Kings of Israel & Judah (still need to add info in 1 and 2 Samuel)

This series covers the scripture of the three longest books in the Bible: Samuel (1 Samuel and 2 Samuel), Kings (1 Kings and 2 Kings), and Chronicles (1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles) but only covers information concerning the kings and their reign, it also covers some events that occurred around the same time; but leaves out information such as that on figures like Elijah and Elisha as well as some of the prophets that ruled at the time of the kings because they will be reserved for my "Notable Figures of the Bible" Knowt

1050 BC - 1010 BC: Saul - His Rise (All Notes from Samuel)

• 1st King of Israel (1 Samuel 11:15)

  • As he was being anointed he was “hiding behind the supplies” and the people had to “run and take Saul out from behind the supplies” (1 Samuel 10:22)

  • Was a head taller than all of the people (1 Samuel 10:23)

  • Anointed at Gilgal, where, in front of God, the people made him king, offering fellowship offerings to God and having a great celebration (1 Samuel 11:15)

  • Became King at 30 years old and ruled for just over 40 years (1 Samuel 13:1)

• Son of Kish of the Matri Family of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Samuel 19:20-21)

• From the tribe of Benjamin (the smallest tribe in Israel), and his family was the smallest in the tribe (1 Samuel 9:21)

• He became like the prophets when God’s spirit came down on him with great power, prophesying with the prophets and changing how everyone viewed him (1 Samuel 10:9-12)

• He did not tell his uncle the whole truth, he told him Samuel hold told him the donkeys his uncle was looking for were already found, but not that he had been anointed king (1 Samuel 10:16)

• Under his reign, the Israelites “rejected” God when they asked for a human king to rule over them since God can save them from all their troubles and problems instead of a king and so even though God was already their king they wanted another (or a new) king to rule over them, so he was chosen (1 Samuel 10:19, 12:12)

• Under his reign, troublemakers began to spread who questioned his abilities and dismissed the idea that he could “save them,” some of which even said bad things about him and/or refused to bring him gifts; but he did not respond to these developments (1 Samuel 10:27)

• When he had heard the story of King Nahash and the Ammonites threatening to poke out the right eye of every man in Jabesh-Gilead, God’s spirit came on him with great power as he became very angry so he cut a pair of oxen into pieces, gave them to the messengers who had told him the story, and commanded the messengers to go to the Israelites and say to them that they should follow him and Samuel and that if they do not their oxen will be cut to pieces like the oxen he just gave the messengers (1 Samuel 11:6-7)

  • So, all the people came together as one in response (1 Samuel 11:7)

  • So, he gathered 330K men together at Bezek (1 Samuel 11:8)

    • Separated them into three groups (1 Samuel 11:11)

• He (and his army) attacked the Ammonites at sunrise as they were changing guards for the morning and defeated them before noon (in just a few hours) and all the Ammonite soldiers ran away in different directions - no two soldiers stayed together (1 Samuel 11:11)

• The people suggested killing those who decided not to follow him, but he said not to kill any detractors because it was God, not him, who saved Israel that day (1 Samuel 11:12-13)

• Under his reign, he and the people were given instructions, via Samuel, that they had to fear, respect, serve, obey, honor, and be loyal to God first before the King, and that if they do all those things, God will save them; but if they do not do all those things, God will go against them and destroy them and their king (1 Samuel 12:13-15)

• Under his reign, the people came to be very afraid of God and Samuel and all the people realized they added to their sins when they asked for a king but that as long as they follow God, they will be okay (1 Samuel 12:18-20)

• Commands his army officials to tell the “Hebrew people” about what happened and to blow trumpets through all the land of Israel until all the Israelites under his reign heard that he killed the Philistine leader and the Philistines will really hate the Israelites as a result (1 Samuel 13:3-4)

• While Johnathon and his helper snuck into the Philistine lines, he saw the Philistine soldiers running away in different directions; and so, God not with him, he wanted to know how that happened and so he assumed one of his men did it so he ordered for the men to be counted (1 Samuel 14:1-18)

  • So while talking to Ahijah the Priest and waiting for God’s advice, he grew impatient and eventually told Ahijah to stop praying altogether (1 Samuel 14:19)

  • So, he gathered his army together and fought against the Philistines only to find that they were fighting each other with their swords (1 Samuel 14:20)

• Under his reign, there were Hebrews who served the Philistines in the past and hid in the hills of Ephraim, but then switched back over to join him and the Israelites once the Philistines began to run away and joined in on chasing the Philistines (1 Samuel 14:21-22)

  • So God saved the Israelites from the Philistines that day during his reign (1 Samuel 14:23)

  • That day the Israelites defeated the Philistines, fighting them from Micmash to Aijalon (1 Samuel 14:31)

• During his reign, the Israelites had taken sheep, cattle, and calves from the Philistines and were so tired and hungry from battle that they killed the animals on the ground and ate them despite the fact that there was still blood in the animals, thus violating Kashrut, so to make up for their sin they had to bring their animals and kill them to the altar he had built for God (1 Samuel 14:31-35)

• Fought all the enemies who lived around Israel including the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Edomites, the Amalekites and the Philistines and defeated them wherever he went and prevented all of them from taking things from Israel (1 Samuel 14:47-48)

• He was very brave all his life (1 Samuel 14:48, 52)

  • Anytime he saw a man who was strong or brave, he took that man and put him into the group of soldiers who stayed near him and protected him (1 Samuel 14:52)

• He warned the Kenites to leave the city of Amalek, who were living amongst the Amalekites during his reign, because the Kenites showed kindness to the Israelites when they came out of Egypt, so their lives would be spared and so the Kenites obeyed and left the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:6)

1050 BC - 1010 BC: Saul - His Fall (All Notes from Samuel)

• 1st King of Israel

• His First Major Mistake: When the Philistines came to attack Israel, camping at Micmash, east of Beth Aven, there having been so many that they were like sand on the seashore, and the Israelites saw they were in trouble, felt trapped, and were shaking with fear; he waited for Samuel to come and help him but after waiting for a week and thinking that Samuel was not coming, he decided to give a burnt offering to God to ask for God’s help in order to defeat the Philistines, however, according to Samuel, this was a direct violation of God’s command to wait for Samuel to come and help him since that is how God wanted things to take place (1 Samuel 13:5-12)

  • So, Samuel had told him he had done a foolish thing and that God has already found a replacement for him since God wants a king who will follow His orders and not just do whatever he wants (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

• His Second Major Mistake: He made an oath saying that “if any man eats food before evening comes, before I finish defeating my enemies, he will be under a curse” and made the soldiers promise to eat; so none of them ate anything; however because Johnathon and his helper were not around to hear the oath (1 Samuel 14:1-14), Johnathon ate some honey to make himself feel better so he (and the Israelites he’d hoped would eat) could continue fighting the Philistines (1 Samuel 14:27-30)

  • He was eager to continue fighting and “going after” the Philistines, taking everything from them and killing them all; and the army agreed but the priest told him to ask God first, but when he asked God, God did not answer him (1 Samuel 14:36-37); and God continued not to answer him (1 Samuel 14:41) because of his past sins and probably because of his impatience

  • He was not even surprised when he had to kill his own son Johnathon by his oath, for he said that “even if my own son Johnathon sinned, he must die” and the people were so shocked they were silent (1 Samuel 14:39)

  • So, he was convinced he had to kill own son, Johnathon to die; but the people retaliated saying that Johnathon led them to a great victory against the Philistines, so the people Israel saved Johnathon from him (1 Samuel 14:44-45)

  • As a result, he did not continue chasing the Philistines (1 Samuel 14:46)

• His Third Major Mistake: He was commanded by God, through Samuel, to fight against the Amalekites and completely destroy them and not letting anything live, even the “little babies” and the animals (1 Samuel 15:1-3)

  • But he violated God’s command because he and the Israelite soldiers “felt bad” about destroying everything so they kept alive King Agag and all the animals that were “worth keeping”, and only destroyed what was not “worth keeping” and did not completely destroy everything (1 Samuel 15:9, 18-19)

  • When Samuel confronted him, he made an excuse for not killing the animals by saying he was using them to offer burnt offerings to God (1 Samuel 15:14-15)

    • This did not go very well for him because he argued that God likes it when we obey his commands more so than we offer sacrifices, he asks Saul whether it is better to obey God’s commands or to give sacrifices; and then retorts saying obeying his commands comes first, then offering sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22)

    • He tells him that refusing to obey is as bad as the sin of sorcery (1 Samuel 15:23)

    • He tells him that being stubborn and doing what he wants is like the sin of worshipping idols (1 Samuel 15:23)

    • He tells him that because he refused to obey God’s command, God now refuses to accept him as King (1 Samuel 15:23)

    • When he tries to humble himself before God and begs Him (through Samuel) for forgiveness, he has to a second time, and pleads Samuel to “come back with him” to show him some respect in front of the leaders and the Israelites and in order that he can again worship God faithfully (1 Samuel 15:24-31)

    • Samuel ends up having to kill King Agag instead of him (1 Samuel 15:33)

• Went to Carmel to set up a stone monument to honor himself (1 Samuel 15:12)

• God was very sorry he had made him King of Israel (1 Samuel 15:35)

• God’s spirit leaves him and He sends an evil spirit to cause him much trouble to which his servants exclaim that an evil spirit from God is bothering him (1 Samuel 16:14-15)

• Grows an intense hatred for David

  • Begins to fear David, first suggested when he asks David who his father is (1 Samuel 17:58)

  • He takes David with him, not letting him go back home to his father Jesse (1 Samuel 18:1-2)

  • The song sung by the women, “[he] has killed thousands, but David has killed tens of thousands” upset him and he became very angry (1 Samuel 18:7-8)

    • From that time on, he watched David very closely (1 Samuel 18:9)

  • An evil spirit took over him and he went wild in his house and when David came with his harp to try and calm him, he tried killing David twice but missed a throw of a spear both times (1 Samuel 18:10-11)

  • Because God had left him and was now with David, he became afraid of David (1 Samuel 18:12)

  • Devises a wicked plan to try and get David to marry his daughter Merab in order that the Philistines can kill David for him (1 Samuel 18:17)

    • When this does not work, he tries using his daughter Michael as bait to lure David into marrying her in order that the Philistines will kill David (1 Samuel 18:20-21)

1010 BC - 970 BC: David - Early Reign (All Notes from Samuel)

• 2nd King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Good

  • God was with him, so he was successful in everything (1 Samuel 18:14)

• Prior to his rule (but as and after he was anointed by Samuel):

  • The Spirit of God came unto him with great power on and from the day he was anointed by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13)

  • Played the harp to help soothe King Saul of the evil spirit that came unto him making him feel better as a result (1 Samuel 16:23)

  • Left Saul from time to time to take care of his father’s sheep at Bethlehem (1 Samuel 17:15)

  • Made sure to have another shepherd take care of the sheep while he took the food Jesse commanded him to take to the Israelite soldiers at camp against the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:32)

  • Killed a lion and a bear and took his sheep from the those wild animals’ mouths and hit and killed those animals when they jumped on him; God saved him from the lion and the bear (1 Samuel 17:34-37)

  • Successfully challenges Goliath (1 Samuel 17:45-51)

    • In so doing, he speaks to Goliath saying that he comes to him in the name of God All-Powerful, the God of the armies of Israel and that because Goliath said bad things about Him God will help him defeat and kill Goliath (1 Samuel 17:45-46)

    • He will cut off Goliath’s head and feed his body to the birds and wild animals and will do the same to all the other Philistines too (1 Samuel 17:46)

    • Then all the world will know there is a God in Israel (1 Samuel 17:46)

    • All gathered there will know that God does not need swords or spears to save people, the battle belongs to God and God will help Israel defeat the Philistines (1 Samuel 17:47)

    • When the other Philistines saw that Goliath was dead, they turned and ran (1 Samuel 17:51)

    • The soldiers of Israel and Judah started chasing the Philistines, all the way to the city limits of Gath and Ekron; having killed many of the Philistines; as their bodies were scattered along the road (1 Samuel 17:52)

    • The soldiers of Israel and Judah then took many things from the Philistine camp (1 Samuel 17:53)

    • He then took the Philistine’s (Goliath’s) head back home to Jerusalem (1Samuel 17:54)

  • Befriended Johnathon, son of Saul; they made a special agreement to protect each other no matter what (1 Samuel 18:3-4)

1050 BC - 1010 BC: Saul (All Notes from Chronicles)

• 1st King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Chronicles 10:13)

  • He died because

    • He was not faithful to God (1 Chronicles 10:13)

    • He did not obey God’s word (1 Chronicles 10:13)

    • He went to a medium and asked her for advice instead of asking God (1 Chronicles 10:13-14)

• Under his reign

  • The Philistines fought against the Israelites, the Israelites ran away from the Philistines, many of whom were killed on Mount Gilboa (1 Chronicles 10:1)

  • The Philistines continued chasing him and his sons until they caught them and killed them: Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malki Shua (1 Chronicles 10:2)

  • He killed himself with his own sword by falling on it (1 Chronicles 10:4)

  • All of his family died together (1 Chronicles 10:6)

• The Israelites left their towns and ran away and the Philistines came into the towns and lived in them (1 Chronicles 10:7)

• The Philistines took valuable things from the dead bodies they slayed including his head and armor (1 Chronicles 10:9)

• The brave men from Jabesh-Gilead went to salvage his body and the bodies of his sons from the Philistines and showed their sadness for them by fasting for a week (1 Chronicles 10:12)

1010 BC - 970 BC: David (All Notes from Chronicles)

• 2nd King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Good

• Before his reign

  • He led the people Israel in war even though Saul was the king (1 Chronicles 11:2)

  • His reign fulfilled the promise through Samuel (1 Chronicles 11:3)

