Historical Introduction: Part I – The Exile of the Northern Kingdom

Eikha commemorates the climactic calamity of the Tanakh: the destruction of the First Temple and Jerusalem.   Yet It does not attempt to relate a prose account of Jerusalem’s fall or Babylon’s conquest and cruelty. Eikha lacks narrative, dates, and  identified persons. Nevertheless, to contextualize the book and understand its surface meaning, we must address its historical background.

I will briefly review the major historical events, as recorded both in the Tanakh and in external sources, pausing to examine three events that I believe most deeply impact upon Judah, Jerusalem, and the book of Eikha. The events that I will consider are the exile of the Northern Kingdom in 722 BCE, Sennacherib’s failed military campaign to conquer Jerusalem in 701 BCE, and King Josiah’s shocking death in 609 BCE. Each of these events impacts significantly upon biblical history and the Judean kingdom and in some way constitutes the theological backdrop of the book of Eikha.