Kings, Books Of

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Books of the

Hebrew Bible

The Books of Kings (Hebrew: Sefer Melachim ספר מלכים) are a part of the Hebrew Bible narrating the history of the kings of Judah and Israel from the end of the reign of King David through the beginning of the Babylonian exile. Kings was originally written in Hebrew, and it was later included by Christianity as part of the Old Testament.

Throughout the narrative, the author looks back to the golden age of David's reign as a paragon of righteousness, with the most important virtue of a king being his devotion to the Hebrew God Yahweh and a determination to rid the land of pagan religious practices.

Solomon's reign is truly glorious, and he builds the Temple of Jerusalem, God's abode on earth, where all Israelites must come to offer sacrifice. The division of Solomon's united kingdom into separate northern and southern nations is attributed to Solomon's sin of erecting altars to foreign gods in honor of his many wives, the daughters of neighboring kings.

The first northern king, Jeroboam I, is originally supported by God, but commits a serious sin by establishing two national shrines that make it supposedly unnecessary for his people to go to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to Yahweh. From this point on, the kings of Israel, even when they passionately oppose pagan worship, all repeat Jeroboam's sin by supporting the shrines at Bethel and Dan. The prophets Elijah and Elisha emerge as God's champions to bring Israel to repentance, and eventually Elisha succeeds in bringing Jehu, a strong partisan of Yawheh, to the throne. However, although he rids the land of Baal worship, even Jehu fails to destroy the unauthorized Yahwist altars at Bethel and Dan. Eventually, the Assyrian Empire rises up as God's agent to punish Israel's sin, and the people of the northern kingdom are taken into exile around 722 B.C.E.

The kings of Judah sometimes do well in attempting to rid the land of pagan practices, but none goes far enough until the coming of King Josiah in the sixth century B.C.E. Yet, although Josiah is exemplary in every respect, it is already too late for Judah, as God has determined to force His people into exile in Babylon, where they will be duly chastened. The book ends with the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people of Judah who have been taken to Babylon by the forces of Nebuchadnezzer II in 586 B.C.E.

Although it ends tragically, with Israel destroyed and Judah in exile, the story told in the Books of Kings provides the main record of God's providence to establish a kingdom for his chosen people in the land of Canaan, where they could build a nation strong enough to resist foreign aggression, centering on God's Temple as an inspiration not only for the Israelites, but for all mankind.

Contents

Introduction

The Books of Kings contain accounts of the kings of the ancient Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah from the accession of Solomon until the subjugation of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians—a period of roughly 450 years. They synchronize with 1 Chronicles 28 through 2 Chronicles 36:21. However, Chronicles ignores much of the history of the northern kingdom and gives greater prominence to the priestly office, while Kings gives greater prominence to the monarchy. Kings appears to have been written considerably earlier than Chronicles, and many of the narrations in Kings are copied verbatim in Chronicles.

The story in Kings takes up the account left off in the Books of Samuel (2 Sam. 15-20), which ended with the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, supported by the northern tribes, against the reign of King David. The following is a detailed summary of the contents of the Books of Kings:

David's death and Solomon's reign

Divided Kingdoms

Rehoboam rejects the request of Israel's elders at Shechem.

The early kings of Israel and Judah

Jeroboam unveils the altar at Bethel.

The narrative now adopts a much more sketchy approach to his history, leapfrogging from south to north. Because the names of the northern and southern kings are often similar and sometimes identical, the storyline can be difficult to follow. Its focus is religious, mentioning political and economic events only in passing. Theologically, it demonstrates how God blesses kings that obey him by destroying heathen altars and how those who fail to do God's will are cursed. The Kingdom of Israel is virtually doomed from the outset, as even the best of its kings (in the narrator's opinion)—the passionately pro-Yahwist Jehu—continues to support the shrines established by Jeroboam at Bethel and Dan. Judah's kings do better, but none of them will measure up to God's standards until the coming of Josiah near the end of the narrative.

Map of Israel and Judah.

The Elijah cycle

Here the narrative is interrupted by the stories of the northern prophets Elijah and Elisha, apparently from an independent source or sources. The stories of these prophets are interspersed with the narrator's usual material and give additional details about the reigns of Ahab of Israel and his successors. The northern kingdom thus receives extra emphasis in these sections.

