2 Chronicles

Author: Unknown

2 Chronicles follows Judah’s kings from Solomon’s temple to the edict that sends the exiles home.

Outline

  1. Solomon and the temple (1–9)

    Solomon asks for wisdom, builds and dedicates the house, and receives the queen of Sheba.

  2. The split and the early kings (10–16)

    Rehoboam’s harsh answer divides the kingdom, and Judah’s kings are judged by their worship.

  3. Reform and relapse (17–28)

    Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah’s predecessors, and Ahaz show how quickly a reform can be undone.

  4. Hezekiah, Josiah, and exile (29–36)

    Two great reforms precede the fall of Jerusalem, and Cyrus’s decree ends the book.

Key verses

  • 2 Chronicles 7:14

    At the dedication the Lord says that if his people humble themselves and pray, he will hear.

  • 2 Chronicles 20:12

    Jehoshaphat prays that Judah has no power against the army coming against them.

  • 2 Chronicles 36:23

    Cyrus says the Lord has charged him to build a house in Jerusalem and invites the exiles to go up.

2 Chronicles is the companion to 1 Chronicles and a selective retelling of Kings. The northern kingdom is almost offstage. The camera stays on Judah, the temple, and the question of whether the kings seek the Lord. Solomon occupies the first nine chapters. He asks for wisdom at Gibeon. He builds the house over seven years, brings in the ark, and prays that God would hear toward this place. Fire comes down and the glory fills the house. The Lord appears by night and answers the prayer with a condition the later chapters will test: if the people humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from their wicked ways, he will hear and heal their land. If they turn away, he will pluck them up.

Rehoboam’s answer to the laborers splits the kingdom, as in Kings. Shishak of Egypt comes up against Jerusalem, and the prophet Shemaiah says the princes have abandoned the Lord. They humble themselves, and the city is not destroyed, though the temple treasures are taken. From then on the book measures kings by high places, by whether they sought the Lord, and by how they treated the priests. Abijah’s speech on the battlefield tells Jeroboam that Judah has the Aaronic priesthood and the lamp before the Lord. Asa removes his mother’s image and is later rebuked for relying on Aram instead of on the Lord. Jehoshaphat inquires of the Lord when a great army comes, and the battle is won by singers who go out before the army. The same king nearly dies for joining Ahab at Ramoth-gilead. Reform and entanglement sit side by side.

Athaliah’s seizure of the throne and Joash’s coronation in the temple keep the Davidic line alive, as Kings also tells it. Joash repairs the house and then, after Jehoiada’s death, listens to the princes and has Zechariah the priest stoned. Uzziah is strong while he seeks the Lord and is struck when he tries to burn incense himself. Ahaz locks the temple doors. The pattern is blunt. Seeking the Lord brings rest. Abandoning the house brings invasion. The book is preaching to people who know how the story ends and are being asked to see why.

Hezekiah reopens the doors in the first month of his reign, cleanses the temple, restores the courses of priests and Levites, and keeps a Passover that includes people from the north. Assyria comes, Hezekiah and Isaiah pray, and the Lord sends an angel. Manasseh undoes the work, is taken to Babylon in chains, humbles himself, and is brought back — a turn Kings does not tell. Josiah finds the book of the law, weeps, and keeps Passover. The reform is real, and the exile still comes. The last kings do evil. Nebuchadnezzar burns the house and breaks down the wall. The land keeps its sabbaths. The final verses are Cyrus of Persia, in his first year, saying that the Lord has charged him to build a house at Jerusalem and that whoever among the Lord’s people wishes may go up. Chronicles does not end on the ash. It ends on a permit to rebuild.

Chapters