People looking for dirt on Bible characters don’t spend much time in the Jewish history book of 1-2 Chronicles.
Stories in Chronicles come from an optimist’s view of history.
Optimist prime
The Chronicles writer would brag King Solomon red in the face. This book puffs the king’s wealth, wisdom, and fame. But it fails to report the sad ending of Solomon’s life. No mention of his 1,000 wives, or of his slip-slide into idol worship—and into what sounds like some brassy worship practices that would leave a Puritan red in the face.
Most Israelite kings were stinkers, based on their stories in the books of Samuel and Kings and the books by the prophets. We wouldn’t know that by reading 2 Chronicles.
Instead, this writer highlights the bright lights of Judah—godly kings from the Jewish nation ruled out of Jerusalem in the south. If this writer mentions the bad stuff a king did, it’s usually just a short puff of words.
More preacher than teacher
Bible scholars generally seem to agree this writer wasn’t a historian as much as a minister who was trying to heal a group of people who had lost themselves in history. They didn’t know who they were anymore.
It seems they and their ancestors had broken every law God wrote into the contract he made with the Jewish people when he offered to protect and prosper them. By this time in Jewish history, when Chronicles was written, perhaps in the 400s BC, it was obvious that God had invoked the full range of penalties for breech of contract. He kicked the Jewish people out of the Promised Land. They ended up as slaves in what is now Iraq and Iran.
So they wondered if they were still the Chosen People. And if so, chosen for what and where.
Persians from what is now Iran freed them to go home in 538 BC. Some did. But they weren’t Israel anymore. They weren’t free, either. They were just another province in the sprawling Persian Empire.
A nation of slow learners
Chronicles uses Israel’s bright history to remind the people that God rewards devotion. And through the brief reports about Judah’s rotten kings, the writer shows that God not only holds people accountable for making harmful decisions that hurt themselves and others. God forgives his people whenever they come to their senses, however long it takes.
It took Israel half a millennium.
Moses seemed to promise God would give them another chance: “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been shipped off to a faraway country. He’ll bring you back” (Deuteronomy 30:4).
They started coming home in 538 BC. And they eventually rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple.
A mission for Jewish people
This is what the writer wants them to recognize. They are still God’s people chosen for a mission to introduce the world to God.
One of the prophets who shows up in 2 Chronicles put it this way:
“I am the LORD. I’ve given you a mission:
Do the right thing. Live as a good human.
I’ll give you a hand and protect you,
While you fulfill a promise I made:
Be my beacon of hope to the nations” (Isaiah 42:6).
Bible trivia: First and Second Chronicles were written as one book. But it was too long to fit on a single scroll. So, when Jewish scholars translated it into the international language of the day, Greek, in the decades before Jesus was born, they split it into two books. They did the same with the history books of Samuel and Kings.
Writer
The writer is anonymous. But clues in the story suggest he was a priest living when Persia ruled the region and when Israel had dwarfed into Judah, as a tiny province of the Persian Empire. The list of King David’s descendants, in 1 Chronicles 3:17-24, seems to extend past the 586 BC destruction of the Jewish nation of Judah and into the 400s BC. One tradition credits a priest named Ezra. He helped rebuild the nation during the 400s BC. His story appears in the Bible book of Ezra.
Timeline
Second Chronicles picks up the history of the Jewish people where 1 Chronicles ends. King David has died and his son Solomon is leading Israel into a golden age of wealth and international acclaim. Solomon reigned in the 900s BC. Israel’s story continues for another 300 years, until 586 BC, when Babylonian invaders erase Israel from the world map. Babylon overruns the scattered cities, levels Jerusalem, and takes the Jewish survivors to Babylon as political captives and slaves.
Top stories on timeline
- Solomon builds first Jewish Temple, 960 BC, chapters 2-4
- Israel splits into two kingdoms: Israel, Judah, 930 BC, chapter 10
- Assyrians (based in Iraq) conquer Israel, deport survivors, 722 BC
- Hezekiah reopens abandoned Temple, 716 BC, chapter 29
- King Josiah leads nation back to God, 625 BC, chapter 34-35
- Babylon (Iraq) defeats Assyrian Empire, 612 BC
- Babylon erases Judah, last Jewish kingdom, 586 BC, chapter 36
- Persian (based in Iran) defeat Babylon, 538 BC, chapter 36
- Persian ruler Cyrus frees exiled Jews to go home, 538 BC, chapter 36
Location
Most of the stories take place in what are now Israel, Palestinian Territory, and parts of Jordan and Syria east of the Jordan River. Chronicles is written to Jews who have returned from exile in what is now Iraq, during the 500s-400s BC. But the stories in 2 Chronicles cover the final 400 years of Israel and Judah as independent kingdoms. What comes next are invaders from what is now Iraq. They erase Israel and Judah from the world map.
Purpose
Many scholars say this history book of Chronicles is an encouraging message to heartbroken Jews who thought Israel was dead and they were no longer God’s Chosen People.
After all, they:
—broke God’s laws and were supremely punished for it—exiled for 50 years.
—lost their Temple and without it, their entire sacrificial system of worship.
—lost Jerusalem, leveled in 586 BC by Babylonians.
—lost their Promised Land.
—got exiled to what is now Iraq (then Babylon).
—returned home, but to a shrunken Judah, now just a province of Persia (Iran).
So they wondered, “Are we still God’s chosen people?”
The writer uses the upbeat part of Jewish history, family trees, and minutia about the Temple to assure them that despite all that happened, yes, God has always had unique plans for them.
Moses, a thousand years before Chronicles was written, seemed to predict what happened to them.
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve been shipped off to a faraway country…The LORD your God will take you to the home of your ancestors. He’ll give it back to you. He’ll treat you well. And you’ll grow into a nation bigger than ever” (Deuteronomy 30:4-5).
Chronicles wasn’t hiding Israel’s sad history by spotlighting the happy stories, some scholars say. The Jewish people and their ancestors had lived the sad history. They knew it all too well. Instead, scholars say the writer wanted the Jewish people to remember good history, too. And to remember that God never gave up on them.
