Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 1

Verse 1

Introduction to First and Second Chronicles

In the Hebrew original these two books were one book, but were divided in the Septuagint, or Greek version of the Old Testament. Their title in the Septuagint was Paralipomena, which means "things omitted, or left out," evidently with reference to the Books of Samuel and Kings. However, this is not an accurate title, for much of the material in the Books of Chronicles is almost identically parallel to that in the other historical accounts of the kings. But they do also contain many things not related in Samuel and Kings, and in that sense are supplementary to those books. For that reason, and for the sake of chronological arrange­ment, most of the material of these books has been considered in this commentary in parallel with the accounts of Samuel and Kings.

Chronicles begins with an extensive listing of genealogy, begin­ning with Adam and coming up approximately to the end of the exile. There is, then, a brief account of the death of Saul, the first king of Isra­el, in battle. The crowning of David follows, and the account proceeds with a history of the united kingdom to the death of Solomon. With the ac­cession of Rehoboam, following the death of his father Solomon, very lit­tle is related of the history of the northern tribes, the account being devoted almost entirely to the chronicles of the Kingdom of Judah to its fall to the Chaldeans.

Conservative opinion holds with the Jewish tradition that the scribe Ezra is the human author of the Chronicles, though some believe they may have been written as late as 250 B. C. Evidence in favor of Ezra’s authorship, after the exile, is preponderant, thus dating them about 400 B. C. The books have a decidedly priestly slant, for Ezra was a priest, and one purpose of their writing appears to be to show the pre­servation of the priestly line from Aaron and the kingly line from David. The author made considerable use of other sources, such as the books of the prophets: Nathan, Gad, Iddo, Abijah, Isaiah, and others. Of course these were not inspired writings, and the Holy Spirit guided the hand of the scribe of Chronicles in making a divinely accurate account from these. Differences between numbers and such, in comparison of Chronicles to the accounts of Samuel and Kings, are not of the original inspired account, but got into the present versions by scribal error.

Verses 2-10

See note on 1 Kings 3:1

Verses 11-13

See note on 1 Kings 3:10

Verses 14-17

See note on 1 Kings 10:14