Chapter+Three-The+Wanderers+Settle+Down


 * Chapter Three-The wanderers settle down: **
 * This chapter in The Human Story tells how Hebrews became Jews through stories from the Bible. It also tells us how the Bible came to be. The Bible is a book full of stories written thousands of years after by Judeans.
 * Hebrews were, at first, semi-nomads. They were also one of the first religions to believe in a singe God, and began doing so when God appeared in front of a Hebrew named Abram, or later known as Abraham. God told Abraham that he was God, that Abraham and his people should follow him, worship him, and then he would reward his people for doing so. God promised the Hebrews Canaan (a rich land in the middle of harsh deserts) if they made a pact with God by being circumcised. God often tested the Hebrew's loyalty to them.
 * The leaders of the Hebrews after Abraham was his son Isaac, then his grandson Jacob. All of these leaders were important to the Hebrews and were written about a lot in the Bible.
 * The Bible tells us about the Hebrews coming to Egypt, for jobs and food during years of famine. They came around the same time Egypt had a group of people they called “Hykos” that controlled Egypt for about 200 years. Then, the Bible writes about the Hebrew's enslavement in Egypt, and how a Hebrew named Moses freed them from their wraths. After God helps them escape from an army in pursuit, he tells Moses that the land of Canaan is promised for them. After a long journey through the desert, they arrived in this land. How it happened is still unclear, but the Hebrews fought the native people and took control of the land. Around this time Hebrews also started to call themselves Israelites, and it was around the time that Moses wrote the Ten Commandments.
 * In Canaan the Israelites stayed in their individual tribes until they were threatened by one of their neighbors. Their first king was a warrior named Saul who crushed a group named Ammonites when they started to invade one of the tribes. Saul was knocked down from his throne when he failed to completely fight off the Philistines and when he tried to not only be king, but to be their priest. He dies in battle by his own sword.
 * The next king was Saul's son-in-law, David, who wanted to unite all of the tribes. He did this by marrying multiple women from multiple tribes, and strengthening their religion. He did so by making Jerusalem both his capital and holy city and by being their religious leader.
 * His second son Solomon, took his father's place as king. Solomon lived in his father's wealth. He had nearly 700 wives, he sat upon an ivory throne while his people became peasants, and he taxed them heavily. His son, the next king, was barely able to make it alive when the Israelites finally rebelled. This kingdom broke down into two smaller kingdoms: Israel and Judah.
 * <span style="color: #0c9235; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Prophets became a big thing in the Israelite's religion and helped strengthen it. Prophets are people who are known to speak what God wants, or what might happen. One prophet named Amos predicted that both Israel and Judah would fall, and they did. But not before they began to write down all their history and put them together to create the Bible. They began in the beginning: in Eden's Garden.
 * <span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 3em; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span style="color: #0c9235; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">The Assyrians defeated Israel in 721 B.C. Judah was defeated in 586 B.C. by the Babylonians, who just made them an addition to their kingdom. Jerusalem was able to hang on, but after their second rebellion and their second failure in 66 A.D., Judeans (Jews) were scattered around. For about two millenniumyears they stayed that way. All they have from their past is their Bibles.