2 Chronicles

Composition

Together with the first book of Chronicles, or 1 Chronicles, the second Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, forms a section known as the books of Chronicles in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. In the Hebrew Bible, the paired scriptures are presented as a standalone work. Its division into two books occurred when the Hebrew Bible/Christian Old Testament was translated into Greek for the first time in the second century BCE. In the Judaic tradition, Chronicles is still rendered as a standalone work but has remained divided into 1 and 2 Chronicles in the Christian tradition.

Unlike most other books of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, a particular person is not traditionally accepted as the author of Chronicles. Instead, Judeo-Christian scholars refer to the work’s composer and/or editor simply as “the chronicler.” There is no consensus as to the possible identity of “the chronicler.” However, Ezra the Scribe—also known as Ezra the Priest—has been suggested as a possibility.

Other investigators have performed close analyses of the text of Chronicles, searching for details that might point to the identity of its author(s). Some analysis has latched onto the repetitive references found throughout Chronicles to external source materials, including books, annals, and other written records. Its author(s) were therefore highly likely to be literate, educated, and from a privileged social class. However, nothing in the textual contents of Chronicles can be definitively linked to any particular author.

The composition of Chronicles has historically been placed about 450 BC–425 BC. Notably, this falls about a century after the period of Jewish history known as the Babylonian exile. This gives Chronicles important context as a spiritual reference work intended to be a reminder to the Jewish people of the proper observance of religious laws and customs as they returned to Israel.

Summary

The narrative elements of both 1 and 2 Chronicles cover many of the same events and details depicted in the Old Testament works that immediately precede it: the books of Samuel (1 and 2 Samuel) and the book of Kings (1 and 2 Kings). These events include the final stages of King Saul’s reign, the rise of King David to the Israelite throne, and David’s succession by King Solomon. Though King Solomon initially honored God by building the first temple (Solomon’s temple) in Jerusalem, he later drifted away from Judaic religious customs to enter polygamous marriages and engage in paganism. As an eventual consequence, the unified Israelite kingdom split into two domains: the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom (Judah).

In 1 and 2 Kings, the scriptural narrative goes into great descriptive detail about the respective histories of the two kingdoms, inviting implicit comparisons between them. Generally, the Northern Kingdom is depicted in 1 and 2 Kings as wicked and sinful, while the Southern Kingdom of Judah manages to redeem itself by implementing religious reforms that draw the people back into their special relationship with God. In 1 and 2 Chronicles, the same set of events receives a different narrative treatment. Chronicles pays far less attention to the Northern Kingdom, mainly referencing it only in relation to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Instead, Judah’s kingly and religious history is explored in far richer detail, with “the chronicler” going to particular effort to highlight the virtues of the Jewish priests in Judah and the religious practices of its observant Jewish population.

Chronicles also covers some details omitted in the books of Samuel and Kings. For example, 2 Chronicles references a prophecy of Elijah, which warns of an impending plague of deadly disease due to the wickedness of King Jehoram, who secured his succession to the throne by murdering his six brothers. This prophecy is not found elsewhere in the Old Testament, despite events contemporary to the prophecy being described in other passages.

The 2 Chronicles consists of thirty-six chapters, which cover an extensive period of Israelite history spanning the golden age of King Solomon to the end of the Babylonian exile period. Chapters 1–9 cover the forty-year reign of King Solomon, who builds the first temple in Jerusalem and dedicates it to God. This time period is referred to as the golden age of ancient Israel, and King Solomon is generally depicted in 2 Chronicles as a wise and just ruler. Solomon passes the kingship to his son Rehoboam. Under King Rehoboam, Israel divides into two kingdoms as the ten northern tribes secede to form the Northern Kingdom and Israel’s southern tribes remain loyal to Rehoboam in the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Across 2 Chronicles 10–35, the succession of kings who rule in Judah are listed and described within the context of Judah’s continued overall alignment with the laws and values of God.