The Prophets of Baal Are Slaughtered
Ahab's death at the battle of Ramoth-gilead.

The Elisha cycle

Here begins the story of Elisha as the central prophetic figure of Israel, taking up the mission given earlier to Elijah. God tells Elijah:

Anoint Hazael king over Aram. Also, anoint Jehu son of Nimshi king over Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to succeed you as prophet. Jehu will put to death any who escape the sword of Hazael, and Elisha will put to death any who escape the sword of Jehu. (1 Kings 19:15-17)

Bears attack the boys who taunted Elisha.

The later Kings

The narrative now resumes it normal style and rhythm as it describes the reigns of the Kings of Israel and Judah after the destruction of Ahab's line.

Joash is declared king as the doomed Athaliah watches.
The Israelites are forced into Exile.

Judah stands alone

Isaiah instructs the dying Hezekiah.

Authorship

The authorship, or rather compilation, of these books is uncertain. The authors themselves refer to several other works which they have apparently consulted in compiling the history of the kings:

  1. The "book of the acts of Solomon" (1 Kings 11:41)
  2. The "book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah" (14:29; 15:7, 23, etc.)
  3. The "book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel" (14:19; 15:31; 16:14, 20, 27, etc.).

To this, biblical scholars add the sources known as the Elijah cycle and the Elisha cycle, which have been inserted into the account, as well as materials identical to historical verses found in the Book of Jeremiah and the Book of Isaiah and various other accounts from folklore, war stories, etc.

The date of the final composition of Kings was probably some time between 561 B.C.E. (the date of the events in book's last chapter when Jehoiachin was released from captivity by Evil-Merodach)and 538 B.C.E. (the date of the decree of deliverance by Cyrus the Great).

Because some portions are almost identical to the Book of Jeremiah—for example, 2 Kings 24:18-25 and Jeremiah 52; 39:1-10; 40:7-41:10—traditionally Jeremiah (or his scribe, Baruch) was credited as the author of Kings. Another early supposition was that Ezra, after the Babylonian captivity, compiled the text from the official court chronicles of David and Solomon together with the writings of the prophets Nathan, Gad, and Iddo. However, it was more usually said that Ezra was the compiler of the Books of Chronicles, which was at one time was treated as a single book together with the Book of Ezra and the Book of Nehemiah.

The majority of textual criticism today is of the belief that the Books of Kings—together with Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Samuel—were originally compiled into a single work, the Deuteronomic history, by a single redactor, known as the Deuteronomist. Some scholars suggest the prophet Jeremiah as the Deuteronomist, while others think the high priest Hilkiah, who "found" the Book of the Law in the Temple of Jerusalem during the reign of King Josiah, is a more likely candidate. Another suggestion is that several scribes may have collaborated on the work, which was begun during Josiah's time and finished during the Babylonian exile.[20]

It was not the purpose of the compiler(s) to give a complete history of the period covered by his work, for he constantly refers to other sources for additional details. He mentions as a rule only a few important events which are sufficient to illustrate the attitude of the king toward the Deuteronomic law, or some feature of it—such as the central sanctuary, the northern altars at Dan and Bethel, the Ashera poles, and the high places—and then proceeds to pronounce judgment upon him accordingly. Each reign is introduced with a regular formula by the redactor usually including an estimate of his religious character, followed by an excerpt from one of the sources, and finally a brief summary of his death and burial (for example, compare 1 Kings 15:1-9 with 1 Kings 15:25-32). In some cases the material in the middle section is lengthy and derives from more than one source, as when stories from the Elijah cycle, military accounts, or tales of miraculous events are detailed.

Time of redaction

There are indications that imply that the first redaction of Kings must have occurred before the downfall of the Judean monarchy. For example, the phrase unto this day occurs in 1 Kings 8:8, 9:21, 12:19; 2 Kings 8:22, 16:6 describing conditions that no longer existed during the time of the Exile. Also, in 1 Kings 9:36, 15:4, and 2 Kings 8:19, which come from the hand of a Deuteronomic editor, David still has a "lamp" burning in Jerusalem; that is, the Davidic dynasty is still reigning. Finally, 1 Kings 8:29-31, 8:33, 8:35, 8:38, 8:42, 8:44, 8:48, 9:3, 11:36 imply that the Temple is still standing.

