Did the Israelites remain faithful to their religion despite their troubles?

Answer 1

King Solomon himself wavered in his faith and allowed construction of altars for pagan gods. After his death that tendency continued. His descendant Hezekiah brought back the original faith of his ancestors. Later when the northern tribes were conquered by the Assyrians they lost their religion and scattered. They are the missing tribes. After the defeat of the 10 tribes the Jews were also conquered by the Babylonians. They returned from Babylon after 70 years and restored the Temple and they did not give up their faith though they lost their freedom. They stuck to their faith.

Answer 2

Shlomo himself made temples to idolatry, and his son Rechavam refused to lower taxes, causing the splitting of the kingdoms. After the splitting of the kingdoms, Yeravam ben Nevat, leader of the Ten Tribes, created his own, idolatrous holidays in an effort to keep people from traveling to the other kingdom of Yehudah for the regalim.

Answer 3

At least some of them always were, but not all.
Shortly before he died, Moses warned the people that he suspected that they would eventually succumb to the lure of the idols (Deuteronomy 29:17). Joshua gave a similar warning (Joshua ch. 24).
These warnings came true. Many of the Israelites went astray after the foreign gods (Judges 2:11).

However, they never invented their own idol. It was always the baneful influence of other peoples. And there were times when the entire Israelite nation repented (Judges 2:1-4) and prayed to God (Judges 3:9, 3:15, 6:6, 10:10). Those who did sin did not represent normative Judaism. They were deviating from the Torah's standard; they were publicly, repeatedly, and scathingly excoriated by the Prophets, and they caused God's retribution to come upon the entire people.

Because of the idol-worship that did happen, ancient images of idols have been found in Israel too. Images of God aren't found because it is forbidden to represent Him through imagery (Deuteronomy 4:15-16).

It should be noted that idolatry was never universalamong the Israelites. The tradition of the One God was handed down in every generation, whether by the few or the many; and it is those who handed down that tradition whose beliefs we Jews continue today.

Deborah ascribed victory to God (Judges 4:14), Gideon tore down the idolatrous altar (Judges 6:25-27); Samson prayed to God (Judges 16:28), as did Hannah (1 Samuel 1:11) and Samuel (ibid. 12:18); Eli blessed in the name of God (1 Samuel 2:20), Saul built an altar to God (1 Samuel 14:35); Jonathan ascribed victory to God (1 Samuel 14:12), as did David (1 Samuel 17:46); and Solomon built the Temple for God (1 Kings 8:20). A number of the kings "did what was right in God's eyes": David (1 Kings 15:5), Solomon (see 1 Kings 3:3), Asa (1 Kings 15:11), Yehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:43), Yehu (2 Kings 10:30), Yehoash (2 Kings 12:3), Amatziah (2 Kings 14:3), Azariah (2 Kings 15:3), Yotam (2 Kings 15:34), Hizkiah (2 Kings 18:3), and Josiah (2 Kings 22:2). Part of this righteousness was their destroying whatever idolatrous incursions had occurred among the populace (1 Samuel 7:3-4, 2 Chronicles 15:8, 2 Chronicles 17:6, 2 Kings 18:4).

Even at the height of the unfortunate spread of idolatry among the less-loyal Ten Tribes, there were thousands who remained loyal to God (1 Kings 19:18).
And, of course, the Prophets, who spoke in the name of God and warned against idolatry: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea and so on.
The sages of the Talmud, who ridiculed idolatry (Megillah 25b), were simply continuing in the tradition of the Prophets whose verses are quoted in that context (ibid.).

See also:

Jewish history timeline

Are Hebrews, Israelites and Jews the same people?

Answer 4

Yes, they were faithful to their religion. But the religion of the Israelites was not always what we now imagine it to have been. Modern Rabbinic Judaism, which among other things is strongly monotheistic, differs quite a lot from the Second-Temple Judaism that existed between the times of the Babylonian Exile and the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. Second Temple Judaism was much different from the beliefs of the late monarchy, and these were, in turn, very, very different from the beliefs common to early Israel. Indeed, the people of the northern kingdom, Israel, seem to have held beliefs that were in some ways different from those of Judah.

In spite of claims to the contrary, we now know that the early Hebrew people were at all times polytheistic. Mark S. Smith (The Early History of God) says that according to the available evidence, Israelite religion in its earliest form did not contrast markedly with the religions of its Levantine neighbours in either number or configuration of deities. He says that in the Judges period, Israelite divinities may have included Yahweh, El, Baal and perhaps Asherah as well as the sun, moon and stars. He adds the goddess Astarte for the monarchical period.

Monolatry, and perhaps eventually monotheism, were introduced in Judah in the late monarchic period, but this appears to have been a time when popular belief did not follow the dictates of king and priest. Numerous sacred fertility figurines, believed to have represented the goddess Asherah, have been found in Judah, right up to the time of the Exile.

Answer 5

No sadly they back slided and grumbled, they married others from different tribes and fell into idol worship as well.