© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156853311X571437 Vetus Testamentum 61 (2011) 227-242 brill.nl/vt Vetus Testamentum Stages in the Territorial Expansion of the Northern Kingdom Israel Finkelstein Tel Aviv University Abstract Te article presents textual and archaeological evidence for three phases in the territorial expan- sion of the Northern Kingdom. In the initial, pre-Omride phase Israel expanded only into the Jezreel Valley. Under the Omrides, the territory of the Northern Kingdom covered the northern valleys as far as Hazor and the mountainous Galilee. In the frst half of the 8th century BCE, Israel expanded further north, to the area of Dan and possibly beyond. Keywords Northern Kingdom, Israel, Aram Damascus, Omrides Several years ago, in a joint article Nadav Na’aman and I reconstructed the boundaries of the territory of the Northern Kingdom in the time of the Omride dynasty. 1 New archaeological data, especially in the realm of radiocarbon dating, 2 and reevaluation of the results of old excavations 3 and textual material, 4 calls for a fresh treatment of this subject. In what follows I detect three stages in the northward expansion of the Kingdom of Israel: 1) I. Finkelstein and N. Na’aman, “Shechem of the Amarna Period and the Rise of the Northern Kingdom of Israel”, IEJ 55 (2005), pp. 172-193. 2) E.g., I. Sharon, A. Gilboa, T. A. J. Jull, and E. Boaretto, “Report on the First Stage of the Iron Age Dating Project in Israel: Supporting A Low Chronology”, Radiocarbon 49 (2007), pp. 1-46; I. Finkelstein and E. Piasetzky, “Radiocarbon-Dated Destruction Layers: A Skeleton for Iron Age Chronology in the Levant”, OJA 28 (2009), pp. 255-274; idem, “Radiocarbon Dating the Iron Age in the Levant: A Bayesian Model for Six Ceramic Phases and Six Transitions”, Antiquity (in press). 3) For example, E. Arie, “Reconstructing the Iron Age II Strata at Tel Dan: Archaeological and Historical Implications”, Tel Aviv 35 (2008), pp. 6-64. 4) E.g., A. Berlejung, “Twisting Traditions: Programmatic Absence-Teology for the Northern Kingdom in 1 Kgs 12:26-33* (Te “Sin of Jeroboam”)”, JNSL 35 (2009), pp. 1-42.