1 Chronicles 9 The Queen of Sheba. She came to observe the wisdom of Solomon and said that it was twice as great as she had been told. She gave him great mounts of gold and spices, and he reciprocated. The gold that Solomon received each year from countries he subjugated was about #3 billion. He had a fleet of trading ships to bring in gold, silver and ivory, and apes and baboons. He has thousands of horses and traded with Egypt for horses. God had warned Israel when they asked for a king that a king should not multiply horses or wives, and Solomon did both. Ethiopian tradition says that Solomon and the queen of Sheba had a son named Malik (Menelik I) who was the founder of the Ethiopian Solomonic dynasty. According to the national epic Kebra Nagast, the dynasty traced its lineage to Menelik I, the mythical son of biblical King Solomon and Makeda, the Queen of Sheba. The Ethiopian dictator Haile Selassie claiimed to be a descendant of Menelik I and cruelly ruled Ethiopia from 193-1974. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church also claims to have the ark of the covenant protected in a church there. They say Manelik I brought it back to Ethiopia after one of his trips to see his father Solomon. It is guarded by a single custodian. All this is myth with no genetic or historical proof. Surely the Bible would have recorded all this if it really happened. But we don’t know what happeened to the ark of the covenant. It was not in the temple when the Romans destroyed the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD. The famours Arch of Titus in Rome shows them bringing back the menorah and would most certainly had a pic of the ark on that arch if they had brought it from Jerusalem. Some think that the people of Judah buried the ark somewhere under Jerusalem so the Romans couldn’t get it. So we can’t confirm or deny whether the ark is in Ethiopia. Interesting! Solomon died after reigning for 40 years.

2 Chronicles 10 Rehoboam succeeds Solomon as king. Rehoboam could have had the loyalty of all 12 tribes if he had just eased up on the “harsh labor and heavy yoke” that Solomon had put on them. But he listened to his younger counselors instead of the older wise counselors and told them that he would be more harsh than Solomon was. An interesting comment: 10:¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.” It is always puzzling how God lets people like Rehoboam make their own free will choices and yet makes it work out according to His plans. He had already told Solomon that the kingdom would split after he died so this split had to occur. The providence of God and his foreknowledge of how people will choose works together to make His will work out. Rehoboam barely escaped being killed by the rebels.

2 Chronicles 11 This almost turned into an immediate bloody civil war between the 10 tribes who rebelled and the 2 tribes (Judah and Benjamin) who stayed loyal to Rehoboam. Rehoboam was ready with 180,000 men to go fight Jereboam but God told him not to and he didn’t. Kinda like the South succeeded from the Union and the Northern states had to decide whether to just let them go or go fight to keep the Union together, I guess. So a bloody civil war was fought but at least the Union was preserved. Not a parallel ending. Many of the Levites from the 48 Levitical cities across the 12 tribes came to Jerusalem to side with Rehoboam since Jereboam rejected the Levitical priesthood and set up golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The same polygamy: 11:²¹ Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.” I don’t understand why God allowed that.

2 Chronicles 12 Unfortunately, Rehoboam and Judah quit following the Lord after that. In Rehoboam’s 5th year God sent Shishak king of Egypt with 12,000 chariots and 60,000 horsemen to attack and take cities in Judah and would have taken Jerusalem if Rehoboam had not repented. But Shishak carried off the treasures in the temple. Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonite.

Here is the chart we will be using to study the kings of Judah from 2 Chronicles 9:31 through 36:21. Remember, 2 Chronicles ony discusses the kings of Judah, although at different times kings from Israel will be involved. 19 kings of Judah. Most were bad, only a few were good and most of the good ones ended up badly due to pride late in their reigns. From here on “Israel” will refer to the 10 northern kingdom tribes and “Judah” will refer to the 2 southern kingdom tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

Judah #1 Rehoboam. 2 Chronicles 9:31-12:16. Reigned 17 years. Bad.

