Page 50 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Revised

The next major ruler of the period was David. David
expanded the borders of the kingdom to their largest
state. It is important to remember that these boundaries
still did not fulfill the boundaries promised to Abraham in
Genesis. David and his son Solomon are still considered
the golden age rulers of Israel. Notice that, as we said in
the last chapter, even at this level of expansion, the
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Philistines and the Phoenicians were never conquered.

Solomon succeeded David to the throne.
There was an attempt to take the throne and
put Adonijah, David’s oldest son who still
lived, on it. Solomon did not initially want to
put Adonijah to death for the attempt.
Adonijah then asked for their father’s
concubine. This could be viewed as the chance
to gain another claim to the throne. When
Solomon heard this, he saw through the plan of Adonijah and had him put to death.

Solomon would expand the land and greatly increase the wealth of Israel. Unfortunately, he would be
the last king of the united monarchy. After his reign, there would be a civil division between the two
kingdoms, the Northern Kingdom would go into exile, and eventually, the Southern kingdom would as
well.

King Approximate Dates of Reign Length of Reign
Saul Around 1050-1010 BCE 42 years (Some scholars say 22)
David Around 1010-970 BCE 40 years
Solomon Around 970-931 BCE 40 years

It is important to remember these dates are approximate. The issue of the length of Saul’s reign is
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rooted in a possible textual variant. One variant makes the length of the reign 42 years and the other
22.
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90 Norris, D. Thaine. “The Kingdom of David and Solomon, 10 Century B.C.” Logos Deluxe Map Set. Oak Harbor,
th
WA: Lexham Press, 1997.
91 Andrew E. Hill and John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan
Publishing House, 2009), 263.
92 Israel, Finkelstein. Y. Amit, E. Ben Zvi, I. Finkelstein and O. Lipschits (eds.), “The Last Labayu: King Saul and the
Expansion of the First North Israelite Territorial Entity” in Essays on Ancient Israel in its Near Eastern
Context, A Tribute to Nadav Na'aman, Winona Lake 2006. 173.

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