CXXXI - Kings of Israel and Judah

Firstly, allow me to apologize for the appearance of the listing in this post below.  I realize it looks like a 10 year old kid did it.  After numerous attempts to format the listing below, I had to settle for the way it is now in order to preserve my sanity.  (One cannot post directly onto the page as you currently see it.  It must be transposed from a different page.  The two refuse to align themselves.)

As I have mentioned before, dates in Old Testament times were not documented using a standard starting point as we do today.  To date times of events today, we use the number of years AD, which stands for Ano Domini.  Ano Domini is Latin for "Year of our Lord", signifying the number of years since the birth of Christ.  Anything happening prior to that, we denote as BC, which stands for "Before Christ".  However, the Hebrews had never established a starting point.  Instead, they would pinpoint the year of the reigning king.  We will see this used numerous times in the remaining books of the Old Testament.  An example of this would be:  (I Kings 13:9) In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah ......  This system seems weak compared to a starting point, but it worked well for them because the were accustomed to it.

We will see in the next chapter of I Kings that Israel will be divided into two nations, both of which will have kings.  For the remainder of our study of Kings and Chronicles, we be studying the events of both nations and their respective kings.  This can be somewhat confusing, and as confusion gets a foothold, one can become discouraged.  Therefore, in an attempt to keep confusion at a minimum, I have constructed (as a visual aide) a listing of the kings of both Judah and Israel, along with the prophets of their particular eras.  It will be number CXXXI.  I hope it helps.

 

                       Kings of Israel and Judah

                                      Saul           1050-1010 BC
                                      David         1010 - 970
                                      Solomon      970 - 930

           Judah (and Benjamin)                  Israel (Ten Northern Tribes)

   King        Dates of Reign    Prophets                 King        Dates of Reign   Prophets

Rehoboam         931-913          Shemaiah             Jeroboam I       931-910          Abijah
Abijah                913-911                                       Nadab              910-909   
Asa                     911-870                                      Baasha              909-886
                                                                               Elah                  886-885
                                                                               Zimri                885 (7 days)       
                                                                               Omri                 885-874        Elijah
Jehoshaphat      870-848                                        Ahab                 874-853           &
Jehoram            848-841                                        Ahaziah            853-852       Micaiah
Ahaziah                841                                            Joram               852-841        Elisha
Athaliah            841-835                                        Jehu                  841-814
Joash                 835-796             Joel                    Jehoahaz           814-798       Jonah/
Amaziah            796-767                                       Jehoash             798-782       Amos/
Uzziah               767-740           Isaiah                  Jeroboam II       782-753       Hosea
                                                                               Zechariah         753-752
                                                     &                       Shallum            752 (1 mo)
                                                                               Menahem         752-742
                                                  Micah                   Pekahiah          742-740
Jotham              740-732                                        Pekah               740-732
Ahaz                 732-716                                        Hoshea             732-712
Hezekiah           716-687 
Manasseh          687-642           Nahum/
Amon                642-640           Habakkuk/         *722 BC Fall of Samaria to Assyria
Josiah               640-608           Zephaniah
Jehoahaz          608 (3 mo)
Jehoiakim        608-597             Daniel
Jehoiachin       597 (3 mos)      Ezekiel
Zedekiah          597-586           Jeremiah

*586 BC - Jerusalem Conquered and Destroyed
                 (All inhabitants taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon)