List of Israelite civil conflicts

The Israelites, also known as the Hebrews, engaged in a number of armed conflicts among themselves in the Land of Israel. Many of these feature in the Hebrew Bible. These conflicts took place during the nomadic period of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and also after the establishment and collapse of ancient Israel and Judah, which were two independent kingdoms—Israel in the north and Judah in the south—in the Southern Levant, though the biblical narrative asserts that they were once amalgamated as the Kingdom of Israel and Judah.

This article provides a list of incidents of intra-Israelite warfare, including conflicts among and between the Jews and the Samaritans.

Biblical period

Further information: Warfare in the Hebrew Bible

• Eli-Pincus conflict (c. 1400 BCE) – a civil war broke out between Eli son of Yafni, of the line of Ithamar, and the sons of Pincus (Phinehas), because Eli son of Yafni resolved to usurp the High Priesthood from the descendants of Pincus.^[1]
• Benjamite War (1375 BCE) – Started when a Levite from Ephraim and his concubine, who travel through the Benjamite city of Gibeah and are assailed by a mob, who wish to gang-rape the Levite.^[2] He turns his concubine over to the crowd, and they rape her until she collapses. The Levite dismembers her and presents the remains to the other tribes of Israel. Outraged by the incident, the Israelite tribes swear that none shall give his daughter to the Benjamites (or Benjaminites) for marriage, and launch a war which nearly wipes out the clan, leaving only 600 surviving men.^[3]
• Abimelech's Tyranny (1129 – 1126 BCE) – King Abimelech engaged in war with his own subjects, including the Battle of Shechem. ^[4][5][6]
• Battle of the Wood of Ephraim (1020 BCE) – Part of a rebel uprising launched by Absalom against the reign of his father David.^{[7][8][9][10]} Absalom had returned from exile in Geshur after assassinating his paternal half-brother Amnon, who had raped Absalom's full sister Tamar. After gathering support in Jerusalem and Hebron, he declared himself king and mobilized his rebels, but was ultimately killed by David's nephew and army commander Joab.
• Jeroboam's Revolt (c. 931–913 BCE) – Began after the death of David's son and successor Solomon in the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. All of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, except for Judah and Benjamin, rejected Solomon's son and successor Rehoboam in favour of Jeroboam and thereby withdrew their allegiance to the House of David. Led by Jeroboam, these Ten Tribes established the independent Kingdom of Israel (also called the Northern Kingdom) in Samaria, while the loyalists of Judah and Benjamin established the independent Kingdom of Judah (also called the Southern Kingdom) in Judea.

Second Temple and Roman period

Further information: Jewish–Roman wars

• Hasmonean-Samaritan conflict (113–110 BCE) – Beginning in 113 BCE, Hyrcanus began an extensive military campaign against Samaria. Ultimately, Samaria was overrun and totally destroyed. The inhabitants of Samaria were then put into slavery. ^[11][12] After these victories, Hyrcanus went north towards Shechem and Mount Gerizim. The city of Shechem was reduced to a village and the Samaritan Temple on Mount Gerizim was destroyed.^[11] This military action against Shechem has been dated archaeologically around 111–110 BCE.^[13]

• Jewish-Samaritan conflict (1st century CE) – Under the leadership of two Zealots, Eleazar and Alexander, they invaded Samaria and began a massacre. Cumanus led most of his troops against the militants, killing many and taking others prisoner, and the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem were subsequently able to calm most of the others, but a state of guerrilla warfare persisted.^[14]
• Sicarii and Zealot rebels (6–73 CE) – Sicarii were a splinter group of the Jewish Zealots who used violence against Jews and Romans in the Roman province of Judea. Much of what is known about the Sicarii comes from the Antiquities of the Jews and The Jewish War by Josephus, who wrote that the Sicarii agreed to release the kidnapped secretary of Eleazar, governor of the Temple precincts, in exchange for the release of ten captured assassins.^[15][16] The Sicarii were involved in the murder of High Priest Jonathan and also committed a series of atrocities in an attempt to incite the population into war against Rome. In one account, given in the Talmud, they destroyed the city's food supply, using starvation to force the people to fight against the Roman siege, instead of negotiating peace. Josephus also wrote that the Sicarii raided nearby Hebrew villages including Ein Gedi, where they massacred 700 women and children.^[17][18][19]
• Persecution of Ebionites and Nazarenes (70 CE – 135 CE) – Ebionites were in conflict with the Jewish followers of Bar Kochba for refusing to recognize his messianic claims.^[20] According to the Haran Gawaita, Nasoraean Mandaeans fled Jerusalem before its fall in 70 CE due to persecution by a faction of Jews.^[21]

