5 THE ISRAELITE-JUDAHITE STRUGGLE I have already written a detailed criticism of Davies’ premise that the district of Benjamin was incorporated into the Kingdom of Israel at some point during the 9th or 8th centuries 13. In point of fact, the territory of Judah did encompass the district of Benjamin — with the exception of the Jericho-Gilgal-Michmash area — throughout the First Temple period. The hypothesis that a comprehensive Benjaminite historical work with a northern Israelite orientation pre- dated the Deuteronomistic History has no evidential foundation. Moreover, the notion that after the fall of the First Temple, a Benjaminite author would depict the history of Israel from a northern Israelite perspective is unlikely. Benjamin was a Judahite district, and the outlook of its inhabitants was clearly Judahite, not Israelite. Axel Knauf has suggested that the district of Benjamin, including the city of Bethel, was handed over to Judah by Assyria during the reign of Manasseh as a reward for his long-standing loyalty, and that the cultic centre at Bethel was the means by which Israelite traditions were channelled to Judah 14. However, this hypothesis, too, is not supported by the textual evidence 15. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that an Assyrian king would have detached such an important administrative and cultic centre from his territory and assign it to a vassal kingdom. The area of Bethel was annexed to the Kingdom of Judah only following the Assyrian withdrawal from Palestine, probably in the 620s BCE. If Bethel is indeed the missing link in the transmission of Israelite traditions to the kingdom of Judah, its incorporation into the kingdom did not take place prior to King Josiah’s reign (see below). Might the common worship of the same national god account by itself for the creation of a detailed historical composition of an ethnic-religious entity called “Israel” that had supposedly been born at the dawn of history and had functioned without significant internal change up until that time? Since at no time before the Hasmonaean period were the inhabitants of the two kingdoms ever united in a single national entity, the answer is clearly negative. To N. NA’AMAN, “Saul, Benjamin and the Emergence of Biblical Israel”, 13 ZAW 121 (2009) 216-224. E.A. KNAUF, “Bethel: The Israelite Impact on Judean Language and 14 Literature ”, Judah and the Judeans in the Persian Period (eds. O. LIPSCHITS – M. OEMING) (Winona Lake, IN 2006) 295-297, 314-316. NA’AMAN, “Saul”, 339. 15