The chronology of the time of the kings of Judah and Israel is not altogether devoid of difficulties. Anyone who sits down for the first time to make a list of the kings after the division of the kingdom, placing each king at then appointed year of the contemporary sovereign, and giving to each the right length of reign, will be surprised to find that they will not agree. Still, the difficulties gradually lessen as they are patiently encountered.
It is necessary, of course, to remember that the Jews reckoned parts of years at the beginning and end of the reigns as complete years. This is proved, if proof is needed, by the reigns of Ahaziah and Joram (1 Kings 22:51; 2 Kings 1:17). Ahaziah is said to begin to reign in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, and to reign two years; and yet his successor is said to begin to reign in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, proving that Ahaziah’s reign of two years could have been only one year and a part of another, or indeed it may have been a few months only of each year. It is proved also in the saying that our Lord was three days and three nights in the tomb, when the actual time was an entire day of twenty-four hours and a part of two other days. Thus, when Scripture says that a king reigned twenty years, it may be right to reckon it only as eighteen entire years, or it may be as nineteen years, or it may be as the full twenty.
It has been thought, too, that Jeroboam, in devising of his own heart (1 Kings 12:33) times differing from Judah, also altered the beginning of the year by which the reign of the kings of Israel is reckoned; and this is probable, for the reigns in some instances seem to be a year out, and this would meet the difficulty.
Still, the making due allowance for all these different modes of reckoning will not, in some places, meet the difficulty.
Thus, if we start with Jehoshaphat, he is said to reign twenty-five years.
Ahaziah begins to reign in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat, and reigns two years.
Jehoram succeeds Ahaziah in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat, and reigns twelve years, according to 2 Kings 3:1; but begins to reign in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, according to 2 Kings 1:17.
Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, begins to reign in the fifth year of Jehoram, king of Israel (2 Kings 8:16).
Now, in the ordinary mode of reckoning it falls thus —
Jehoshaphat’s
17th year is
Ahaziah’s
1st year
Jehoshaphat’s
18th year is
Jehoram’s
1st year
Jehoshaphat’s
19th year is
Jehoram’s
2nd year
Jehoshaphat’s
20th year is
Jehoram’s
3rd year
Jehoshaphat’s
21st year is
Jehoram’s
4th year
Jehoshaphat’s
22nd year is
Jehoram’s
5th year
Jehoshaphat’s
23rd year is
Jehoram’s
6th year
Jehoshaphat’s
24th year is
Jehoram’s
7th year
Jehoshaphat’s
25th year is
Jehoram’s
8th year
Jehoram’s
1st year is
Jehoram’s
9th year
But Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, begins to reign in the fifth year of Jehoram, king of Israel, and not in the ninth year as above. And if we suppose that Jehoshaphat’s reign was only twenty-three entire years, this would only bring it to Jehoram’s seventh year. And Jehoram, king of Israel, is said to begin to reign in the second year of Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, which is not at all according to the above.
And further, 2 Kings 8:16 tells us that Jehoshaphat was still king of Judah when Jehoram, his son, began to reign in the fifth year of Jehoram, king of Israel.
Confused as all this may appear at first sight, it can be made to agree with all the passages, as follows:
914 Jehoshaphat begins to reign in the fourth year of Ahab (1 Kings 22:41), and reigns twenty-three complete years.
897 Jehoshaphat accompanies Ahab to Ramoth-Gilead (1 Kings 22:4), and leaves Jehoram as regent. Ahab is slain, and Ahaziah succeeds (1 Kings 22:51).
896 In the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 3:1), and the second year of Jehoram, his son (2 Kings 1:17), Jehoram, son of Ahab, begins to reign over Israel.
891 Jehoram formally succeeds Jehoshaphat (Jehoshaphat being still alive), in the fifth year of Jehoram (2 Kings 8:16).
And the rest follows correctly, as may be seen in the chronological table.
Similar cases to this occur in other places, which may be made to agree in two ways: either by making the kings to be co-regents, or by placing an interregnum between two kings.
It may seem to be an objection to there being interregnums because Scripture is entirely silent as to them, and as to what occurred during the periods they occupy. But we need not be surprised at this when we observe that some of the entire reigns of the kings occupy only a few verses, and in these interregnums there may have been nothing which the Spirit of God thought well to record.
But there is one passage of Scripture which seems to determine the point, a passage that gives an important inclusive period, and which agrees decidedly better with the interregnums being adopted, if we can rightly interpret the passage.
In Ezekiel 4:4-6, the prophet is told to lie upon his left side 390 days, each day for a year, “so shalt thou bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.” And when this was accomplished, then he was to lie upon his right side forty days, each day for a year, to “bear the iniquity of the house of Judah.”