• Defeated the Jebusites in Jerusalem and took over the fortress of Zion, and it became his namesake city where all the Kings of Judah were buried (1 Chronicles 11:4-5)

  • Joab became the commander of his army because he led the attack on the Jebusites (1 Chronicles 11:6)

• Refused to drink the water the “Three Heroes” gave him and instead poured it on the ground as an offering to God, saying ‘it would be like drinking the blood of the men who risked their lives to get this water for me’ (1 Chronicles 11:17-19)

• Brought the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem from Kiriath-Jearim and celebrated before God upon its return (1 Chronicles 15:25-28), putting it in a tent he set up just for it, to which only the Levites were able to carry it (1 Chronicles 13:3-8, 15:1-2)

  • He became angry because of God’s anger towards Uzzah who caught the Ark of the Covenant to prevent it from falling off the oxen it was being carried on (1 Chronicles 13:9-11)

  • Told all the Israelites to meet together at Jerusalem to see the Ark of the Covenant carried to the place he made for it (1 Chronicles 15:3)

  • Commanded the Levites to look after the Ark of the Covenant only after they have made themselves holy to try and correct for their previous mistake that caused Uzzah to die (1 Chronicles 15:12-13)

• Married more women in the city of Jerusalem and had more children (1 Chronicles 14:3)

• When the Philistines went to look for him and attacked the people living in the Valley of Rephaim and stole their things, he went out to fight them and God gave the Philistines into his hand where he and his men defeated the Philistines, with the help of God, at Baal-Perazim (1 Chronicles 14:8-11)

  • Ordered his men to burn the idols left there by the Philistines (1 Chronicles 14:12)

• Defeated the Philistine army a second time in the Valley of Rephaim, thus becoming famous in all the nations, so all nations became afraid of him (1 Chronicles 14:16-17)

• Gives his song of thanks to God (1 Chronicles 16:8-36)

• After the prophet Nathan had told him about his family’s future and that God did not want him to build a house for him, he prayed to God and gave much thanks (1 Chronicles 17)

• Defeated the Philistine army a third time, taking the town of Gath and other small towns around it (1 Chronicles 18:1)

• Defeated the Moabites, in which they became his servants and brought tribute to him (1 Chronicles 18:2)

• Fought against Hadadezer of Zobah and his army all the way to the town of Hamath (1 Chronicles 18:3)

  • Here, he set up a monument for himself at the Euphrates River (1 Chronicles 18:3)

  • Defeated and killed 22,000 of the Aramean soldiers who decided to help King Hadadezer of Zobah (1 Chronicles 18:5)

  • Put fortresses in the city of Damascus in Aram to where the Arameans became servants of him and brought tribute to him (1 Chronicles 18:6)

  • So God gave victory to David everywhere he went (1 Chronicles 18:6, 13)

  • Took the gold shields from Hadadezer’s army leaders and brought them to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 18:7)

  • Took much bronze from Tebah and Cun that were previously controlled by Hadadezer that would be used by his son build the things in the First Temple (1 Chronicles 18:8)

• Made the things he got as gifts from Tou of Hamath and the gold and silver he got from the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and Amalekites holy and gave them to God (1 Chronicles 18:10-11)

• Did what was right and fair for everyone (1 Chronicles 18:14)

• Had peaceful relations with King Nahash of the Ammonites so he extended that kindness to his son and successor but his people thought that kindness was trickery so they eventually prepared for and made war with Israel only to run away and be defeated at the hands of Israel’s leaders Joab and Abishai (1 Chronicles 19:1-16)

• The Ammonites enlisted the help of the Arameans and made war with Israel again only to be defeated again by the Israelites, with the namesake king leading the charge this time (1 Chronicles 19:16-18)

  • Hadadezer’s officers saw that Israel had defeated them, so they made peace with him and Israel and became his servants (1 Chronicles 19:19)

• Under his reign, the army of Israel went to Ammon and destroyed it, then went to the city of Rabbah and destroyed it (1 Chronicles 20:1)

  • He took Rabbah’s king’s crown and put it on his own head (1 Chronicles 20:2)

  • Had a great many valuable things brought out of the city of Rabbah (1 Chronicles 20:2)

  • Brought out the people in Rabbah and forced them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes (1 Chronicles 20:3)

    • He did the same thing to all the cities of the Ammonites (1 Chronicles 20:3)

• Fought against the Philistines a fourth time at the town of Gezer and defeated them, and they became like slaves to the Israelites (1 Chronicles 20:4)

• Fought against the Philistines a fifth time at the town of Gath and was where Johnathon killed the giant with “six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot” and where all the giants were killed by him and his servants (1 Chronicles 20:6-8)

• He sins heavily a second time by counting the Israelites, from Beersheba to Dan, so he can know how many there are in total (this was sinful because their size should not matter given God’s size is incomparable and that God is on their side) (1 Chronicles 21:1-6)

  • God punished Israel as a result of this sin (1 Chronicles 21:7)

  • He made him choose of three punishments which one he would prefer (1 Chronicles 21:11-12) but he chose whatever God had in store (1 Chronicles 21:13)

  • So, under his reign, a terrible sickness was sent to Israel through an angel and 70,000 people died but God eventually told the angel to stop because he began to feel sorry for all the suffering (1 Chronicles 21:14-15)

  • He asks God to punish him alone and not the people Israel since it is he who sinned and not the people Israel (1 Chronicles 21:17)

  • Commanded by God, through Gad, he built an altar to worship God in order to stop the sickness, which stopped once he had built it and worshipped God at it (1 Chronicles 21:18-30)

• Ordered for all foreigners living in Israel to be gathered together in order to help prepare to build the First Temple (1 Chronicles 22:1-5)

• Told his son to build the First Temple of the God of Israel and told him what God told him, through Nathan, as to why he could not and why he, his son, will (1 Chronicles 22:6-10)

  • Blessed his son with success and with success at building the Temple, prayed that God would give him the wisdom and understanding to lead his people and obey the Torah law and to be strong and brave and not be afraid (1 Chronicles 22:11-13)

  • Tells him that he has worked hard making plans for the First Temple and has given so much bronze and iron that it cannot be weighed, so much gold and silver, and much wood and stone; and more skilled workers than can be counted (1 Chronicles 22:14-16)

• Ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son (1 Chronicles 22:17)

• When he was old, he gathered all the leaders of Israel as well as the Levites and priests and assigned them their jobs (1 Chronicles 23:1-5)

• He made special musical instruments for the musicians that will be used to praise God (1 Chronicles 23:5)

• His last instructions for the Israelites were to count the descendants from the tribe of Levi and assigning them their jobs in service of God at the First Temple (1 Chronicles 23:27-28)

• He assigns the right people to the right groups including the Levites who work on and serve in the First Temple (1 Chronicles 23), the groups of priests (1 Chronicles 24), the groups of musicians (1 Chronicles 25), the “gatekeepers” or Temple Guards and the treasurers and other officials (1 Chronicles 26), and the groups of the army and the leaders of the tribes of Israel at that time and the administrators (overseers of the King’s property) of the King at that time (1 Chronicles 27)

• Gathered together all the leaders of Israel and told them that although he wanted to build God’s Temple, he was told not to because he killed many men and that He chose his son Solomon to be the new king of Israel, but that really, Israel is God’s kingdom and that Solomon will instead build the temple (1 Chronicles 28:1-6)

• Talks to his son Solomon telling him to be faithful to God, then gives him all the plans for building the First Temple (1 Chronicles 28:9-18)

  • Tells him that all those plans were written with God guiding him to help him understand everything in the plans (1 Chronicles 28:19)

  • Tells him he will be successful and not to be afraid (1 Chronicles 28:20-21)

• The family leaders, generals, captains, and officials all gave valuable things to God’s temple under his reign including gold, silver, bronze, iron, and valuable stones and that the people were very happy because their leaders were willing to give so much freely to God from their good hearts, which, in turn, made him very happy (1 Chronicles 29:6-9)

• Praised the Lord in front of all the people gathered together near the end of his life in a beautiful way (1 Chronicles 29:10-19)

• He had lived a good, long life and had many riches and honors (1 Chronicles 29:28)

970 BC - 930 BC: Solomon - Rise (All Notes)

• 3rd King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil

• His mother was Bathsheba (1 Kings 2:13)

• Orders hits on political enemies including

  • His brother Adonijah (1 Kings 2:23-25)

  • David’s Commander Joab (1 Kings 2:29)

    • Replaced by Benaiah son of Jehoiada

      • This was because Joab killed innocent men without David’s knowledge (1 Kings 2:31-35)

  • Shimei (1 Kings 2:46)

• Orders Abiathar the Priest to discontinue (1 Kings 2:27)

  • Replaced by Zadok the Priest (1 Kings 2:35)

• Made peace with

  • Egypt by marrying Pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 3:1)

  • Tyre by making a treaty with their King Hiram (1 Kings 5:12)

• Chose governors to rule over Israel’s 12 districts

  • Were ordered to father food from their districts and give it to the king and his family one month each year (1 Kings 4:7)

• Ruled over all the kingdoms from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt (1 Kings 4:21); under his rule:

  • Israel (and Judah) were more prosperous and abundant than ever before and ever since (1 Kings 4:20)

  • There was peace throughout the land he ruled (1 Kings 4:24-25)

  • There was great wealth in the land, 25 tons of gold having been received a year (1 Kings 10:14)

  • There was so much gold that in his time people did not think silver was important (1 Kings 10:21)

  • There was so much silver that it was as common as rocks (1 Kings 10:27)

  • There was so much cedar wood that it was as common as fig trees (1 Kings 10:27)

• Was / Is

  • Considered by God and the people Israel to be the wisest / smartest king to have ever lived (1 Kings 3:12, 28)

  • Considered by all peoples to be the wisest / smartest king to have lived on Earth during that time (1 Kings 4:29-31, 34)

  • The author of the “Book of Proverbs” and the “Song of Songs” (1 Kings 4:32)

  • Given spices by the Queen of Sheba, more than anyone else who has come to Israel (1 Kings 10:10)

  • Greater in wealth and wisdom than any other king on Earth (1 Kings 10:23)

• Built

  • The (First) Temple (of Jerusalem) on Mount Moriah, the place where God first appeared to his father David (2 Chronicles 3:1)

    • Built all the things that were to be placed inside the First Temple (2 Chronicles 4:1-21)

    • Brought in everything his father David had set aside for the temple (2 Chronicles 5:1)

    • With the help of King Hiram of Tyre (1 Kings 5:5-6, 6:1) and Huram Abi of Tyre (1 Kings 7:13-14)

    • Employs Israelites to build the Temple (1 Kings 5:13-17)

    • Took 7 years to build and was built exactly as planned (1 Kings 6:38)

    • Had the elders of Israel, the leaders of the tribes, and the heads of families meet together in Jerusalem to move the “Ark of the Covenant” and the “Tent of Meeting” from the City of David into the Temple (1 Kings 8:1-9, 2 Chronicles 5:2-3)

    • Held a huge celebration for it upon its completion and made a long prayer to God involving it (1 Kings 8:14-66, 2 Chronicles 6:14-42)

      • People came from as far away as Hamath Pass in the North and the border of Egypt in the South, and this huge of crowd of people enjoyed themselves for seven days (2 Chronicles 7:8)

  • His namesake Palace, which took 13 years to complete (1 Kings 7:1)

  • The “House of the Forest of Lebanon” (1 Kings 7:2)

    • Here, he put the 200 large shields of hammered gold and 300 smaller shields of hammered gold (2 Chronicles 9:15-16)

  • The “Porch of Columns” (1 Kings 7:6)

  • The “Throne Room” or “Judgment Hall” where he judged people (1 Kings 7:7)

    • His throne was unlike any other in any other kingdom (2 Chronicles 9:19)

  • His wife’s palace (1 Kings 7:8, 2 Chronicles 8:11)

  • The “Millo” and the “City Wall” around Jerusalem (1 Kings 9:15)

  • The cities of Baalath and Tamar (1 Kings 9:18)

  • Cities where he could store grain (1 Kings 9:19)

  • Cities where he could keep his chariots and horses (1 Kings 10:26)

  • Ships at Ezion Geber that brought back gold from Ophir (2 Chronicles 8:17-18)

• Rebuilt the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15)

• Captured Hamath of Zobah and built a town there (2 Chronicles 8:3-4)

• Built the town of Tadmor (2 Chronicles 8:4)

• Rebuilt Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon (2 Chronicles 8:5)

  • Made them into strong forts with strong walls, gates, and bars in the gates (2 Chronicles 8:5)

• Used non-Israelite slave labor for his construction projects (1 Kings 9:20-22, 2 Chronicles 2:11-18)

  • Forced the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites to work for him as slaves (2 Chronicles 8:7-8)

  • Did not force Israelites to be slaves, they were soldiers, government officials, officers, captains, and chariot drivers (2 Chronicles 8:9)

• Sat on God’s throne as King, taking his father’s place, and was very successful since all the Israelites obeyed him and was made very great in the eyes of God and all the Israelites knew that God was making him great, no king in Israel before him had such honor (1 Chronicles 29:23-25)

• Offered burnt offerings to God on God’s altar, having built that altar in front of the First Temple porch and offered sacrifices every day the way Moses commanded (2 Chronicles 8:12-13)

• Followed his father’s instructions pertaining to choosing the groups of priests for their service and the Levites for their duties, as the Levites were to lead the praise and help the priests from day to day to do what needed to be done in the Temple service, and he chose the gatekeepers by their groups to serve at each gate (2 Chronicles 8:14)

  • Under his reign, the Israelites did not change or disobey any of his instructions to the priests and Levites or in the way they should keep valuable things stored in the temple (2 Chronicles 8:15)

• The Queen of Sheba was very impressed by his wisdom and his kingdom (2 Chronicles 9:1-8)

