Shortly after his coronation Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, lost the 10 northern tribes (Israel) in a revolt. This left him and future generations as Kings of Judah (the 2 southern tribes).
Kings of all Tribes
Saul
- reigned 40 years – Acts 13:21 – no mention in OT of how long Saul reigned.
- Israel demands a king (1 Samuel 8:4-5)
- told by God to do what Israel asks (1 Samuel 8:7-22)
- –God shows Saul to Samuel (1 Samuel 9:17)
- Samuel anoints Saul king (1 Samuel 10:1)
- Saul proclaimed king to all of Israel (1 Samuel 10:21-24
- Saul rejected by God because he rejected the word of the Lord. 1 Samuel 15:10-26)
- Saul outwardly followed God, but inwardly went his own way. That was worse than a king who did not make any pretense of following God. (1 Chronicles 10:13 – Winfried Corduan Ph.D., Holman Study Bible NKJV)
- Saul and his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishau, killed in battle
(1 Samuel 31:6)
David
- Reigned 40 years – 7½ years over Judah and 33 years over Israel and Judah – (2 Samuel 5:5; 1 Kings 2:11)
- Samuel told to anoint David king (1 Samuel 16:12)
- David anointed king by Samuel (1 Samuel 16:13)
- David anointed king of Judah (2 Samuel 2:4)
- War between Israel and Judah (2 Samuel 2:12 – 4:12)
- Anointed king of all Israel (Israel and Judah) after murder of Ishboshet –
(2 Samuel 5:3)
**Diverted his strength to an affair, and it destroyed his judgment and ruined his family (Proverbs 31:3—Holman NKJV study Bible)
- Died (1 Kings 2:10)
- According to Jewish tradition, King David was born and died on Shavuot (Pentecost). https://www.ifcj.org/learn/jewish-holidays/what-is-shavuot-the-jewish-pentecost
Solomon
- made co-regent by David – (1 Kings 1:33-35; 1 Chronicles 23:1)
- Made king by David – (1 Kings 1: 29-48) – reigned 40 years – (1 Kings 11:42)
- Solomon’s heart turned from God (worshipped other god’s) so kingdom will be torn from Solomon and given to his servant (10 northern tribes) Won’t be done while Solomon is king, but when his son is king. (1 Kings 11:9-13)
- But because of David, this would not happen during Solomon’s reign. Instead, it would happen during the reign of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam.
- Solomon’s obituary carries neither praise nor condemnation. (2 Chronicles 9:29-31)
- The infidelity of Jerusalem began with Solomon’s introduction of idolatry and his creation of multiple shrine sites for idol worship. (Ezekiel 16:10 Holman NKJV study Bible notes)
Kings of Judah
1st – Rehoboam
- Son of Solomon, first king of Judah – (1 Kings 11:43) – reigned 17 years – (1 Kings 14:21)
- 10 northern tribes revolted shortly after his coronation (1 Kings 12:1-16)
- The united kingdom split into the north (Israel) and the south (Judah) under his rule.
