died. Then there are the genealogies that are vital in establishing the lineage of Christ and other important matters. The books are also of assistance in establishing an accurate chronology. Here we can see the wisdom of Jehovah the Author of the Bible in having his servant Ezra write these things to fill in that which is necessary so that believers in the Bible have the most complete and harmonious record of man’s history.—See the book “All Scripture Is Inspired of God and Beneficial,” pp. 75 to 84.

OUTLINE OF CONTENTS

1 CHRONICLES

I. Genealogies from Adam (1:1–9:44)

A. Adam to Jacob’s twelve sons (1:1–2:2)

B. Jacob’s posterity (2:3–9:44)

1. Judah’s posterity (2:3–4:23). In chapter 3, David’s line through Solomon to Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), who was preserved in Babylon to have sons; then to Zerubbabel and his offspring

2. Simeon, Reuben, Gad, half tribe of Manasseh beyond Jordan (4:24–5:26)

3. Levi’s posterity, including line of priests from Aaron to Jehozadak, father of the high priest Joshua who returned from exile with Zerubbabel (6:1-81)

4. Issachar, Benjamin, Naphtali, half tribe of Manasseh evidently west of Jordan, Ephraim and Asher (7:1–8:40)

5. Inhabitants of Jerusalem, and family of Saul (9:1-44)

II. History of David (40-year reign) (10:1–29:30)

A. Ruin of Saul and his house (10:1-14)

B. David confirmed in kingdom; captures Zion (11:1–12:40)

1. Anointed by all Israel at Hebron; takes Zion (11:1-9)

2. His mighty men (11:10–12:40)

C. David and the Ark of Jehovah (13:1–16:43)

1. Ark brought up on wagon; Uzzah dies for touching Ark; Ark left at house of Obed-edom (13:1-14)

2. Hiram sends timbers, workmen to build David a house; Philistines defeated twice (14:1-17)

3. Levites organized; Ark brought to Zion (15:1–16:43)

D. David and Jehovah’s house; covenant for kingdom (17:1-27)

E. David’s conquests (18:1–20:8)

1. Defeats Philistines, Moabites, Syrians, Edomites (18:1-17)

2. King Hanun of Ammon insults David; David defeats sons of Ammon and Syrians (19:1–20:3)

3. Philistines (with giant Rephaim) again defeated in three battles (20:4-8)

F. David’s preparation for the temple (21:1–22:19)

1. David sins in numbering people; 70,000 die (21:1-17)

2. Buys threshing floor of Ornan for altar site (21:18-30)

3. Solomon instructed to build house to Jehovah (22:1-19)

G. David organizes for Jehovah’s worship (23:1–29:30)

1. Arrangement of priests, Levites, governmental officials (23:1–27:34)

a. Twenty-four divisions of priests (24:1-19)

b. Levites and officials (24:20–27:34)

2. David instructs heads of nation (28:1–29:30)

a. Inspired architectural plans of temple turned over to Solomon (28:11-21)

b. David blesses Jehovah, offers sacrifices; Solomon anointed second time; begins to sit on “Jehovah’s throne” (29:1-25)

