2 Chronicles

God’s grace and mercy to David’s house, from the glory of Solomon’s temple to the decree of Cyrus.

Second Chronicles continues the story from Solomon to the exile, focusing entirely on Judah and the house of David. The northern kingdom appears only where its history touches Judah. The book measures each king by one standard: whether he sought the LORD and honored His house.

The first nine chapters describe Solomon’s wisdom, wealth, and above all the building and dedication of the temple, when fire came down from heaven and the glory of the LORD filled the house. The remaining chapters trace Judah’s kings through a series of declines and revivals. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah led reformations; others led the nation into idolatry.

Chronicles ends differently from Kings. After the temple is burned and the people carried away, it adds that the land kept its sabbaths for seventy years, and then quotes the decree of Cyrus: “Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up” (36:23). In the Hebrew Bible, where Chronicles comes last, these are the final words of the Old Testament: go home.

Writer: Ezra
Written: After the return from Babylon, traditionally by Ezra, about 457–440 BC.
Name: The continuing events of the days

Title and authorship

The title is the same as 1 Chronicles; the two books were one. The word “acts,” used of the kings’ deeds, appears fourteen times in 2 Chronicles.

Traditionally Ezra, who compiled the history from many named sources, including the books of Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo, Shemaiah, Jehu, and the vision of Isaiah (9:29; 12:15; 20:34; 32:32).

Historical background

Jerusalem and Judah from Solomon’s accession about 1015 BC to the fall of Jerusalem in 588 BC, closing with Cyrus’ decree in 536 BC.

The restored community, encouraged to seek the LORD, value the temple, and learn from the pattern of revival and decline in their history.

Solomon’s temple dedication

The temple was dedicated at the Feast of Tabernacles in the seventh month. The singers and trumpeters sounded as one, fire fell from heaven on the sacrifices, and the priests could not stand to minister because of the glory (5:13–7:3).

Hezekiah’s Passover

Hezekiah invited the remnant of the northern tribes to a great Passover in Jerusalem after the fall of Samaria. Some laughed the messengers to scorn, but many humbled themselves and came, and “there was great joy in Jerusalem” (30:10–11, 26).

Cyrus the Persian

Cyrus conquered Babylon in 539 BC and reversed the Assyrian and Babylonian policy of deportation. The Cyrus Cylinder records his practice of returning displaced peoples and their gods to their homelands, the setting for his decree concerning the Jews.

Key passages

2 Chronicles 7:14

“If my people... shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven.”

2 Chronicles 16:9

“The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”

2 Chronicles 36:22–23

The decree of Cyrus—the last words of the Hebrew Bible—calls God’s people to return.

Outline

1–9 · Solomon and the temple

Wisdom, building, dedication, and royal glory establish the sanctuary’s place in national life.

10 · The divided kingdom

Rehoboam’s choices and the northern revolt divide the nation.

11–35 · Judah’s kings

Faithful reforms and repeated failures reveal the consequences of seeking or forsaking the Lord.

36 · Captivity and return announced

Jerusalem falls, the land rests, and Cyrus invites the people to rebuild.

Original language

דָּרַשׁ (darash, H1875) — “seek”

To seek with care, to inquire, to study. “Seek the LORD” is the refrain of the book; kings who sought Him prospered (15:2; 26:5), and Rehoboam “did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD” (12:14).

כָּנַע (kana, H3665) — “humble”

To bend the knee, to be brought low. It is used of Rehoboam, Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah when they humbled themselves before God and found mercy.

שַׁבָּת (shabbath, H7676) — “sabbath”

The seventy years of captivity were God’s collection of the land sabbaths Israel had neglected (36:21; Leviticus 26:34–35). Four hundred ninety years of disobedience yielded seventy years of rest for the land.

Doctrinal study

Revival and its limits

Five major revivals are recorded under Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Each began with a return to God’s word and worship. Yet revival did not change the nation permanently, and after Josiah the people “mocked the messengers of God... till there was no remedy” (36:16).

Manasseh’s repentance

Manasseh was the most wicked king of Judah, yet when he was taken in chains to Babylon, “he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly,” and God restored him (33:12–13). No one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy.

God’s sovereignty over the nations

“The LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus” (36:22). Isaiah had named him about 150 years earlier as God’s shepherd who would say of Jerusalem, “Thou shalt be built” (Isaiah 44:28). Gentile rulers are instruments in God’s hand.

Commentary notes

Kings and Chronicles compared

Samuel–Kings is political and royal, written from the human standpoint of how man ruled history. Chronicles is ecclesiastical and priestly, written from the divine standpoint of how God overruled history. Kings emphasizes the throne; Chronicles the temple.

Reasons for the captivity

Historically, Judah went into captivity for failing to keep the sabbatical years, for idolatry, for ungratefulness, and for mistreating God’s prophets. Devotionally, believers end up in bondage for failing to do what God says when He says it, for loving things more than God, for unthankfulness, and for failing to love and respect God’s people.

Uzziah’s pride

Uzziah was “marvellously helped, till he was strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction” (26:15–16). He intruded into the priest’s office and was struck with leprosy until his death. Isaiah’s great vision came “in the year that king Uzziah died” (Isaiah 6:1).

Christ in the book

  • Solomon’s temple filled with glory — the dwelling of God with men
  • The Son of David whose house God will establish
  • Christ our temple, which will never be destroyed (John 2:19; Revelation 21:22)

Applications

Historical

  • The reign of Solomon and the building of the temple; the history of Judah after the division; the siege of Jerusalem, destruction of the temple, and captivity; and the proclamation of release by Cyrus.
  • Chronicles follows Judah especially because of the Davidic house and Jerusalem’s temple.
  • The closing verses extend beyond the destruction of Jerusalem to Cyrus’s release decree; the date range therefore includes both judgment and the first opening toward restoration.

Doctrinal

  • The ultimate establishment of God’s eternal kingdom, where Christ rules and reigns forever. The temple was built and destroyed twice in history; when the Antichrist sits in a rebuilt temple, the true Son of David will return and take the throne (Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:4).
  • God’s covenant purpose survives Judah’s failure. The temple and the Davidic line direct attention toward the Messiah and his final kingdom.
  • The cycles of decline and restoration provide a pattern for the future regathering and rule of Christ without removing the historical responsibility of Judah’s kings.

Devotional

  • The establishment of the spiritual kingdom of God in the believer’s life. The pattern of Judah’s kings teaches that humility, prayer, and seeking God bring blessing, and pride brings a fall.
  • Josiah’s hearing of the law produces humility and practical reform, demonstrating the relationship between spiritual renewal and obedience to Scripture.
  • The conduct of Judah’s kings demonstrates the continuing need for dependence on God during prosperity as well as crisis.

Answering the critics

Textual critics attack numerous apparent discrepancies with 1 and 2 Kings—numbers, weights, ages, names, and places. Some reference works list dozens of them.

The Bible believer who is willing to work (2 Timothy 2:15) and to compare Scripture with Scripture (1 Corinthians 2:13) will find that apparent contradictions are not real ones. Differences in counting, copying of numbers with similar letters, different sources, and different purposes explain the variations. Rule one of Bible study is to believe the Book and give it the benefit of the doubt.