- -After Judah was secure, he led the people in abandoning the law of the Lord (2 Chronicles 12:1)
- Then Rehoboam and the leaders humbled themselves (2 Chronicles 12:6,12)
- Did evil because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord (2 Chronicless12:14)
- Judah sunk into degraded pagan worship involving perverted persons (male cult prostitutes). And the responsibility for this degradation is traceable directly to the throne. Judah’s failure was Rehoboam’s failure. (1 Kings 14:22-24 Holman NKJV study Bible notes)
- Died and buried in the City of David. (1 Kings 14:31; 2 Chronicles 12:1)
- Negative customary death notice. Despite his repentance and rescue, he was considered an evil king who did not follow the law of the Lord. (2 Chronicles 12:1- Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
2nd – Abijam
- Son of Rehoboam – (1 Kings 14:31) – reigned 3 years – (1 Kings 15:2)
- He walked in all the sins of his father; his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God (1Kings 15:3)
- An idolator who cared little for the Lord or His laws. (2 Chronicles 13:4 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Received a neutral death notice from the chronicler in light of the single event when he briefly relied on the Lord in a time of great need. (2 Chronicles 14:1 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Died and buried in the City of David (1 Kings 15:8)
3rd – Asa
- Son of Abijam – (1 Kings 15:8) – reigned 41 years – (1 Kings 15:10)
- Served as co-regent first
- Did what was right in the sight of the Lord – (1 Kings 15:11)
- Devoted to God, but closed himself off from God at the end of his life. (2 Chronicles 16:12 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- His heart was loyal to the Lord all his days – (1 Kings 15:14)
- Died and buried in the City of David (1 Kings 15:24; 2 Chronicles 16:14)
- Despite his faithlessness at the end, Asa received a glorious burial. (2 Chronicles 16:14 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
4th – Jehoshaphat
- Son of Asa – (1 Kings 15:24) – reigned 25 years – (1 Kings 22:42)
- Walked in all the ways of his father, Asa. Did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord. (1 Kings 22:43)
- Thoroughly devoted to God. (2 Chronicles 17:1 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- One of the outstanding kings of Judah. He stood for all the things that should characterize a king of Judah. (2 Chronicles 17:3-6 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- The chronicler praises him almost as much as David, Solomon, and later on Hezekiah. . (2 Chronicles 17:3-6 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
5th – Jehoram
- Son of Jehoshaphat – (1 Kings 22:50) – reigned 8 years – (2 Kings 8:17)
- Walked in the ways of the kings of Israel – did evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings 8:18)
- Married to the daughter of Ahab, king of Israel (2 Kings 8:18)
- The Lord would not destroy Judah because of His promise to David — (2 Kings 8:19)
- Died and buried in the City of David (2 Kings 8:24)
6th – Ahaziah
- Son of Jehoram – (2 Kings 8:24) – reigned 1 year – (2 Kings 8:26)
- Walked in the way of the house of Ahab, did evil in the sight of the Lord – (2 Kings 8:27)
- Killed by the archers Jehu’s archers (2 Kings 9:27)
- Buried in the City of David (2 Kings 9:28)
7th – Athaliah
- Mother of Ahaziah – (2 Kings 11:3) – reigned 6 years – (2 Kings 11:3)
- Destroyed all the royal heirs but Joash/Jehoash who was hidden. (2 Kings 11:1-2)
- Killed by army officers loyal to Joash/Jehoash. (2 Kings 11:16)
8th – Joash/Jehoash
- Son of Ahaziah – (2 Kings 11:2) – reigned 42 years – (2 Kings 12:1)
- Did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him. (2 Kings 12:2)
- But the high places weren’t taken away and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. (2 Kings 12:3)
- Killed by his servants. (2 Kings 12: 20)
- Buried in the City of David (2 Kings 12:21)
9th – Amaziah
- Son of Joash/Jehoash – (2 Kings 12:21; 14:1) – reigned 29 years – (2 Kings 14:2)
- Did what was right in the sight of the Lord, not like David, but as his father Joash/Jehoash had done – (2 Kings 14:3)
- The high places weren’t taken away and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. (2 Kings 14:4)
- Executed the servants who had killed his father. (2 Kings 14:5)
