Jews

=== Israel and Judah ===
{{further|History of ancient Israel and Judah|}}
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the [[Merneptah Stele]], which dates to around 1200 BCE. The majority of scholars agree that this text refers to the [[Israelites]], a group that inhabited the central highlands of [[Canaan]], where archaeological evidence shows that hundreds of small settlements were constructed between the 12th and 10th centuries BCE.{{sfn|Stager|1998|p=91}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dever |first=William G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-VxwC5rQtwC&dq=What+did+the+biblical+writers+know&pg=PA102 |title=What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8028-2126-3 |language=en}}</ref> The Israelites differentiated themselves from neighboring peoples through various distinct characteristics including [[Yahwism|religious practices]], [[Endogamy|prohibition on intermarriage]], and an emphasis on genealogy and family history.{{sfn|McNutt|1999|p=35}}{{sfn|Dever|2003|p=206}}{{sfn|Dever|2003|p=206}}

In the 10th century BCE, two neighboring Israelite kingdoms—the northern [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|Kingdom of Israel]] and the southern [[Kingdom of Judah]]—emerged. Since their inception, they shared ethnic, cultural, [[Biblical Hebrew|linguistic]] and [[Yahwism|religious]] characteristics despite a complicated relationship. Israel, with its capital mostly in [[Samaria (ancient city)|Samaria]], was larger and wealthier, and soon developed into a regional power.{{sfn|Finkelstein|Silberman|2002|pp=146–7|ps=Put simply, while Judah was still economically marginal and backward, Israel was booming. [...] In the next chapter we will see how the northern kingdom suddenly appeared on the ancient Near Eastern stage as a major regional power}} In contrast, Judah, with its capital in [[Jerusalem]], was less prosperous and covered a smaller, mostly mountainous territory. However, while in Israel the royal succession was often decided by a military coup d'état, resulting in several dynasty changes, political stability in Judah was much greater, as it was ruled by the [[Davidic line|House of David]] for the whole four centuries of its existence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lemaire |first=André |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1017604304 |title=The Oxford Illustrated History of the Holy Land |date=2018 |others=Robert G. Hoyland, H. G. M. Williamson |isbn=978-0-19-872439-1 |edition=1st  |pages=61–85 |chapter=Israel and Judah |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=1017604304}}</ref>

Around 720 BCE, Kingdom of Israel was destroyed when it was conquered by the [[Neo-Assyrian Empire]], which came to dominate the ancient Near East.<ref name="Broshi 2001 174" /> Under the [[Resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrian resettlement policy]], a significant portion of the northern Israelite population was [[Assyrian captivity|exiled to Mesopotamia]] and replaced by immigrants from the same region.{{sfn|Tobolowsky|2022|pp=69–70; 73–75}} During the same period, and throughout the 7th century BCE, the Kingdom of Judah, now under Assyrian [[Vassal state|vassalage]], experienced a period of prosperity and witnessed a significant population growth.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kSovzudhFUC |title=A History of the Jewish People |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1976 |isbn=978-0674397316 |editor-last=Ben-Sasson |editor-first=Haim Hillel |editor-link=H.H. Ben-Sasson |page=142 |quote=Sargon's heir, Sennacherib (705–681), could not deal with Hezekiah's revolt until he gained control of Babylon in 702 BCE. |access-date=12 October 2018}}</ref> Later in the same century, the Assyrians were defeated by the rising [[Neo-Babylonian Empire]], and Judah became its vassal. In 587 BCE, following a [[Judah's revolts against Babylon|revolt in Judah]], the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II [[Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC)|besieged and destroyed Jerusalem]] and the [[Solomon's Temple|First Temple]], putting an end to the kingdom. The majority of Jerusalem's residents, including the kingdom's elite, were [[Babylonian captivity|exiled to Babylon]].{{sfn|Lipiński|2020|p=94}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lipschits |first=Oded |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/j.ctv1bxh5fd |title=The Fall and Rise of Jerusalem: Judah under Babylonian Rule |date=2005 |publisher=Penn State University Press |isbn=978-1-57506-297-6 |pages=367 |doi=10.5325/j.ctv1bxh5fd|jstor=10.5325/j.ctv1bxh5fd }}</ref>
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