Books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles

BOOKS OF THE KINGS

graphic depicts a king on his throne

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The Bible contains six books related to the history of the Jewish Kings: 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles.

These six books were at one time combined and not separated.

These Books all share one story from beginning to end. That is the story of God’s chosen people deciding that they would rather be like all the nations of the world. They were to be a different people. The nations of the world had kings. They now wanted one!

1 Samuel 8:11-18 Told them what they would get if they got a king. They did and this is what they got in return:

This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:

· He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

· And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

· And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

· And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

· And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

· And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

· He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

· And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day.

Who were the Kings?

Many of them were of “royal” blood, having descended from an earlier “king”. Many were “ordinary” men throw into the middle of circumstances and came out as the man on the “top of the heap”. Some were “Godly”. Yet the majority were more involved with worship of Satan than the books can tell you. The by-product of the character of these men were the thousands of people that were led to the path of Hell by the King that they wanted!

When study is done of these books it can be confusing following the names for these men. Many took different names and even names of the kings from the sister nation. An issue also develops when the same name is different in another chapter or book that was apparently written by someone else. Spelling can even be “slightly” different from being transcribed over the centuries.

These lists (in PDF Format) are the collected Family Relations of the Kings listed in these books.

KINGS OF JUDAH in pdf format KINGS OF ISRAEL in pdf format

Contents of the Books of the Kings

1 Samuel - Records from birth of Samuel to the deaths of Samuel and Saul

Samuel is leader through chapter 12 and Leadership Type changes in 12 when first king is appointed

2 Samuel – Begins with David recognized as King of portion of Israel. Saul's Captain, Abner attempts to install Saul's only living son as king and thereby inciting a civil conflict. When conflict is over, the now united Israel establishes David as King and Jerusalem as capital.

Samuel ends having covered the major events and issues of David's reign as King. Preparations for building the Temple.

1-2 Kings AND 1-2 Chronicles – Begins with David’s son Solomon on the throne. Solomon building the Temple and continues from there.

Where did these records originate?

These records would have been written by scribes who had sole task of maintaining records of the daily happenings in the palace under whatever king they served. Eventually collected into one book. The Prophets may well have been involved as can be seen by the writings of Isaiah and Ezra. If they were not, they may have been the final author (in that they compiled it together) based off references in the books. Throughout the books references are made to other sources. The phrase usually is stated “…as written in the Books of…”. Most of those long ago referenced sources no longer exist. Among those who are mentioned as maintaining records are: Ahijah, Gad, Iddo, Jehu, Nathan

Differences between Books of Kings and Chronicles

Chronicles means: A collection of events, information. Collecting all the data. Daily acts or occurrences.

Originally intended to keep track of the kings.

The Chronicles are not new information. Everything in them is recorded elsewhere.

The biggest difference Chronicles DOES NOT always follow exactly in sequence of the Book of Kings.

Kings is sequential while Chronicles is there to make sure time is spent to show why the judgment or correction was needed.

Kings has history of both Judah and Israel. Chronicles focus is on Judah and the House of David which had God’s covenant. Chronicles is covering or following that covenant and how God had to keep Judah in it.

Kings give lineage from human perspective and Chronicles from divine perspective. The focus of the first Nine chapters of Chronicles are genealogies from Adam to Jesus (Second Adam) therefore leading up to the New Testament. Providing proof of the lineage of Jesus.

First Chronicles Chapters 1-9 Genealogy from ADAM

Note that a study of genealogies requires the understanding of the age of mankind. An individual may be listed as “son of” several individuals. The word “grand” and “great-grand” used in our vocabulary does not exist in scripture. A perfect example is attempting to follow the ancestors of King Saul. Different names are used in Samuel and Chronicles. Not ALL steps in the ancestor chains are listed.