FROM DAVID TO EXILE 1 & 2 Kings by Daniel J. Lewis © copyright 2009 by Diakonos, Inc. Troy, Michigan United States of America 2 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 4 Composition and Authorship ...................................................................................................................... 5 Structure ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 Theological Motifs ..................................................................................................................................... 7 The Kingship of Solomon (1 Kings 1-11) .....................................................................................................13 Solomon Succeeds David as King (1:1—2:12) .........................................................................................13 The Purge (2:13-46) ..................................................................................................................................16 Solomon‟s Wisdom (3-4) ..........................................................................................................................17 Building the Temple and the Palace (5-7) .................................................................................................20 The Dedication of the Temple (8) .............................................................................................................26 The Divine Warning (9:1-9) ......................................................................................................................30 The Grandeur and Dissolution of Solomon (9:10—11:43) .......................................................................31 The Division of the Kingdom (1 Kings 12-16)..............................................................................................36 Rehoboam‟s Folly (12:1-19) .....................................................................................................................36 Two Kingdoms (12:20-24) ........................................................................................................................37 The Alternative Worship Centers at Bethel and Dan (12:25-33) ...............................................................37 The Denunciation of the Bethel Shrine (13) ..............................................................................................39 The Prophetic Oracle About Jeroboam‟s Downfall (14:1-18) ...................................................................41 Summary of Jeroboam‟s Reign and the Issue of Chronology and Dating (14:19-20) ...............................42 The Reign of Rehoboam (14:21-31) ..........................................................................................................45 The Early Kings of Judah (15:1-24) ..........................................................................................................46 The Early Kings of Israel (15:25—16:34) .................................................................................................47 The Contest Between Yahweh and Ba‟al (1 Kings 17—2 Kings 13) ............................................................50 The Elijah Cycle (1 Kings 17—2 Kings 2) ...................................................................................................51 The Drought (17-18) ..................................................................................................................................51 The death threats, Jezebel toward Elijah and Aram toward Ahab (1 Kg. 19-20) ......................................56 The Naboth incident and Ahab‟s death (1 Kg. 21-22) ...............................................................................63 The Transition to 2 Kings ..........................................................................................................................70 The Death of Ahaziah, Ahab‟s Son (2 Kg. 1) ............................................................................................70 Elijah‟s Assumption into Heaven (2 Kg. 2:1-18) ......................................................................................72 The Elisha Cycle (2 Kings 2:19—13:25) ......................................................................................................73 Jehoram ben Ahab‟s Campaign Against Mesha of Moab (2 Kg. 3) ..........................................................74 Elisha, the Prophet of Miracles (4:1—8:15) ..............................................................................................76 Notations on Judah‟s Next Kings (8:16-29) ..............................................................................................84 Jehu‟s Coup d‟etat and Purge (9:1—10:36) ..............................................................................................85 Athaliah Seizes Judah‟s Throne (11:1-21) ................................................................................................88 The Reign of Joash in Judah (12:1-21) ......................................................................................................91 Jehoahaz of Israel (13:1-9) ........................................................................................................................92 Jehoash of Israel (13:10-25) ......................................................................................................................93 The Kings of Israel and Judah Until the End of the Northern Nation (2 Kings 14-17) .................................94 Amaziah of Judah (14:1-22) ......................................................................................................................94 Jeroboam II of Israel (14:23-29) ................................................................................................................95 Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah (15:1-7) ...........................................................................................................96 Two Assassinations in Israel (15:8-16) .....................................................................................................97 Menahem, Pekahiah and Pekah of Israel (15:17-31) .................................................................................97 Jotham and Ahaz of Judah (15:32—16:20) ...............................................................................................99 3 The Collapse of the Northern Kingdom (17:1-6) ....................................................................................102 The Deuteronomic Assessment of the Northern Kingdom‟s Fall (17:7-23) ............................................103 The Immigrants into Northern Israel (17:24-41) .....................................................................................105 Judah Alone: From Hezekiah to the Fall of Jerusalem (2 Kings 18-25) ......................................................106 Hezekiah and Sennacherib (18-19) ..........................................................................................................107 The Last Years of Hezekiah (20) .............................................................................................................113 The Darkest Period: The Reigns of Manasseh and Amon (21) ...............................................................115 Josiah and the Second Reform (22:1—23:30) .........................................................................................117 The Death of the Kingdom of Judah (23:31—25:30) ..............................................................................121 4 FROM DAVID TO EXILE 1 and 2 Kings At the outset, it should be recognized that 1 & 2 Kings are part of a larger corpus in the Hebrew Bible, the section called “The Former Prophets”. The Former Prophets (to be distinguished from the Latter Prophets) consisted of four scrolls, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. These four scrolls detailed the history of Israel in the land. While the Torah describes the origin of the nation in the stories of the patriarchs, the sojourn in Egypt, and the exodus, Joshua‟s narratives begin with the crossing of the Jordan into the heartland of Canaan proper. Israel in the land occupies a history of about six centuries, and it ranges from the initial invasion and the period of the judges to the early united monarchy and its subsequent division into two nations—all the way to the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles. The fourth scroll in the Latter Prophets, 1 & 2 Kings, provides the history from the construction of the temple during Solomon‟s reign to its destruction by the Babylonians. Indeed, the two institutions initially anticipated in Deuteronomy, temple and kingship (Dt. 12, 17), form the skeleton upon which the tissues of Israel‟s history in the land are stretched. Both came to an abrupt end at the close of this history (2 Kg. 25). The scrolls of Samuel and Kings in the Hebrew Bible were subdivided in the Septuagint into 1, 2, 3 and 4 Kingdoms (corresponding to 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings). Later, the Latin Vulgate followed suite, and by 1448, printed editions of the Hebrew Bible also followed suite.1 Hence, English Bibles have continued the tradition of dividing the books into 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. The turning points between these divisions is not inappropriate. The turning from 1 Samuel to 2 Samuel is the death of Saul, from 2 Samuel to