Bible Commentaries
2 Chronicles 10

Introduction

SECTION FOURTH.

HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH. CHAPTERS 10-36.

The chronicler narrates the history of the kingdom of Judah more fully than we find it in the books of Kings, but he attempts no detailed account of the northern and rival kingdom of Israel. See Introduction.

The permanency of the kingdom of Judah, and the royal line of David, is one of the marvels of history. While other kingdoms fell it remained. Revolutions swept over Egypt, and dynasty after dynasty passed away; Phenicia and Syria, with their various kingdoms, flourished and decayed; the great Assyrian empire, after oppressing both Israel and Judah, and utterly destroying the former, was overthrown; and yet the kingdom of Judah, with a descendant of David on the throne, maintained its individuality, held its ancient and sacred capital, and continued unbroken, resolute, hopeful. And even after its fall under Nebuchadnezzar, and the seventy years of foreign exile, when Babylon in turn had fallen, and the Persian empire had risen into power, we find the scattered exiles coming back again to their fatherland, rebuilding their temple and capital, guided and governed still by a scion of the house of David.

This chapter is nearly identical with 1 Kings 12:1-19, where see notes.