- Slaughtered the Edomites, took Sela by war, and brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up to be his gods, and bowed down before them and burned incense to them. (2 Chronicles 25:14)
- God’s prophet told Amaziah that God had determined to destroy him because of what he had done and because he had not heeded the prophet’s advice. (2 Chronicles 25:15-16)
- Killed in Lachish by conspirators – (2 Kings 14:19)
- Buried in the City of David. (2 Kings 14:20)
10th – Azariah/Uzziah
- Son of Amaziah made co-regent– (2 Kings 14:21-22; 15:1) – reigned 52 years – (2 Kings 15:2)
- Co-regent with his father for 25 years. (Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Did right in the sight of the Lord as his father Amaziah had done. (2 Kings 15:3)
- The high places weren’t taken away and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. (2 Kings 15:4)
- Transgressed against the Lord by entering the temple to burn incense to the Lord – only priests were consecrated to do so – (2 Chronicles 26:16-21)
- Struck with leprosy by the Lord (remained so till he died). (2 Kings 15:5)
- Buried in the City of David. (2 Kings 15:7)
11th – Jotham
- Son of Azariah – (2 Kings 15:7, 32) – reigned 16 years – (2 Kings 15:33)
- Co-regent with his father for 10 years (Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Did right in the sight of the Lord as his father Azariah/Uzziah had done. (2 Kings 15:34)
- The high places weren’t taken away and the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. (2 Kings 15:35)
- Buried in the City of David. (2 Kings 15:38)
12th – Ahaz
- Son of Jotham – (2 Kings 15:38; 16:1) – reigned 16 years – (2 Kings 16:2)
- Co-regent with his father for 3 years. (Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Didn’t do right in the sight of the Lord, walked in the ways of the kings of Israel – (2 Kings 16:2-3)
- Made his son pass through the fire – (2 Kings 16:3)
- Practice of child sacrifice occurred during his reign (Ezekiel 16:20 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Sacrificed and burned incense to pagan deities and to the Lord on a pagan altar he had his priest Urijah build and place in the house of the Lord. (2 Kings 16:10-15)
- Buried in the City of David. (2 Kings 16:20)
13th – Hezekiah
- Son of Ahaz – (2 Kings 16:20; 18:2) – reigned 29 years – (2 Kings 18:2)
- Did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that David had done – (2 Kings 18:3)
- Removed the high places, broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image, broke Moses’ bronze serpent in pieces. (2 Kings 18:4)
- He trusted in the Lord so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor who were before him (2 Kings 18:5)
- God extended Hezekiah’s life by 15 years. (2 Kings 20:6)
- Showed Babylonian envoys all the treasures of Judah – (2 Kings 20:13)
- Prophet Isaiah informed Hezekiah that all the wealth of Judah and some of his sons would one day be taken away because Hezekiah showed it all to the Babylonians. (2Kings 20:17)
- Buried in the upper tombs of the sons of David. (2 Chronicles 32:33)
14th – Manasseh
- Son of Hezekiah – (2 Kings 20:21) – reigned 55 years – (2 Kings 21:1)
- Co-regent with Hezekiah for about 12 years. (Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. (2 Kings21:1-18) to provoke Him to anger. (2 Kings 21:6)
- Made his son pass through the fire. (2 Kings 21:6)
- Practice of child sacrifice occurred during his reign (Ezekiel 16:20 Holman NKJV Study Bible notes)
- Seduced the people to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. (2 Kings 21:9)
- Acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him. (2 Kings 21:11)
- Shed much innocent blood till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another. (2 Kings 21:16)
- Made his son pass through the fire. (2 Kings 21:6)
- I will bring such calamity, I will wipe Jerusalem, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies. (2 Kings 21:12-14)
- I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 15:4 NAS 1995)
- Listed here as the reason for the terrible state of affairs in Judah. So far-reaching was the evil he introduced that Judah was still bound for destruction, even after the revival introduced by his grandson, King Josiah, in 622 B.C. (2 Kings 23:26). (Jeremiah 15:4 Holman Study Bible NKJV notes)
- Buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. (2 Kings 21:18)
(“Just as Manasseh’s list of sins is the longest of the kings of Judah, the judgement for those sins is one of the longest in the individual records.”)