Judah #2 Abijah. 2 Chronicles 13:1-22 Reigned 3 years. Bad Abijah took 400,000 men to fight the 800,000 men of Jereboam. Abijah gave a passionate speech to the people following Jereboam, appealing to them to return to the true Levitical priesthood (Jereboam had appointed his own non-Levitical priests) and temple worship at Jerusalem (Jereboam had set up golden calves to worship at Dan and Bethel), but it did not avert a battle. Abijah won the battle, inflicting 500,000 casualties on Jereboam and Israel. Interesting comment: 13:¹⁸ The Israelites were subdued on that occasion, and the people of Judah were victorious because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.” God did not allow Rehoboam to attack Jereboam b/c He wanted the kingdom to split. But now that the kingdom is split, He was with Abijah fighting Jereboam and gave Abijah the victory even though he was a bad king. God is going to protect Judah b/c Jesus will come from the tribe of Judah in the future.

This is going to be a very brief summary. 1 Chronicles 23:23 Now when David reached old age, he made his son Solomon king over Israel. ² And he gathered together all the leaders of Israel with the priests and the Levites. ³ The Levites were numbered from thirty years old and upward, and their number by census of men was 38,000. ⁴ Of these, 24,000 were to oversee the work of the house of the Lord; and 6,000 were officers and judges, ⁵ and 4,000 were gatekeepers, and 4,000 were praising the Lord with the instruments which David made for giving praise. ⁶ David divided them into divisions according to the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

1 Chronicles 24:1 Now the divisions of the descendants of Aaron were these: the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ² But Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no sons. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests. ³ David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to their offices for their ministry. The divisions of the musicians, gatekeepers, and keepers of the temple treasures are given. There were 12 divisions of the commanders of the army with 24,000 men each taking one month to serve. There were chief officeers for each of the 12 tribes. There were overseers of David’s property and animals.

1 Chronicles 27:³² Also Jonathan, David’s uncle, was a counselor, a man of understanding, and a scribe; and Jehiel the son of Hachmoni tutored the king’s sons. ³³ Ahithophel was counselor to the king; and Hushai the Archite was the king’s friend. ³⁴ Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar succeeded Ahithophel; and Joab was the commander of the king’s army.” These verses introduce us to Ahithophel who became Absalom’s counselor when he rebelled against David and Hushai whom David sent to be a spy and counselor to Absalom. Later we learn how Absalom rejected Ahithophel’s counsel and he committed suicide.

That’s it. Wade through this stuff. The death of David and anointing of Solomon is in 1 Chronicles 28-29.The reign of Solomon is in 2 Chronicles 1-10 and then we have the divided kingdom in the rest of 2 Chronicles.

Follow the key verses as you read and skim through the rest of it.

1 Chronicles 1:1 Adam, Seth, Enosh, ² Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, ³ Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, ⁴ Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. ²⁴ Shem, Arpachshad, Shelah, ²⁵ Eber, Peleg, Reu, ²⁶ Serug, Nahor, Terah, ²⁷ Abram, that is Abraham.” This is the same genalogies found in Genesis 5 and 11. This is the seed line of Jesus starting with Adam to Abraham. ³⁴ Abraham became the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac were Esau and Israel (Jacob will be called Israel here in 1 Chronicles). 2:1 These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, ² Dan, Joseph, Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad and Asher.

2:³ The sons of Judah were Er, Onan and Shelah; these three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanitess. And Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, so He put him to death. ⁴ Tamar his daughter-in-law bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.” (This was the events in Genesis 38 where Tamar dressed up as a prostitute b/c Judah failed to give his 3rd son in the Levirate marriage to Tamar: his first son was her husband but died childless. Judah had sex with Tamra, as a supposed prostitute, and Tamar had twins: Perez and Zerah. Perez came into the seed line of Jesus. Tamar is in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1). The other twin, Zerah, was the 2:⁵ The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. 2:⁹ Now the sons of Hezron, who were born to him were Jerahmeel, Ram and Chelubai. 2L¹⁰ Ram became the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, leader of the sons of Judah; ¹¹ Nahshon became the father of Salma, Salma became the father of Boaz, ¹² Boaz became the father of Obed, and Obed became the father of Jesse; ¹³ and Jesse became the father of Eliab his firstborn, then Abinadab the second, ^[x]Shimea the third, ¹⁴ Nethanel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, ¹⁵ Ozem the sixth, David the seventh; ¹⁶ and their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the three sons of Zeruiah were Abshai, Joab and Asahel. ¹⁷ Abigail bore Amasa, and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.”