  • Remarked that he follows the law and treats people fairly (2 Chronicles 9:8)

  • He gave her more than she brought to give him (2 Chronicles 9:12)

• Hiram of Tyre, who worked with him, had his servants bring in gold from Ophir, jewels, and a special kind of wood, which he used to make the steps for the First Temple (2 Chronicles 9:10-11)

• Used algum wood to make beautiful things (2 Chronicles 9:11)

• People everywhere wanted to see him, to hear his great God-given wisdom (2 Chronicles 9:23)

• Every year people came to see him and everyone brought a gift (2 Chronicles 9:24)

970 BC - 930 BC: Solomon - His Fall (All Notes)

• 3rd King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil

  • Had 700 wives who were the daughters of leaders from other nations and 300 wives who were slave women (1 Kings 11:3-4)

    • All of these women caused him to turn away from God, as his wives caused him to follow other Gods of their own (1 Kings 11:3-8)

      • So he did not follow God completely as his father did (1 Kings 11:4)

      • So he did what God said was wrong, and thus was judged by God to be evil (1 Kings 11:6)

  • Did not remain faithful with God despite Him appearing to him twice, so God became very angry with him (1 Kings 11:9)

• From here, after his reign, Israel splits into two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Israel (North) and Kingdom of Judah (South) as God punishes him for turning away and for causing the people Israel to turn away from Him (1 Kings 11:9-14)

• Since him, no King has allowed Israel to prosper as much as him (1 Kings 11:9-14)

• God raised up enemies to defeat him including Hadad of Edom; Rezon of Aram, and most importantly; Jeroboam, son of Nebat (1 Kings 11:14-26)

• Jeroboam son of Nebat revolts against him and gets the ten tribes of Israel as he will be the first to rule Israel (1 Kings 11:27-38)

• David’s descendants are punished because of his disloyalty, but not forever (1 Kings 11:39)

• Tries to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled in time (1 Kings 11:39-40)

930 BC - 913 BCE: Rehoboam (All Notes)

• 1st King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Chronicles 12:14)

• His mother was Naamah of the Ammonites

• Son of Solomon

• Rejected the request of the people to work less, so they rebelled against him (and thus the House of David) and all of the Israelites not affiliated with the cities of Judah fled to the North (1 Kings 12:16-17)

• Thus, the tribe of Judah was the only one to follow the House of David (1 Kings 12:20)

• Wanted to go to war with Jeroboam and Israel, but the prophet Shemaiah told him not to because God wanted all this to happened, and he obeyed (1 Kings 12:21-24)

• Moved the capital of the kingdom to Jerusalem, ruling in the city God chose for his own (1 Kings 14:21)

• Built strong cities in Judah to defend against attacks (2 Chronicles 11:5)

• Repaired the cities of Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron (2 Chronicles 11:6)

  • Proceeded to make these cities strong, put commanders in them, put supplies of food, oil, and wine in them, and put shields and spears in them (2 Chronicles 11:7-12)

  • Kept the people and cities of Judah and Benjamin under his control (2 Chronicles 11:12)

  • Joined by the priests and the Levites from all over Israel, who went there to Judah and to Jerusalem to serve as priests because King Jeroboam of Israel refused to let them serve there (2 Chronicles 11:13-14)

• Under his reign, those who were faithful to God came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Him there, making the Kingdom of Judah strong and thus supporting him for the years that Judah lived the way his father and grandfather had lived and led the kingdom accordingly (2 Chronicles 11:15-17)

• Chose Abijah to be the leader among his own brothers because he planned to make him king (2 Chronicles 11:22)

• Acted wisely by spreading all his sons through all the areas of Judah and Benjamin to every strong city and gave plenty of supplies to his sons (2 Chronicles 11:23)

• Under his rule, men served other gods by selling their bodies for sex (1 Kings 14:24)

  • As a result of this grave sin, God took the land away from them to give it to Israel (1 Kings 14:24)

• Under his rule, King Shishak of Egypt defeated the strong cities of Judah attacked Jerusalem, taking the treasures from the First Temple and from the king’s palace including the gold shields King Solomon had made (1 Kings 14:25-26, 2 Chronicles 12:9)

  • This happened because he and the people of Judah rebelled against God spoken through the prophet Shemaiah (2 Chronicles 12:2, 5)

    • So, he and the leaders of Judah were sorry and quickly humbled themselves (2 Chronicles 12:6)

      • So, in response, God saw that they humbled themselves and stopped being angry and instead of letting them be destroyed by King Shishak and the Egyptians, He made His people Shishak’s servants so that they may learn that serving Him is different from serving the kings of other nations (2 Chronicles 12:7-8, 12)

        • So, there was some good in Judah (1 Chronicles 12:12)

  • He made bronze shields in place of the gold ones taken by King Shishak (2 Chronicles 12:10)

• Was always fighting against Jeroboam of Israel (1 Kings 14:30, 2 Chronicles 12:15)

931 BC - 910 BC: Jeroboam I (All Notes)

• 1st King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 14:9)

• Son of Nebat

• Rebuilt the cities of Shechem and Penuel (1 Kings 12:25)

• Made two golden calves to be worshipped in Dan and in Bethel so that the Israelites did not continue to worship God in Jerusalem and go back to Judah to follow the line of David, thus securing his power over them (1 Kings 12:26-30)

• Built temples at the high places and chose priests from among different tribes of Israel rather than just the Levites (1 Kings 12:31)

• Made his own festival on a certain day where he and the Israelites would offer sacrifices to the calves he had set up at the high places at Dan and Bethel (1 Kings 12:32-33)

• These sins would continually be referenced throughout the Book of Kings as causing the rest of Israel to sin and leading to its downfall

• The sin that especially led to Israel’s downfall was his allowing anyone to be a priest who wanted to be one, regardless of whether they were from the priestly tribe of Levi (1 Kings 13:33-34)

  • He chose his own priests to serve in the high places at Dan and Bethel (2 Chronicles 11:15)

• He sinned worse than anyone who had ruled prior to him (1 Kings 14:9)

• God kills all the men in his family for his sin (1 Kings 14:10)

• God lets the Israelites be defeated because of his sin (1 Kings 14:16)

• Was always fighting against Rehoboam of Judah (1 Kings 14:30)

913 BC - 911 BC: Abijah (All Notes)

• 2nd King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 15:3)

  • Did all the same sins of his father (1 Kings 15:3)

• His mother was Maacah, Absalom’s daughter (1 Kings 15:2)

  • Maacah was the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah (2 Chronicles 13:2)

• Under his rule, God kept Jerusalem safe and still allowed him to have a son to keep his promise with David (1 Kings 15:4)

• He and Judah were always fighting against Jeroboam and Israel during his reign (1 Kings 15:7)

  • His army had 400K brave soldiers which he led into battle and was outnumbered and he called out Jeroboam for turning against God by (2 Chronicles 13:3-7)

    • Worshipping the golden calves at Dan and Bethel (2 Chronicles 13:8)

    • Choosing their own priests like every other nation (2 Chronicles 13:9)

  • Meanwhile, he lectured Jeroboam about how Judah has not turned away from God and had kept the priests, burnt offering, the services of the Temple, the trumpets that blow to awaken the people, etc. (2 Chronicles 13:10-11)

    • Tells the men of Israel that if they fight against God they will not succeed (2 Chronicles 13:12)

  • God helped him defeat Jeroboam’s army, killing 500K of the 800K soldiers in the army of Israel, because he and Judah depended on God (2 Chronicles 13:15-18)

  • Captured the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron from Jeroboam (2 Chronicles 13:19)

• God killed Jeroboam, but made him strong (2 Chronicles 13:20-31)

911 BC - 870 BC: Asa - His Rise (All Notes)

• 3rd King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good (1 Kings 15:11, 2 Chronicles 14:2))

• Forced the men who served other gods by selling their bodies for sex to leave the country (1 Kings 15:12)

• He took away the idols that his ancestors had made (1 Kings 15:12)

  • He took away the altars of the foreigners and the high places, smashed the memorial stones, cut down the Asherah poles, removed all the high places and incense altars from all the towns of Judah, and commanded the people of Judah to follow God (2 Chronicles 14:3-5)

• Took away his mother’s right to be Queen Mother because of her idol worship (1 Kings 15:13, 2 Chronicles 15:16)

• Gave special gifts (of gold, silver, and other things) to God which he put in the First Temple (along with his father) (1 Kings 15:15 (2 Chronicles 15:18))

• Fought against King Baasha of Israel during the 36th year of his reign (his entire reign) (2 Chronicles 16:1 (1 Kings 15:16))

• There was peace (for ten years) during his reign (2 Chronicles (14:1) 14:5) because God gave him and his kingdom peace (2 Chronicles 14:6)

  • Built strong cities during this peace (2 Chronicles 14:6)

• Built towns, walls around them, towers, gates, and bars in the gates (2 Chronicles 14:7)

• Had an army of 300K men from Judah who carried large shields and spears and 280K men from Benjamin who carried small shields and bows and arrows, but all of them were strong and brave soldiers (2 Chronicles 14:8)

• God helped him and the kingdom of Judah defeat Zerah of Ethiopia and his army of 1M at the Battle of the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah and the Ethiopian army ran away, chased all the way to Gerar (2 Chronicles 14:9-13)

  • So many Ethiopians were killed by God and his army that they could not get together as an army to fight again (2 Chronicles 14:13)

  • He and his army carried many valuable things away from the enemy (2 Chronicles 14:13)

  • He and his army defeated all the towns near Gerar and took all the valuable things from those towns and those towns became afraid of God (2 Chronicles 14:14)

  • He and his army attacked the camps where the shepherds lived and took many sheep and camels (2 Chronicles 14:15)

• Removed the hated idols from the whole area of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim (2 Chronicles 15:8)

• Repaired God’s altar that was in front of the porch of God’s Temple (2 Chronicles 15:8)

• Gathered all the people from Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon to see that God was with him and to sacrifice animals to God that they had taken from their enemies in order to make an agreement with God to serve him with all their heart and soul since he is the God that their ancestors served (2 Chronicles 15:9-12)

• Under his reign, anyone who refused to serve God was to be killed, and it did not matter if that person was important or not or if that person was a man or a woman (2 Chronicles 15:13)

• He and the people made an oath to God to follow Him with all their heart and soul, so God gave them peace in return (2 Chronicles 15:14-15)

911 BC - 870 BC: Asa - His Fall (All Notes)

• He did not destroy the high places, despite remaining faithful to God all his life (1 Kings 15:14, 2 Chronicles 15:17)

• Made a peace treaty with King Ben-Hadad of Aram and requested that he break off his alliance with King Baasha of Israel and to leave Judah alone (1 Kings 15:18-19, 2 Chronicles 16:3-4)

  • He did this by giving Ben-Hadad Aram gifts of gold and silver from the treasuries of the First Temple and the treasuries of the King’s Palace (2 Chronicles 16:2)

  • In response, Hanani the Prophet reminded him that this is why King Baasha’s army escaped from him and why he will continue to have wars for the rest of his reign: because he depended on the help of King Ben-Hadad of Aram rather than on God (2 Chronicles 16:7, 9)

    • Hanani the Prophet asks him if he forgot what happened to the Ethiopians when he had depended on God for help instead of other people (2 Chronicles 16:8)

      • He was so angered by this that he put Hanani the Prophet in prison and became rough and cruel to some of the people then (2 Chronicles 16:10)

• Ordered people from Judah to help King Ben-Hadad of Aram defeat King Baasha of Israel (1 Kings 15:22)

  • Additionally, he ordered for all the men in Judah to go to Ramah and carry out all the stone and wood that King Baasha was using to build up the city and carry these materials back to the cities of Geba and Mizpah in order to strengthen those two cities (2 Chronicles 16:6)

• In his 39th year as King, his feet became infected and it turned into a very serious infection; however, he went to doctors for help instead of God and thus died two years later (2 Chronicles 16:12-13)

910 BC - 909 BC: Nadab (All Notes)

• 2nd King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 15:26)

• Killed by Baasha son of Ahijah (1 Kings 15:27)

909 BC - 886 BC: Baasha (All Notes)

• 3rd King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 15:34)

• Son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar (1 Kings 15:27)

• Made a plan to kill King Nadab of Israel (1 Kings 15:27)

• Killed Nadab in the Philistine town of Gibbethon (1 Kings 15:27) and took over as ruler of Israel

• Killed everyone in Jeroboam’s family (1 Kings 15:29)

  • Fulfilled the prophecy spoken at Shiloh by his father Ahijah, which happened because King Jeroboam sinned and caused Israel to sin (1 Kings 15:29-30)

  • Nonetheless, this made God very angry (1 Kings 16:7)

• Fought against King Asa of Judah during his entire reign (1 Kings 15:16, 32)

• God destroyed him and his family because of his sin (1 Kings 16:3)

886 BC - 885 BC: Elah (All Notes)

• 4th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil

• Was a heavy drinker (1 Kings 16:9)

• Killed by his captain Zimri (1 Kings 16:10)

885 BC: Zimri (All Notes)

• 5th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 16:19)

• Led a coup against Elah to become King and killed Elah and then took over as ruler (1 Kings 16:9-10)

• Killed all of Baasha’s family and friends and did not let any male in Baasha’s family live (1 Kings 16:11)

  • Fulfilled the prophecy spoken by the prophet Jehu that because of all of the sins of Baasha and his son Elah having sinned and caused Israel to sin, their family would be destroyed (1 Kings 16:12-13)

• Killed by Omri, the commander of the army of Israel

885 BC - 874 BC: Omri (All Notes)

• 6th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 16:25)

• Led a coup against Zimri to become King and killed Zimri and then took over as ruler (1 Kings 16:16-17)

• Left Gibbethon where they were fighting the Philistines and turned in on Tirzah, where Zimri stayed, and attacked it and burned down the palace fortress, killing Zimri (1 Kings 16:17)

