Chapter 12 relates that, after Solomon died, having reigned forty years, his son Rehoboam took up the kingdom. From this it is apparent that what Josephus says in the Antiquities is false—namely, that Solomon reigned eighty years and lived ninety-four—since the Third Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles say that he reigned forty years.
The people of Israel assembled before Rehoboam and asked him to lighten his father’s yoke, that is, the levies. After three days, he rejected the advice of the elders who had been with his father, which was to answer the people kindly. Following the young men’s advice about the response to make, he answered harshly, saying that he would burden the people still more. Because of this a schism followed in Israel. The ten tribes afterward called Israel made Jeroboam their king, while the tribe of Judah together with Benjamin remained with Rehoboam. When Rehoboam prepared to wage war against Israel with his army, the Lord prohibited it through a prophet.
Jeroboam, reigning over Israel, feared that if the people of Israel went to the temple in Jerusalem according to the Law’s command, they would withdraw from his lordship and return to Rehoboam. He therefore made two golden calves, placing one at Dan and the other at Beersheba on Israel’s borders, and commanded that they be worshiped as gods.
In chapter 13 a certain prophet from Judah, sent by God, came into Samaria. He reproved King Jeroboam as he stood at the altar to sacrifice to idols and foretold that a king named Josiah would be born from Judah, who would burn the bones of the idolatrous priests upon that altar. When the king extended his hand, signaling that the prophet should be seized, his hand withered. It was healed when the prophet prayed for him.
Because this prophet ate in that place contrary to the Lord’s command given to him about this, although invited by another man falsely prophesying on the Lord’s behalf that he should eat with him, a lion met him on the road and strangled him for the disobedience just mentioned.
In chapter 14, when Jeroboam’s son became ill, the boy’s mother and Jeroboam’s wife approached the prophet Ahijah in disguise. Because of old age he could not see, but in spirit he recognized her, revealed who she was, announced the boy’s death to her, and reproved her husband for idolatry.
Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned over Judah for seventeen years and committed idolatry with his people. Because of this the king of Egypt came to Jerusalem and plundered all the treasures of the temple and the royal house. Rehoboam also always had war with Jeroboam.
In chapter 15, after Rehoboam’s death, his son Abijah reigned over Judah for three years and did evil in the Lord’s sight with his people. Jeroboam, king of Israel, launched war against him with eighty thousand fighting men in his army, while Abijah had forty thousand. When Jeroboam’s army fought against Abijah both from the front and from behind in ambushes, Abijah commended himself to the Lord and placed his trust in Him. The Lord terrified Jeroboam’s army, and fifty thousand of them were slain, as is related in chapter 13 of the Second Book of Chronicles.
After Abijah’s death, his son Asa reigned over Judah for forty-one years. He removed the effeminate men from the land, together with the idols, and deposed his mother Hacha from authority so that she would not be chief in the rites of Priapus.
After Jeroboam died, having reigned over Israel for twenty-two years, his son Nadab reigned for two years. Baasha killed him together with all his offspring and reigned over Israel for twenty-four years.
While Asa reigned and conducted himself well according to the Lord’s law, Zerah the Ethiopian went out against him with his army of one million men and three hundred chariots. Asa went to meet him with his army and called upon the Lord, who terrified the Ethiopians and turned them to flight, as is related in chapter 14 of the Second Book of Chronicles. The prophet Azariah met Asa as he returned victorious from battle, strengthened him, and prophesied about the time near the world’s end, as is related in chapter 15 of the Second Book of Chronicles.
In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha, king of Israel, ascended into Moab and sought to surround Ramah with walls, thereby enclosing Judah so that no one could enter or leave it. Terrified by this, Asa took a great quantity of gold and silver from the temple treasuries and called Ben-hadad, king of Syria, to his aid against Baasha. When Ben-hadad came and invaded Israel’s cities, Baasha was compelled to abandon the building he had begun so that he could resist the king of Syria. Meanwhile Asa built Geba and Mizpah for himself from the materials prepared there, as is related in chapter 13 of the Third Book of Kings.
Chapter 16 of the Second Book of Chronicles adds that the prophet Hanani reproved Asa on the Lord’s behalf because he had placed greater trust in a man than in the Lord. Angered by this, Asa put the prophet in the stocks. When Asa became ill with an exceedingly severe pain in his feet for a year and longer, he did not seek the Lord in his illness but instead placed greater trust in the physicians’ art. After he died and was buried with great pomp, his son Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah.
After Baasha died, as is related in chapter 6 of the Third Book of Kings, his son Elah reigned in Israel for two years. Zimri, commander of a part of Elah’s army, killed him when he became drunk and destroyed his entire house. Zimri reigned for seven days. When Omri, commander of Israel’s army, besieged him in Tirzah, Zimri saw that the city was being captured and burned himself with his palace.
The people of Israel divided into two parties, one of which followed Tibni to make him king, while the other followed the aforesaid Omri. But the party following Omri prevailed, and he was made king of Israel. He reigned twelve years. After he died in wickedness, his son Ahab began to reign in the thirty-eighth year of King Asa’s reign and reigned for twenty-two years. Ahab’s wife was Jezebel, daughter of the king of the Sidonians, a most wicked woman devoted with her husband Ahab to the idolatry of Baal.
In the third year of his reign, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, sent priests and Levites throughout the kingdom of Judah to teach the people the Lord’s law. All the surrounding peoples feared him, including the Philistines and Arabs. He had one million one hundred and sixty thousand men in his armies.
