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22 July 2022
The Book of Kings, if it is a book, is the final installment of the Deuteronomistic History. It comes after Samuel, and, in Jewish Bibles, before Isaiah. In Protestant Bibles, it precedes 1 and 2 Chronicles, which makes some sense given their similarity of genre.
Where Samuel ends around the end of David's life, Kings picks up when his son Solomon becomes king in Jerusalem, and then follows the entire line of Jerusalem kings until the end. Alternately, you could say that it covers the period during which the First Temple in Jerusalem stood.
When it was assembled into its final form is not certain, although a pretty good guess, for several reasons, would have it being finished near the time that it's narrative finishes: around the time of the Babylonian captivity, possibly with an earlier edition of the Deuteronomistic History finished in the time of Josiah.
Conventionally, it is divided into 1 Kings and 2 Kings, but don't make too much of this.
Kings begins with Solomon and describes the reign of every king of Judah and Israel. It evaluates their goodness or wickedness, particular in terms of idolatry vs. faithfulness to Yahweh, and sees the events of history as containing Yahweh's responses to the moral qualities of the kings of Judah. In the end, both kingdoms are destroyed for their idolatry and wickedness.
David's health is failing, and his son Adonijah announces that he will succeed him, but David puts Solomon on the throne (1 Kings 1). Following David's dying wish, Solomon eliminates a number of David's enemies and secures his power as Israel's new leader (2). Solomon asks God for wisdom, and God grants it (3). The narrator lists officials in Solomon's kingdom (4). The achievements of Solomon's kingdom are described, and his relationship with the king of Tyre, and his use of forced labor (5). Solomon's building of the temple is described (6). The narrator discusses other building projects, and then goes back to speaking about the Temple (7). The ark is brought to the temple, and Solomon gives a typically deuteronomistic speech (8).
After this, God appears to Solomon, and gives a typically deuteronomistic speech (9). The queen of Sheba visits, and Solomon's wealth is described (10). Solomon's follows his foreign wives into idolatry, and God raises up enemies against him (11).
Rehoboam becomes king of Israel and Judah, but quickly loses Israel to Jeroboam on account his threatening to intensify the oppressive policies of Solomon (12). A prophet rebuked Jeroboam's idolatry and foretells the time of Josiah, and is killed by a lion (13). Jeroboam is rebuked again, and his son dies. He dies, and is succeeded by Nadab. Rehoboam rules an idolatrous Judah, is invaded by Shishak, and dies (14). He is succeeded by Abijam, another wicked king who dies at the end of a short reign and is succeeded by Asa. Asa is a good king, but is plagued by war with Baasha king of Israel. Baasha takes the throne after killing Nadab, and is a wicked king (15). Baasha is rebuked by Jehu son of Hanani, and he is succeeded by his son Elah, who rules for only two years, when he is killed by Zimri. Zimri rules seven days, and kills himself while facing a rebellion. Omri overcomes a rival -- Tibni -- and becomes king of Israel. Omri rules twelve years, and is succeeded by his son Ahab (16).
Ahab becomes king of Israel, and rules 22 years. He is an extremely evil king. Elijah calls for a drought, and is fed by ravens. Later, he is fed by a widow in Zarephath and raises her son from death (17). Elijah meets with Baal, and challenges, then kills, the prophets of Baal (18). Jezebel, Ahab's wife and a devotee of Baal, seeks revenge, and Elijah flees to Horeb (19). Ahab defeats Ben-Hadad of Aram, then lets him go with a treaty. A prophet foretells Ahab's death because he let Ben-Hadad go alive (20). Ahab and Jezebel kill the innocent Naboth for his vineyard, and God promises their destruction to Elijah (21). The prophet Micaiah prophesies against Ahab. Ahab dies in battle and is replaced as king of Israel by Ahaziah, his wicked son. Jehoshaphat succeeds Asa his father as king of Judah, and is a good but not perfect king. Jehoshaphat dies (22).