• He and his followers were stronger than Tibni, a rival faction, and thus he became King after Tibni died (1 Kings 16:21-22)

• Bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer and built a city on that hill, which he named Samaria, which would go on to become the capital of the Kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 16:24)

874 BC - 853 BC: Ahab (All Notes)

• 7th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 16:30)

• Married Jezebel, daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon; and then began to worship and serve Baal; thus being worse than any of the Kings of Israel before him (1 Kings 16:30-31, 33)

• Built a temple and an altar in Samaria (the capital of the Kingdom of Israel) for worshipping Baal and set up a sacred pole there (1 Kings 16:32-33)

• Under his rule, Elijah the prophet lived and prophesied (1 Kings 17:1)

• Under his rule, there was a horrible famine (1 Kings 18:2)

• Under his rule, Obadiah the prophet lived and prophesied (1 Kings 18:3-4)

  • Hid prophets from Jezebel (who was killing all the prophets) in caves and gave them food and water (1 Kings 18:4)

• Tries to look for and kill Elijah the prophet during his rule (1 Kings 18:10)

• Under his rule, Elijah showed the people how false Baal was when God burned up the bull sacrifice of his and Baal had done nothing (1 Kings 18:19-38)

  • Under his rule, Elijah killed all the false prophets (1 Kings 18:40)

• Jezebel tries to kill Elijah but fails (1 Kings 19:1-3)

• Under his rule, 7000 Israelites still chose not to bow down or worship Baal (1 Kings 19:18)

• Under his rule, Ben-Hadad of Aram surrounds and attacks Samaria and King Ahab initially submits to his wishes (1 Kings 20:1-4); but then a prophet comes to him telling him that God will help him defeat Ben-Hadad and Aram (1 Kings 20:13-15)

  • Essentially, King Ahab made the Arameans suffer a great defeat (1 Kings 20:21)

• Under his rule, Ben-Hadad attacked Israel again at Aphek (1 Kings 20:26)

  • The Israelites killed 100,000 Aramean soldiers during this second attack (1 Kings 20:29)

• Makes peace with Ben-Hadad and Aram after these two battles and lets Ben-Hadad go free (1 Kings 20:34)

• Because he allowed Ben-Hadad of Aram to go free instead of killing him, God punishes him for not killing Ben-Hadad of Aram by making it so that he and his people will die (1 Kings 20:42)

• He wants a certain vineyard from a certain man named Naboth, so Jezebel conjures up a plan to have Naboth killed in order that he can take the vineyard as his own (1 Kings 21:1-16)

• God punishes him through the prophet Elijah for his actions towards Naboth by making it so that his whole family (every male member) will die (1 Kings 21:19-24) but only after his rule is over since he humbles himself before God (1 Kings 21:29)

• Like Solomon with his wives, his wife Jezebel caused him to sin and worship false gods (1 Kings 21:25-26)

• Teams up with King Jehoshaphat to attack Aram, thus ending the peaceful relations between Israel and Aram during his rule (1 Kings 22:3-6)

• Through the prophet Zedekiah, God allows him to win the battle against Aram with the help of Jehoshaphat using “iron horns” (1 Kings 22:11-12, 2 Chronicles 18:10) however it turns out, through the prophet Micaiah, that it is all a rouse because a spirit went and stood before God to cause his prophets (including Zedekiah) to tell lies and thus the plan all along was for him to be killed in the battle he wages against Aram (1 Kings 22:19-23, 2 Chronicles 18:16-24)

• Orders one of his officers to arrest and imprison Micaiah the prophet (1 Kings 22:26-27, 2 Chronicles 18:25)

• Dies in battle through a bow and arrow piercing through a small hole where his armor was fastened together (1 Kings 22:34-35, 2 Chronicles 18:33-34)

• Built many cities (1 Kings 22:39)

• Upon his death, the Moabites broke away from Israel’s rule (2 Kings 1:1, 3:5)

870 BC - 848 BC: Jehoshaphat - His Rise (All Notes)

• 4th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good (1 Kings 22:43, 2 Chronicles 20:32-33)

  • In his young life he did the good things his ancestor David (2 Chronicles 17:3)

    • He did not follow the Baal idols (2 Chronicles 17:3)

    • He looked for the God his ancestors followed (2 Chronicles 17:4)

    • He followed God’s commands and did not live the same way the Israelites lived (2 Chronicles 17:4)

  • However, he did not destroy the high places (1 Kings 22:43, 2 Chronicles 20:32-33)

    • However, he removed the high places and the Asherah poles from the country of Judah (2 Chronicles 17:6)

• His mother was Azubah, the daughter of Shilhi (1 Kings 22:42, 2 Chronicles 20:31)

• Made Judah strong so that they could fight against Israel (2 Chronicles 17:1)

  • He put groups of soldiers in all the towns of Judah that were made into fortresses (2 Chronicles 17:2)

  • Built fortresses in Judah and in the towns of Ephraim captured by his father (2 Chronicles 17:2)

  • Built fortresses and storage towns throughout Judah where he kept supplies in the storage towns and kept trained soldiers in Jerusalem that were organized by tribe (2 Chronicles 17:12-13)

• All the people of Judah brought gifts to him, and he had much wealth and honor (2 Chronicles 17:5)

  • His heart found pleasure in the ways of God (2 Chronicles 17:6)

  • During his reign, even the Philistines brought him gifts including silver and Arabian peoples brought him many flocks of rams and goats (2 Chronicles 17:11)

  • Became very rich and famous (2 Chronicles 18:1)

• Made a peace agreement with the King of Israel, King Ahab, through marriage (1 Kings 22:44, 2 Chronicles 18:1)

• Was very brave and fought in many wars (1 Kings 22:45)

  • Fought alongside King Ahab against Aram at Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings 22:3-6, 2 Chronicles 18:28)

  • Fought alongside King Joram against Moab (2 Kings 3:7)

  • Fought against the Moabites, Ammonites, and Meunites, asking for God’s help (in the form of a lengthy prayer addressed to God in front of all the people of Judah) in the process and holding a fast for everyone in Judah during that process (2 Chronicles 20:1-13)

    • During this prayer, Jahaziel, son of Zechariah, a Levite from the family of Asaph, got up during the meeting and told everyone that this is God’s battle and not theirs and that they will not have to fight as God will let help you defeat them (2 Chronicles 20:14-17)

    • And so God, through their praise of him, defeated for him and Judah the armies from Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir by making them fight one another and kill each other (2 Chronicles 20:22-23)

    • He and his men went out to see that there were no survivors (2 Chronicles 20:24)

      • So they came to take things from the bodies finding animals, riches, clothes, and other valuable things (2 Chronicles 20:25)

      • There was more than he and his men could carry away (2 Chronicles 20:25)

      • There was so much that they spent 3 days taking everything away from the dead bodies (2 Chronicles 20:25)

    • As a result of these events, they were very happy and God made them happy when he defeated their enemy, so they entered Jerusalem singing praises and playing music (2 Chronicles 20:27-28)

• Forced all the men and women who sold their bodies for sex to leave the places of worship, even when his father Asa was King (1 Kings 22:46)

• During his reign, he sent his leaders, Levites, and Priests to teach Torah to the people in all of the towns of Judah (2 Chronicles 17:7-9)

• During his reign, the surrounding nations were afraid of God and thus did not go to war with Judah, so there was peace during his reign and there was rest from the enemies that were all around him brought about by God (2 Chronicles 17:10, 20:30)

• Although he lived in Jerusalem, he would go out among the people throughout Judah and help them turn back to God (2 Chronicles 19:4)

  • He went town to town and appointed judges in each of the fortresses of Judah (2 Chronicles 19:5)

    • He told the judges to be careful that they judge not for people but for God and that He will be with them when they make their decisions (2 Chronicles 19:6)

      • He told them that they must fear God, protect justice, and do what is right because God is fair and does not treat some people as if they are more important than others, and he does not accept bribes to change his judgements (2 Chronicles 19:7)

  • Back in Jerusalem, he chose some of the Levites, priests, and heads of the families of Israel to be judges: men who lived in Jerusalem and used the law of God to settle problems among the people (2 Chronicles 19:8)

    • He commanded them to serve faithfully with all their heart and to fear God (2 Chronicles 19:9)

    • He encourages them to be brave and do what is right and for God to be with those of the judges who are good (2 Chronicles 19:11)

  • Gave his sons many gifts of silver, gold, and precious things as well as strong fortresses in Judah; however he gave the entire kingdom to Jehoram because he was his oldest son (2 Chronicles 21:3)

870 BC - 848 BC: Jehoshaphat - His Fall (All Notes)

• The prophet Jehu, son of the prophet Hanani, reminds him that he helped those who are wicked and loved those who hate God, so God became angry with him for those reasons but that the good things he has done outweigh these bad deeds (2 Chronicles 19:2-3)

• Refused to accept King Ahaziah’s help regarding putting sailors on his cargo ships (1 Kings 22:49)

  • However, he made an agreement with King Ahaziah of Israel to make ships to go to the town of Tarshish (2 Chronicles 20:35-36)

    • But these ships were destroyed by God because, through the prophet Eliezer, son of Dodavahu, of Mareshah who had told him that the reason for this was because he collaborated with Ahaziah, the evil King of Israel (2 Chronicles 20:37)

853 BC - 852 BC: Ahaziah, Son of Ahab (All Notes)

• 8th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 22:52-53)

• Has an accident in which he is injured horribly and asks for help from the priests of Baal-Zebub instead of asking for help from God, so God punishes him with death for doing this through the prophet Elijah (2 Kings 2-6, 15-16)

• Ahaziah’s captains and men kept being engulfed in flames until they begged for mercy from God (2 Kings 9-15)

852 BC - 841 BC: Joram, Son of Ahab (All Notes)

• 9th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 3:2-3)

  • However, he removed the pillar that his father had made for worshipping Baal (2 Kings 3:2)

• Teams up with King Jehoshaphat of Israel to attack Moab (2 Kings 3:7)

• Along with King Jehoshaphat of Israel and the King of Edom, he asks the prophet Elisha for advice on how to defeat Moab, which he gives willingly to Jehoshaphat and unwillingly to the other two while also telling them that God will help them defeat Moab (2 Kings 3:12-19)

• Works with King Jehoshaphat and the King of Edom to defeat Moab (2 Kings 3:24-26)

• Because the King of Moab offered up his son as a burnt offering, under his reign, the Israelites left the King of Moab and his land and went back to their own land (2 Kings 3:27)

• Fought alongside King Ahaziah of Judah, son of Jehoram, against King Hazael of Aram but was wounded by the Arameans, so he went back to Jezreel in Israel so he could heal from those wounds and was visited by King Ahaziah of Judah, son of Jehoram (2 Kings 8:28-29)

• Was also visited by the captain Jehu (2 Kings 9:16)

848 BC - 841 BC: Jehoram (All Notes)

• 5th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 8:18, 2 Chronicles 21:6)

  • Nevertheless, God would not destroy Judah because of his promise to his servant David, that someone from his family would always be king (2 Kings 8:19, 2 Chronicles 21:7)

  • He used a sword to kill all his brothers, and to kill some of the leaders of Israel (2 Chronicles 21:4)

  • He lived the same way the Kings of Israel lived (2 Chronicles 21:6)

    • This is because he lived the same way Ahab’s family lived (2 Chronicles 21:6)

      • This is because he married Ahab’s daughter (2 Kings 8:18, 2 Chronicles 21:6)

• Under his reign, the Edomites broke away from Israel’s rule, or more specifically, from the rule of Judah (2 Kings 8:20, 22; 2 Chronicles 21:8), and

  • The people of Edom chose their own king and since that time of breaking away, the country of Edom has rebelled against Judah (2 Chronicles 21:8, 10)

  • Libnah broke away from Judah’s rule (2 Kings 8:22, 2 Chronicles 21:10)

  • All this happened because he left God, building high places on the hills in Judah and causing the people of Jerusalem to start worshipping other Gods, leading the people of Judah away from God (2 Chronicles 21:10-11)

    • Received a message from Elijah the Prophet essentially confirming this information and telling him that God will now punish him and his people with terrible suffering because of what he has done and he will punish your children, wives, and property and he will have a painful sickness in his stomach that will worsen over time until they come out of him and he died in very bad pain (2 Chronicles 21:12-16, 18-19)

    • Additionally, God caused the Philistines and Arabs, once friendly to his predecessor Jehoshaphat, to be angry with him; attacking him and Judah and carrying away all the riches of the King’s Palace, and all of his wives and all of his sons except for Ahaziah, his successor (2 Chronicles 21:16-17)

• Nobody was sad when he died (2 Chronicles 21:20)

• Was not buried in the graves where the kings were buried, despite being buried in the city of David (2 Chronicles 21:20)

• His youngest son, Ahaziah, was chosen by the people of Judah to succeed him (2 Chronicles 22:1)

841 BC - 835 BC: Ahaziah, Son of Jehoram (All Notes)

• 6th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 8:27, 2 Chronicles 22:4)

  • Because his wife was from his Ahab’s family, this caused him to sin (2 Kings 8:27)

  • Ahab’s family gave advice to him after his father died that was bad advice and that led to his death (2 Chronicles 22:4-6)

• His mother was Athaliah, daughter of King Omri of Israel (2 Kings 8:26, 2 Chronicles 22:2)

  • Because his mother encouraged him to do wrong things, he lived the way Ahab’s family had lived (2 Chronicles 22:3)

• Fought alongside Joram, son of Ahab and went to visit him in Jezreel in Israel (2 Kings 8:28-29, 2 Chronicles 22:5-6)

  • Following the advice of King Ahab’s family, he joined King Joram of Israel to fight against King Hazael of Aram (2 Chronicles 22:5-6)