Chapters 17 through 23 relate the deeds of Elijah, concerning whom nothing appears in Chronicles. Elijah the Tishbite foretold, at the Lord’s command, that it would not rain in Israel. He hid in the torrent Cherith, where a raven carried him bread and meat morning and evening. When the torrent’s water failed, he was sent to Zarephath of the Sidonians, to a widow who fed him during the famine. Her handful of flour and little oil did not fail but sufficed for herself, her son, and Elijah, because she first fed Elijah from that little amount.
The widow’s son became ill and died, but Elijah raised him. This boy is said to have been the prophet Jonah.
In chapter 18 Ahab, king of Israel, sent the prophet Obadiah, steward of his house, to seek grass for the horses. Elijah met him and told him to report this to Ahab. This Obadiah had fed one hundred men who worshiped God and hidden them from Jezebel when she commanded the Lord’s prophets to be killed.
When Ahab came to Elijah, Elijah commanded him to assemble all four hundred and fifty-one prophets of Baal, four hundred priests of the sacred groves, and all the people of Israel on Mount Carmel. When this was done, Elijah gave the people a choice. If the prophets of Baal could cause fire to descend from heaven through their invocations to burn their sacrifice, namely one ox, the people would worship Baal. But if they could not do this and Elijah did, they would worship his God.
The priests of Baal invoked him for a long time but accomplished nothing. Elijah, however, by a brief prayer caused fire to descend, which consumed the sacrifice. At this all the people worshiped and confessed Elijah’s God. When this had been done, Elijah killed all those prophets of Baal at the torrent Kishon. Then by his prayer he caused a great rain to come after the three and a half years in which no rain had fallen upon the earth. Ahab returned home with Elijah going before him.
In chapter 19 Jezebel, having heard of the killing of her prophets, sent a messenger to Elijah, threatening him with death on the following day. Fearing this, Elijah went into the desert. When he fell asleep beneath a juniper tree, an angel awakened him and exhorted him to eat bread baked beneath the ashes and sent to him by God. In that food’s strength he walked as far as Horeb, the mountain of God, where he had a wondrous vision. He was commanded to depart from there and anoint Elisha as prophet in his own place. He did this when he found Elisha with twelve plowmen, and Elisha followed him.
In chapter 20 Ben-hadad, king of Syria, gathered his army together with thirty-two kings assisting him and came against Ahab, king of Israel, in battle. Through a prophet the Lord foretold Ahab’s victory, which occurred when the Syrians were put to flight.
Within a year the king of Syria restored his army and came again to wage war against Israel in the valleys. The Syrians said that Israel’s gods were gods of the mountains and that this was why they had previously been defeated. But the Syrian army was vanquished, and one hundred thousand of them were killed. The seventeen thousand who remained fled into a city, where the city wall collapsed and crushed them. Ben-hadad, king of Syria, went into hiding and sent messengers clothed in sackcloth, with ashes sprinkled upon their heads, asking for mercy. Ahab granted it and released him.
A certain prophet reproved Ahab for this while in disguise. Through a parable about someone entrusted to another’s custody under pain of death, he concluded that because Ahab had released Ben-hadad, who was worthy of death, Ahab himself and his people Israel would perish in his place.
In chapter 21 Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard near the house of King Ahab. Ahab wanted it and asked Naboth to sell him the vineyard so that he might make a garden. When Naboth refused to consent, Ahab was saddened. On hearing this, his wife Jezebel consoled him and arranged for false witnesses to accuse Naboth of blasphemy against God. When this had been done, the innocent man was stoned. When Ahab went to take Naboth’s vineyard, the Lord sent Elijah to him to foretell the destruction of Ahab and his house because of so great a crime.
In chapter 22, after Ahab outwardly humbled himself at Elijah’s reproof, the Lord said that the sentence would be deferred. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, had become Ahab’s son-in-law and went to visit him in Samaria. Ahab wished to recover Ramoth-gilead, which the king of Syria had taken from him, and asked Jehoshaphat to go with him into battle. Jehoshaphat consented, but admonished Ahab first to consult the Lord about it.
Four hundred prophets of Baal were summoned. They advised him to go and said that the Lord would deliver that land to him. But when Jehoshaphat asked for counsel from a prophet of the Lord, the prophet Micaiah was brought to answer about the matter. When adjured to speak the truth, he foretold that Ahab would be killed there in battle, setting forth a vision of the manner in which Ahab would be deceived through the false prophets.
Because of this, Zedekiah the false prophet struck Micaiah on the jaw. At the king’s command Micaiah was sent to prison with bread and water. When the king of Judah and Ahab, king of Israel, went together to war against the Syrians, Ahab was wounded in battle and died from it.
Chapter 19 of the Second Book of Chronicles adds that, when Jehoshaphat returned to Jerusalem, the prophet Jehu reproved him for the friendship he had contracted and the assistance he had given to the impious Ahab, king of Israel. For this he had merited the Lord’s anger, had his good works not appeased the Lord. His great diligence in directing the people to observe the law is also set forth there: he placed judges throughout the cities and admonished them to do justice to everyone.
Chapter 17 says that he sent priests throughout the cities with the Book of the Law to instruct the people. Because of this he was held in great veneration and fear by everyone, even the neighboring nations, and possessed riches and great glory.