There was, accordingly, a pre-exilic Book of Kings. The work in this earlier form must have been composed between 621 and 586 B.C.E. As the glamour of Josiah's reforms deeply impressed the original compiler, perhaps he wrote before 600. To this original work 2 Kings 24:10-25:30 was added in the Exile, and perhaps 23:31-24:9 or other sections. In addition to the supplement which the exilic editor appended, a comparison of the Masoretic text with the Septuagint shows that the Hebrew version of the text was retouched by another hand after sources of the Septuagint were complete.

Textual problems

Historical problems

There a number of internal inconsistencies in the account given in Kings, as well as between the Kings' account and other versions. For example the prophet Elijah declares that Arab doom is sealed by his cooperation with Jezebel in the murder of Naboth, while the unnamed prophet who meets him earlier declares that it will result by his failure to kill the king of Aram when he had the chance. Later when the prophet Elisha inexplicably treats the captured Aramaean army to a feast instead of commanding the king of Israel to slaughter them, the Aramaens supposed do not return to harm Israel any further. But in the next chapter, they are back with a vengeance.

In addition, the account in Kings sometimes is at odd with non-biblical records, such as the Tel Dan inscription that gives credit to Hazael, not Jehu, for the deaths of Joram and Ahaziah; and the claim of Sennacherib that he conquered all of Judah and kept Hezekiah "like a bird in a cage" in Jerusalem compared the account in Kings which claims that Sennacherib's forces were decimated by an angel of God who willed 185,000 soldiers besieging Jerusalem.

Problems of dates

The chronology of Kings also has problematic areas. The duration of reigns for the kings of Judah does not correspond correctly to their supposed times of accession as compared by the narrator to the reigns of the kings of Israel. Although the references are generally useful for understanding the era in which a particular king lived, the numbers simply do not add up. Since the reigns of each king is referenced to a contemporary in his opposite kingdom, the same issue obviously applies to the kings of Israel. As a result, there are various chronologies proposed for the period by different experts.

There are also external difficulties for the dating. The king that the Book of Kings names as Ahaz is claimed within it to reign for only 16 years. However, some of the events during his reign are recorded elsewhere with a non-biblical consensus emerging that ruled between 735 B.C.E. and 715 B.C.E., a period of 20 years.

Names and identities

In the time of the Omrides (that is the descendants of Omri), there are remarkable co-incidences between the names of the kings of Judah and those of Israel. They are often identical:

As a consequence a number of scholars have proposed that this was a period in which Judah and Israel were united under one king, with the Deuteronic redactor splitting the account into two. Some also argue that the stories of Jezebel and Athaliah—two ruthless, Baal-worshiping queens who are eventually deposed with the temple of Baal being destroyed afterward—are likewise two version of the same tale. Arguing against this is the fact the families of Ahab and Jehoshaphat were closely connected and may well have given their sons the same name. Similar events are evident, for example, in the history of European royalty, in which blood relations named Henry, Philip, and William often ruled at the same time in different countries.

The name Hadad and compounds of it also occur at several locations within the text. Hadad is the name of the Canaanite deity often identical toBa'al, which means simply "lord" and was apparently used in reference to several different gods. Consequently, several kings from the region surrounding Israel and Judah had names that included the word Hadad, which has can lead to much confusion in the text:

In addition, while Ba'al is often refers to Hadad, the term Baalzebub also appears as the name of a deity. Ba'alzebub, meaning lord of the flies, is most likely to be a deliberate pun, by the anti-Hadad writer, on the term Ba'alzebul, meaning prince Ba'al, i.e. Hadad. Even more confusing is the fact that some passages refer to a single king of Assyria by two different names, whereas others refer simply to the king of Assyria in several places but are actually talking about two separate historically attested kings, not the same individual.

This problem is compounded in the names of Israelite and Judahite kings, where theophoric suffixes and prefixes[21] exist in several forms related to both El and Yah/Yahweh: Ja… , Jeho… , …iah, …el, and El…. In some cases double theophory occurred, as for example in the name of the king of Judah that contemporary cuneiform inscriptions record as Jeconiah (Je+Con+Iah), which the Book of Jeremiah drops one of the theophories to make the name simply Choniah (Chon+Iah), while the Book of Kings makes his name Jehoiachin (Jeho+Iah+chin). Similarly, theophory was often flexible as to which end of names it occurred at for a single individual, so that the king of Judah which the Book of Kings names as Ahaziah (Ahaz + iah) is named by the Book of Chronicles as Jehoahaz (Jeho + ahaz). Thus Ahaziah is actually the same names as Johoahaz, and since with the theophoric element dropped it would also be the same name as that of the later king referred to as Ahaz (just as Dan is the same name as Daniel with the theophoric element omitted).