  • God caused him to die when he went to visit Joram and further punished him when he instructed Jehu to kill his relatives and the leaders of Judah under him and then had Jehu eventually find him and kill him and bury him (2 Chronicles 22:7-9)

  • He and his family had no power to hold the kingdom of Judah together (2 Chronicles 22:9)

841 BC - 835 BC: (Queen) Athaliah, Mother of Ahaziah (All Notes)

• 7th Political Leader (Queen) of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil

• She saw that her son Ahaziah, King of Judah, son of Jehoram; was dead; so she got up and killed all the rest of her son’s family (2 Kings 11:1, 2 Chronicles 22:10)

  • She did not kill Joash though because he was being protected (2 Kings 11:2-5)

• Ordered for her followers to be killed outside of the First Temple by Jehoiada the Priest, who then ordered captains who ordered soldiers to kill her as well (2 Kings 11:15,16)

• Her sons broke into God’s Temple and used the holy things in God’s Temple for their worship of the Baal Gods (2 Chronicles 24:7)

• She was a very wicked woman (2 Chronicles 24:7)

841 BC - 814 BC: Jehu, son of Nimshi (All Notes)

• 10th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Good and Evil (2 Kings 10:30-31)

• Commanded by God to destroy Ahab’s family (2 Kings 9:7)

• Went to visit the wounded Joram in Jezreel and eventually declared that there cannot be peace with Joram because Joram’s mother Jezebel is doing many acts of prostitution and witchcraft (2 Kings 9:16, 22)

• Killed Joram (2 Kings 9:24), thus following God’s command and also the prophesy about Ahab’s family being thrown into the field (2 Kings 9:26)

• Killed Jezebel of Jezreel as well but she was eaten by dogs (2 Kings 9:33-37)

• Killed all of the people in Ahab’s family living in Jezreel: all the important men, close friends, and priests; none were left alive (2 Kings 10:11)

  • Sends a letter to rulers of Jezreel telling them to install a king but they are afraid of him and refuse so they said they will serve him (2 Kings 10:1-5)

  • Sends another letter to the rulers of Jezreel telling them to kill all 70 of Ahab’s sons and for their heads to be sent back in baskets to him (2 Kings 10:7-8)

  • Did what God told Elijah (2 Kings 10:17)

• Killed King Ahaziah of Judah as well (2 Kings 9:27)

• Killed 42 of King Ahaziah’s relatives at the well near Beth Eked, none were left alive (2 Kings 10:14)

• Killed all of Israel’s worshippers of Baal in the Temple of Baal (2 Kings 10:24-25)

• Burned the Temple of Baal, smashed the memorial stones of Baal, smashed the Temple of Baal, made the temple of Baal into a public toilet, and destroyed Baal worship in Israel (2 Kings 10:26-28)

  • However, he did not destroy the golden calves in Dan and Bethel (2 Kings 10:29)

• Because he destroyed Ahab’s family the way God wanted him to, God rewarded him with a dynasty of his own that would rule Israel for four generations (2 Kings 10:30)

• During his reign, King Hazael of Aram defeated Israel, gaining some of its land and taking it away from Israel (2 Kings 10:32)

835 BC - 796 BC: Joash, son of Ahaziah; Pre-Reign and Beginning of Reign (All Notes)

• 8th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good (2 Kings 12:2) and Evil

  • However, he did not destroy the high places (2 Kings 12:3)

• His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba (2 Kings 12:1)

• While Queen Athaliah was killing off Ahaziah’s family, he was protected by Jehosheba (Ahaziah’s sister) who hid him from Athaliah for six years; further protected by Jehoiada the Priest who showed him to the captains and guards of the Carites who protected him in the First Temple (2 Kings 11:2-5, 2 Chronicles 22:11-12, 23:1-10)

  • Jehoiada the Priest essentially permitted him to come to power (2 Kings 11, 2 Chronicles 23:1-11)

  • Began ruling at 7 years old (2 Kings 11:21)

• Before his reign

  • With the help of Jehoiada the Priest, all the people (of Judah) agreed they would be God’s people and went to the temple of Baal, destroying the statue of Baal and his altars, breaking them into many pieces, and killing Baal’s priest Mattan in front of those altars (2 Kings 11:18, 2 Chronicles 23:16-17)

  • Jehoiada the Priest chose the priests to be responsible for God’s Temple, the Levites, and reminded them of their responsibilities concerning offering sacrifices the way the Torah commanded (2 Chronicles 23:18)

• During his reign

  • All the people (of Judah) were happy and the city was peaceful (2 Kings 11:20)

  • Queen Athaliah was killed (2 Kings 11:20, 2 Chronicles 23:14-15)

    • All the people of Judah were happy, and the city of Jerusalem had peace because Athaliah was killed by the sword (2 Chronicles 23:21)

835 BC - 796 BC: Joash, son of Ahaziah; During Main Parts of Reign (All Notes)

• 8th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good (2 Kings 12:2) and Evil (2 Chronicles 24:2)

  • Did what was right for God as long as Jehoiada the Priest was living (2 Chronicles 24:2)

  • However, he did not destroy the high places (2 Kings 12:3)

• His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba (2 Kings 12:1, 2 Chronicles 24:1)

• Ordered the priests to use the Temple tax money to repair the Temple and to stop taking money from the people for non-temple purposes (2 Kings 12:4-8, 2 Chronicles 24:4-5)

  • So Jehoiada the Priest essentially invents the “Tzedakah Box” as a new system for collecting temple taxes, but he is ordered to do so by him (2 Kings 12:9, 2 Chronicles 24:8)

    • This was the same tax money that Moses had required the Israelites to give while they were in the desert (2 Chronicles 24:9)

    • He placed the box on the south side of the altar, near the door where people came into the Temple, and had priests guard the doorway to the Temple and collect the money people brought for the Temple and put it into this box (2 Kings 12:9)

    • They brought their money and put it in the box until the box was full (2 Chronicles 24:10)

    • When the box was full

      • The Levites would take the box to the king’s officials, in which the king’s secretary would then take the money out of the box, put the box back in its place, and continued this process to gather the money (2 Chronicles 24:11)

      • The priests counted all the money and put it into bags to give to the men who were in charge of the work on the Temple, paying these men accordingly (2 Kings 12:10-11, 2 Chronicles 24:12)

    • They also used this money to buy the necessary supplies to repair the temple (2 Kings 12:12)

    • So, the money was exclusively used to pay the workers who repaired the Temple (and for the supplies they needed) (2 Kings 12:13-14, 2 Chronicles 24:12)

    • Those in charge of paying the workers could be trusted and did not have to give a report of how they spent the money (2 Kings 12:15)

    • The men who supervised the work were very faithful (2 Chronicles 24:13)

    • The work to rebuild the Temple was successful, building it the way it was before but having made it even stronger (2 Chronicles 24:13)

    • When the workers were finished, the brought the money that was left to him and to Jehoiada the Priest to make additional things for God’s Temple that were to be used for the Temple services and for burnt offerings (2 Chronicles 24:14)

    • People gave money when they offered guilt and sin offerings, but that money was not used for the temple and belonged to the priests (2 Kings 12:16)

    • All the leaders and the people of Judah were happy as a result of this system (2 Chronicles 24:10)

• Gave all many things given to God that were kept in the First Temple and King’s palace and all the gold gathered by Israel over the years and sent all of this treasure to King Hazael of Aram to make him leave Jerusalem and not attack it (2 Kings 12:18)

• After Jehoiada died, his leaders stopped worshiping at God’s Temple and started worshipping Asherah poles and other idols instead, making God angry with the people of Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 24:18)

  • Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the Priest, told the people that God has left them because they have left God and warned them about what would happen if they continue to behave that way (2 Chronicles 24:20)

    • But the people only made plans against Zechariah, in which he, the king, ordered the people to kill Zechariah, so they threw rocks at him in the courtyard of God’s Temple until he was dead (2 Chronicles 24:21)

  • The king did not remember Jehoiada’s kindness to him, such as when he protected him in order to anoint him and make him king (2 Chronicles 24:22)

• Under his reign, the Arameans came against him and attacked Judah and Jerusalem and killed all the leaders of the people and sent all the valuable things from there to the King of Damascus and God allowed this to happen in order to punish the King and the people for turning their back against God (2 Chronicles 24:23-24)

• Killed by his own officers at the house of Millo on the road that goes down to Silla (2 Kings 12:20-21)

  • Killed by his own servants in his own bed (2 Chronicles 24:25)

    • They did this because of his commanding for the people to kill Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the Priest (2 Chronicles 24:25)

  • He was buried in the City of David like Jehoiada the Priest, but unlike Jehoiada the Priest, he was not buried where the kings are buried (2 Chronicles 24:25)

835 BC - 796 BC: Jehoiada the Priest (Abridged Notes)

• Priest during Joash’s rule

• Because of all the good things he did for Israel, from protecting and anointing Joash, to instilling the Tzedakah System, and so on; he was buried in the City of David where the kings were buried (2 Chronicles 24:16)

814 BC - 798 BC: Jehoahaz (All Notes)

• 11th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 13:2)

• Under his rule, King Hazael of Aram and Ben-Hadad of Aram (King Hazael’s son) gained control of Israel because of God’s anger towards Israel (2 Kings 13:3)

• Begged God to help him and Israel to which God had mercy on him because God had seen the terrible troubles that the King of Aram had caused the Israelites and sent “a man” to save Israel from the Arameans (2 Kings 13:4-5)

• Despite this, Israel continued to sin and kept the “Asherah” poles in Samaria (2 Kings 13:6)

• So, under his rule, the King of Aram defeated his army and most of his men (2 Kings 13:7)

• Throughout his reign, King Hazael of Aram caused trouble to Israel (2 Kings 13:22)

798 BC - 782 BC: Jehoash (All Notes)

• 12th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 13:11)

• Visited Elisha when he was ill, crying for him and receiving from him a prophecy that God will redeem Israel and allow them to defeat the Arameans at Aphek (2 Kings 13:14-19)

• Took back the cities that King Hazael of Aram had taken from Israel during his father Jehoahaz’s reign away from King Hazael’s son Ben-Hadad, defeating him three times and taking back those cities of Israel (2 Kings 13:24-35)

• Fought against and defeated King Amaziah of Judah and took Judah, captured King Amaziah of Judah, took all the gold and silver and dishes in the First Temple and the treasuries of the king’s palace, took people of Judah to be his prisoners, and then returned to his throne in Samaria in Israel (2 Kings 14:9-15)

796 BC - 767 BC: Amaziah (All Notes)

• 9th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good and Evil (2 Kings 14:3-4, 2 Chronicles 25:2)

  • He did what God wanted him to do, but not with all his heart (2 Chronicles 25:2)

• His mother was Jehoaddin from Jerusalem (2 Kings 14:2, 2 Chronicles 25:1)

• Had strong control over the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 14:5, 2 Chronicles 25:3)

  • Gathered the people of Judah together and grouped them by families, putting generals and captains in charge of these groups; with leaders in charge of all the soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (2 Chronicles 25:5)

  • All the men chosen to be soldiers were 20 years old or older (2 Chronicles 25:5)

  • There were 300K skilled soldiers (2 Chronicles 25:5)

  • Hired 100K soldiers from Israel, paying 3.75 tons of silver to hire them; but a prophet came to him warning him not to do this despite having already paid them when he came to him (2 Chronicles 25:6-9)

    • In response, he sent the army of Israel back to Ephraim and made these men very angry with the king and people of Judah (2 Chronicles 25:10)

      • As a result, the Israelite army attacked towns all over Judah from Beth Horon to Samaria, and killed 3000 people and took many valuable things (2 Chronicles 25:13)

        • They did this because because they were angry he would not them join him in the war (2 Chronicles 25:13)

• Killed the officers who killed his father (2 Kings 14:5, 2 Chronicles 25:3)

  • Did not kill the children of those officers (2 Kings 14:6, 2 Chronicles 25:4)

• Killed 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, taking Sela and renaming it “Joktheel” (2 Kings 14:7)

  • After he commanded the Israelite army to leave his forces, he became very brave and led his army to this place where he captured these men from Seir and threw them from the top of a cliff while they were still alive and broke their bodies on the rocks below (2 Chronicles 25:11-12)

  • After defeating the Edomites, he brought the idols that the people there worshipped and began worshipping them himself, which thoroughly angered God (2 Chronicles 25:14-15)

    • So God sent a prophet to ask why he started to worship those gods, in which the prophet reminded him that their gods could not even save them from him, the king of Judah (2 Chronicles 25:15)

      • This angered him even more so he told the prophet to shut up or he will have him be killed, so the prophet never spoke again except to say that God is deciding to destroy him because of what he did and not listening to his advice sent through me, the prophet he sent (2 Chronicles 25:16-17)

• Jehoash of Israel initially warns him not to fight him for he will defeat him, but the namesake king does not listen and fights him anyway, being defeated by him, and so under his reign Israel defeated Judah and every man of Judah ran home (2 Kings 14:8-12, 2 Chronicles 25:18-22)

• Was captured but not killed by Jehoash, who took him to Jerusalem, tore down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, took the gold, silver, and other valuable things from God’s Temple, took the treasures from the King’s Palace, and took some people as hostages (2 Kings 14:9-15, 2 Chronicles 25:23-24)

• When he stopped obeying God, he was plotted against in Jerusalem by his own people, so he fled to Lachish, but his people found him there and killed him and buried him with ancestors in the City of Judah, not the City of David (2 Kings 14:19, 2 Chronicles 25:25-28)

782 BC - 753 BC: Jeroboam II, Son of Jehoash (All Notes)

• 13th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 14:24)

• Took back Israel’s land from Lebo-Hamath to the Arabah Sea (2 Kings 14:25)

• Used him to “save the Israelites” (2 Kings 14:27)