Chapter 20 of the Second Book of Chronicles relates that innumerable peoples of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Syrians came to battle against Jehoshaphat. He proclaimed a fast to the people and stirred them to pray to God. When the people assembled at Jerusalem to pray and he exhorted them to trust in God’s aid, a certain prophet, namely Jahaziel, foretold victory over their enemies to them on God’s behalf.
Strengthened by this, they went against their enemies singing with trumpets and praising the Lord, saying, “Give thanks to the Lord,” and so forth. Their enemies fought and killed one another. After all of them had been slain, the whole people spent three continuous days stripping away the spoils while praising God.
§ I. On the Fourth Book of Kings
Chapter 1 of the Fourth Book relates that after Ahab’s death his son Ahaziah reigned in his place over Israel. He reigned two years and conducted himself wickedly like his father. When he became ill, he sent to consult Beelzebub about whether he would recover from his illness.
Elijah the prophet met the messengers on their way and told them on God’s behalf to return to their lord, signifying that Ahaziah would not be healed because he had sent to consult Beelzebub and not the true God. When they reported this, Ahaziah recognized from certain signs that it was Elijah and sent for him a captain of fifty with fifty men. When the captain approached to summon him, he and his men were consumed by fire descending from heaven at Elijah’s prayer. When a second captain with his men was sent, the same happened to them. A third was sent and humbly commended himself to Elijah so that what had happened to the others would not happen to him. Admonished by an angel, Elijah went with him to the king and declared that he would die. This occurred, and Ahaziah’s brother Joram reigned in his place.
While Joram reigned, as is related in chapter 2, Elijah journeyed with his disciple Elisha. When they came to the Jordan River, Elijah struck the waters with his cloak, a path opened, and they passed through the middle. After they crossed, Elijah told Elisha to ask what he wished before Elijah was taken from him. Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit, that is, in working wonders and prophesying. Elijah answered that he would receive this if he saw him when he was taken away.
As they spoke together, a fiery chariot with fiery horses appeared. Elijah ascended into it and was taken into heaven, that is, into the earthly paradise, where he remains alive with Enoch until the time of Antichrist, against whom he will descend to preach. Elisha saw this and cried, “My father,” and so forth. He took up Elijah’s cloak, which had fallen from him. Returning to the Jordan and touching the waters with the cloak, he divided them a second time.
When Elisha came to live at Jericho, at the inhabitants’ request he healed the very bad waters of that place by casting into them a new earthenware vessel containing salt. Afterward, as he ascended to Bethel, boys mocked him and said, “Go up, bald head!” He cursed them, after which two bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two of those boys.
Joram, Ahab’s son, as is related in chapter 3, reigned together with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Edom. He launched war against the king of Moab because that king had ceased paying him the customary tribute. As they advanced with their armies, they ran out of water and approached Elisha to consult him. When a psaltery was brought before him and played, Elisha prophesied, telling them to dig in the torrent there and that they would find water. This was done.
When the Moabites prepared for battle, early in the morning they saw the waters red like blood. Thinking that those kings and their men had fought and killed one another, they approached the camp to carry away plunder. The king of Israel and his men fought against them and defeated them, devastating and capturing everything as far as the destruction of the city of Moab.
In chapter 4 a widow commended herself to Elisha because of her husband’s debt. He commanded her to borrow empty vessels into which she was to pour the little oil she possessed. As this was done through her son, the vessels were suddenly filled by a miracle. From the price of the oil she sold she paid the debt to the creditors and lived with her son upon what remained.
Afterward, he obtained a son for a barren Shunammite woman who received him in her house with great devotion and generosity whenever he passed through Shunem, and he foretold this to her. The child was born and after some time died. But when his mother went to Elisha, explained what had happened, and prayed, he came to her house and raised him.
Later, when the sons of the prophets ate cooked herbs mixed with bitter colocynth and perceived the bitterness, Elisha ordered flour to be cast into the pot, and the stew became sweet. Afterward he multiplied loaves offered to him so that one hundred men ate from them and some of the loaves remained.
In chapter 5 Naaman, commander of the Syrian king’s army, became a leper and approached the king of Israel with letters of recommendation so that he might be cured of leprosy. When he arrived at Elisha’s house, Elisha commanded him to wash seven times in the Jordan and be cleansed. Although Naaman was at first indignant and would not consent, at last, persuaded by his servants, he went to the Jordan, washed, and was cleansed of leprosy.
He returned to Elisha and offered him many things, but Elisha would accept nothing. After Naaman departed, however, Gehazi, Elisha’s disciple, secretly approached him and, claiming to act on Elisha’s behalf, asked certain things from him and carried them to his house. Elisha exposed this crime, and Gehazi was therefore struck with leprosy.
In chapter 6, when the sons of the prophets went with Elisha to cut wood beside the Jordan so that they could make cells for themselves, the iron head of one man’s axe flew from its handle and sank in the water. Elisha cast a piece of wood into the water, and the iron floated so that the man recovered it.
When the king of Syria fought against the king of Israel and laid ambushes to capture him, Elisha revealed the ambushes to the king of Israel. On hearing this, the king of Syria sent an army to capture Elisha. When Gehazi saw them besieging Elisha’s house and grieved, Elisha’s prayer caused him to see the mountain near the house filled with fiery horses and chariots. The Syrian army was struck with blindness.
In chapter 5 Elisha himself led that Syrian army into Samaria before its king, and their eyes were opened. He nevertheless commanded the king not to strike them, but to feed them and dismiss them to return to their own people.
