Millennial-scale warming terminates with a period of climatic disturbance and flooding in the lower latitudes (Nile, Arizona, Morocco, Israel, Mesopotamia), followed by a drought; general, worldwide, climate-driven shock to early societies living in "edenic" geography of plenty with "fertile crescent" survivors organizing into more centrally administered culture based on irrigation.
3001 BC: Israel; Mt.
Israel's Mt.
3000 BC: Israel; Ancient Egyptians in Palestine
Samuel said to Saul, "I am the man whom Yahweh has sent to anoint you as king of his people Israel.
Yahweh anointed you as king of Israel.
Samuel said to Saul, "I will not come back with you, since you have failed Yahweh's word, and Yahweh has rejected you as king of Israel."
And there's a very interesting moment in which the tribes of Israel are at war with the Syrians, and the Syrians think: "If we can draw them into the plains, we're going to win, because El Shaddai means the powerful one of the mountains, doesn't it?
This is a scenario well known to anyone who knows the Yahweh stories, because there did come moments when the people of Israel were starving and thirsty in the desert.
Well, after a while, the tribes of Israel become tired of that provision: "We can't go on living like this; we're hungry, we're thirsty; we want to go home." And they put their complaint to Moses, Yahweh's deputy.
He received visions concerning Israel during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the great earthquake.
Example: Micah 2:12 - "אָסֹף אֲאַסֵּף יַעֲקֹב כֻּלָּךְ קַבֵּץ אֲקַבֵּץ שְׁאֵרִית יִשְׂרָאֵל יַחַד אֲשִׂימֶנּוּ כְּצֹאן בָּצְרָה כְּעֵדֶר בְּתוֹךְ הַדָּבְרוֹ כְּתוֹךְ עֵדֶר צֹאן רַב בְּתוֹךְ דָּבְרוֹ" ("I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together like the sheep of Bozrah, like a flock [עֵדֶר] in the midst of their pasture [צֹאן].")
Jacob, also known as Israel, had twelve sons, including Joseph, who was favored by his father and given a coat of many colors.
The highest rates are among the Ojibwe (25%), Sioux (15%), Nuu-Chah-Nulth (12%), people in Georgia (8%), Orkney (7%), and Druze in Israel (27%).
It was also found in a man from Galilee in Israel who lived between 1014 and 836 BC (X2b), as well as in ancient Assyrian remains and Egyptian mummies from the late New Kingdom to Roman times.
In Eurasia, haplogroup X is most common and varied among the Druze people in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, with 16% X1 and 11% X2.
The book names twelve leaders who "judged Israel".
Biglino describes the major judges as called by Yahweh in times of danger to free Israel from its enemies, and the minor judges as administrators of a tribe, area or clan.
Othniel, son of Kenaz and Caleb's younger brother, freed Israel from Cushan-rishathaim, king of Aram-naharaim, which the King James Version calls Mesopotamia, after eight years of servitude; the land then had rest forty years (Judges 3:7 to 11).
Deborah, a prophetess and the wife of Lapidoth, judged Israel and with Barak defeated Jabin, king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor, and his captain Sisera (Judges 4 to 5).
Jephthah led Israel against the Ammonites, made his vow to the LORD, and judged Israel six years (Judges 10:6 to 12:7).
Samson fought the Philistines, who had ruled Israel forty years, and judged Israel twenty years (Judges 13 to 16).
Biglino calls Samson's place among the major judges somewhat mistaken, since Samson only began Israel's freedom from the Philistines and did not complete it.
Shamgar, son of Anath, slew six hundred Philistines with an ox goad, "and he also delivered Israel" (Judges 3:31).
Tola, a man of Issachar who lived in Shamir in mount Ephraim, judged Israel twenty-three years (Judges 10:1 to 2).
Peake's Commentary on the Bible notes that his verse has no introduction, no closing formula and no length of rule, and the text never says he judged Israel.
Alberto Soggin (1981) describes the cycle: Israel falls away, cries out, a judge delivers it, and it falls away again.
