Following the death of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split into two parts (1 Kings 12). The northern kingdom was called Israel. The southern kingdom was called Judah. After numerous warnings about God's judgment from prophets such as Hosea, Assyria rose to power and in 722 B.C. conquered the whole of the northern kingdom.
Although the Assyrians were a wicked and barbarous people, God called Jonah, one of his prophets in the northern kingdom, to go to the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. While Jonah stubbornly resisted, eventually he went and preached to the Ninevites with surprising results.
In the last years of the seventh century B.C. the Assyrian empire was conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians (c. 612 B.C.). A few years later, the southern kingdom of Judah also fell under his control (605 B.C.). Over the course of the next nineteen years, two different groups of Hebrews were deported to Babylon. Ultimately, due to a revolt by the Jews in Jerusalem and the surrounding region, the city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. and the majority of the population was exiled in what became known as the "Babylonian captivity."
In 539-538 B.C., the Babylonians were conquered by the Persians, who ruled their new empire from the royal city of Susa in the east. Because they had a liberal policy of "empire-management," the Persians allowed subject peoples, such as the Jews, to return to their homelands. Under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Nehemiah and Ezra, different groups of Israelites returned to the city of Jerusalem at different times in order to rebuild it and the temple (c. 538-430 B.C.). Others, however, such as Esther, chose to stay in Babylon under Persian rule (see the book of Esther).
Following their return to the Promised Land from captivity, the Jews were ruled by a variety of groups until they were conquered by the Romans in the century before Christ. This era is often referred to as the "inter-testamental period."