When Ben-hadad, king of Syria, besieged Samaria, a severe famine arose. One woman agreed with another that they would eat her son and afterward the other’s son together. When one son had been eaten and the other woman refused to give hers, the first laid her complaint before the king of Samaria. On hearing this, the king angrily sent a messenger to behead Elisha, which Elisha foretold to his companions.
When the king came to him, Elisha foretold that there would be a very great abundance on the following day. This occurred. For the Lord sent into the Syrian camp a sound like that of many peoples coming against them. Fearing this, they all fled and left all their possessions behind. Four lepers perceived this and reported it in the city of Samaria. The inhabitants investigated lest this had been done as an ambush, but when the truth was discovered, everyone went out to take the spoils. Thus a very great abundance of provisions followed. One of the commanders, who had not believed, was trampled by the multitude at the city gate and died.
In chapter 8 Elisha commanded the woman whose son he had raised to sojourn abroad during that famine. When she returned, the king ordered her lands restored to her after hearing from Gehazi how Elisha had raised her son.
Afterward, when Ben-hadad, king of Syria, became ill, he sent Hazael to Elisha to inquire whether he would recover. Elisha foretold to Hazael that he would reign in Syria and inflict many evils upon Israel. Hazael returned and said that the king would recover, but on the following day he smothered him and reigned in his place.
Edom withdrew from Judah and appointed a king for itself in the time of Joram, king of Judah. Joram reigned eight years, and his wife was Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, king of Israel. He also killed all his brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat, as is said in chapter 21 of the Second Book of Chronicles. Because of his sins, God raised the Philistines and Arabs against him. They devastated the land of Judah, plundered the king’s property, and captured his sons and wives. He himself was stricken by an incurable plague and over the course of two years gradually discharged his entrails. After his death, his son Ahaziah reigned in his place.
In chapter 9 Elisha commanded one of the sons of the prophets to go to Ramoth-gilead, which Jehu, commander of the army of Joram, king of Judah, was besieging, and to announce Jehu as king of Israel, who by God’s command was to destroy all Ahab’s seed. He did so. When Jehu reported this to the army, they all accepted him as king.
Jehu and his army entered Israel, where King Joram lay sick from a wound received at Ramoth from the Syrians against whom he had fought. Ahaziah, king of Judah, had come there to visit him. When Joram heard that Jehu was coming to Jezreel, he and Ahaziah went out to meet him. Jehu struck Joram with an arrow and killed him, and caused the fleeing king of Judah to be pursued and killed. When Jehu entered the city of Jezreel, he caused Joram’s mother Jezebel, who rebuked him from a house window, to be thrown down by her servants.
In chapter 10, at Jehu’s request, the men of the city of Samaria killed Ahab’s seventy sons who were in Samaria and sent their heads to him in baskets. Going from there to Samaria, Jehu met forty-two brothers of Ahaziah, king of Judah, on the road and caused them all to be killed.
Afterward Jehu pretended that he wished to worship and honor Baal more than Ahab had done. He therefore caused the prophets and priests of Baal to assemble to offer Baal a solemn sacrifice. He had garments given to them so that they might be clearly distinguished from the others. When the burnt offering was completed, he caused all the priests of Baal to be killed, destroyed Baal’s temple, and made it into latrines.
Jehu reigned over Israel for twenty-eight years. Nevertheless, he followed the idolatry and sins of Jeroboam. Because of this zeal exercised for God’s honor, however, the continuation of the kingship in Israel to the fourth generation was promised to him.
In chapter 11 Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, on hearing that her son had been killed, slew all the royal seed so that she herself might reign over Judah—that is, the sons of Ahaziah, who had reigned only one year in Judah.
But while Ahaziah’s sons were being killed, Jehosheba, Ahaziah’s sister and the wife of the high priest Jehoiada, stole one of Ahaziah’s sons and hid him for the seven years during which Athaliah reigned in Judah. His name was Joash.
In the seventh year of Joash’s age, Jehoiada revealed the king’s son to certain men and gave instructions for Athaliah’s death. This followed, and Joash was accepted as king by all the people. All the people of the land entered the temple of Baal and destroyed it. They forcefully shattered its altars and images and killed Mattan the priest before the altar. All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city rested. Athaliah was killed by the sword in the king’s house. Joash was seven years old when he began to reign.
In chapter 12 Joash reigned over Judah for forty years and conducted himself rightly all the days in which Jehoiada the priest taught him. He also caused the Lord’s house and its vessels to be repaired, rebuking the priests for their negligence in this matter.
After Jehoiada died at the age of one hundred and thirty, Joash was softened by the compliant services and flatteries of the princes and departed from God’s way. Because of this, when the prophet Zechariah, son of the aforesaid Jehoiada, reproved him and the people for their transgressions, he was stoned in the temple court at King Joash’s command, as chapter 24 of the Second Book of Chronicles adds.
It is further related there that, after a year had passed, the king of Syria came against Joash with few men, although Joash had a very great army. After taking great plunder, killing many, and treating King Joash disgracefully, the king departed. Joash’s servants killed him after he had been left suffering from illnesses.
In Israel, after Jehu’s death, as chapter 13 says, his son Jehoahaz reigned in his place for seventeen years and followed the sins of Jeroboam, Israel’s first king. After his death his son Joash reigned in his place for sixteen years and did evil in the Lord’s sight.