Ahaziah of Israel dies for his wickedness (2 Kings 1). Elijah dies, and is succeeded by his protege Elisha (2). After consulting Elisha, Joram, now king of Israel, defeats all Moab except its capital city (3). Elisha performs a series of miracles: multiplying olive oil, raising a dead child, removing poison from stew, and multiplying bread (4). Next, he heals Naaman the Aramean general of tzaarath (5), makes an axhead float, and strikes enemy soldiers with blindness. The Arameans besiege Samaria (6), but God frightens them away (7). Elisha intercedes for a widow's property and prophesies the impending death of Ben-Hadad of Aram at the hands of Hazael. Joram of Judah takes the throne, rules wickedly eight years, and dies. Joram's son Ahaziah becomes king of Judah, and rules one year (8). Elisha has Jehu anointed king of Israel, and Jehu kills both Joram of Judah and Ahaziah of Israel, as well as the queen mother Jezebel (9). Jehu exterminates Ahab's relatives and the prophets of Baal (10). The mother of Ahaziah of Judah, Athaliah, exterminates all possible claimants to the throne but one: Joash. After six years of her rule, a coup places the seven-year-old Joash on the throne, and Athaliah is killed (11). Joash does well as king, and repairs the temple (12). Jehoahaz rules over Israel, and it is delivered from Aramean oppression. Jehoahaz is succeeded by Jehoash king of Israel, who temporarily rescues Israel from Aramean oppression (13). Amaziah becomes king of Judah, and at first is successful, but afterward is defeated by Israel. Fifteen years later, he dies in a coup, and Azariah (Uzziah) his son is put in his place. Jeroboam II becomes king of Israel; he is wicked but blessed with territorial expansion (14).
Azariah is a good but not perfect king, and Yahweh strikes him with leprosy. Zechariah becomes king of Israel and rules for only six months before being killed in a coup. He is replaced by Shallum, who rules one month until he dies similarly. Menahem becomes king of Israel, and is subjugated by an Assyrian invasion; he rules ten years. His son Pekahiah rules Israel two years, and is killed in a coup. Pekah rules Israel, but in his time Assyria attacks and deports some people. He is killed in a coup and replaced by Hoshea. Jotham becomes king of Israel, and is a good king for sixteen years (15). Ahaz becomes king of Judah, and rules evilly for sixteen years. He loots the temple to bribe the king of Assyria (16). Hoshea rules over Israel for nine years, until the northern kingdom of Israel is destroyed by Assyria and its people deported. The narrator explains Israel's destruction in theological terms and alleges that a syncretistic form of Yahwism permanently took hold in the north (17).
Hezekiah becomes king Judah, and is its best king ever. He centralizes worship as never before, and Yahweh grants him success in everything he does. It is in Hezekiah's time that Israel is destroyed, and Sennacherib nearly succeeds in doing the same to Judah (18). Isaiah announces that Yahweh will rescue Israel, and is swiftly vindicated when God strikes dead nearly two hundred thousand Assyrian soldiers. The Assyrians flee, and Sennacherib is killed shortly thereafter (19). Hezekiah becomes mortally ill, but Yahweh heals him. Hezekiah shows his wealth to Babylonian agents, and Isaiah promises the downfall of the southern kingdom, to occur some time after Hezekiah (20). Hezekiah is succeeded by his wicked son Manasseh, who rules fifty-two years. God promises to destroy Judah for Manasseh's sin. Amon succeeds him, and rules Judah two years. Amon is killed and replaced by Josiah (21).
Josiah is a righteous king, and rules forty-one years. He repairs the temple, and rules by the law of Moses (22). Josiah comprehensively reforms Judah's religious establishment, until he is killed in a confrontation with Pharaoh Neco. His wicked son Jehoahaz takes his place, and is exiled to Babylon. He is replaced by Jehoiakim, who rules eleven years (23). Jehoiakim's rule sees an invasion by Nebuchadnezzar. Jehoiakim dies and is replaced by Jehoiachin, who rules three months.
At the end of the reign of Jehoiachin, Nebuchadnezzar advances on Jerusalem, which surrenders. Jehoiachin is taken into captivity, the temple is looted, and people are deported. Zedekiah becomes king, and rules eleven years. Then Zedekiah revolts (24). Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem nearly two years, then takes the city and destroys the temple. Gedaliah is appointed governor of Judah, but is quickly assassinated.
Twenty-seven years after his exile, Jehoiachin is released from prison and given a place of honor as one of the Babylonian king's dependents (25).
Montgomery, James Alan (1951). A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Books of Kings.
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