Who was the last king of the united kingdom of israel?

Answer 1

United Israel ceased to exist during King Solomon's reign. He married women from cultures that worshipped idols. In order to please these women and to also create political and economical advantages with the lands from which they had come, King Solomon raised temples to idols in United Israel. The first of the ten commandments of the theocracy of Israel prohibited this very thing with curses to follow. Israel began to worship these idols and to kill their first born sons in fires offered to an idol named "Moloch." God punished him by reducing the size of his kingdom.

Ten of the twelve tribes of United Israel broke away from King Solomon's ruling tribe - the tribe of Judah. One tribe "Benjamin" remained loyal to the government of Judah (Southern Kingdom). The rest seceded and left Jerusalem which was the capital of United israel, to Judah and Benjamin. They formed their own government and this new coalition is what was termed "Samaria" (The Northern Kingdom). They refused to worship at the temple in Jerusalem and created their own religion and elected their own king.

From this point on, the ten tribes in The Bible are known as "Israel" and the two tribes in Jerusalem are known as "Judah." They had separate governments with each maintaining a lineage of a royal family.

Judah's last legitimate king with the kingdom present on its own land is King Jeconiah also known as Jehoiachin of David's line. He was eighteen years old when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, besieged Jerusalem and captured him, his family and ten thousand residents of Jerusalem and imprisoned them in Babylon. There remained in Jerusalem a few maimed, poor and undesirable folk. Over these, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Mattaniah, the captured king's paternal uncle, king in his stead. He changed his name from Mattaniah to Zedekiah. He was 21 years old. Zedekiah secretly sent messengers to Egypt to ask Pharaoh help him stage a coup against Nebuchadnezzar. Egypt had recently lost territories to the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar and it was thought that with their alliance, Judah could throw off the control of Babylon.

When Nebuchadnezzar heard of the plot, he besieged Jerusalem again, for two years to break its will by cutting off food. Zedekiah tried to escape from Jerusalem through a back door and was arrested. Egypt came briefly and snuck away (Jer 37:6&5). Zedekiah was taken to Nebuchadnezzar where all his children were massacred infront of him and then his eyes were plucked out so that this is the last thing he saw. He was carried off prisoner to Babylon and the city burned behind him in approximately 607 BC. (2 Kings chapters 24 & 25)

The last king of Jerusalem with a resident government in the land is Mattaniah, son of Jehoiakim and Hamutal.

Do remember that Samaria was living separately under their own king. However before all of the above happened to Judah, In approximately 701 BC, Sennacherib, king of Assyria had attacked the fortified cities of Judah, laying siege on Jerusalem, but failed to capture it. In 721 BC, the Assyrian army moved instead on and captured the Israelite capital at Samaria and carried away the citizens of the northern kingdom into captivity in Assyria. The story of the fall of Samaria is told in 2 kings chapter 17 of the Bible. The last king of Samaria with a resident government in the land was Hoshea the son of Elah. He was besieged for three years before the city finally fell.

The book of Matthew chapter 1:1-17 reveals that Jeconiah, the deposed king of Judah went into the captivity with his sons. One of his sons "Salathiel" is recognised as the legal heir, though in captivity, to the line of Judah ( verses 11&12).

Jeconiah's line had a curse placed on it in Jer 22:30 thus: " Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah." Although Jeconiah would have descendants, God declares the entire line ineligible to sit upon the throne of David.

Jesus through his adoptive father Joseph is traced within this line. We can now see that as the promised messiah in the line of David, he can only be adopted by Joseph because of this curse. Jesus's birth is a virgin one for this reason. His true father is God.

However there is a second lineage mentioned in the gospels which is believed to be of Mary the mother of Jesus.

The Bible provides the lineage of Heli, Mary's father, in Luke 3:23, 31 as follows, "And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli, (31) Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David." God's eternal promise to David was fulfilled through Heli's genealogy. Since he was Mary's father, Joseph was considered to be his son-in-law. As a result, Mary was a descendent of David, but not from David through Solomon. She descended from David through Nathan.

Because of the sins of Solomon and his descendants, we not only eliminate him from the paternal line to the Messiah because of the virgin birth but also from the maternal line through Heli. Finally, it becomes clear that the Messiah would be both the Son of God paternally and the Son of David through Heli, Mary's father.

Jesus unites the divided children of Abraham in himself through his death at the cross. His arms are stretched out on the cross to both sides. Their division kills him on the cross but his resurrection raises Israel and Judah as one in his body.

The only possibility of a united Israel is in the resurrected body of a messiah who was prophesied and that he would bear the disagreement of Israel and Judah in his own body by paying with his own blood. Whoever believes in him is restored to the new Jerusalem in his body, the body of Christ. Whoever rejects his peace solution is left to the old disagreement. There is no Israel without its prophesied mediator.

Finally to answer the question, the last king of United Israel (the "elect") was and is and will always remain King Jesus (Joshua in the Hebrew) son of God and son of Man.

Answer 2

Hoshea. Not to be confused with Hosea the last prophet.

Answer 3

Solomon.