The Judges in Israel’s history, as described in the Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, are traditionally categorized as Major and Minor Judges based on the extent of their narratives and roles.
And it was a custom in Israel,
And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
The standard explanation is that God handed Israel over to its own sins.
The Books of the Covenant - A less common term emphasizing the covenantal relationship between Elohim and Israel described in these texts.
Israel is led by judges, elders, and prophets.
The book shows a repeated pattern: Israel forsakes God → serves idols → enemies oppress them → they cry out → God sends a judge → temporary deliverance → new cycle of idolatry and violence.
In the canonical Old Testament Jonah, Amos, and Hosea were active around the 8th century BC (roughly 790–750 BC), during the reign of Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom (Israel).
Jonah preached repentance to Nineveh, but his book also highlights God's mercy beyond Israel.
≈726 BCE – ≈826 years after ExodusThe kingdoms of Israel collapsed.
the kingdoms of Israel perished, and they became a scattered people, and fell into bondage again.”
The northern kingdom (called Israel) fell to Assyria, its people were deported and scattered among the nations (2 Kings 17:5–6, 18–23).
This matches "kingdoms of Israel perished" and "scattered people."
Did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than the nations the LORD destroyed before Israel (2 Kings 21:2).
Ezra 7:6–10 adds context: Ezra is a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, brought from Babylon with royal support, and his heart is set to study, practice, and teach the statutes and rules in Israel.
These passages describe God rejecting kingship over Israel, scattering the people due to disobedience, and declaring His sole rule:
In Ezekiel 20, God reviews Israel's history of rebellion from Egypt onward.
Hosea 13:9–11 — "I will destroy you, O Israel...
The proposal reads 1 Samuel 8 as the moment Israel moved from divine to human rule.
McLaughlin (2000) both note that the Hebrew Bible already treats Elohim as singular in most places when it means the God of Israel.
The KJV, following the Masoretic Text, ends the verse with "the children of Israel".
When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
The term Elohim is grammatically plural but often used in the Hebrew Bible to refer to the singular God of Israel.
In 1 Samuel 4, the Ark is captured by the Philistines, and "the glory has departed from Israel" (1 Samuel 4:21).
The King James Version, for example, mostly has "children of Israel".
Sons of Israel (בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, benei Yisrael) means the Israelites.
"Then He said to me, ‘ben-adam, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me;’"
"Then He said to me, ‘ben-adam, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’"
The Documentary Hypothesis (J, E, P, D sources) supports this, suggesting Elohist (E) texts favored "Elohim" early on, while Yahwist (J) and Priestly (P) layers pushed "YHWH" to define Israel’s God.
Sign of Redaction: The shift to YHWH aligns with a national focus—Israel vs.
YHWH’s insertion ties the story to Israel’s identity, beyond Elohim’s broader scope.
Commandments’ Origin: They could be an Elohim relic, nested into a YHWH exodus by editors asserting Israel’s God.
“I AM WHO I AM” captures this: it’s not a name like “Bob” or even “YHWH” (tied to Israel’s covenant), but a statement of absolute existence—self-existent, eternal, the source of all being.
This feels like a Yahwist tag—grounding the abstract “I AM” in Israel’s ancestry and covenant.
YHWH’s Insertion: Yahwist editors tie “I AM” to “YHWH” (3:15), weaving in plagues, sea crossings, and wanderings to make it Israel’s story.
This bolsters your view: the burning bush and commandments could be an Elohim-“I AM” core, mirrored by Egoquim’s timeless authority, with YHWH as the later insertion for Israel’s saga.
Sinai Without Commandments (Exodus 19, 21+): YHWH descends on Sinai (19:9) to bind Israel as “my treasured possession” (19:5)—a covenant, not laws.
The arc tightens: YHWH, Israel’s God, sees oppression, picks Moses, fights Pharaoh, frees the people, and leads them militarily to Sinai for a covenant.
It’s all about Israel’s identity—chosen, freed, bound—without Elohim’s broader “no other gods” (20:3) muddying the focus.