At first sight this might seem to point out the duration of each kingdom after the division; but this cannot be the meaning of it, for Israel, as a separate nation, existed a much less time than Judah. But it must be noted that in Ezekiel the term “Israel” is often used to denote the nation as a whole, and “Judah” as Judah in distinction.
Thus, from the division of the kingdom in B.C. 975 to the destruction of Jerusalem in 588, we have 388 entire years, or the 390 current years of the above passage, by admitting the commonly adopted interregnums.
The forty years in the above passage is not so easily made out. It was Judah as a separate kingdom that existed the 390 years, and therefore the forty years cannot refer to the duration of that kingdom. It may refer to the period of Manasseh’s reign before his reformation. It is pointed out as the crowning sin of Judah, and for which they were sent into captivity. He not only set up idolatry, but actually brought it into the house of the Lord. And God says, “Because Manasseh, king of Judah, hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did;... therefore... I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down” (2 Kings 21:11-I3).
Now, Ezekiel had to lie forty days, a day for a year, to “bear the iniquity of the house of Judah;” and the reign of Manasseh in all is fifty-five years, so that he may have reigned forty years before his captivity and reformation, and the former part of his reign was emphatically the “iniquity of the house of Judah.”
We therefore feel justified in placing an interregnum of eleven years after Jeroboam II in Israel; and an interval of anarchy of nine years after Hoshea killed Pekah before he began to reign.
Thus from the division of the kingdom to the destruction of Jerusalem is 390 current years or 388 entire years, from B.C. 975 to 588 inclusive. The details will be seen in the tables.
There are a few passages that now call for our attention.
2 Kings 15:30 states that Hoshea killed Pekah in the twentieth year of Jotham. But Jotham reigned only sixteen years, according to verse 33. This difficulty may be met by supposing that, though Jotham reigned only sixteen years, he did not die then; so that, although his son succeeded to the throne at the end of the sixteen years, the time might also be reckoned as the reign of the father while he lived. If this were so, verse 38 would still be true, that “Jotham slept with his fathers,... and Ahaz, his son, reigned in his stead.”
Isaiah 7:8. It is here declared that from the time of the alliance of Pekah, king of Israel, with Rezin, king of Damascus, to invade Judah, in sixty-five years Ephraim as a people shall be broken in pieces.
Ephraim is here doubtless put for Israel generally, and this conspiracy would be about B.C. 742. But the taking of Samaria was in 721, which was only twenty-one years afterward. Now, though Samaria was taken thus early, and Israel ceased to exist as a kingdom, the mass of the people being taken captive, yet many may have been left, and Ephraim being “broken that it be not a people,” may refer to when Esarhaddon planted a colony of foreigners in Samaria (2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:2,10). This would be in B.C. 678, which is just sixty-five years from 742.
The dates of Ezekiel are mostly reckoned from the captivity in 599, when Jehoiachin was carried away, and not from the first captivity, in 606. This is proved by Ezekiel 40:1, which speaks of the twenty-fifth year of the captivity as being fourteen years after the city was smitten. Thus, the twenty-fifth year from 599 is 574; and fourteen years from 588, when Jerusalem was destroyed, is 574 also.
Ezekiel 33:21. In the twelfth year of their captivity one came and told the prophet that Jerusalem was smitten. The twelfth year of their captivity would be 588, and this is the year of the destruction of the city.
Ezekiel 1:1-2. The thirtieth year here named presents a little difficulty. It is evidently not reckoned in the usual manner, because the prophet also gives another date: the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity.
It is generally thought that this thirty years is reckoned from the passover of Josiah (in his eighteenth year, 624) when the book was read, and the threat of captivity was reiterated (2 Kings 22:16,17). But it is difficult to account for why this circumstance should be fixed on as a period to date from. Is it not much more probable that this date is reckoned from the founding of the Babylonian kingdom by Nabopolassar; that is, that it would be the common date of the kingdom in which they then were? It was founded in 625, and their year 30 would be 595, and this would be the fifth year of Jehoiachin’s captivity.
In Jeremiah there are a few dates and synchronisms. In Jeremiah 25:1, the fourth of Jehoiakim is the first of Nebuchadnezzar (606).
Jeremiah 25:3. From the thirteenth of Josiah (628) the twenty-third year brings us again to 606.
Jerermiah 32:1 The tenth year of Zedekiah was the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar (589).
The links of events in this period are — Israel is in peace and great prosperity under Solomon. The temple is finished and dedicated, and the glory of the Lord fills the house. But failure again comes in, and Solomon falls into idolatry. In consequence of this, at his death, the kingdom is rent in twain, forming the separate kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Both kingdoms fail, and certain prophets are sent to them; but their repeated sins at length bring down upon them the judgment of God. Samaria is taken, and Israel carried away captive. Then Judah is carried away, and Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed. Thus the kingdom of Israel, as a nation, is swept away.