The Book(s) of Kings (Hebrew: Sepher M'lakhim, ספר מלכים - the two books were originally one[1]) presents a narrative history of ancient Israel and Judah from the death of David to the release of his successor Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon, a period of some 400 years (c.960-560 BCE).[2] It concludes a series of historical books running from Joshua through Judges and Samuel, the overall purpose which is to provide a theological explanation for the destruction of the Jewish kingdom by Babylon in 586 BCE and a foundation for a return from exile.[3]
Kings begins with the death of David, to whom Yahweh, the god of Israel, has promised an eternal dynasty, and the succession of his son Solomon. Solomon is praised for his wisdom and wealth, but he offends Yahweh by allowing other gods to be worshiped in Jerusalem. God therefore breaks the kingdom in two, with David's line reigning in the southern kingdom of Judah with a separate kingdom of Israel in the north. The kings of Israel are uniformly evil, allowing gods other than Yahweh to be worshiped, and eventually God brings about the destruction of the kingdom. A few of the kings of Judah are good, but most are evil, and eventually God destroys this kingdom also.
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David dies and Solomon comes to the throne. At the beginning of his reign he assumes God's promises to David and brings splendour to Israel and peace and prosperity to his people.[4] The centrepiece of Solomon's reign is the building of the First Temple: the claim that this took place 480 years after the Exodus from Egypt marks it as a key event in Israel's history.[5] At the end, however, he follows other gods and oppresses Israel.[6]
As a consequence of Solomon's failure to stamp out the worship of gods other than Yahweh, the kingdom of David is split in two in the reign of his own son Rehoboam, who becomes the first to reign over the kingdom of Judah.[7] The kings who follow Rehoboam in Jerusalem continue the royal line of David (i.e., they inherit the promise to David); in the north, however, dynasties follow each other in rapid succession, and the kings are uniformly bad (meaning that they fail to follow Yahweh alone). At length God brings the Assyrians to destroy the northern kingdom, leaving Judah as the sole custodian of the promise.
Hezekiah, the first king since David to be called "good," institutes a far reaching religious reform, centralising sacrifice at the temple at Jerusalem and destroying the images of other gods, and Yahweh saves Jerusalem and the kingdom from an invasion by Assyria. But Manasseh, the next king, reverses the reforms, and God announces that he will destroy Jerusalem because of this apostasy by the king. Mannasah's righteous grandson Josiah reinstitutes the reforms of Hezekiah, but it is too late: God, speaking through the prophetess Huldah, affirms that Jerusalem is to be destroyed. God brings the Babylonians, Jerusalem is razed and the Temple destroyed, and the priests, prophets and royal court are led into captivity. (The final verses record how Jehoiachin, the last king, is set free and given honour by the king of Babylon).
In the original Hebrew bible (the bible used by Jews) First and Second Kings were a single book, as were First and Second Samuel. When this was translated into Greek in the last few centuries (with some notable differences from the Hebrew text), Kings was joined with Samuel in a four-part work called the Book of Kingdoms. The Greek Orthodox branch of Christianity continues to use the Septuagint, but when a Latin translation of the Bible from the original languages (called the Vulgate) was made for the Western church, Kingdoms was first retitled the Book of Kings, parts One to Four, and eventually Kings and Samuel were separated, but as two books each.[8]
According to Jewish tradition the author of Kings was Jeremiah, whose life overlapped the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.[9] The most common view today accepts Martin Noth's thesis that Kings concludes a unified series of books which reflect the language and theology of the Book of Deuteronomy, and which biblical scholars therefore call the Deuteronomistic history.[10] Noth argued that the History was the work of a single individual living in the 6th century, but scholars today tend to treat it as made up of at least two layers,[11] a first edition from the time of Josiah (late 7th century), promoting Josiah's religious reforms and the need for repentance, and (2) a second and final edition from the mid 6th century.[12] Further levels of editing have also been proposed, including: a late 8th century edition pointing to Hezekiah of Judah as the model for kingship; an earlier 8th century version with a similar message but identifying Jehu of Israel as the ideal king; and an even earlier version promoting the House of David as the key to national well-being.[13]
The editors/authors of the Deuteronomistic history cite a number of sources, including (for example) a "Book of the Acts of Solomon" and, frequently, the "Annals of the Kings of Judah" and a separate annal of the kings of Israel. The "Deuteronomic" perspective (that of the book of Deuteronomy) is particularly evident in prayers and speeches spoken by key figures at major transition points: Solomon's speech at the dedication of the Temple is a key example.[14] The sources have been heavily edited to meet the Deuteronomistic agenda,[15] but in the broadest sense they appear to have been:
Kings is "history-like," but it mixes legends, folktales, miracle stories and fiction in with the annals, and its primary explanation for all that happens is God's offended sense of what is right; it is therefore more fruitful to read it as theological literature in the form of history.[17] The theological bias is seen in the way it judges each king of Israel on the basis of whether he recognises the authority of the temple in Jerusalem (none do, and therefore all are "evil"), and each king of Judah on the basis of whether he destroys the "high places" (rivals to the Temple in Jerusalem); it gives only passing mention to important and successful kings like Omri and Jeroboam II and totally ignores one of the most significant events in ancient Israel's history, the battle of Qarqar.[18]
The major themes of Kings are God's promise, the recurrent apostasy of the kings, and the judgement this brings on Israel:[19]
Another and related theme is that of prophesy. The main point of the prophetic stories is that God's prophesies are always fulfilled, so that any not yet fulfilled will be so in the future. The implication, seen in the closing scenes of the book, with the release of Jehoiachin and his restoration to a place of honour in Babylon, is the promise to David of an eternal dynasty is still in effect, and the Davidic line will be restored.[20]
The standard Hebrew text of Kings presents an impossible chronology.[21] To take just a single example, Omri's accession to the throne of Israel in the 31st year of Asa of Judah (1 Kings 16:23) cannot follow the death of his predecessor Zimri in the 27th year of Asa (1 Kings 16:15).[22] The Greek text corrects the impossibilities but does not seem to represent an earlier version.[23] A large number of books have claimed to solve the difficulties, but the results differ, sometimes widely, and none have achieved consensus status.[24]
2 Chronicles covers much the same time-period as Kings, but it ignores the northern kingdom of Israel almost completely, David is given a major role in planning the Temple, Hezekiah is given a much more far-reaching program of reform, and Manasseh is given an opportunity to repent of his sins, apparently to account for his long reign).[25] It is usually assumed that the author of Chronicles used Kings as a source and re-wrote history as he would have liked it to have been.[26]
| First Prophets |
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| 1. Joshua |
| 2. Judges |
| 3. Samuel |
| 4. Kings |
| Later Prophets |
| 5. Isaiah |
| 6. Jeremiah |
| 7. Ezekiel |
| 8. 12 minor prophets |
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Books of Kings
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| Preceded by Samuel |
Hebrew Bible | Succeeded by Isaiah |
| Christian Old Testament |
Succeeded by 1–2 Chronicles |
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