When Elisha became mortally ill, King Joash visited him, grieving over his death. Elisha told him to strike the ground with an arrow shot from a bow. When he did this three times and no more, Elisha was angry and said, “If you had struck five or six times, you would have destroyed Syria completely; now, however, you will strike it three times.”
Elisha died and was buried. When men were carrying a dead man to burial, they saw raiders coming against them from Moab and cast the corpse into Elisha’s tomb. That dead man immediately arose.
In the kingdom of Judah, after Joash’s death, as chapter 14 of the Fourth Book of Kings relates, his son Amaziah reigned in his place for nineteen years. He gathered thirty thousand fighting men from Judah and one hundred thousand from Israel so that he might advance to war against Edom. But a prophet told him on God’s behalf not to take with him those hired from Israel, because he would be defeated. Although he had already given the hired men wages of one hundred talents of silver, the Lord was able to repay him.
He obeyed and went against the Edomites, gaining victory and killing twenty thousand of them. On returning to Jerusalem, however, he adopted as his gods the idols of the Edomites whom he had conquered. When a prophet reproved him for this, he did not listen but threatened him with death, as is said in chapter 25 of the Second Book of Chronicles.
Amaziah sent to Joash, king of Israel, proposing that they meet at a certain place to see one another. Joash answered that Amaziah should remain in his own place and not be puffed up with pride because of his victory over the Edomites. Amaziah refused to consent but came to Beth-shemesh, where Joash, king of Israel, struck Judah and led the captured King Amaziah to Jerusalem. He destroyed four hundred cubits of its walls, took away the treasures of the temple and royal house, accepted hostages, and returned to Samaria. Amaziah was afterward killed when his own men conspired against him at Lachish.
After Joash, king of Israel, died, his son Jeroboam reigned in his place for forty-one years and did evil like his predecessors. After Jeroboam’s death, his son Azariah reigned in his place for fifty-two years.
In chapter 15, after Amaziah’s death, his son Uzziah, who is also called Azariah, reigned in his place in Judah for fifty-two years. As chapter 26 of the Second Book of Chronicles says, he did many good things and had frequent victories against the Philistines, Arabs, and Ammonites. He had three hundred and seven thousand five hundred fighting men in his army. He greatly enlarged the city and increased its wealth.
But at last, elevated in pride, he entered the temple to offer incense before the Lord and threatened the priest Azariah when he reproved him. Because of this, Uzziah suddenly became a leper. He lived separately throughout the whole remainder of his life, and his son Jotham reigned in place of his leprous father.
In Israel Azariah reigned for six months. Shallum conspired against him and killed him. Shallum reigned for one month in Samaria, but Menahem killed him and reigned in his place for ten years. After Menahem’s death his son Pekahiah reigned in his place for two years. Pekah, son of Remaliah, conspired against him, killed him, and reigned in his place.
In Pekah’s time Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came against Israel and captured Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and many cities of Israel. He transferred those people into Assyria. Hoshea conspired against Pekah, killed him, and reigned in his place.
In Judah, after Uzziah’s death, his son Jotham reigned in his place for sixteen years. He did what was right before the Lord, built many cities and fortresses, and fought the Ammonites, making them tributary, as chapter 27 of the Second Book of Chronicles adds.
In chapter 16 of the Fourth Book of Kings, after Jotham was taken from this life, his son Ahaz reigned in his place in Judah. He gave himself to idolatry and consecrated his son by passing him through fire.
When Pekah, son of Remaliah and king of Israel, went up against him in battle, as is related in chapter 28 of the Second Book of Chronicles, he killed one hundred and twenty thousand fighting men of Judah in a single day. They took limitless plunder and led two hundred thousand boys, girls, and women captive to Samaria. A certain prophet reproved them for such great cruelty, especially concerning the captives they had taken, advising them to release the captives lest the Lord be angered against them. They did so, feeding and clothing them and leading them to their own people at Jericho.
The king of Syria likewise came against Judah and took great plunder, as did the Philistines and Edomites. Again Pekah, king of Israel, and Rezin, king of Syria, came against Ahab in battle. Ahab stripped the Lord’s temple and his own house and sent very great gifts to Tiglath-pileser, king of the Assyrians, so that he would come to his aid against the king of Syria. Tiglath-pileser came, captured Damascus, Syria’s royal city, and killed its king Rezin.
Ahab went to visit Tiglath-pileser and congratulate him on his victory. Seeing the altar of the gods of Damascus, Ahab commanded the priest Uriah to have a similar altar constructed in the Lord’s house. Sacrifices were offered there, while God’s altar was abandoned. This was done for idolatry, as is related in chapter 16 of the Fourth Book of Kings.
Under this King Achas, Rome was founded by the twins Romulus and Remulus on the Aventine Hill, as will be said below.
After the death of the most wicked Achas, as chapter 17 relates, his excellent son Hezekiah reigned in Judah. In his time Hoshea reigned over Israel after Pekah and planned to rebel against Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, to whom Hoshea was tributary. Shalmaneser came against him. In the ninth year of Hoshea’s reign he captured Samaria and transferred Hoshea and all the people of Israel into Assyria and Media, leaving only the tribe of Judah with Benjamin.
It is there explained at length that the cause of this captivity was their sin and obstinacy, especially their idolatry. The king of the Assyrians sent people of the Babylonians and other nations to live in Samaria and those regions. Because they did not observe the Law’s ceremonies, the Lord sent lions that tore them apart. The king of the Assyrians therefore sent there some of the Israelite priests who had been transferred into captivity so that they would teach the worship of God according to the Law. When they did this, the plague ceased. Nevertheless, together with this worship they adored various idols.