3. David dies (29:26-30)

2 CHRONICLES

I. The glory of Solomon’s reign (40 years) (1:1–9:31)

A. Solomon’s wisdom, prosperity (1:1-17)

B. Construction, inauguration of temple (2:1–7:22)

C. Other constructions; queen of Sheba visits; wealth; Solomon’s death (8:1–9:31)

II. History of the kings of Judah (10:1–36:23)

A. Rehoboam’s bad reign (17 years) (10:1–12:16)

1. Schism; Jeroboam rebels (10:1–11:12)

2. Jeroboam sets up calf worship in Israel (11:13-15)

3. Rehoboam unfaithful after three years of reign; Egypt makes inroads in Judah (11:16–12:16)

B. Abijah’s reign (3 years) (13:1-22)

C. Asa’s good reign (41 years) (14:1–16:14)

1. Defeats Zerah the Ethiopian and his army of one million men (14:1-15)

2. Conducts religious reform (15:1-19)

3. Errs in making alliance with Syria (16:1-11)

4. In sickness looks to healers, not to Jehovah; dies (16:12-14)

D. Jehoshaphat’s good reign (25 years) (17:1–20:37)

1. Institutes teaching program in Judah (17:1-19)

2. Errs in making marriage alliance with Ahab and joining Ahab in war with Syria; Ahab killed (18:1–19:3)

3. Organizes judges in Judah (19:4-11)

4. Jehovah fights for Judah; Moab, Ammon and Seir destroy one another (20:1-33)

5. Partnership venture with Ahaziah of Israel fails; ships built to go to Tarshish wrecked (20:34-37)

E. Jehoram’s bad reign (8 years) (21:1-20)

1. Kills his brothers; Edom revolts (21:1-11)

2. Writing from Elijah warns him (21:12-15)

3. Jehovah punishes him; plagued with malady in intestines, dies two years afterward (21:16-20)

F. Ahaziah’s bad reign (1 year) (22:1-9)

G. Athaliah usurps throne (6 years) (22:10–23:21)

1. Jehoash hidden by wife of priest Jehoiada (22:10-12)

2. Jehoiada anoints Jehoash as king; has Athaliah killed (23:1-21)

H. Jehoash’s bad reign (40 years) (24:1-27)

1. Does right until Jehoiada’s death, renovates the temple (24:1-16)

2. Turns to idolatry; Zechariah son of Jehoiada stoned; Syrians invade; Jehoash, badly diseased, is assassinated (24:17-27)

I. Amaziah’s bad reign (29 years) (25:1-28)

1. Begins well; he defeats sons of Seir (25:1-13)

2. Worships idols of Seir; defeated by Jehoash of Israel; is assassinated (25:14-28)

J. Uzziah’s reign (52 years) (26:1-23)

1. Begins well; military success (26:1-15)

2. Becomes haughty; makes attempt to offer incense in temple; is smitten with leprosy until death (26:16-23)

K. Jotham’s good reign (16 years) (27:1-9)

L. Ahaz’s bad reign (16 years) (28:1-27)

M. Hezekiah’s good reign (29 years) (29:1–32:33)

1. Cleans up temple; holds passover festival in second month; some from all Israel attend; festival of unfermented cakes extended seven extra days (29:1–30:27)

2. Sees that priests and Levites are properly supported by tithe (31:1-21)

3. Sennacherib invades Judah, taunts Jehovah; angel destroys all mighty men and leaders in Assyrian camp (32:1-23)

4. Hezekiah’s illness; his building works, including aqueduct from Gihon to west of city of David (32:24-33)

N. Manasseh’s bad reign (55 years) (33:1-20)

1. Practices gross idolatry; seduces Judah (33:1-9)

2. Captured by king of Assyria, taken to Babylon (33:10, 11)

3. Repents, entreats Jehovah; is restored to throne; does building works (33:12-20)

O. Amon’s bad reign (2 years) (33:21-25)

P. Josiah’s good reign (31 years) (34:1–35:27)

1. Conducts great religious reform; repairs temple (34:1-13)

2. Book of the law found by priest Hilkiah; Josiah greatly moved, inquires of Jehovah (34:14-33)

3. Celebration of passover such as had not been held since Samuel’s time (35:1-19)

4. Killed in unwise battle with Necho king of Egypt (35:20-27)

Q. Jehoahaz’s bad reign (3 months); taken to Egypt by Necho (36:1-4)

R. Jehoiakim’s bad reign (11 years); Nebuchadnezzar comes against him; he dies (36:5-8)

S. Jehoiachin’s (Jeconiah’s) bad reign (3 months, 10 days); taken captive to Babylon (36:9, 10)

T. Zedekiah’s bad reign (11 years) (36:11-23)

1. Rebels against Nebuchadnezzar; with priests and people, despises God and his prophets; Jerusalem, with temple, destroyed (36:11-19)

2. People carried into exile; land desolate seventy years (36:20, 21)

3. Cyrus king of Persia, in his first year, issues decree liberating Jews for return to Jerusalem to rebuild temple (36:22, 23)

CHRONOLOGY

The English word “chronology” comes from the Greek khro·no·lo·giʹa (from khroʹnos, time, and leʹgein, to say or tell), that is, “the computation of time.” Chronology makes possible the placing of events in their orderly sequence or association and the assigning of proper dates to particular events.

Jehovah is the “Ancient of Days” and the God of Eternity. (Dan. 7:9; Ps. 90:2; 93:2) That he is an accurate Timekeeper is evident, not only from the superb precision manifest in the movements of the stellar bodies, but also from the divine record of his acts. In fulfillment of his promises or prophecies, he caused events to occur at the exact time foretold, whether the intervening time was of only a day (Ex. 9:5, 6), a year (Gen. 17:21; 18:14; 21:1, 2; 2 Ki. 4:16, 17), decades (Num. 14:34; 2 Chron. 36:20-23; Dan. 9:2), centuries (Gen. 12:4, 7; 15:13-16; Ex. 12:40, 41; Gal. 3:17), or millenniums (Luke 21:24; see APPOINTED TIMES OF THE NATIONS). We are assured that his purposes for the future are certain of execution at the predetermined time, right down to the day and hour designated.—Hab. 2:3; Matt. 24:36.

