With regard to the work so often cited in the Chron- icles as " the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah" (1 Chron. ix, 1 ; 2 Chron. xvi, 11; xxvii, 7 ; xxviii, 2G; xxxii, 32 ; xxxv, 27 ; xxxvi, 8), it has been thought by some that it was a separate collection contamiug the joint histories of the two kingdoms; by others, that it is our books of Kings which answer to this description ; but by Eichhom, that it is the same as the Clironicles of the kings of Judah so constantly cited in the books of Kings; and this last opinion seems to be the best founded. For in 2 Chron. xvi, 11, the same book is call- ed " the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel," which in the parallel passage, 1 Kings xv, 23, is called " the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah." So, again, 2 Chron. xxvii, 7, comp. with 2 Kings xv, oG ; 2 Chron. xxviii, 2C, comp. with 2 Kings xvi, 19 ; 2 Chron. xxxii, 32, comp. with 2 Kings xx, 20; 2 Chron. xxxv, 27, with 2 Kings xxiii, 28; 2 Chron. xxxvi, 8, with 2 Kings xxiv, 5. Moreover, the book so quoted refers ex- clusively to the affairs of Judah; and even in the one passage where reference is made to it as " the Book of the Kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xx, 34), it is for the reign of Jehoshaphat that it is cited. Obviously, therefore, it is the same work which is elsewhere described as the Chronicles of Israel cindJudali, and of Judah and Israel. Nor is this an unreasonable title to give to these chron- icles. Saul, David, Solomon, and in some sense Heze- kiah (2 Chron. xxx, 1,5, 6), and all his successors, were kings of Israel as well as of Judah, and therefore it is very conceivable that in Ezra's time the chronicles of
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Judah sliould have acquired the name of tlie Book of the Kings of Israel antl Judah, Even with regard to a portion of Israel in the days of Kehoboani, the chroni- cler remarks, apparently as a matter of gratulation,ihat '•Ivehoboam reigned over them" (2 Chron. x, 17); he notices Abijah's authority in ])ortions of the Israelitish territory (2 Chron. xiii, 18, It) ; xv, 8, 9) ; he not un- frequently speaks of Israel, when the kingdom of Judah is the matter in hand (as 2 Chron. xii, 1 ; xxi, 4 ; xxiii, 2, etc."), and even calls Jehoshaphat '■ king of Israel" (2 Chron. xxi, 2), and distinguishes '-Israel and Judah" from '-Ephraim and ^Nlanasseh" (xxx, 1); he notices Ilezekiah's authority from Dan to Beersheba (2 Chron. xxx, 5). and Josiah's destruction of idols througliout all the land of Israel (xxxiv. 6-9), and his Passover for all Israel (xxxv, 17, 18), and seems to parade the title "/ti«^ of Israel" in connection with David and Solomon (xxxv, 3, 4), and the relation of the Levites to " all Israel" (ver. 3) ; and therefore it is only in accordance with the feel- ing displayed in such passages that the name, '• the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah," should be given to the chronicles of the Jewish kingdom. The use of this term in speaking of the '• kings of Israel and Judah who ^^■ere carried away to Babylon for their transgression" (1 Chron. ix, 1) would be conclusive if the construction of the sentence were certain. But though it is absurd to separate the words '■ and Judah" from Israel, as Bertheau does {Kurzgff. K.ccg. Ifamlfi.). following the Masoretic punctuation, seeing that the "Book of the Kings of Israel and Jitda/r is cited in at least six other places in Chron- icles, still it is possible that Israel and Judah might be the antecedent to the pronoun understood before ^1?.'!^. It seems, however, much more likely that the antece- dent to -i-rx is "nil "c"! -"zh-g. 0.1 the whole, there- fore, there is no evidence of the existence in the time of the chronicler of a history, since lost, of the two king- doms, nor are the books of Kings tlie work so quoted by the chronicler, seeing he often refers to it for " the rest of tlie acts" of Kings, when he has already given all that is contained in our books of Kings, lie refers, there- fore, to the chronicles of Judah.
From the above authentic sources, then, was compiled the history in the books under consideration. Judging from the facts that we have in 2 Kings xvii, xix, xx, the history of Hezekiah in the very words of Isaiah, xxxvi-xxxix; that, as stated above, we have several ]iassages from Jeremiah in dupUcate in 2 Kings, and the whole of Jer. lii in 2 Kings xxiv, 18, etc., xxv ; that so large a portion of the books of Kings is rejieated in the books of Chronicles, though the writer of Chronicles | hnd the original Chronicles also before him, as well as I from the whole internal character of the narrative, and j even some of the blemishes referred to under the second j head — we may conclude with certainty that we have in ! the books of Kings, not only in the main the history i faithfully preserved to us from the ancient chronicles, ! but most frequently wliole passages transferred verba- | tim into them. O^'casionally, no doubt, we have the ] oomjiiler's own comments, or reflections thrown in, as at ! 2 Kings xxi, 10-16; xvii, 10-15; xiii, 23; xvii, 7-41, | etc. We connect tlic insertion of the prophecy in 1 j Kings xiii with the fact^that the compiler himself was i an eye-witness of the fulfdment of it, and can even see how the u-orJs ascribed to the old prophet are of the age of the compiler. We can perhaps see his hand in the frequent repetition, on the review of each reign, of the remark, " The high places were not taken away ; the people still sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places" (1 Kings xxii, 43 ; 2 Kings xii, 3; xiv, 4; xv, 4, 35; comp. 1 Kings iii, 3), and in the repeated observa- tion that such and such things, as the staves by which the ark was borne, the revolt of the ten tribes, the re- bellion of Edom, etc., continue " unto this day," though it may be perhaps doubted in some cases whether these words were not in the old chronicle (2 Chron. v, 9). See 1 Kings viii, 8 ; ix, 13 21 ; x, 12 ; xii, 19 ; 2 Kings ii, 22 ; v.— G