The eras of King David and King Solomon ruling in Jerusalem are often referred to as the “Golden Age.” David united Israel and built a great palace, while Solomon built the Lord a magnificent temple. After Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, took control of the kingdom, it split in two. The Northern tribes were the Israelites, while the tribes in the south were in Judah. The leader of Israel decided to build alternate places to worship, as Jerusalem was in Judah and he did not want all of his citizens traveling there boosting the economy there.
Around 925 BCE Pharaoh Shoshenq invades the land of Canaan, some scholars suspect that he was paid by the king of Judah to invade and help fight Israel. Both Israel and Judah seem to make a habit of enlisting, and paying for the help of other—stronger—countries to fight their battles. One of these such countries was Assyria. Assyria quickly rose to prominence off of its reputation of being militarily dominant and merciless. When Assyria invaded and took the capital of Israel, Samaria, the population of the city of Jerusalem inflated dramatically. It was a walled city and many northerners fled there to escape the Assyrians.
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