In chapter 18 Hezekiah began to reign in Judah in the third year of Hoshea, king of Israel. He reigned twenty-nine years and did exceedingly well. He destroyed the high places, shattered the statues, cut down the sacred groves, and broke the bronze serpent Moses had made in the desert, all of which had come to pertain to idolatry. Among all the kings of Judah none was like him.
He rebelled against the king of the Assyrians. Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against him, but Hezekiah asked him to withdraw in return for whatever burden he wished to impose. He sent Sennacherib the three hundred talents of silver and thirty of gold that had been demanded, taking the gold and silver in the Lord’s temple and the king’s house.
Not content with these things, Sennacherib sent his spokesmen to Jerusalem to persuade Hezekiah and the people to surrender to the king of the Assyrians. They said that their God could not free them from the Assyrians’ hand, just as the gods of the other nations Sennacherib had subjugated had been unable to prevent him from subjecting those nations to himself. They spoke many other things in blasphemy against God.
In chapter 19, when Hezekiah heard this, he tore his garments, put on sackcloth, and entered the temple to pray to God. He sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah so that he would pray for the people placed in so great a danger. Isaiah strengthened them, saying that they should not fear the king of the Assyrians because he would not capture the city but would depart in confusion.
This happened. In one night an angel of the Lord killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand men of Sennacherib’s army. Seeing this in the morning, Sennacherib returned in confusion to Nineveh. While worshiping in the temple of his god, he was killed by his sons.
In chapter 20 Hezekiah became mortally ill. This is said to have happened because of his pride over so great a victory, as is stated in chapter 33 of the Second Book of Chronicles, or because of his ingratitude, according to Josephus. He was told by Isaiah on God’s behalf that he would die. As he wept most bitterly, Isaiah announced on the Lord’s behalf that pardon had been obtained and that he would not die then but would survive for fifteen years.
As a sign of his healing, the sun moved backward ten degrees in the sky. This was fulfilled. After he was healed, he composed that canticle, “I said in the midst of my days,” and so forth, which is found in Isaiah 38.
At that time Merodach-baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and gifts to Hezekiah to rejoice with him over his recovery. Hezekiah showed his envoys all his treasures and precious things. Isaiah came to him and foretold on God’s behalf that in the future everything the king of Babylon’s envoys had seen, as well as Hezekiah’s sons, would be carried away into Babylon.
But at the beginning of his reign, as is related in chapter 29 of the Second Book of Chronicles, Hezekiah stirred the people to worship the true God and the priests diligently to fulfill their office in praising God and offering solemn sacrifices.
Chapter 30 says that he sent messengers throughout all Israel’s borders from Dan to Beersheba, telling everyone to come celebrate the Passover of the Lord in Jerusalem and urging them to return to penance so that God might forgive them. Many people from the different tribes came to celebrate the Passover. Hezekiah prayed for those who celebrated it without having been sanctified as the Law commanded.
People came not only from Judah but also from the other tribes to overthrow the idols, as chapter 31 of the Second Book of Chronicles says. He carefully ordered the provision of the Levites in sacrifices and first fruits.
At last Hezekiah slept with his fathers, as chapter 21 relates, and his son Manasseh reigned in his place when he was twelve years old. He reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-five years and committed innumerable evils. He rebuilt the high places his father had destroyed, constructed altars to Baal, worshiped the entire host of heaven, made his son pass through fire, practiced soothsaying, observed auguries, consulted mediums, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. The people followed him in all things so as to transgress God’s law.
Chapter 33 of the Second Book of Chronicles adds that when the Lord spoke through prophets to Manasseh and the people so that they would return, they refused to listen. Indeed, Manasseh commanded that the prophet Isaiah be cut apart with a wooden saw for greater torment, Jerome says. Because of this the Lord brought the Assyrians’ princes against him. They captured him, led him bound into Babylon, and kept him in fetters.
When Manasseh was greatly distressed in that prison, he prayed to the Lord and performed great penance before God. His humble prayer is found at the end of the Second Book of Chronicles. God therefore had mercy on him, brought him out of that captivity, and restored him to Jerusalem and his kingdom. After returning, he removed everything pertaining to idolatry and amended his life for the better.
After Manasseh’s death his son Amon reigned in his place for two years in Jerusalem and did evil in the Lord’s sight. He sacrificed and rendered service to all the idols his father Manasseh had fashioned. He did not revere the Lord’s face as his father Manasseh had, namely by returning to penance. Perhaps he promised himself the vain hope of returning to penance in old age as his father had done, but this hope deceived him, for his servants conspired against him and killed him in his house.
The rest of the people killed Amon’s murderers and appointed his son Josiah in his place, as is related in chapter 22. Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign and reigned exceedingly well for thirty-one years. At the beginning he caused the damaged roofs of the temple, that is, its ruins, to be restored.
Hilkiah the high priest sent to King Josiah the book he had found in the Lord’s house, namely Deuteronomy. When Josiah had it read and heard from it the Lord’s threats against transgressors of the law, he tore his garments, greatly fearing the Lord’s judgments. He commanded Hilkiah to consult the Lord concerning himself and the people, considering the Lord’s anger that was to descend upon them.
