Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah - Part 3 - Close, But a Loose Fit

Today we'll simply list the kings in chronological order. From the biblical record found in the books of Kings and Chronicles we can get a good chronology of the kings of each kingdom, the length of each reign and when they reigned in comparison with the other kingdom.

There are some _apparent_ discrepancies, but these may be overcome as we consider that any given king’s reign may have overlapped with his son’s. The most obvious example is that of Uzziah and his son, Jotham. Uzziah was struck with leprosy for disobeying the Lord, resulting in the need for his successor to rule in his stead.

This accounts for the apparent confusion in 2 Kings 15 and 2 Chronicles 27:8. For instance, the student will be puzzled as to how Pekah could begin his reign in the 52^nd year of Uzziah’s rule (the year of his death), and yet Uzziah’s successor, Jotham, begins his reign in Pekah’s second year. The answer, while slightly complicated, is available to us. Jotham’s reign overlapped both his father’s (Uzziah) and his son’s (Ahaz). Jotham’s reign began in 750, ten years before his father’s death. This was two years after Pekah’s rule began in 752.

It must be understood that while Pekah reigned 20 years, only eight of those years did he have complete sovereignty over the Northern Kingdom. The first 10 years he and Menahem ruled a divided kingdom. The following two years he and Pekahiah ruled a divided kingdom. Upon Pekahiah’s death Pekah seized the reign of all of Israel. Thus, as the record shows, Jotham began his rule both ten years before his father’s death, and two years after Pekah’s rule began. Pekah then assumed the rule of all of Israel in 740, the year that Uzziah died.

This, or course, is only part of the puzzle before us. The point thus far is to show that there is a tremendous amount of work involved in discovering the intricacies involved in this chronological debate. For instance, what date do we start with? Hayes and Hooker begin with the division of the kingdom under Rehoboam and Jeroboam in 926/927\. Thiele begins in 930/31\. Bright begins in 922\. Gogan and Tadmor begin in 928.[[1]](#_ftn1)

We also have disagreement as to the precise year of the end of each kingdom. Bright has Judah ending in 587, while the others put the date at 586. Hayes, Hooker and Thiele place the end of the Northern Kingdom in 722, while Bright, Cogan and Tadmor give a date of 724. These minor differences could simply be the result of associating the data with the different calendars involved, but they do serve well to further express the great difficulty and diversity in the interpretation of the data before us.

So, in light of this information, tomorrow we'll proceed to attempt to put this daunting puzzle together, considering the record of both kingdoms. It's a longer and far more didactic section that will require an open Bible for those who want to follow along.

Steemin' on,
Another Joe

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[1] John H. Walton, Chronological and Background Charts of the Old Testament, revised and expanded (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 30.
[Footnote reference 12 in Chart] Amaziah lived 15 years after the death of Jehoash of Israel (2 Kgs 14:17; 2 Chr 25:25).

Previously in this series
~ Introduction - Part 1 - Part 2 ~