The Lasting Effects of the Fall and Captivity of Judah  Old
Testament Student Manual Kings-Malachi, (1982), 261–63  (H-1)
Introduction  The Northern Kingdom of Israel had ripened in
iniquity, and the results were inevitable. The Assyrians took
them captive in 721  B.C. Now Judah was facing the same fate.
Judah had a history of wars and treaties with neighboring
countries and suffered constant internal turmoil. Twenty kings
ruled Judah from the time of the separation into two kingdoms
until Judah fell to the Babylonians, but only a few kings were
righteous. These few righteous kings may have been the reason
Judah lasted a hundred years longer than the Northern Kingdom of
Israel.  After the people of Israel were taken north by the
Assyrians, the people of the Southern Kingdom, Judah, were
governed by King Hezekiah, who, as the scriptures state, “did
that which was right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 18:3).
He removed the high places of idolatry and prostitution and the
images of false gods from among the