Notes

  1. ↑ Critical scholars point out, however, that Solomon is mentioned in no historical records outside the Bible, in contrast to many other rulers of that period. Most are agreed that the glories of his reign and the extent of his realm are highly exaggerated.
  2. ↑ Archaeologists such as Israel Finkelstein believe that these improvements were actually from a later period, and were carried out by northern rulers, probably either Omri or Ahab.
  3. ↑ The tribe of Simeon had been absorbed by Judah by this time, leaving ten tribes to the north and only Judah in the south.
  4. ↑ The term is actually asherim, which probably means "ashera pole," a sacred pillar that may have been devoted to any number of deities, including Yahweh.
  5. ↑ Because the stories of Elisha and Elijah are so parallel, indeed sometimes identical, it may be that in the original version, Elijah indeed anointed Hazael and Jehu.
  6. ↑ The story seems at odds with the previous one, in which the cause of Ahab's doom is not Naboth's murder but Ahab's failure to kill Ben-Hadad. This provides additional evidence of more than one source being woven together in the narrative.
  7. ↑ Court prophets were often suspected of giving the king information that pleased him. However some court prophets, such as Nathan and Isaiah, were perfectly capable of speaking "truth to power."
  8. ↑ Jehoshaphat also arranged for his son Jehoram to marry Ahab's daughter, Athaliah.
  9. ↑ The reason for Israel's withdrawal—either horror on the part of the Israelites or a morale boost on the part of the Moabites—is unclear.
  10. ↑ The story, which does not mention the names of the kings involved, is apparently a legend about Elisha originally independent of the material that now follows it.
  11. ↑ He is called Jehoahaz is Chronicles to distinguish him from Ahaziah of Israel (both names contain the word Ahaz and the theophoric "Ya"—one as a suffix, the other as a prefix).
  12. ↑ In the Tel Dan Stele, Hazael apparently claims that it was he, not Jehu, who was responsible for killing Joram and Ahaziah. To stave off Hazael, Jehu became of vassal of Shalmaneser III of Assyria, to whom he is portrayed as prostrating himself, on the Black Obelisk.
  13. ↑ The deliverer is not named. Some suggest an Assyrian king as the most likely candidate; others believe him to have been an Israelite military hero, or possibly Joash of Judah.
  14. ↑ His name is actually the same as Joash of Judah.
  15. ↑ In ancient times, the Israelite patriarchs established sacred pillars to Yahweh and El in places such as Gilgal, Bethel, Mount Sinai, etc., but the Book of Deuteronomy, thought to be written considerably later, banned this practice, referring to sacred pillars as "asherim," regardless of the deity to which they were devoted.
  16. ↑ Sennacherib's own account says nothing of an angel of the incident boasts of having conquered all of Judah and keeping Hezekiah was "locked up like a caged bird," forcing him into becoming a tributary to Sennacherib.
  17. ↑ Most scholars, both critical and apologetic, view the book as an early version of Deuteronomy, for which reason Josiah's reform is often referred to as the Deuteronomic reform).
  18. ↑ The authors explain this on the basis of Yahweh's having already decided to punish Judah as a result of the sin of Josiah's grandfather Manasseh.
  19. ↑ A notable exception to this slaughter was the prophet Jeremiah, who had opposed the royal policy of rebellion against Babylon.
  20. ↑ Finkelstein (2006), for example, sees much of the Deuteronomic history as intended to justify Josiah's reforms and his policy to expand Judah's influence northward, ultimately including his campaign against Necho at Megiddo. The death of Josiah, in this view, must have come as a tremendous shock to those who saw him as a new Joshua and the greatest king since David.
  21. ↑ Theophory, literally, bearing a deity, refers to names honoring a particular god by including a form of the deity's name in a person's name.

References
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External links

All links retrieved November 27, 2018.

Books of the Christian Bible
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