References

1. Anderson & Giles 2002, p. 11–12.
2. Gunn, David M. (18 January 2016). "Judges 1–3: Beginnings". Judges. pp. 243–275. doi:10.1002/9781118710746.ch1. ISBN 9781118710746. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
3. Judges 19:2
4. Berlin & Brettler 2014, pp. 1127 & 1128.
5. Hancock 2013, p. 134.
6. Schneider 2000, pp. 147 & 148.
7. "Espionage and the Jews". Haarezt. Elon Gilad. 12 November 2013.
8. 2 Samuel 15:27–29, 15:34–36
9. "David". www.Bibler.org.
10. 2 Samuel 18:8 NIV
11. Berlin, Adele (2011). The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Oxford University Press. p. 330. ISBN 9780199730049. John Hyrcanus I, who embarked upon further territorial conquests, forcing the non-Jewish populations of the conquered regions to adopt the Jewish way of life and destroying the Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim..
12. Jonathan Bourgel (2016). "The Destruction of the Samaritan Temple by John Hyrcanus: A Reconsideration". Journal of Biblical Literature. 135 (153/3). Society of Biblical Literature: 505. doi:10.15699/jbl.1353.2016.3129.
13. Sievers, 142
14. Josephus, War 2.234-238; Antiquities 20.120-124. See also Smallwood, pp. 267–268.
15. Smallwood 2001, pp. 281f.
16. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XX 9.
17. Murphy-O'Connor, Jerome; Cunliffe, Barry. The Holy Land. Oxford Archaeological Guides (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 378–381.
18. Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV 7-2.
19. Ancient battle divides Israel as Masada 'myth' unravels; Was the siege really so heroic, asks Patrick Cockburn in Jerusalem, The Independent, 30 March 1997
20. Henry Wace & William Piercy (1911). A Dictionary of Early Christian Biography. Retrieved 1 August 2007.
21. Buckley, Jorunn Jacobsen(2010). Turning the Tables on Jesus: The Mandaean View. In Horsley, Richard (March 2010). Christian Origins. Fortress Press. ISBN 9781451416640.(pp94-11). Minneapolis: Fortress Press

Works cited

• Anderson, Robert T.; Giles, Terry (2002). The Keepers: An Introduction to the History and Culture of the Samaritans. Hendrickson Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56563-519-7.
• Berlin, Adele; Brettler, Marc Zvi (2014). The Jewish Study Bible (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19939387-9.
• Hancock, Rebecca S. (2013). Esther and the Politics of Negotiation: Public and Private Spaces and the Figure of the Female Royal Counselor. Fortress Press. ISBN 978-1-45146986-8.
• Josephus (1737) [75]. "Wars of the Jews". The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus the Jewish Historian. translated by William Whiston. London.
• Josephus (1737) [93]. "Antiquities of the Jews". The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus the Jewish Historian. translated by William Whiston. London.
• Schneider, Tammi J. (2000). Berit Olam: Studies In Hebrew Narrative And Poetry: Judges. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-81465050-9.
• Smallwood, E.M. (2001). The Jews Under Roman Rule: From Pompey to Diocletian : a Study in Political Relations. Biblical Studies and Religious Studies. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 978-0-391-04155-4.