A History of the Kings of Greater Israel

By: James Thomas Lee Jr

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

This text was written to do a detailed study of the kings of Israel from the first king, named Saul, to the last king, named Zedekiah. After Solomon, the nation of Israel divided into two separate kingdoms. The southern kingdom was the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The northern kingdom was the other nine tribes, which had included Manasseh and Ephraim because of the double portion inheritance that was given to Joseph. The Levites were not included with either kingdom because they did not own any property. But as will be seen in this text, they were mostly in the southern kingdom and with the house of David. In the northern kingdom beginning with Jeroboam I, there were a total of nineteen kings leading up to Hoshea. It was under Hoshea when the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC. In the southern kingdom beginning with Rehoboam, there were twenty kings leading up to Zedekiah. The southern kingdom fell to Babylon in 586 BC.

The sad commentary on the northern kingdom is that not one of their nineteen kings ever sought the Lord. The scriptures describes each one of them as not having walked in the ways of the Lord. But that same sad commentary was mostly true of the southern kingdom, too. Of its twenty kings, only eight of them had tried to live for the Lord. They were Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoash, Amaziah, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, and Josiah. But even they had done some ungodly things. A few obvious lessons that one can learn from a careful study of those kings are that they had tried to serve the Lord but that they were not even close to perfect. They had made some very bad alliances. One such alliance was between Jehoshaphat and Ahab. It was a coming together of one of the very best kings of the southern kingdom with one of the very worst kings of the northern kingdom. But to have made that whole situation worse, the son of Jehoshaphat had actually married the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. So from that time on, it was a race to the bottom for both kingdoms. So while the northern kingdom might have gotten there first, the southern kingdom was not very far behind.

Another goal of this text has been to put the Major and the Minor Prophets into the context of when they had lived. It was to see what those prophets had said and to whom they had said it. So doing this study and by trying to pinpoint timeframes for each king and for each prophet has been somewhat involved and tedious. Not all commentators have agreed on exactly when some of the kings had lived and reigned. In fact, some of their estimates have varied by as much as ten, fifteen, or even more years. So the work of archaeologist Dr. Edwin R. Thiele has been used much in trying to figure out consistent beginning and ending years of reign, as well as when a son might have ruled along with his father before actually having come to the throne. So as this history is concluded, it is hoped that it will be both educational and interesting to those people who like to study such things. It certainly has been for this author. In addition, it is also hoped that the Lord will be honored and glorified by this kind of study of His Word. To Him be all of the praise, honor, and glory for all that He has done throughout the Ages and continues to do.