I Kings 15:1-16:7
Dear RTB’ers,
It gets confusing, trying to follow the reigns of the kings of Israel and Judah, both the years in which they reigned and the activities (especially wars, treaties, and building programs) in which they engaged. John’s post yesterday did not include his customary “See also…” posts and comments from previous years which, as I have often said, are quite helpful in adding to what I post. Had John added a “See also…” yesterday, he probably would have directed you to May 21 / I Kings 12-14:20 (linked here). In that post John clarifies our current readings situation: “The nation is now divided into two kingdoms, never to be reunited (at least, not yet). The tribes of Judah and Benjamin form the southern kingdom, henceforth known as Judah, ruled by the House of David. The other ten tribes form the northern kingdom, henceforth generally known as Israel but sometimes called Ephraim, since that is the strongest tribe of the ten.
The books of I & II Kings present the history of both kingdoms, Judah and Israel, bouncing back and forth between the two in an almost leap-frog fashion, pegging the time frames of the reigns of the kings in one kingdom to those of the other kingdom. II Chronicles, on the other hand, focuses only on Judah and generally ignores the northern kingdom of Israel. As a result, we’ll get the history of Israel once in Kings, but we’ll get a double dose of the history of Judah, with II Chronicles often repeating what we read in Kings.”
With this explanation John brings out one very important point, that the book of II Chronicles tells the story of the kings of Judah in much greater detail than we read in I Kings. For example, in our readings today my Study Bible references us further to specific verses in II Chronicles 13-16, four chapters that cover more fully the reigns of Abijah and Asa. It would be helpful for you to read those chapters (but no expectations that you read further!); it’ll be next year before we read them in Search the Scriptures. By then it’ll be a good reminder! For my part, in covering I and II Kings, I will post as if the Chronicles books do not exist.
Blessings.
Fred