• Won back Damascus and Hamath for Israel (2 Kings 14:28)

767 BC - 740 BC: Azariah / Uzziah, son of Amaziah (All Notes)

• 10th King of Judah

• He ruled 52 years in Jerusalem (2 Kings 15:2, 2 Chronicles 26:3)

• Judged by God to be Good (2 Kings 15:3, 2 Chronicles 26:4)

  • However, like his father Amaziah, he did not destroy the high places (2 Kings 15:4, 2 Chronicles 26:4)

  • But when he was obeying God, God gave him success (2 Chronicles 26:5)

• His mother was Jecoliah of Jerusalem (2 Kings 15:2, 2 Chronicles 26:3)

• Rebuilt Elath and got it back for Judah (2 Kings 14:22, 2 Chronicles 26:2)

• Fought a war against the Philistines with God’s help (2 Chronicles 26:6-7)

  • He tore down the walls around the towns of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod (2 Chronicles 26:6)

  • Built towns near the town of Ashdod and in other places among the Philistine lands (2 Chronicles 26:6)

• Fought against the Arabs living in the town of Gur Baal and the Meunites with God’s help (2 Chronicles 26:7)

• The Ammonites paid him tribute (2 Chronicles 26:8)

• His name became famous all the way to the Egyptian border because of his power (2 Chronicles 26:8, 15)

• Built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the place where the wall turned and made all of them strong (2 Chronicles 26:9)

• Built towers in the desert and dug many wells (2 Chronicles 26:10)

• Had many cattle in the hill country and flat lands, had many farmers in the mountains and in the lands where growth was good, and had many men who took care of vineyards; his love of farming was clear during his reign (2 Chronicles 26:10)

• Had an army of 307,500 trained soldiers who fought with great power (2 Chronicles 26:11-13)

  • These men were

    • Put into groups by various officials and counted, with 2600 total army leaders (2 Chronicles 26:11-12)

    • Given shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, stones, and slings (2 Chronicles 26:14)

• In Jerusalem, he made machines that were invented by intelligent men that were to be put on the towers and corner walls that shot arrows and large rocks (2 Chronicles 26:15)

• When he became strong, his pride caused him to be destroyed and he lost faith in God (2 Chronicles 26:16)

  • He sinned by entering God’s Temple to burn incense on the altar for burning incense, which was a sin because that is the job of the priests, Aaron’s descendants, to do, not his, and so the priests during his reign called him out for this and told him that God will not honor him well because of this act (2 Chronicles 26:16-18)

    • In response, he became very angry with the priests, but as soon as he became angry, leprosy broke out on his forehead and so he was punished by God for his actions and hurried out of the Temple by the priests and became a leper, meaning he could not enter God’s Temple again (2 Chronicles 26:19-21)

    • Because of his leprosy that he was sick with, for the remainder of his rule (the last 27 years, apparently), he lived in a separate house and let his son Jotham take charge of the king’s palace and the judgment (governance) of the people (2 Kings 15:5, 2 Chronicles 26:21)

• His son eventually would take his place (2 Kings 15:7, 2 Chronicles 26:23)

753 BC - 752 BC: Zechariah, son of Jeroboam II (All Notes)

• 14th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (1 Kings 15:9)

• Plotted against by Shallum son of Jabesh who killed him in Ibleam (2 Kings 15:10)

752 BC: Shallum (All Notes)

• 15th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil

• Plotted against Zechariah, son of Jeroboam II and killed him in Ibleam (2 Kings 15:10)

• Plotted against by Mehahem, son of Gadi, who came up from Tirzah to Samaria and killed him to become the new king (2 Kings 15:14)

752 BC - 742 BC: Menahem (All Notes)

• 16th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 15:18)

• Defeated Tiphsah and the area around it, defeating the people there and ripping open all the pregnant women in that city (2 Kings 15:16)

• Gave King Pul of Assyria 75,000 pounds of silver so that Pul would support him and help him gain complete control of the Kingdom of Israel (2 Kings 15:19)

• Raised money making all the rich and powerful men pay taxes, taxing each man 20 ounces of silver and giving the money to the king of Assyria so he would leave and not bother them anymore (2 Kings 15:20)

• Plotted against by Pekah, son of Remaliah, who killed him at his palace in Samaria (2 Kings 15:25)

742 BC - 740 BC: Pekahiah (All Notes)

• 17th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 15:24)

• His commander Pekah son of Remaliah killed him in Samaria at the king’s palace with the help of 50 men from Gilead and took over his rule (2 Kings 15:25)

748 BC - 732 BC: Jotham, son of Azariah / Uzziah (All Notes)

• 11th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good (2 Kings 15:34, 2 Chronicles 27:2)

  • However, he did not destroy the high places (2 Kings 15:35)

  • He did not enter God’s Temple to burn incense like his father had done (2 Chronicles 27:2)

    • But the people of Judah continued to do wrong during his reign (2 Chronicles 27:2)

  • He became powerful because he faithfully obeyed God (2 Chronicles 27:6)

• His mother was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok (2 Kings 15:33, 2 Chronicles 27:1)

• (Re)Built

  • The upper gate of the First Temple (2 Kings 15:35, 2 Chronicles 27:3)

  • The wall at the place named Ophel (2 Chronicles 27:3)

  • Towns in the hill country of Judah (2 Chronicles 27:4)

  • Fortresses and towers in the forests of Judah (2 Chronicles 27:4)

• Under his reign,

  • He fought against the King of the Ammonites and his army defeated them, so each year for three years the Ammonites paid him tribute (2 Chronicles 27:5)

  • King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel fought against him and his kingdom (2 Kings 15:37)

740 BC - 732 BC: Pekah (All Notes)

• 18th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 15:28)

• Under his reign, King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria came to fight against Israel and captured Ijon, Abel Bethmaacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, Galilee, and Naphtali; and took all the people from these places as prisoners to Assyria (2 Kings 15:29)

• Plotted against by Hoshea son of Elah who killed him and took over his rule (2 Kings 15:30)

732 BC - 716 BC: Ahaz (All Notes)

• 12th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 16:2-3, 2 Chronicles 28:1)

  • He followed the bad example of the kings of Israel (2 Chronicles 28:2), in which he

    • Used molds to make idols to worship the Baal gods (2 Chronicles 28:2)

    • Burned incense in the Valley of Ben Hinnom (2 Chronicles 28:3)

  • He even burned his son(s) as a sacrifice (2 Kings 16:3, (2 Chronicles 28:3))

  • He copied the terrible sins of the nations that God had forced to leave the country when Israel came (2 Kings 16:3, 2 Chronicles 28:3)

  • He offered sacrifices and burned incense in the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree (2 Chronicles 28:4)

• Under his reign

  • King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel came to fight against him and Jerusalem, surrounding him and defeating him (2 Kings 16:5, 2 Chronicles 28:5-6)

  • King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel killed 120K soldiers of Judah in one day (2 Chronicles 28:5-6)

  • King Pekah and the army of Israel captured 200K of their own relatives in Judah including women, children, and valuable things, and took them back to Samaria (2 Chronicles 28:8)

    • Nonetheless, God still punished Israel for its cruelty through the prophet Oded and asked, through the prophet, for Israel to return what it captured back to Judah or else incur His wrath (2 Chronicles 28:9-11)

      • In response, four soldiers that leaders in Judah saw convinced them to give back the prisoners and valuable things to the leaders and the people of Judah (2 Chronicles 28:12-15)

  • King Rezin of Aram took back Elath for Aram, and took back all the people of Judah who were living in Elath, settling the Arameans in Elath (2 Kings 16:6)

  • King Rezin of Aram took many people of Judah as prisoners to the city of Damascus (2 Chronicles 28:5-6)

  • The Edomites came and defeated him and his people, capturing people and taking them away as prisoners (2 Chronicles 28:16-17)

    • In response, he asked the King of Assyria to help him (2 Chronicles 28:16-17)

  • The Philistines attacked towns in the hills and in South Judah, capturing the towns of Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco, Timnah, and Gozo and capturing the villages near these towns and living amongst the people there (2 Chronicles 28:18)

  • All this happened because he and the people of Judah turned away from God (becoming very unfaithful to God), and because he encouraged his people to sin (2 Chronicles 28:5-6, 19)

• Under his reign

  • Zicri, a (brave) soldier from Ephraim, killed his son named Maaseiah; killed his officer in charge of his palace named Azrikam; and killed his second-in-command named Elkanah (2 Chronicles 28:7)

• Sent messengers, silver and gold from the First Temple, and the treasuries from the king’s palace to King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria and requested that he help him fight against Aram and Israel (2 Kings 16:7-8)

  • In response, King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria listened to him and went to fight with him against Damascus, helping him capture that city and taking its people as prisoners to Kir (2 Kings 16:9)

  • Killed King Rezin of Aram (2 Kings 16:9)

  • He then went back to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria and sent a model and pattern of an altar there to Uriah the priest to be built for him back in Judah before he returned there (2 Kings 16:10-11)

  • When he saw the altar, he offered sacrifices on it and then took the bronze altar for God in the First Temple and moved it in a way which would make it subordinate to the new altar he created modeled off of the one in Damascus, commanding Uriah the Priest to prepare sacrifices on the altars according to him (2 Kings 16:12-16)

  • He then reorganized and rearranged things from the First Temple, and removed certain things from the First Temple because of the King of Assyria (2 Kings 16:17-18)

  • However, King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria (eventually) caused him troubles instead of helping him and when he gave valuable things from God’s Temple and the King’s Palace to try and appease King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria, it did not help him (2 Chronicles 28:20-21)

• He worshipped the idols of Damascus (Aram) because he thought that the gods that the people of Aram worshipped helped them, so if he offers those gods sacrifices, those gods will help him as well; so he began to worship these gods and offer them sacrifices, thus sinning and causing the people to sin (2 Chronicles 28:22-23)

• He gathered the things from God’s Temple and broke them to pieces, closed the doors of God’s Temple, made altars and put them on every street corner in Jerusalem, and made high places for burning incense to worship other gods in every town in the kingdom of Judah; all of which made God extremely angry (2 Chronicles 28:24-25)

• He was buried in Jerusalem, but not in the same burial place where kings were buried (2 Chronicles 28:27)

732 BC - 722 BC: Hoshea (All Notes)

• 19th King of Israel

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 17:2)

  • However, he was not as bad as the Kings of Israel who had ruled before him (2 Kings 17:2)

• Under his reign

  • King Shalmeneser of Assyria came to fight against him and defeated him and Israel, so he paid King Shalmeneser of Assyria tribute (2 Kings 17:3)

  • The King of Assyria arrested and jailed him (2 Kings 17:4) because

    • He sent messengers to King So of Egypt asking for helping against Assyria (2 Kings 17:4)

    • One year during his reign, he did not pay tribute to the King of Assyria (2 Kings 17:4)

  • The King of Assyria attacked many places in Israel, fought against Samaria for 3 years and then took Samaria (2 Kings 17:5-6)

    • The King of Assyria then took Israelites as prisoners to Assyria and made them live in Halah by the Habor River at Gozan and in other cities of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6)

• All of this happened because the Israelites had sinned against God (2 Kings 17:7; see “Sins of Israel” card)

• God forced those people to leave their land when the Israelites came (2 Kings 17:8)

• He was the last King of Israel as Assyria completely took over and wiped out the Kingdom of Israel once and for all (2 Kings 17:23)

• Under his reign, the King of Assyria took the Israelites out of Samaria and brought in other peoples from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim - taking over Samaria and living in the cities around it (2 Kings 17:24)

  • When these peoples began to live in Samaria, they did not honor God, so God sent lions to attack them (2 Kings 17:25)

    • The lions killed them because the people do not know the law of the God of David (2 Kings 17:26)

  • These people ultimately respected God but also served their own Gods, just as they did in their own countries (2 Kings 17:33)

• Under his reign, King Shalmaneser of Assyria went to fight against, surround, and capture Samaria of Israel (2 Kings 18:9)

  • King Shalmeneser of Assyria took the Israelites as prisoners to Assyria, made them live in Halah on the Habor (the river of Gozan) and in the cities of the Medes (2 Kings 18:10-11)

    • This happened because Israel did not obey God, breaking his covenant and not obeying everything Moses, God’s servant, had commanded, not listening to the covenant, or doing what it taught them to do (2 Kings 18:12)

Sins of Israel and Judah (All Notes)

• The Israelites

  • Did the same things that other peoples did (2 Kings 17:8)

  • Chose to be ruled by Kings (2 Kings 17:9)

  • Secretly did things against God, and those things were wrong (2 Kings 17:9)

  • Built high places in all their cities (2 Kings 17:9)

  • Put up memorial stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree (2 Kings 17:10)

  • Burned incense there in all those places for worship (2 Kings 17:11)

  • Did these things like the nations that God forced out of the land before them (2 Kings 17:11)

  • Did evil things that made God angry (2 Kings 17:11)

  • Served idols despite God’s wishes not to (2 Kings 17:12)

  • Did not listen to the prophets and seers God sent to warn Israel and Judah (2 Kings 17:13-14)

  • Refused to follow God’s laws and the covenant he made with their ancestors (2 Kings 17:14)

  • Did not believe in God (2 Kings 17:14)

  • Would not listen to God’s warnings (2 Kings 17:15)

  • Worshipped idols that were worth nothing and they themselves became worth nothing (2 Kings 17:15)

  • Stopped following the commands of the Lord their God (2 Kings 17:16)

  • Made two gold statues of calves at Dan and Bethel (2 Kings 17:16)

  • Made Asherah poles (2 Kings 17:16)

  • Worshipped all the stars of heaven (2 Kings 17:16)

  • Served Baal (2 Kings 17:16)

  • Sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire (2 Kings 17:17)

  • Used magic and witchcraft to try to learn the future (2 Kings 17:17)

