History of Ancient Israel

The Levant in the 14th century BC, with the borders of ancient Egypt (age of the correspondence of Amarna). Ancient Levantine routes, c. 1300 BC The history of ancient Israel is the history of the Israelites, that is, the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, two Iron Age states located in the ancient Middle East.

• The oldest archaeological remains of the Israelite civilization are dated between the 12th and 10th centuries BC. C. and the name “Israel” is first mentioned in 1209 BC. C..1 In the 10th century BC. C., Kingdom of Israel became a regional power until its conquest by the Assyrian Empire in 722 BC. C..
• The Kingdom of Judah, located in southern Israel, emerged around the 9th or 8th century BC. C. and, after being an independent kingdom, it became a client state first of the Assyrian Empire and after the Babylonian Empire. When the Israelites rose up against Babylonian rule, the Babylonian Empire conquered and destroyed the city of Jerusalem and led the Jews into exile in what is known as the Babylonian Captivity.
• It focuses especially on the study of the Hebrews or Israelites during this period, and secondarily in the other peoples with whom they lived—such as Ammonites, Amorites, Phoenicians, Philistines, Hittites, Midianites, and Moabites.

The sources about this period are mainly the biblical writings—the Hebrew Bible or Tanach, known to Christians as the Old Testament—the Talmud, the Ethiopian book Kebra Nagast, and the writings of Nicholas of Damascus, Artapan of Alexandria, Philo of Alexandria, and Flavian Josephus.

Likewise, another main source of information is the archaeological discoveries in Assyria, Babylon, Egypt or MoDuring the last three thousand years, Israel has identified, in the common and religious use, both the Land of Israel (Eretz Yisraˈel) and all the Jewish people,32 who have continued to refer to the previous one as their homeland, Holy Land or the Promised Land, despite the fact that later the Romans changed the denomination of the territory

The noun comes from a passage from the Tanach, the Hebrew Bible, where the biblical patriarch Jacob provoked the admiration of an angel after defeating him in a struggle that lasted an entire night; he blessed him and changed his name to that of Yisra'el.33 The Confederate tribes who recognized themselves as descendants of Jacob called themselves "Sons of Israel" or "Israelites".

As for archaeology, the earliest known mention of the name Israel, distinct from a personal name, is an epic account engraved in the Merenptah stele of Ancient Egypt, dating from the year 1210 BC. C., where it is employed as a gentilice, designating a people or group of people without association with a specific geographical location.

• When the new Jewish state was established in the mid-20th century, several names were considered for it, such as "Eretz Israel", "Sion", "Judea" and "New Judea", which were finally dismissed.35 The modern name that adopted the country was Medinat Yisraˈel in Hebrew and Dawlat Isrā'īl in Arabic, the two official languages, with the same meaning of "State of Israel". The country’s gentilice in Spanish is Israeli and its plural Israelis,5 adopted by his government a few weeks after independence.
• The term Israelite is usually used in Spanish in reference to the ancient inhabitants of the Kingdom of Israel, although it is also used as a synonym for Jew or Hebrew, and even erroneously of Israeli.37ab, as well as the vestiges and inscriptions in the very territory of study of the regions To your offspring I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates. —Genesis 15:18.3
• Turn back and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all its surrounding areas, in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the valleys, in the Negev, and along the coast of the sea, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. —Deuteronomy 1:7.4