King Solomon ruled over the united tribes of Israel for 40 years.¹ When he died in about 975 BC, this began the period of Israel's spiritual sickness that John described as a pale and sickly horse in his vision of the fourth seal.² After Solomon's death, Israel divided into the southern kingdom of Judah, ruled by his son, Rehoboam,³ and the northern kingdom ruled by Jeroboam.⁴ The northern kingdom was called the kingdom of Israel⁵ or the ten tribes.⁶ The number ten may be more symbolic than literal because the kingdom of Israel in the north included people from all the tribes and was, therefore, a symbolic whole of one part‒or one part of the whole house of Israel.⁷

Ephraim and Manasseh were the dominant tribes in the north, while Judah was dominant in the south.⁸ For more than two hundred years the two independent Israelite nations tumultuously⁹ coexisted.¹⁰ Throughout this period, every king in the northern kingdom was wicked¹¹ and continually led the ten tribes away from their covenant relationship with Jehovah.¹² Holy prophets repeatedly warned the northern tribes that they would be taken into bondage if they did not repent.¹³ The northern tribes ignored these prophetic warnings, until the Assyrian Empire took them captive as predicted.¹⁴

Assyrian domination began with utter cruelty in 745 BC, when Assyria first made the northern kingdom a vassal state.¹⁵ Israel rebelled against Assyrian rule in approximately 735 BC, and the Assyrians deported large numbers of Israelites from the area of Galilee.¹⁶ The northern tribes rebelled again in about 724 BC.¹⁷ Assyria then besieged Samaria for three years until the northern kingdom was entirely conquered in about 721 BC.¹⁸ The Lord gave Assyria power over the northern kingdom of Israel because of the wickedness and idolatry of these Israelite people.¹⁹ Thousands of Israelites were deported to Assyria,²⁰ and the northern kingdom of Israel ceased to exist as an independent nation in 721 BC.²¹