  • Sold themselves to do what God said was evil (2 Kings 17:17)

    • Did this to make him angry (2 Kings 17:17)

    • So God was very angry with Israel and removed them from his sight, there soon were no Israelites left except the tribe of Judah (2 Kings 17:18)

    • So God rejected all the Israelites, bringing them many troubles, letting people destroy them, throwing them away and removing them from his sight, tearing them from the family of David (2 Kings 17:20)

  • Stopped sinning only when God took Israel away from his sight as he said would happen and he sent his prophets to tell the people this would happen causing the Assyrian Exile to occur (2 Kings 17:23)

• The people of Judah

  • Even they did not obey the commands of God, having lived just as the Israelites had (1 Kings 17:19)

716 BC - 687 BC: Hezekiah (All Notes)

• 13th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Good (2 Kings 18:3, 2 Chronicles 29:2, 31:20)

  • He also destroyed the high places, broke the memorial stones, and cut down the Asherah poles, and broke the bronze snake of “Neshushtan” into pieces (2 Kings 18:4)

  • Trusted in the God of Israel, there was nobody like him among all the Kings of Judah before him or after him (2 Kings 18:5)

  • He was very faithful to God and did not stop following him (2 Kings 18:6)

  • He obeyed the commands God gave Moses (2 Kings 18:6)

  • God was with him, so he was successful in everything he did (2 Kings 18:7, 2 Chronicles 31:21, 32:30)

  • Followed God with all his heart (2 Chronicles 31:21)

• His mother was Abi(jah), the daughter of Zechariah (2 Kings 18:2, 2 Chronicles 29:1)

• Defeated the Philistines all the way to Gaza and the area around it, having defeated all the Philistine cities (2 Kings 18:8)

• Repaired the doors of God’s Temple that his father had broken and reopened the doors of God’s Temple that his father had closed (2 Chronicles 29:3)

• Assembled the priests and Levites together in the courtyard of God’s Temple and told them to make themselves ready for their holy service to God, commanding them to take away from God’s Temple the things that do not belong there that make it unclean (2 Chronicles 29:4-5)

  • After retelling the priests of their past, he makes an agreement with God so God is not angry with them anymore, and tells them not to be lazy or waste any more time (2 Chronicles 29:11)

  • So, the Levites and priests obeyed him and undid all of the damage to God’s Temple that his father had caused (2 Chronicles 29:15-19)

  • Then, they proceeded to properly offer the sacrifices to God in His Temple, which served as a sin offering for the kingdom of Judah itself, for the people of Judah, and to make the Holy Place (God’s Temple) clean again in order that God would forgive the sins of the Israelites (2 Chronicles 29:20-24)

  • He then gave them musical instruments and commanded them to praise God the way David had created, through the playing of the instruments and the offering of the sacrifice, and continuing to bow down and worship God (2 Chronicles 29:25-35)

  • As a result of all this, the people were very happy (2 Chronicles 29:36)

  • Additionally, he told the groups of priests and Levites organized by King David and Solomon to resume doing their jobs as instructed to them by King David and Solomon (2 Chronicles 31:2)

• During his reign, he invited all the people of Judah and Israel from Beersheba to Dan to come to God’s Temple to celebrate the Passover feast for God, which he did so through messages sent by messengers detailing how the festival was supposed to be celebrated according to the Torah (2 Chronicles 30:1-13, 15-17, 21-22)

  • Most decided to join, due to God’s power at that point in time, but a few groups of people who were invited laughed and mocked the messengers (2 Chronicles 30:10-13)

  • As a result of joining, the people took away the altars in Jerusalem that were for false gods and threw them into the Kidron Valley (2 Chronicles 30:14)

  • However, many people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not prepared themselves in the right way for the Passover Festival and did not celebrate it according to the rules of the Torah (2 Chronicles 30:18-20)

    • So, he prayed for them and asked God to forgive them and God listened to him and forgave them (2 Chronicles 30:18-20)

  • He made sure to offer the proper sacrifices in God’s Temple for the Passover holiday (2 Chronicles 30:24) as well as for the Sabbath (2 Chronicles 31:3)

  • All the people were joyful as they celebrated the Passover Festival (2 Chronicles 30:23, 25-26)

  • There had not been a celebration like this since the reign of King Solomon (2 Chronicles 30:26)

  • After the people celebrated, they went out to the towns of Judah and destroyed everything that was used at that time for worshipping false gods, and then went back home to their own towns after this was accomplished (2 Chronicles 31:1)

• Commanded the people living in Jerusalem to give the priests and Levites their share of crops (and other required things) so that the priests and Levites could spend all of their time doing what God told them to do in service of Him at the Temple (2 Chronicles 31:4)

  • And the people obeyed this command, giving 1/10 of their yield (2 Chronicles 31:5-7)

  • They also gave 1/10 of their cattle and sheep (2 Chronicles 31:6-7)

  • They also gave 1/10 of their things that were to be put in a special place that was only for God (2 Chronicles 31:6-7)

• Commanded the priests to make storerooms ready in God’s temple and this was done (2 Chronicles 31:11)

  • These storerooms were used in order to place the offerings, tithes, and other things that the priests had collected from the people so that these things could be given to God alone (2 Chronicles 31:12)

  • Some of these things were given to Levites when they turned three years old in order that they did not have to seek them out on their own and can focus all of their duties on service to God (2 Chronicles 31:16)

  • This system of giving the Levites things from the other tribes was established because the Levites were faithful to always keep themselves holy and ready for service (2 Chronicles 31:18)

• He broke away from the King of Assyria and stopped serving him (2 Kings 18:7)

  • As a result, King Sennacherib of Assyria came to attack him and the country of Judah (2 Chronicles 32:1)

    • In response, he

      • Listened to his officers’ advice and agreed with them to stop the water of the water springs outside the city from running in order to try and deter the King of Assyria and his army from advancing (2 Chronicles 32:3-5)

        • Many people helped stop the springs and stream that flowed through the middle of the country (2 Chronicles 32:4)

      • Made Jerusalem stronger by (re)building

        • All the parts of the wall that were broken down (2 Chronicles 32:5)

        • Towers on the wall (2 Chronicles 32:5)

        • Another wall outside the first wall (2 Chronicles 32:5)

        • The Strong places on the east side of the old part of the city (2 Chronicles 32:5)

      • Made Jerusalem stronger by

        • Making many weapons and shields (2 Chronicles 32:5)

        • Chose officers of war to be in charge of the people, talking to them and encouraging them to be strong and brave and not worry about the King of Assyria or his army because they have God on their side (2 Chronicles 32:6-8)

• Under his reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria went to fight against all the strong cities of Judah and defeated them all (2 Kings 18:13)

  • In response, he paid King Sennacherib 11 tons of silver and 1 ton of gold, giving the King of Assyria all the silver that was in the First Temple and in the King’s treasuries, cutting off the gold that had been put on the doors and doorposts of the First Temple and giving it to the King of Assyria (2 Kings 18:14-16)

• Was challenged by messengers from Assyria for his people not to follow him or God (2 Kings 18:17-37, 2 Chronicles 32:9-16, 18-19)

  • The King of Assyria also wrote letters to the people of Judah (and Israel) insulting God (2 Chronicles 32:17)

  • Sent his three top men to Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, who tells them that God says that he will send a spirit against the King of Assyria and he will eventually be cut down with a sword in his own country (2 Kings 19:1-7)

  • In response, he and Isaiah the Prophet son of Amoz pray to God to save Judah from the King of Assyria (2 Kings 19:14-19, 2 Chronicles 32:20)

    • God answers him and sends an angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians (2 Kings 19:35)

      • Also, the prophecy of 2 Kings 19:1-7 is fulfilled when Sennacherib is killed by his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer; and is succeeded by his son Esarhaddon (2 Kings 19:37)

    • God answers him and Isaiah the Prophet by sending an angel of death to the King of Assyria and his army, killing all of the Assyrian army and forcing the King of Assyria to flee and making his people ashamed of him and thus saving him and the people in Jerusalem from King Sennacherib of Assyria (2 Chronicles 32:21-22)

      • He did this because he cared for him and his people because they were faithful to Him (2 Chronicles 32:22-23)

• Many people brought gifts to him and from that time on, all the nations respected him (2 Chronicles 32:23)

  • During his reign, many people (from other nations) also brought gifts to Jerusalem for God (2 Chronicles 32:23)

• Had many riches and much honor given to him by God (2 Chronicles 32:27, 29)

  • He made places to keep silver, gold, valuable jewels, spices, shields, and all kinds of things (2 Chronicles 32:27)

  • He had storage buildings for the grain, wine, and oil that people sent to him (2 Chronicles 32:28)

  • He had stalls for all the cattle and sheep sent to him (2 Chronicles 32:28)

  • He built many towns and got many flocks of sheep and cattle (2 Chronicles 32:29)

• He became sick and almost died, Isaiah had told him to tell his family what they should do when he dies (2 Kings 20:1, 2 Chronicles 32:24)

• He calls out to God that he has served him with all his heart and has done what God says is good, crying very hard; and God answers him and says He will heal him and add 15 years to his life, save and protect him and Judah from the King of Assyria to keep his promise He made to His servant David (2 Kings 20:2-6)

  • However, once God does this, he (this king of Judah) does not give thanks to God for His kindness, so God became angry with him and with the people of Judah (2 Chronicles 32:25)

    • In response, he and the people of Judah and Jerusalem became humble and stopped being prideful, so God did not punish them while he and the people living during his reign were still alive (2 Chronicles 32:26)

• Was sent letters and gifts by Merodach of Babylon son of Baladan when Merodach had heard that he had been sick and he showed the messengers of Merodach the insides of the First Temple including all the valuable things he owned in his treasures, palace, and kingdom; but Isaiah tells him that this is an early sign that Babylon will take a hold of Judah and everything in his palace and everything his ancestors have saved until today will be carried away to Babylon (2 Kings 20:12-18)

  • He responds to Isaiah by acknowledging that this message from God is good (2 Kings 20:19)

• Worked on the pool and the aqueduct to bring water into the city, stopping the upper source of the waters of the Gihon Spring in Jerusalem and making those waters flow straight down on the west side of the City of David (2 Kings 20:20, 2 Chronicles 32:30)

• Was buried on the hill where the graves of David’s ancestors were (2 Chronicles 32:33)

687 BC - 642 BC: Manasseh (All Notes)

• 14th King of Judah

  • Began to rule at 12 years old (2 Kings 21:1, 2 Chronicles 33:1)

• His mother was Hephzibah (2 Kings 21:1)

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 21:2, 2 Chronicles 33:2)

  • He rebuilt the high places that his father had destroyed (2 Kings 21:3, 2 Chronicles 33:3)

  • He built altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, just like King Ahab of Israel (2 Kings 21:3, 2 Chronicles 33:3)

  • Worshipped and served the stars of heaven (2 Kings 21:3, 2 Chronicles 33:3)

  • Built altars to honor false gods in the First Temple (2 Kings 21:4, 2 Chronicles 33:4)

  • Built altars for the stars of heaven in the 2 courtyards of the First Temple (2 Kings 21:5, 2 Chronicles 33:5)

  • Sacrificed his own son(s) and burned him (them) on the altar (and in the Valley of Ben Hinnom) (2 Kings 21:6 (2 Chronicles 33:6))

  • Used different ways of trying to know the future and visited wizards (2 Kings 21:6, 2 Chronicles 33:6)

  • Did more and more things that God saw as evil, making God angry (2 Kings 21:6, 2 Chronicles 33:6)

  • Made a carved statue of Asherah which he put in the First Temple (2 Kings 21:7, 2 Chronicles 33:7)

  • He did more evil things than all the nations that lived in Canaan before Israel came (2 Kings 21:9, 2 Chronicles 33:9)

  • So God, through prophets, had said he would give up his people as prisoners that their enemies will take because they did what He said was wrong (2 Kings 21:14)

  • Caused Judah to do what God said was wrong (2 Kings 21:16, 2 Chronicles 33:9)

  • Killed many innocent people (2 Kings 21:16)

    • He filled Jerusalem from one end to another with blood (2 Kings 21:16)

  • God spoke to him and his people, but they refused to listen (2 Chronicles 33:10)

    • So God brought Assyrians to attack Judah, capturing him and making him their prisoner, putting hooks in him and brass chains on his hands and taking him to the country of Babylon (2 Chronicles 33:11)

      • In response to these troubles that God caused to come to him, he begged God for help, and humbled himself before him (2 Chronicles 33:12-13)

        • In response, God felt sorry for him, so he let him return to Jerusalem and to his throne and from that point forward he knew God was the true God (2 Chronicles 33:13)

• Built an outer wall for the city of David and made it extensive and very tall (2 Chronicles 33:14)

• Put officers in all the fortresses in Judah (2 Chronicles 33:14)

• He then took away

  • The strange idol golds and the idol out of the First Temple (2 Chronicles 33:15)

  • All the altars he had built on the Temple hill and in Jerusalem, throwing all the altars out of the city of Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33:15)

• He then setup God’s altar and offered the proper offerings (2 Chronicles 33:16)

• He then commanded the people of Judah to serve God and although they continued sacrificing at the high places, the sacrifices were made for God (2 Chronicles 33:16-17)

• Buried in his own palace (2 Chronicles 33:20)

642 BC - 640 BC: Amon (All Notes)

• 15th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 21:20, 2 Chronicles 33:21)

  • Offered sacrifices for all the carved idols and statues that his father had made and worshipped those idols (2 Chronicles 33:22)

  • Unlike his father, he never humbled himself in front of God and so his sin worsened over time (2 Chronicles 33:23)

• His mother was Meshullemeth, daughter of Haruz from Jotbah (2 Kings 21:19)

• Plotted against by his servants, who killed him in his palace (2 Kings 21:23, 2 Chronicles 33:24)