The second book of Chronicles concludes with an eventful thirty-sixth chapter in which the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II conquers Judah and begins the era of the Babylonian exile. King Nebuchadnezzar installs Zedekiah on the throne of Judah, but Zedekiah refuses to do Nebuchadnezzar’s bidding. In response, the Babylonians attack Judah, sacking Jerusalem and destroying Solomon’s temple. The Israelites are captured and forced into exile in Babylon, where they remain for decades until Babylon falls to the invading Persian Empire. Under Persian rule, the Israelites are permitted to leave Babylon and return to their homeland in Israel, where they build a new house of worship, the second temple, to replace Solomon’s temple.

Themes

The book of second Chronicles continues many of the same spiritual themes that define the earlier books of the Old Testament, especially the books of Samuel and Kings. Alienation from God and defiance of God’s laws represent the underlying cause of the many calamities and curses experienced by the Israelite during this tumultuous period. Similarly, blessings and good fortune are causally linked to faith in God and adherence to God’s laws and principles.

Chronicles also represents another iteration of a thematic pattern pervasive throughout Judeo-Christian scripture, which highlights the typical and repetitive cycle of sin, repentance, forgiveness, and healing that define the relationship between faithful humans and God. In 2 Chronicles, as in Kings, human leadership is also depicted as inherently fallible and prone to corruption. God’s leadership is everlasting and perfect in its divine wisdom. Human beings tend to drift away from God in pursuit of earthly power and riches, but Chronicles and its related books clearly characterize this as a false path that leads only to spiritual ruin.

In a related turn, the cause-and-effect relationship tied to the events described in Chronicles implies that true victory is only attainable through God. Chronicles discusses battles of enormous scope that carry profound implications for the Israelites. In each case, leaders who petition God for divine help receive it. In 2 Chronicles 16, King Asa of the Southern Kingdom ignores God and instead attempts to form an alliance with King Ben-Hadad of nearby Aram-Damascus. This act of investing faith in earthly rather than divine power results in a long and relentless series of destructive wars that bring widespread misery, as described in 2 Chronicles 16:1–9.

Christian commentators note that Chronicles plays an important role in foretelling the future birth of Jesus Christ, the coming Messiah, who will descend from the house of King David. Though the explicit reference to the future Messiah is contained in 1 Chronicles 17:11–14, the positioning of this Messiah as the “King of Kings” has thematic implications for the entirety of Chronicles, which focuses heavily on the shortcomings of the royal rulers of the divided Israelite kingdom. Israel’s earthly leaders, just and unjust, righteous and wicked, all have flaws, and more important, they are all mortals whose kingdoms will end. Chronicles stokes the great hope of the Israelite people for their foretold future Messiah, whose “throne shall be established forever.”

From an analytical perspective, another important feature of 1 and 2 Chronicles is the time in which the work was composed. Biblical scholars have historically placed the compilation and writing of Chronicles at about 450 BC–425 BC, when the Israelites were still reestablishing their homeland after a long period of foreign exile. Chronicles, with its narrative preoccupation on the rites and rituals of priesthood and proper worship, can be viewed as a document of instruction guiding the Israelite people to a forward spiritual path that will please God and prevent the kind of division, sorrow, and calamity from which the nation just emerged.

Bibliography

Alstola, Tero. Judeans in Babylonia: A Study of Deportees in the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BCE. Leiden, Brill Publishing, 2020.

Cranz, Isabel. Royal Illness and Kingship Ideology in the Hebrew Bible. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Guzik, David. 1-2 Chronicles. Enduring Word Media, 2021.

Hill, John. Constructing Exile: The Emergence of a Biblical Paradigm. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2020.

“Introduction to the Books of 1 Chronicles; 2 Chronicles.” The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2022, www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-books-of-1-and-2-chronicles?lang=eng. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.

Zavada, Jack. “The Book of 2 Chronicles.” Learn Religions, 25 Jun. 2019, www.learnreligions.com/book-of-2-chronicles-701127. Accessed 21 Apr. 2022.