15th – Amon
- Son of Manasseh – (2 Kings 21:18) – reigned 2 years — (2 Kings 21:19)
- Did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. Walked in all the ways of his father, did not walk in the way of the Lord – (2 Kings 21:20-22)
- Killed by his servants – (2 Kings 21:23)
- Servants who killed him killed be the people of the land – (2 Kings 21:24)
- Buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. (2 Kings 21:26)
16th – Josiah
- Son of Amon (made king by the people after they killed the servants who killed his father – (2 Kings 21:24) – reigned 31 years – (2 Kings 22:1)
- Did what was right in the sight of the Lord – (2 Kings 22:2)
- Book of the Law found by Hilkiah, the high priest, in the house of the Lord and read to Josiah. (2 Kings 22:8-10)
- Josiah read the book to all of Jerusalem and made a covenant before the Lord. (2 Kings 23:2-3)
- Now before him there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him. – (2 Kings 23:25)
- Killed in battle against the Egyptians at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho – (2 Kings 23:29)
- Buried in his tomb in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:30)
(The Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him and He said He would remove Judah from His sight as He had Israel – (2 King 23:26-27)
17th – Jehoahaz
- Son of Josiah – (2 Kings 23:30) — Reigned 3 months – (2 Kings 23:31)
- Placed on the throne by Pharaoh Necho II (Jeremiah 46:2 Holman Study Bible NKJV notes)
- Removed by Pharaoh Necho II and imprisoned at Riblah – (Jeremiah 46:3 Holman Study Bible NKJV notes)
- Did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. (2 Kings 23:32)
- Imprisoned at Riblah in the land of Hamath by Pharoah Necho, that he might not reign. (2 Kings 23:33-34) Political prisoner in Egypt. (Holman Study Bible NKJV notes)
- First Judean king to die in exile. Died in Egypt. (2 Kings 23:34)
18th – Eliakim/Jehoiakim
- Son of Josiah – (2 Kings 23:34) – reigned 11 years (2 Kings 23:36)
- Placed on the throne by Pharoah Necho who changed his name. (2 Kings 23:34)
- Did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done. (2 Kings 23:37)
- Jeremiah denounced King Jehoiakim more severely than any other king. Jehoiakim violated Mosiac law (Leviticus 19:13, Deuteronomy 24:14-15) by forcing Judean laborers to build and remodel his palace without paying them any wages. Meanwhile he continued paying enormous sums as tribute to Pharoah Necho of Egypt. By his love of luxury and his tyranny over Judah, he imitated King Manasseh. (Jeremiah 22:13-16 Holman Study Bible NKJV notes)
- Not only was Jehoiakim tyrannical, covetous, and oppressive; he was guilty of shedding innocent blood. He executed the prophet Uriah. (Jeremiah 22:17 Holman Study Bible NKJV notes)
- A humiliating death awaited King Jehoiakim. No one would mourn his death, but he would be buried like a donkey.
- This meant no burial at all, which was considered a curse (Deuteronomy 28:26).
- Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’ They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’ He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 22:18-19 NKJV)
19th – Jehoiachin
- Son of Eliakim/Jehoiakim – (2 Kings 24:6) – reigned 3 months – (2 Kings 24:8)
- Did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers haddone. (2 Kings 24:9)
- Taken captive by the king of Babylon. – (2 Kings 24:12)
- Released from prison after 37 years. Ate regularly before the king of Babylon the rest of his life. (2 Kings 25:27-30)
20th – Mattaniah/Zedekiah
- Made king by the king of Babylon — (2 Kings 24:17) — reigned 11 years – (2 Kings 24:18)
- Name changed to Zedekiah by King of Babylon. (2 Kings 24:17)
- Uncle of Jehoiachin. (2 Kings 24:17)
- Did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. (2 Kings 24:19)
- Rebelled against the king of Babylon. (2 Kings 24:20)
- Jerusalem captured by Babylon after being besieged 2 years – (2 Kings 25)
- Zedekiah captured, sons killed, put out his eyes, took him captive to Babylon. (2 Kings 25:6-7)
- Jerusalem plundered, people taken to Babylon. (2 Kings 25:8-17)
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