They approached the prophetess Huldah, wife of Shallum. She answered them on God’s behalf that all the evils they had read in the Book of the Law would come upon that place and its inhabitants because of their crimes. But because King Josiah had feared and humbled himself before God upon hearing the book, he would die in peace so that he would not see those evils.
Josiah therefore, as is related in chapter 23 of the Fourth Book of Kings, caused all the people to assemble and had the book read to them. He and the people with him entered a covenant before the Lord to observe the Lord’s commandments. He purged the temple of every impurity of idolatry and destroyed the soothsayers and those who burned incense to Baal, the sun, the moon, the twelve signs of heaven, and the entire host of heaven.
He also destroyed the small house of the effeminate men that was in the Lord’s house, together with other places devoted to idolatry. Moreover, he went to Bethel, where Jeroboam had made an altar for idols, and destroyed it. He commanded that the tomb of the prophet who had gone from Judah to rebuke Jeroboam for idolatry, had been strangled by a lion on the road, and had also prophesied Josiah’s name and this deed to be done by him, should be left undisturbed. He acted likewise in the cities of Samaria.
He also commanded the Passover to be celebrated according to the Law. No such Passover had been celebrated since the days of the judges who judged Israel or in the days of all the kings of Israel and Judah. Josiah did this in the eighteenth year of his reign.
After this, as chapter 35 of the Second Book of Chronicles says, Necho, king of Egypt, went up to fight at Carchemish. Josiah went against him in battle. The king of Egypt sent messengers to him saying that he was not coming against Josiah, but that the Lord had urgently sent him against another people, namely the king of the Assyrians. Josiah should therefore cease hindering him lest he be killed.
Josiah refused to hear Necho’s words from God’s mouth. Going against him to battle in the field of Megiddo, he was wounded by archers. On perceiving this, he told his servants to lead him from the battle because he had been gravely wounded. Transferred from one chariot to another, he died in Jerusalem. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned him, and Jeremiah above all, whose lamentation over Josiah all the male and female singers repeat down to the present day, as is stated there.
After Josiah had been killed, Necho, king of Egypt, as is related in chapter 24 of the Fourth Book of Kings, entered Jerusalem and led Josiah’s son Jotham, whom the people had appointed king in his father’s place, bound into Egypt. He imposed upon the land a tribute of one hundred talents of silver and one of gold.
He appointed Eliakim king in Jerusalem, called him Joachim, and identified him as that ruler’s brother and a son of Josiah. This Joachim was evil and reigned for eleven years. The king of Babylon came against him and made him tributary, but when he rebelled against the king of Babylon after three years, that king came against him at Jerusalem.
In the fourth year of this Joachim’s reign, while Jeremiah was confined, he commanded Baruch, son of Neriah, to write everything Jeremiah told him on the Lord’s behalf and to read it before all the people. The message of the writing was that the people should return to penance so that they might escape the evils the Lord had threatened against them.
After this was done, when the book was later read before King Joachim, the king tore it apart, had it burned upon a brazier filled with coals, and caused Jeremiah and Baruch to be sought for capture. Because of this Jeremiah prophesied against him that the king of Babylon would come and that Joachim’s slain corpse would be cast out into heat and frost. The Lord again caused the same words and many others to be written, as is related in Jeremiah 37.
The king of Babylon made Joachim’s son, also called Joachim, king in his place. But after departing, he reflected and feared that the son might perhaps rebel in vengeance for his father’s death, and so he returned to Jerusalem. Joachim, afraid, went out to meet him on Jeremiah’s advice, together with his mother and many others. The king of Babylon led Joachim captive to Babylon together with one thousand craftsmen and smiths, strong fighting men, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, the prophet Ezekiel, and also Mordecai.
He appointed another of Josiah’s sons king in Jerusalem, a man called Mattaniah, whom he named Zedekiah. He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, did evil in God’s sight, and rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, to whom he had promised fidelity.
In chapter 25, in the ninth year and tenth month of Zedekiah’s reign, Nebuchadnezzar came up against him and surrounded the city of Jerusalem. As famine prevailed within, the city was captured in the eleventh year. The Chaldeans pursued the fleeing King Zedekiah, captured him, and brought him to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah. Nebuchadnezzar caused Zedekiah’s sons to be killed before him, then blinded him, bound him, and led him into Babylon.
Nebuzaradan, commander of the Chaldean army, burned the Lord’s temple after its vessels and ornaments had been carried away. He burned the royal house and the whole city and destroyed its walls. The king of Babylon placed Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, over those who remained.
When some of the nobles who had escaped—namely Ishmael, son of Nathaniah, and others—came to Gedaliah, he promised them security. Johanan, son of Kareah, advised Gedaliah to beware of Ishmael because Ishmael sought his death. Gedaliah did not believe him, but this nevertheless occurred. Ishmael treacherously killed Gedaliah and the Jews and Chaldeans whom he found with him.
On the following day, when this was not yet known, eighty men from Shechem and Samaria came with shaven beards and torn garments to offer in the Lord’s house. Ishmael met them weeping and said that he would accompany them to Gedaliah. In the middle of the city he killed them, apart from ten who promised to reveal to him treasures in fields of wheat, barley, honey, and oil. For this reason he did not kill them.
Ishmael led the remaining people with him as captives toward the land of Ammon. When Johanan, son of Kareah, heard this, he advanced against him with many fighting men. Seeing this, Ishmael abandoned the remnant and fled, while Johanan led the remnant back into the city.
