Israelites

Israelites is a term used for the ancient Semitic people described in the Hebrew Bible as the descendants of Jacob, who is also named Israel. They formed a tribal confederation in the land of Canaan during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The name Israel historically referred to Jacob’s descendants, and by the 10th–9th centuries BCE the community is described as having established the United Monarchy under Saul, David, and Solomon, with Jerusalem as a central city.

After Solomon’s reign, the kingdom reportedly split into the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in the 720s BCE, while Judah was conquered by Babylon in 586 BCE, leading to exile and eventual return under Persian rule. In the post-exilic period Judea remained a religious and cultural center, culminating in the Second Temple period. The religious life of the Israelites contributed to the development of Judaism, with Hebrew serving as the primary language and Aramaic widely used in later eras. The biblical tradition emphasizes a covenant with Yahweh and the Torah as central to communal life.

In scholarship, the historicity of certain biblical events, such as the Exodus and the scope of the United Monarchy, is debated, and external archaeological evidence is interpreted variably. In modern usage, “Israelite” is principally a historical term for ancient peoples; today the citizens of the modern state of Israel are called Israelis, and Jewish, Arab, and other communities also trace ancestry to ancient Israelite populations.