• The common people then killed the officers who plotted against him and made his son Josiah the new king after him (2 Kings 21:24, 2 Chronicles 33:25)

640 BC - 608 BC: Josiah (All Notes)

• 16th King of Judah

• Was 8 years old when he began to rule (2 Kings 22:1, 2 Chronicles 34:1)

• Judged by God to be Good: the last Good King of Judah (2 Kings 22:2, 2 Chronicles 34:2)

  • He obeyed God’s teachings, doing exactly what God wanted (2 Kings 22:2)

  • There never had been a king like him before who turned to God with all his heart, soul, and might (2 Kings 23:25)

  • No king had followed all the laws of the Torah like him (2 Kings 23:25)

  • And there was never another king like him since his rule (2 Kings 23:25)

  • He never changed this way of life (2 Chronicles 34:2)

• His mother was Jedidah, daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath (2 Kings 22:1)

• Ordered for the First Temple to be repaired (so that it could be clean) and that the priests (supervisors) must use the temple tax money (the money the people (of Manasseh, Ephraim, Judah, Benjamin, and people living in Jerusalem and remaining faithful Israelites) were supposed to give, collected by the Levite “doorkeepers”) to pay the workers to repair the First Temple (so that they could pay for the necessary supplies to repair it), and that it is not necessary to count the money because the priests can be trusted and everyone worked faithfully (2 Kings 22:3-7 (2 Chronicles 34:8-13))

  • He sent three officials to go help repair the Temple (2 Chronicles 34:8)

  • The Levite supervisors worked as “doorkeepers”, secretaries, and officials (2 Chronicles 34:12-13)

• Under his reign, one of his priests found the Torah in the First Temple and read it to him, and he then he commanded the priests to ask God what they should do with this new information, so the priests went to a woman prophet named Huldah who told them that God was about to bring major destruction to Judah for its sin, but because he and his priests showed that they were upset at all of this, God will spare them from the destruction and make the rest of their lives peaceful and not start the destruction until after their death (2 Kings 22:8-19, 2 Chronicles 34:14-28)

• Told all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem to come and meet with him and all the people of Judah and Jerusalem to walk with him to the First Temple where he read the Torah found in the First Temple so that all the people of Judah and Jerusalem could hear the Torah and the Covenant for themselves (2 Kings 23:1-2, 2 Chronicles 34:29-3)

  • He spoke to the Levites who taught the Israelites and who were made holy for service to God and gave them multiple instructions relating to their duties (2 Chronicles 35:2-6)

• Made an agreement with God promising to follow Him and obey his commands, laws, and rules; with all his heart and soul; to obey the covenant; and treated this upon the people who stood to show that they promised to follow the agreement (2 Kings 23:3, 2 Chronicles 34:31-33)

  • The people of Jerusalem obeyed this covenant (2 Chronicles 34:32)

  • So, he made all the people in Israel serve God; for as long as he lived, the people served God (2 Chronicles 34:33)

• This is how he destroyed idols and idol worship in Judah and in Jerusalem and in the areas of towns allocated to the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and Naphtali in order to worship God as worshipped by his ancestor David (2 Chronicles 34:3-7, 33):

  • Commanded the priests and gatekeepers to bring out of the First Temple all the things that were made to honor Baal, Asherah, and the stars of heaven and commanded them to burn all those things outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and to carry the ashes of those burned things to Bethel (2 Kings 23:4)

  • Stopped the false priests from burning incense at the high places in every city in Judah and all the towns around Jerusalem and worshipping Baal and stars of heaven (2 Kings 23:5)

  • Removed the Asherah pole from the First Temple, taking it outside the city to the fields of the Kidron Valley and burned it there, then beat the burned pieces into dust and scattered the dust over the graves of the common people (2 Kings 23:6)

  • Broke down the houses of the male prostitutes who were in the First Temple (2 Kings 23:7)

  • Ruined the high places and brought the priests to Jerusalem, destroying the high places that were on the left side of the city gate, by the Gate of Joshua (2 Kings 23:8-9)

  • Ruined Topheth, a place in the Valley of Hinnom’s Son where people killed their children and burned them on an altar to honor the false god Molech (2 Kings 23:10)

  • Removed the horses and burned the chariot that were both placed in the First Temple to honor a certain sun god (2 Kings 23:11)

  • Destroyed the altars on the roof of Ahab’s building and the altars of King Manasseh in the 2 courtyards of the First Temple and threw the broken pieces of these altars into the Kidron Valley (2 Kings 23:12)

  • Ruined the high places King Solomon built on Destroyer Hill near Jerusalem to honor the false gods Ashtoreth of Sidon, Chemosh of Moab, and Milcom of Ammon (2 Kings 23:13)

  • Broke all the memorial stones and Asherah poles and scattered dead men’s bones over those high places, burning the bones of the priests who had served the Baal gods on their own altars (2 Kings 23:14)

  • Broke down the altar and high place at Bethel that King Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had built that caused Jeroboam to cause Israel to sin; burning the Asherah pole there and beating it into dust (2 Kings 23:15)

  • Destroyed the temples at the high places in the cities of Samaria built by the Kings of Israel (2 Kings 23:19)

  • Killed all the priests of the high places that were in Samaria, killing them on those altars and burned their bones on those altars so they could never be used again (2 Kings 23:20)

  • Destroyed the mediums, wizards, house gods, idols, and all the horrible things people worshipped in Judah and Jerusalem in order to obey the law written in the Torah (2 Kings 23:24)

• Commanded the people of Judah to celebrate the Passover holiday as written about in the Torah, and the people celebrated Passover for the first time since the days of the Book of Judges; it was the biggest Passover celebration the people Israel had since the days of the Book of Judges (2 Kings 23:21-22, 2 Chronicles 35:1-3, 7-8)

  • He and his officials gave the Israelites, the priests, and the Levites the proper offerings to sacrifice for the Passover sacrifice and gave 3000 cattle to the people, all of which came from his own animals (2 Chronicles 35:7-8)

  • He made sure the Passover sacrifices were done correctly in accordance with the Mosaic Law and then they were (2 Chronicles 35:10-15)

  • So, everything was done that day to worship God the way he had commanded, and hadn’t been celebrated in the way that it was since the days of Samuel the Prophet (2 Chronicles 35:16-18)

  • None of the kings of Israel had ever celebrated a Passover like this and celebrated in a very special way (2 Chronicles 35:18-19)

• So God allowed Judah to prosper under him until he died, and then he continued to forego with his punishment towards Judah due to the actions of King Manasseh by taking Judah out of his sight, not accepting Jerusalem and ultimately permitting the destruction of the First Temple (2 Kings 23:26-27)

• During his reign, he went out to meet Pharaoh Neco of Egypt at Megiddo to fight against the King of Assyria at the Euphrates River, but when Pharaoh Neco of Egypt saw him at Megiddo, he killed him and his officers put his body in a chariot and carried him back to Jerusalem where they buried him in his own grave (2 Kings 23:29-30)

  • When King Neco of Egypt came to fight against the town of Carchemish on the Euphrates River, he went out to fight against King Neco, but King Neco sent messengers who told him that King Neco was fighting against his enemies and that God was on his side, so don’t fight against King Neco or else God will destroy him, but he did not listen to this warning and was eventually wounded by arrows and died from those wounds (2 Chronicles 35:20-24)

• All the people of Judah and Jerusalem were very sad because he was dead (2 Chronicles 35:24)

  • The prophet Jeremiah wrote songs for him that have been sung throughout time and is something the people of Israel always do - sing a sad song for him (2 Chronicles 35:25)

608 BC: Jehoahaz, Son of Josiah (All Notes)

• 17th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 23:32)

• His mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (2 Kings 23:31)

• Put in prison at Riblah in the land of Hamath by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt who forced Judah to pay him 7500 pounds of silver and 75 pounds of gold and made Josiah’s son and the namesake king’s brother the new King but changed his name from Eliakim to Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:33-34, 2 Chronicles 36:3-4)

• After his imprisonment at Riblah, he was taken away by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt to Egypt where he died (2 Kings 23:34)

608 BC - 597 BC: Jehoiakim, Son of Jehoahaz, Son of Josiah (All Notes)

• 18th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 23:37, 2 Chronicles 36:5)

• His mother was Zebidah, daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah (2 Kings 23:36)

• Gave the silver and gold Pharaoh Neco of Egypt exacted from him (2 Kings 23:35)

  • Made the common people pay taxes and used that money to give to Pharaoh Neco of Egypt (2 Kings 23:35)

  • So everyone paid their share of silver and gold and he gave that money to Pharaoh Neco (2 Kings 23:35)

• Under his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to Judah, whom he served for three years (2 Kings 24:1)

  • King Nebuchadnezzar made him a prisoner and put bronze chains on him, then made him his prisoner and took him to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6)

  • King Nebuchadnezzar took some of the things from God’s Temple and carried them to Babylon, putting them in his own house (2 Chronicles 36:7)

• Then he turned away from Nebuchadnezzar, and God sent groups of Babylonians, Arameans, Ammonites, and Moabites to fight against him and Judah and successfully defeated them just as God had said because he was still angry with Judah because of the sins of Manasseh (2 Kings 24:2-4)

597 BC: Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim (All Notes)

• 19th King of Judah

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 24:9, 2 Chronicles 36:9)

• His mother was Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:8)

• Under his reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon

  • Surrounded and captured him and Jerusalem (2 Kings 24:10-12, 2 Chronicles 36:10)

  • Took from Jerusalem all the treasures in the king’s palace and cut up all the golden dishes that King Solomon had put in the First Temple and brought them to Babylon (2 Kings 24:13, 2 Chronicles 36:10)

  • Captured all of the people of Jerusalem, including the leaders and other wealthy people, taking 10,000 people and making them prisoners, taking all the skilled workers and craftsmen until nobody was left except the poorest of the common people (2 Kings 24:14)

  • Took him, his mother, his wives, his officers, and the leading men of his land as well as 7000 soldiers and 1000 craftsmen to Babylon as prisoners (2 Kings 24:15-16)

  • Made Mattaniah, the namesake king’s uncle, the new King, and changed his name to the namesake successive king (2 Kings 24:17, 2 Chronicles 36:10)

597 BC - 586 BC: Zedekiah, son of Jehoiachin (All Notes)

• 20th and Final King of Judah

• Was 21 years old when he began to rule (2 Kings 24:18, 2 Chronicles 36:12-13)

• Judged by God to be Evil (2 Kings 24:19)

• His mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah (2 Kings 24:18)

• Under his reign

  • God became so angry with Jerusalem and Judah that he threw them away to Babylon (2 Kings 24:20, 2 Chronicles 36:17)

  • He rebelled and refused to obey King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon (2 Kings 24:20, 2 Chronicles 36:13)

    • So the King of Babylon and all his army came to fight against Jerusalem

  • The King of Babylon surrounded the city walls until the famine in the city grew worse and worse until there was no food left for the poor in the city (2 Kings 25:3)

  • The King of Babylon punished him by killing his sons in front of him, then gouging his eyes out, putting him on chains, and taking him to Babylon (2 Kings 25:6-7)

  • King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had ordered his best soldier Nebuzaradan to burn the First Temple, the King’s Palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, even the largest houses (2 Kings 25:8-9, 2 Chronicles 36:19)

  • The Babylonian army tore down the walls of Jerusalem, captured all the people still left in the city, took them all as prisoners including those who tried to surrender, and let only the poorest of the common people stay there so they could take care of the grapes and the other crops (2 Kings 25:10-12, 2 Chronicles 36:19)

  • The Babylonian soldiers broke into pieces all the bronze things in the First Temple and took all the bronze back to Babylon (2 Kings 25:13, 2 Chronicles 36:18)

  • The Babylonian soldiers took the pots, shovels, tools, spoons, dishes, bowls, and firepans; all the things made of gold for the gold, all the things made of silver for the silver, and all the things made of bronze for the bronze and brought them back to Babylon (2 Kings 25:14-17, 2 Chronicles 36:18)

    • They took or destroyed every valuable thing in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:19)

  • Nebuzaradan took all the people to the King of Babylon at Riblah and killed them or took the people of Judah as prisoners and were led far away from their land (2 Kings 25:20-21)

    • Nebuchadnezzar took the people who were still alive back to Babylon and forced them to be slaves and they stayed there until Cyrus the Great liberated them (2 Chronicles 36:20)

• Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan was put in place of the namesake king as a governor regent of Judah under Babylon (2 Kings 25:22)

• During his reign

  • Jeremiah the Prophet told him messages from God, but he ignored them, not obeying what Jeremiah the Prophet said and not humbling himself for God (2 Chronicles 36:12)

  • The leaders of the priests and the leaders of the people of Judah sinned worse and became more unfaithful to God, following the example of the other nations, ruining the holy First Temple in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:14)

  • Despite God sending warnings to His people again and again through His prophets because of how sorry He felt for them and for His Temple and because He did not want to destroy them or his Temple; He punished them because they mocked God’s prophets that He sent them, they refused to listen to Him or His prophets, and they hated His messages (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

    • In response, God didn’t have any more mercy on His people of Judah and Jerusalem and he allowed the King of Babylon to attack the people of Judah and Jerusalem, allowing Babylon to kill all people - young and old, man and woman, sick and healthy; God permitted Nebuchadnezzar to punish all the people of Judah and Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:17)

• The land of Judah became an empty desert for the next 70 years, all that time of which the land rested to make up for the Sabbath rests that the people had not kept (2 Chronicles 36:21)

• Thus, under his reign, the Babylonian Exile essentially began and the First Temple of the People Israel was essentially destroyed (2 Chronicles 36:1-21)

  • This lasted until King Cyrus of Persia liberated the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon, fulfilling a prophecy foretold by Jeremiah the Prophet (2 Chronicles 36:22-23)