ABSTRACT
Few events are as traumatic to a community as exile. The exile of Judah in 5861 left its imprint on many sections of the Hebrew Bible; that event is described in 2 Kings 25, is lamented in the Book of Lamentations and is reflected upon in various prophetic works, most especially in parts of Jeremiah2 and in the final section of Ezekiel (33:21ff.). The destruction of the northern kingdom in the late eighth century by Assyria,3 and the accompanying large-scale forced population exchanges that typified the Assyrian policy,4 must have similarly been a traumatic event. The northern literature that reflected upon it is no longer extant,5 but we do have a set of Judean meditations that attempt to understand why their northern “brothers” have suffered such a terrible fate. One can imagine the mixed emotions felt by many Judeans: on the one hand, they felt a close ethnic affiliation to the northern Israelites, to whom they were closely related. On the other hand, for many years, the northern kingdom was geographically more extensive than Judah and politically more powerful, so it is easy to imagine that Judah could have been jealous of its accomplishments and happy at its demise. Various groups in Judah probably felt differently about the north’s destruction, and attitudes must have continued to shift following the destruction of the northern kingdom. 2 Kings 17 is a collection of some of these attitudes.
