Kings, priests, and the books

Kings and Prophets of Judah and Israel

Blackwood’s Comprehensive Aids to the Study of the Bible · Vol. I, p. 35

Arranged in Parallels.

§Three Kings of All Israel

§Kings of Judah and Israel

Note.—The glory of Israel ended with the reign of Solomon. The kingdom was thenceforth dismembered. Ten tribes, of which Ephraim was chief, separated and formed the Kingdom of Israel. Judah and Benjamin alone remained faithful to the house of David. Most of the Levites and many out of the other tribes who feared God (2 Chron. 11. 13-36) adhered to Judah. Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, knew why Solomon had been rejected, and yet he established a system of idolatry at Dan and Bethel. The people shared his feelings, and ever afterward idolatry became a part of the national religion. All the kings of Israel were depraved, and the nation copied the conduct of their kings, refusing all reproof. At the captivity, the land was settled by people from the region of Tigris and Euphrates. A cloud of mystery has ever since hung over the fate of the ten tribes.

Very different were the destinies of Judah. Of twenty kings, all descendants of David, who for 388 years held the throne, six are mentioned with great praise—Asa, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Jotham, Hezekiah and Josiah—while others are commended. Others were fearfully wicked—Jehoram, Ahaz, Manasseh and Amon—introducing idolatrous worship into the temple itself and filling Jerusalem with blood. After the captivity of Judah the country was not colonized, thus leaving the land free for the people to return. Thus, while prophets warned and while threatened judgments were disregarded, the solemn lesson was displayed that when men and nations voluntarily choose evil and reject counsel, they prepare themselves for the retributions that necessarily follow in the Divine government.