So trace the main genealogy: Judah, Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salma, Boaz (who married the widow Ruth as Naomi’s kinsman redeemer and Ruth is in the genealogy in Matthew 1), Obed, Jesse, David.” Interesting tidbit: David had a sister named Zeriuah whose 3 sons were Abshai, Joab, and Asahel. So Joab, the commander of David’s army, was the nephew of David! We read a lot about Joab and his 2 brothers in the events of David’s life, but this is the first time we learn that Joab was David’s nephew. So it had to be sad for David to have to order Solomon to kill Joab b/c Joab supported Adonijah trying to take his throne.

3:1 Now these were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess; the second was Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelitess; ² the third was Absalom the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; the fourth was Adonijah the son of Haggith; ³ the fifth was Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth was Ithream, by his wife Eglah. ⁴ Six were born to him in Hebron, and there he reigned seven years and six months. And in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years. ⁵ These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four, by Bath-shua the daughter of Ammiel; ⁶ and Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet, ⁷ Nogah, Nepheg and Japhia, ⁸ Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet, nine. ⁹ All these were the sons of David, besides the sons of the concubines; and Tamar was their sister.”

So the genealogy continues from David to Solomon. Notice the different sons by different wives (David had 8 wives and many concubines). His son Amnon raped his half sister Tamar (who was the full blooded sister of Absalom. David’s son Absalom’s mother was Maacah, the daughter of a king of Geshur, a pagan nation that the Israelites were supposed to destroy but didn’t. After Absalom killed his half-brother Amnon for raping Tamar, he fled to Geshur and lived with his grandfather King Talmai for three years (2 Samuel 13:37). Adonijah the son of Haggith was the son of David who tried to take throne from Solomon as David was on his deathbed. Bathsheeba was the wife of Uriah whom David committed adultery with and got pregnant. She lost that child as part of David’s punishment but had Solomon and 3 other sons. David would pass his throne down to Solomon. Bathsheeba is in the seed line of Jesus in Matthew 1.

The genealogy continues with the descendants of Solomon which would be the kings of Judah: 3:¹⁰ Now Solomon’s son was Rehoboam, Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son, ¹¹ Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son, ¹² Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son, ¹³ Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son, ¹⁴ Amon his son, Josiah his son. ¹⁵ The sons of Josiah were Johanan the firstborn, and the second was Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum. ¹⁶ The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son. The Babylonians recognized Jeconiah as the last rightful king of Judah, carried him to Babylonian ezile but released him after 37 years of exile and treated him well. They placed Zedekiah as king after Jeconiah and Zedekiah was king when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 586 BC. Interesting: Zerubbabel in 3:19, the grandson of Jeconiah, was the Zerubbabel who led the 1st return from Babylonian exile to rebuild the temple in 536 BC.

Chapters 4 and 5 give the detailed genealogies of several of the 12 sons of Jacob (Israel). Chapter 5 ends with the reference to the Assyrian captivity of the northern kingdom, Israel which consisted of 10 tribes. 10:²⁵ But they (the 2 1/2 tribes that settled east of the Jordan River) acted treacherously against the God of their fathers and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land, whom God had destroyed before them. ²⁶ So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul, king of Assyria, even the spirit of Tilgath-pilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away into exile, namely the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara and to the river of Gozan, to this day.

