David begins his reign as king of Israel. He was appointed king by the people a while after the death of Saul. David did not automatically become king of Israel when Saul died. Saul’s youngest son, Eshbaal, became king with Abner being his royal advisor. He was never trained for this role. Saul expected that […]
It is time to move beyond genealogy! Our author moves into the line of Israel’s kings by skipping Saul’s works and going to his death. I’m curious why the story begins here. I have often thought of Kings and Chronicles as covering the same stories but 1 Kings starts at the end of David’s life […]
We zero in on the genealogy of Saul. Last time we looked at his line from Benjamin down. Today we duplicate the line from Jeiel. I read ahead several days ago and almost put this section with the first section on Saul’s genealogy. I held off because I noticed that they are not a full […]
We skip ahead in genealogies to the returning exiles. The full records were apparently kept in the Book of the Kings of Israel. Some of the people have returned from exile in Babylon. Our writer makes certain we know why Judah was taken; “their breach of faith” (verse 1b). He also ensures we know that […]
We are going to look at Saul’s genealogy from Benjamin on down. Benjamin was already followed but this time we have one family in mind to trace. This is the deepest of all the brothers, besides Judah, that we have traced. Judah’s line was traced from Abraham all the way to the last king to […]