Because they feared the Chaldeans on account of Gedaliah’s death, they asked Jeremiah to pray for them and consult the Lord about whether they should remain or go into Egypt. He answered them on God’s behalf that they should remain. They refused to consent and said that he had invented a falsehood from himself and had not received the answer from God, as is related in Jeremiah 41 and the two following chapters.
Thus Judah was transferred from its land to Babylon. After many of the principal men had been killed, four thousand six hundred souls were transported to Babylon together with the blinded and imprisoned King Zedekiah, as is related in Jeremiah 52.
Jeremiah himself, when King Joachim was first transferred to Babylon, foretold, as is clear in Jeremiah 25, that this Babylonian captivity must last seventy years, after which they would be led back to Jerusalem. Hence many false prophets in Jerusalem seduced the people and King Zedekiah by falsely saying on God’s behalf that those already taken captive with Joachim would be freed.
Thus a certain false prophet named Hananiah publicly said on God’s behalf in Zedekiah’s fourth year that after two more years the people would be led back from Babylon together with King Joachim. He broke the wooden chains Jeremiah wore around his neck to signify the yoke of servitude that would endure under Nebuchadnezzar. The Lord therefore told Jeremiah that he would make iron chains in their place as a sign of servitude under Nebuchadnezzar. Because Hananiah had prophesied without being sent by God, Jeremiah foretold that he would die that year. This was fulfilled, as is related in Jeremiah 28.
While Zedekiah reigned, Jeremiah also wrote to those already transferred to Babylon with Joachim, telling them to build houses, plant gardens, take wives in Babylon, seek Babylon’s peace, and pray for it. They were not to believe prophets who foretold their swift liberation, because it would not occur until the seventy years were completed.
He also foretold that two false prophets in Babylon who announced to the Jews living there that they would soon be freed would be delivered into Nebuchadnezzar’s hands and publicly killed. They were called Zedekiah and Ahab. As Jeremiah 29 relates, they are said to have been those two wicked old men who accused Susanna of adultery. They were first stoned by the people and afterward fried in oil by Nebuchadnezzar.
Because Jeremiah preached that the city would be captured by the Chaldeans, they wished several times to kill him, but he escaped in various ways. On one occasion, at the people’s leaders’ request, King Zedekiah consented that he should be put in prison. He was cast into a cistern where there was no water but mud so that he would die there.
Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian man and the king’s eunuch, reported this to the king and denounced their wickedness before him. The king caused Jeremiah to be drawn out. Speaking with Zedekiah secretly when the king questioned him, Jeremiah advised him to offer himself voluntarily to the king of Babylon. In this way he would not die and the city would not be exposed to fire; if he did not do so, he would not escape. Jeremiah remained in prison until the city was captured.
Then Nebuchadnezzar commanded him to be freed, treated humanely, and left at liberty to go to Babylon or remain if he wished, as is related in Jeremiah 38. The prophets Ezekiel and Daniel were led to Babylon with King Joachim. Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael likewise prophesied there, as is clear in Ezekiel 1 and Daniel 1.
In the thirty-seventh year after King Joachim’s transfer, Evil-merodach, reigning in Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar, elevated Joachim, brought him out of prison, and set his throne above the thrones of the kings in Babylon. Joachim ate with him, as is related in Jeremiah 52.
Moreover, Jeremiah prophesied Babylon’s destruction, as is clear in Jeremiah 50 and 51. This was fulfilled in the time of Belshazzar, Babylon’s last king, when the city was captured by Cyrus and Belshazzar was killed by him, as is related in Daniel 5.
At the transfer of the Hebrews to Babylon with Zedekiah, the last king, the Fourth Age, which had begun with David, ended. It contained twenty-one kings of Judah beginning with David. According to the Book of Kings, the reign lasted not quite five hundred years, but according to Josephus five hundred and twenty-three years, six months, and ten days. From the departure out of Egypt there were one thousand and sixty-two years, six months, and ten days.
There were fifteen high priests in succession from Zadok, whom Solomon appointed, to Seraiah, father of Jehozadak, whom Nebuchadnezzar killed.
Earlier, when Pekah, son of Remaliah, reigned in Israel—which was the second year of Uzziah, king of Judah—Tiglath-pileser, king of the Assyrians, came into Israel. He led captive the two and a half tribes who lived across the Jordan. Devastating Galilee as well, he transferred many people from Zebulun and Naphtali to Nineveh. Tobit was among the other captives taken.
Then, in the ninth year of Hoshea, who reigned after Pekah, son of Remaliah, and was the last of Israel’s kings, Shalmaneser, king of the Assyrians, discovered that Hoshea, whom he had previously made tributary, planned to rebel against him. He came against Hoshea, captured him and Samaria in Hezekiah’s sixth year, and transferred into Assyria the seven tribes of Israel who remained. The other three had already been transferred. Thus the tribe of Judah remained with Benjamin. They too were afterward transferred to Babylon, as was said above.
Because certain apparent contradictions arise in the Books of Kings when the years of the kings of Judah and Israel are computed and compared, Peter Comestor says in the Scholastic History that wherever no determination or reconciliation of such a contradiction is found, we believe it arose from a copyists’ error, for they often make mistakes in proper names and numbers.
Some other apparent contradictions can be determined and reconciled either through synecdoche, because certain kings reigned jointly with their fathers before they reigned there alone, or because those kingdoms were sometimes without a king. In this way Comestor reconciles several contradictions at the end of the Book of Kings, as is clear there.