The Israelites, also known as the Children of Israel, were an ancient Semitic-speaking people who lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. They are associated with Hebrews and spoke Biblical Hebrew, an archaic Hebrew language. In the biblical myth, the Israelites were divided into the Twelve Tribes of Israel and later formed the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanite populations and other peoples of the ancient Near East. The Israelite religion revolved around Yahweh, who was an ancient Semitic god with less significance in the broader Canaanite religion. Around 720 BCE, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire, triggering the Assyrian captivity; and around 586 BCE, the Kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, triggering the Babylonian captivity. While most of Israel's population was irreversibly dispossessed as a result of Assyrian resettlement policy, the exiled Judahites were allowed to return and rehabilitate their country by the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great following the fall of Babylon in 539 BCE. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of Jacob (later known as Israel), who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Due to a severe drought in Canaan, Jacob and his twelve sons migrated to Egypt, where each son became the eponymous progenitor of an Israelite tribe. In Egypt, the Israelites grew from a family into a nation and were enslaved before being liberated by Moses, whose successor Joshua oversaw the Israelite conquest of Canaan. After taking control of Canaan, they established a kritarchy (rule of what the Bible calls judges, or shophetim) and eventually founded the United Monarchy, which eventually split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Scholars generally consider the Hebrew Bible's narrative to be part of the Israelites' national myth, but believe that there is a "historical core" to some of the events in it. The historicity of the United Monarchy is widely disputed. In the context of Hebrew scripture, Canaan is also variously described as the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, Zion, or the Holy Land. Historically, Jews and Samaritans have been regarded as two closely related ethno-religious groups descended from the Israelites. Jews trace their ancestry to the tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Judah, namely Judah, Benjamin, and partially Levi, while Samaritans trace their ancestry to the tribes that inhabited the Kingdom of Israel and remained after the Assyrian captivity, namely Ephraim, Manasseh, and partially Levi. Furthermore, Judaism and Samaritanism are fundamentally rooted in Israelite religious and cultural traditions. There are several other groups claiming affiliation with the Israelites, but most of them have unproven lineage and are not recognized as either Jewish or Samaritan.
Etymology
The first reference to Israel in non-biblical sources is found in the Merneptah Stele in c. 1209 BCE. The inscription is very brief and says: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The inscription refers to a people, not an individual or nation state, who inhabit central Palestine or the highlands of Samaria. Some Egyptologists suggest that Israel appeared in earlier topographical reliefs, dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty or Nineteenth Dynasty (i.e. reign of Ramesses II) , but this reading remains controversial. In the Hebrew Bible, Israel first appears in Genesis 32:29, where an angel renames Jacob to Israel after Jacob fought with him. According to the folk etymology given in the text, Israel is derived from yisra, "to prevail over" or "to struggle with", and El, a Canaanite-Mesopotamian creator god that is tenuously identified with Yahweh. However, modern scholarship interprets El as the subject, "El rules/struggles", from sarar (שָׂרַר) 'to rule' (cognate with sar (שַׂר) 'ruler', Akkadian šarru 'ruler, king'), which is likely cognate with the similar root sara (שׂרה) "fought, strove, contended". Dr. Tzemah Yoreh clarifies that Israel is a combination of 'to strive with' (ש.ר.ה) and 'God' (אל) and that Jacob's name alternates between Jacob and Israel in the biblical narrative, even after his renaming, due to the authors having different opinions about Jacob's moral character. The gradual ethnonymic shift from "Israelites" to "Jews", regardless of their descent from Judah is made explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE) of the Tanakh.
Biblical timeline
Genesis of the Israelite people Biblically, the Israelites referred to the descendants of Israel, a view that was reinforced by Second Temple Judaism, although gentiles could fully assimilate into the Israelite community. They referred to themselves as the sons of Israel, which could possibly refer to citizenship rather than blood descent, especially after Israel's biological family transitioned from a clan to a society (Exodus 1:9). The Israelite identity is alternatively interpreted as being based on religious allegiance, especially through worship of Yahweh or 'covenantal circumcision'. There's also contentious evidence of Israelite tribal status being acquired through self-declared allegiance, residency within assigned tribal territory (Ezekiel 47:21–23) or forceful absorption by a greater Israelite tribe. Jason A. Staples argues that the Israelites referred to the northern Israelite tribes, especially in the Nevi'im, although it's also inclusive of the other tribes in other contexts. The Israelites trace their ancestors to Jacob, who in turn descended from Abraham. Abraham was formerly a native of Ur Kaśdim (Genesis 11:31), whose location is hotly contested. Some scholars argue that it is located in lower Mesopotamia whilst others locate it further north in upper Mesopotamia, around northern Syria or southeastern Turkey. Theologians suggest that Canaan always belonged to the Israelites but was initially usurped by the descendants of Canaan, resulting in their conquest by Israel as divine punishment. Israelite presence in Canaan was also established before Joshua's conquests according to a few biblical traditions. The history of the Israelite people can be divided into these categories, according to the Hebrew Bible:
Before the United Monarchy
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