Dropping commandments avoids redundancy—why universal laws if YHWH’s goal is Israel’s loyalty?
YHWH-Only Story: YHWH fights Egypt, leads Israel, and forges a nation.
The story then goes on with YHWH, the God of Israel, leading the people forty years in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33) toward the promised land.
This period, often called Iron Age II, marks a time when the Israelite kingdoms of Judah and Israel established their cultural and religious identities amidst a complex Near Eastern landscape.
Yahweh of Samaria: Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel.
By the 9th–8th centuries BCE, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were navigating their identities post-Solomon’s united monarchy (if it existed as described).
This period saw Israel and Judah as small players amid bigger powers like Assyria.
The 8th century BCE, in particular, was tumultuous—Israel fell to Assyria in 722 BCE, shortly after Kuntillet Ajrud’s heyday.
In Britannica's account, Phoenicia was an ancient region on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, matching modern Lebanon with parts of modern Syria and Israel.
The Merneptah Stele, also known as the Israel Stele or the Victory Stele of Merneptah, is an artifact from Ancient Egypt that dates back to the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah, approximately between 1213 and 1203 BCE.
However, the final three lines describe a campaign in Canaan, where a reference to "Israel" is made.
Flinders Petrie initially suggested that the term "isiri" found on the stele referred to Israel, a hypothesis widely publicized at the time.
On the Merneptah Stele, the absence of two specific determinatives — one for a city-state (depicted as a circle with an "X") and another for a foreign land (depicted as a symbol resembling "three speed bumps") — suggests that "isiri" cannot be translated as Israel in the sense of a state or territory.
Linguistic and archaeological analyses suggest that the Merneptah Stele does not directly refer to Israel as a specific state or people.
The mention of "isiri" may be interpreted as referring to a group or nomadic tribe in the region of Canaan, but there is no concrete evidence to connect this group definitively with Israel.
Flinders Petrie's initial interpretation linking "isiri" to Israel was widely accepted in the historical context of its discovery, but subsequent studies have pointed to a different conclusion.
The narrative moves from the creation of all humanity to a bond with one family and, through it, one people (Israel).
In Exodus, Yahweh frees Israel from Egypt, gives the law and the covenant at Sinai (Exodus 20), and leads the people through the wilderness as a warrior god.
The Kenite hypothesis holds that his cult was Kenite or Midianite and reached Israel along trade routes.
The focus widens from Israel's covenant to justice for all nations and hope for the end of days.
The stages above line up with turning points in the history of Israel:
Nation-building: under Saul, David and Solomon, Israel moves from a loose confederation of tribes to a kingdom, with Yahweh's worship at its center.
By consistently replacing or merging these names with Yahweh, the editors sought to emphasize monotheism, framing Yahweh as the one true God of Israel, distinct from the gods of Babylon or other neighboring cultures.
Over time, the texts merged their identities, presenting Yahweh as not only the God of Israel but also the supreme deity of all creation.
This universalized Yahweh as both a personal deity of Israel and the cosmic ruler.
These are often remnants of Israel's earlier polytheistic or henotheistic practices, which were later harmonized into the worship of Yahweh.
This shows a recognition of other national deities alongside Yahweh, suggesting that Yahweh was seen as the God of Israel rather than the universal God at this time.
The confrontation between Elijah and the prophets of Baal reflects a period when Baal worship was widespread in Israel.
Hosea speaks of a future where Israel will no longer call Yahweh Baali ("my master") but will instead call Him Ishi ("my husband").
Then Yahweh called to him from the mountain, saying: Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and tell to the sons of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians when I bore you on vultures’ wings and brought you to Myself.
Yahweh picks Israel as his special possession.
For your Possessor is your Maker, Yahweh of hosts is His Name, And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, The Elohim of the entire earth shall He be called.
Here the prophet speaks to Israel as to a wife whose husband has come back.
“Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves!
Here, the “shepherds” are Israel’s leaders (kings, priests, prophets) who exploited the people instead of protecting them.
Therefore, this is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done.”