God purposed that man, made in his Creator’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26), should measure the flow of time. The Bible early states that the “luminaries in the expanse of the heavens” were to serve in making “a division between the day and the night; and . . . as signs and for seasons and for days and years.” (Gen. 1:14, 15; Ps. 104:19) (A discussion of the way in which these divisions have been observed since the beginning of man’s history may be found under the headings CALENDAR; DAY; MOON; WEEK; YEAR.) Human reckoning and recording of time periods has continued from Adam’s day till the present hour.—Gen. 5:1, 3-5.

ERAS

Accurate chronology requires that some point in the stream of time be set as the marker from which to count either forward or backward in time units (such as hours, days, months, years). That starting point could be simply the sunrise (for measuring the hours of a day), or a new moon (for measuring the days of a month), or the start of the spring season (for measuring the span of a year). For counting longer periods, men have resorted to the establishing of a particular “era,” using some outstanding event as their starting point from which to measure periods of many years. Thus, in nations of Christendom, when a person says that ‘today is October 1, 1969 C.E. (Common Era),’ he means that ‘today is the first day of the tenth month of the one thousand nine hundred and sixty-ninth year counting from what was believed by some to be the time of the birth of Jesus.’

Such use of an era in secular history is of rather late inception. The Greek era, supposedly the earliest secular case of such chronological reckoning, apparently was not put into practice until about the fourth century B.C.E. (Before the Common Era). The Greeks figured time by means of four-year periods called “Olympiads,” starting from the first Olympiad, calculated as beginning in 776 B.C.E. Additionally, they often identified specific years by referring to the term of office of some particular official. The Romans eventually established an era, reckoning the years from the traditional date of the founding of the city of Rome (753 B.C.E.). They also designated specific years by reference to the names of two consuls holding office in that year. It was not until the sixth century C.E. that a monk named Dionysius Exiguus calculated what is now popularly known as the “Christian Era,” or, more correctly, “Common Era.” Among the Mohammedan (Islamic) peoples the years are dated from the Hegira (Mohammed’s flight from Mecca in 622 C.E.). The early Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians, however, give no evidence of having used such an era system consistently over any considerable period of time.

As to the Biblical record, no one era arrangement is expressly set forth as the starting point by which all events are thereafter dated. This of itself does not mean that no “timetable” existed for assigning to past events their specific and correct location in the stream of time. The fact that the Bible writers, when relating particular events, could cite precise figures involving periods of several centuries demonstrates that chronological interest was not lacking among the people of Israel or their ancestors. Thus, Moses could write that “it came about at the end of the four hundred and thirty years [counting here from the time of Abraham’s entry into the land of Canaan and God’s establishment of his covenant with him], it even came about on this very day that all the armies of Jehovah went out of the land of Egypt.” (Ex. 12:41; see EXODUS; compare Galatians 3:16, 17.) Again, at 1 Kings 6:1, the record states that it was “in the four hundred and eightieth year after the sons of Israel came out from the land of Egypt” that King Solomon began to construct the temple at Jerusalem. Still, neither the establishing of the Abrahamic covenant nor the Exodus came to be commonly used as the start of an era in recording other events.

Chronological factors in the Bible, therefore, should not be expected to conform exactly to modern systems whereby all events are mathematically dated in relation to one fixed point in the past, such as the start of the Common Era. More often, events were located in the stream of time in much the same way as people do naturally in everyday life. Just as today one might fix an event by saying it took place “the year after the drought,” or “five years after World War II,” so the Bible writers related the events they recorded to relatively current time markers.

A definite conclusion cannot be reached for some chronological points, since we do not always know precisely the starting point or time marker used by the Bible writer. Then, too, a writer might use more than one such starting point to date events during the course of treating a certain historical period. (See the section on the period “From the division of the kingdom to the desolation of Jerusalem and Judah.”) This variation in starting points does not imply vagueness or confusion on the part of the writer; we cannot properly judge his methods simply on the basis of our own opinion as to the proper way of recording events based on present-day procedures.