Chapter 6 gives special attention to the genealogy of the priestly tribe Levi. Several key characters: 6:1 The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath and Merari. ² The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. ³ The children of Amram were Aaron, Moses and Miriam. And the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. ⁴ Eleazar became the father of Phinehas…” Israel would come out of Egyptian bondage in the 4th generation and did: Levi/Kohath/Amram/Moses. Aaron became the first high priest of the nation of Israel. 2 of his sons, Nadab and Abihu, were killed by fire from God for offering “strange fire”. Aaron’s son Eleazar became high priest after Aaron died. After the death of Aaron’s older sons, Nadab and Abihu, the high priesthood initially flowed through the elder surviving son, Eleazar (whose descendants included Phinehas). Phinehas was the one who stopped the plague at Peor (where Balaam got his money from Balak the king of Moab by getting the Israelite men to have sex with the Moabite women) by running his spear through an Israelite man and a Moabite woman having sex. At some point, the office of the high priest crossed over into the younger son of Aaron, Ithamar, beginning with Eli. Five high priests descended from Ithamar, including Eli, Ahimelech, and Abiathar. This line came to an end due to the corruption of Eli’s sons (Hophni and Phinehas) and subsequent divine judgment. King Solomon deposed Abiathar (the last high priest from Ithamar’s line) and replaced him with Zadok—who belonged to the elder line of Eleazar—permanently returning the high priesthood to Eleazar’s descendants. King Solomon banished the priest Abiathar because Abiathar supported the failed coup of Adonijah to seize the throne of Israel instead of recognizing Solomon as the rightful king. , the Zadok in 1 Chronicles 6:8 is the exact same Zadok who served as high priest during the reigns of King David and King Solomon. He was the first high priest to serve in the newly built First Temple in Jerusalem, and his descendants (the “sons of Zadok”) remained prominent throughout the history of the Jerusalem priesthood. The high priesthood would continue through Eleazar’s descendants until the Hasmoneans took over in the 2nd century BC. Notice that 1 Chronicles 6 doesn’t give the genealogy of Aaron’s youngest son Ithamar even though the high priesthood fell to Ithamar and a few of his descendants. Probably b/c the rightful high priestly line was only through Aaron’s son Eleazar, not Ithamar. Interesting: 6:¹⁵ and Jehozadak went along when the Lord carried Judah and Jerusalem away into exile by Nebuchadnezzar.” So Jehozadak, descendant of Eleazar, was high priest when Judah was carried into Babylonian captivity in 586 BC. I wonder how he coped with being high priest in Babylon without a temple, without a most holy place to enter and sprinkle blood on the ark of the covenant on the Day of Atonement each year, etc. What duties did he try to do as high priest while in Babylon? The primary known son and descendant of the High Priest Jehozadak (also spelled Jozadak or Josedech) was Jeshua (also known as Joshua the High Priest), who returned from the Babylonian exile with Zerubbabel to rebuild the Second Temple in Jerusalem, working alongside with the “governor” Zerubbabel (who was from the kingly line of Judah).

The high priesthood and the first high priest Aaron would come through Levi’s son Kohath and then his son Amram (the father of Moses and Aaron), but the rest of Levi’s sons Gershom and Mearari and their descendants would serve with other duties in the tabernacle and temple. 6:³¹ Now these are those whom David appointed over the service of song in the house of the Lord, after the ark rested there. ³² They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the tent of meeting, until Solomon had built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem; and they served in their office according to their order.” ⁴⁸ Their kinsmen the Levites were appointed for all the service of the tabernacle of the house of God.” But the duties of the priests and high priest were reserved for Aaron (the first high priest) and his descendants. ⁴⁹ But Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded. ⁵⁰ These are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son, ⁵¹ Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son, ⁵² Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son, ⁵³ Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.” The Levites would be given 48 cities with pasture land scattered throughout the 12 tribes in Canaan.

Chapter 7 continues with the genealogies of 6 more of the 12 tribes of Israel.

Wow, that’s pretty technical but that’s 1 Chronicles! The genealogies were very important to Israel, just as your family genealogies are probably important to you. Have you ever tried to trace your genealogies of your family? A cousin of mine did and we were astonished at how many old records mentioned our family members from many years ago. It’s also kinda fun to see how many of the names we remember from our study in 1, 2 Samuel and 1,2 Kings. Chapter 8 will get into more history with the reign of Saul of the genealogy of Benjamin.