Dever on Israelite History

William Dever has an interesting paragraph summary of ancient Israelite history:

Political conditions were so deplorable that the writers of the biblical books of First and Second Kings approved of only two kings. They predicted the collapse of the state and were proven correct by the Babylonian destruction in 586 B.C. The political history of both Israel and Judah was "nasty, brutish, and short," as the saying goes, characterized by dissension, treachery, corruption, frequent bloody assassinations, and ultimately the failure to create a viable state. (William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife? [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2005], 15-16.)

That about sums it up.