King James Version · The divided kingdom
2 Chronicles 21
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Now slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in . And his son reigned in his stead. And he had brethren the sons of , , and Jehiel, and , and , and Michael, and Shephatiah: all these were the sons of king of Israel. And their gave them great gifts of silver, and of gold, and of precious things, with fenced cities in Judah: but gave he to ; because he was . Now when was up to of his , he strengthened himself, and slew all his brethren with , and divers also of the princes of Israel. was thirty and two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in . And he walked in of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of : for he had the daughter of to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of . Howbeit would not destroy the house of , because of that he had made with , and as he promised to give a to him and to his sons for ever. In his days the revolted from under the of Judah, and made themselves a king. 9Then went forth with his princes, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the which compassed him in, and the captains of the chariots. So the revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken of his fathers. Moreover he made in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto. And there came a writing to him from the , saying, Thus saith of thy , Because thou hast not walked in the ways of thy , nor in the ways of king of Judah, But hast walked in of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of to go a , like to the whoredoms of the house of , and also hast slain thy brethren of thy ’s house, which were better than thyself: Behold, with a great plague will smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods: And thou shalt have great sickness by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day. Moreover stirred up against of the , and of the , that were near the : And they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and all the substance that was found in the king’s house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons. And after all this smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease. And it came to pass, that in process of time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by reason of his sickness: so he of sore diseases. And his people made no burning for him, like the burning of his fathers. Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned in eight years, and departed without being . Howbeit they in , but not in the sepulchres of the kings.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The divided kingdom, 931 BC to 745 BC ›
Israel in the north and Judah in the south, often at odds, with Aram of Damascus as the immediate threat and Assyria growing in the distance.
- Aram of Damascus
- The immediate enemy for most of two centuries, close enough to raid every campaigning season and strong enough to take territory. Most of the wars in Kings that read like national emergencies are border wars with Damascus.
- Assyria
- Growing steadily in the distance. Shalmaneser III fights a coalition at Qarqar in 853 BC and his own inscription lists King Ahab of Israel among his opponents with two thousand chariots, the earliest Assyrian mention of an Israelite king. A later monument shows Jehu bowing and paying tribute. Assyria is not yet the destroyer, but it is already taking notes.
- Egypt
- Divided and unreliable, capable of the occasional raid, such as Shishak stripping the temple in Rehoboam's fifth year, but no longer an empire that governs the Levant.
- Further afield
- The Greeks adopt the alphabet, hold the first Olympiad by tradition in 776 BC, and begin to compose the Homeric poems. Rome is founded by tradition in 753 BC, a village of huts at this point. This is the century in which the classical world begins.