Prophets
מְלָכִים
Kings
Solomon, a split, and then two kingdoms declining toward exile.
One book in Hebrew, split into 1 and 2 Kings in most English Bibles.
Read it
Open chapter 1What is in it
It opens at the height: Solomon, the temple, wealth and reputation. The kingdom divides almost immediately after him, and the rest of the book alternates between north and south, judging each king in a line or two.
Elijah and Elisha occupy the middle. The book ends with Jerusalem taken and its people carried off, and its last note is an oddly small mercy shown to an imprisoned king.
If you read one chapter
1 Kings 19
Elijah after his greatest victory, suicidal in a cave, and the still small voice.
Passages worth knowing
- 1 Kings 3Solomon asks for a listening heart.
- 1 Kings 18Carmel.
- 1 Kings 19:11 to 13Not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire.
- 2 Kings 22 to 23A lost scroll found, and Josiah's reform.
- 2 Kings 25The fall of Jerusalem.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Each king gets a one line verdict. What is the standard being applied?
- 02
Why place Elijah's despair immediately after his victory?