An Introduction to II Chronicles

We are working our way through the history of Israel in the scroll of Chronicles. We now enter the second half of that scroll, focusing on the southern kingdom, as the nation of Israel splits in two.

Purpose

The Old Testament book of 2 Chronicles continues the story of the Davidic kingdom, beginning with the high point of Solomon's reign, followed by the decay into the divided kingdoms and eventually the conquest of the southern kingdom by Babylon. There are similarities with the material in 1 and 2 Kings but there is almost no mention of the northern kingdom, Israel (which at times is called Samaria or Ephraim.) The author is writing to Jews returning from Babylon, preparing them for the Second Temple period, for a rebirth of the temple worship and the sacrificial system. As John Walton argues, Old Testament material like this is "written for us but not written to us." (I note in passing thst John Walton, Old Testament scholar, was a professor at Moody Bible Institute for 20 years. I attended Moody for one year, when I was eighteen.  Walton is only two years older than me so obviously my student year was before his time teaching there.) 

Dr. Carmen Imes has a nice explanation for the role of 1 & 2 Chronicles in a Christianity Today article. 

As the culture of the ancient Near East is very important for an understanding of the Old Testament, I have taken to abbreviating "ancient Near East" as ANE.

The author of the scroll of Chronicles is not given to us but tradition has it that it is the same person as the author of the scroll of Ezra-Nehemiah. Indeed, one commentator identifies the author as Ezra. Certainly the style and philosophy of Chronicles is very similar to that of Ezra-Nehemiah. I will merely call the author of 1 and 2 Chronicles "the Chronicler."

Outline

The first nine chapters describe the magnificent reign of Solomon.  Solomon's kingdom collapses after his death and is divided into the northern and southern kings in chapters 10 and 11. After that are 25 chapters covering the reign of 20 kings of Judah, beginning with Rehoboam and ending with Zedekiah.The last seven verses describe the exile into Babylon and the later declaration by Cyrus that allowed people to return to Judea. That short passage prepares the reader for the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

The best overview of the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles is this short video by The Bible Project. Their videos are always excellent.

Resources and References

My practice is to read through the text from the New International Version (NIV), copied into the blog and italicized in blue.  The text is the focus of our study and so it is highlighted, broken into paragraphs. At the head of each blue paragraph of text I place a short title; after the text I place my thoughts or comments in black.  I begin this process with my own reactions and thoughts and then supplement these comments with gleanings from a commentary or two.

The real goal of this blog is to force myself and others to read every verse thoughtfully. I do hope that you, too, read the passages thoughtfully! Feel free to disagree -- or to react in other ways! (I place hyperlinks in pink, created so that one can click on a link and see the linked site open in another window... and go down a rabbit hole if you wish!)

For the study of 2 Chronicles, I have relied mainly on one commentary, the commentary by J. Barton Payne in volume 4 of The Expositor's Bible Commentary, published by Zondervan.

There are other resources online. 

1. There are online commentaries provided by EasyEnglishBible, a charity based in the United Kingdom. They have an online commentary by Ian Mackervoy on 2 Chronicles in two parts, here and here.
2. The Gospel Coalition has an online commentary on 2 Chronicles here.

The scroll of Chronicles will be followed by the scroll of Ezra-Nehemiah.