According to biblical chronology, the Israelites conquered the Holy Land in the 15th century BC. Each of the tribes received a large territory for its own, except for the tribe of Levi, which was designated as the priestly tribe. The Levites would tend to the spiritual needs of the other tribes and, in return, their reward wouldn't be land, but the Lord Himself, who would be their inheritance. The territories belonging to the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, mentioned both in the First Reading and the Gospel Reading for this Sunday, were located in the northern part of the Holy Land.
In the 11th century BC, the tribal lands started to be forged into a single monarchy under King Saul, the first king of the Israelites. The kingdom reached its peak in the 10th century BC under King David and his son King Solomon. However, after Solomon's reign, still in the 10th century BC, the kingdom was split in two, the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south. Roughly 200 years later, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians, who removed the local population and resettled the tribes in other lands. They started the dismantling of the Kingdom of Israel in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali.
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Photo Credit: The Sea of Galilee by Zoltan Abraham (c) 2016.