2 Chronicles: the temple and the kings of Judah

About the book

2 Chronicles is the second half of the book begun in 1 Chronicles, where its author, date and reason for retelling Israel's history are discussed. In brief: Jewish tradition names Ezra Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra, and many scholars think of an unnamed Chronicler writing about 400–350 BC. On either view it was written for people back from exile, living beside a rebuilt temple.

Most of its story lies in the era the map under the Jesus tab calls the divided monarchy (930–586 BC). Its first nine chapters tell of Solomon's reign just before, and its last two verses of the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, 538 BC.

Unlike Kings, it follows only the kings of Judah; the northern kingdom appears only where it touches Judah, for David's house and the temple in Jerusalem are the book's centre. It also tells what Kings does not. Manasseh, the worst of the kings, was taken captive to Babylon and there "earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers" (2 Chronicles 33:12); "the LORD received his plea and heard his petition" (2 Chronicles 33:13) and brought him home.

How it unfolds

Key passages

At the temple's dedication the singers praised the LORD, "For He is good; His loving devotion endures forever" (2 Chronicles 5:13), and a cloud filled the house. When Solomon finished praying, fire fell and "the glory of the LORD filled the temple" (2 Chronicles 7:1). That night God answered him:

If My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

This is the key to the book. Of every king it asks whether he sought the LORD or forsook him. The prophet Azariah told King Asa, "If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you" (2 Chronicles 15:2). When Asa later leaned on the king of Aram instead, the seer Hanani rebuked him:

For the eyes of the LORD roam to and fro over all the earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9

Facing a vast army, Jehoshaphat prayed, "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You" (2 Chronicles 20:12). Hezekiah cleansed the temple and invited even the northern tribes to the Passover; Josiah made a covenant to keep the words of the book of the law. Manasseh's repentance shows the promise of 7:14 open even to the worst of kings.

Yet the people would not turn. "Again and again the LORD … sent word to His people through His messengers" (2 Chronicles 36:15), but they mocked the prophets, and the temple burned. After the land had kept its Sabbaths for seventy years, the book ends with Cyrus' decree:

Whoever among you belongs to His people, may the LORD his God be with him, and may he go up.

2 Chronicles 36:23

The last word, from alah (עָלָה), ‘to go up’, means ‘let him go up’. Since Chronicles usually stands last in the Hebrew Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures in that order end with a call to go up to Jerusalem. Matthew Henry writes here, "Though God's church be cast down, it is not cast off; though his people be corrected, they are not abandoned" Matthew Henry.

The book and Christ

Jesus spoke of the righteous blood shed "from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar" (Matthew 23:35). Abel's death is told in Genesis, and the stoning of Zechariah son of Jehoiada in the temple court in 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 24:20-21). Since Chronicles usually comes last in later Jewish order, many interpreters hear in his words the martyrs of the Hebrew Bible from its first book to its last. But Matthew calls him the son of Berechiah, so who this Zechariah was has been discussed since ancient times, and how settled the order of the books was in Jesus' day is uncertain (The canon, in the doctrine course).

At the dedication Solomon asked, "But will God indeed dwell with man upon the earth?" (2 Chronicles 6:18). John's Gospel gives the answer: "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory" (John 1:14). The glory that once filled the temple was seen in Jesus, and when he spoke of raising the temple in three days, "Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body" (John 2:21).

Reading it

Two chapters a day takes eighteen days; begin with 2 Chronicles 1, and read Solomon's prayer and God's answer, in 2 Chronicles 6 and 7, slowly. Watch, king by king, for the words ‘seek’ and ‘humble’: they carry the book's question.

It helps to set a king's story beside the one in Kings: for Manasseh, read 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 together. The book's last two verses open Ezra.

Practice