim who served Solomon, Jeroboam was promised rule of ten tribes by prophet Ahijah as God’s judgment on Solomon for idolatry. After an unsuccessful plot to overthrow Solomon, he had taken asylum with Pharaoh Shishek I.

He returned to rule Israel on Solomon’s death, built a new capital at Tirzah, and was condemned for setting up gold calves at new structures in Bethel and Dan to keep his people from worshipping in Jerusalem. He reigned only four years before Pharaoh Shishek overran Israel. Border wars with Judah began.

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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).