The kings of Israel and Judah

The Kings of Israel and Judah

From Saul, David, and Solomon, the throne of Israel rose and then divided. After Solomon the kingdom split in two: Judah in the south, holding the line of David and the temple in Jerusalem, and Israel in the north, which fell at once into the idolatry of Jeroboam. Here is every king of both kingdoms, with the Bible's own verdict on each, whether he did right or evil in the sight of the LORD. All of them, the faithful and the faithless alike, point beyond themselves to the true King, Jesus the Son of David, whose kingdom will never end.

The united kingdom

Before the division, three kings reigned over all Israel.

The kings of Judah (the southern kingdom)

Judah kept the line of David and the temple in Jerusalem. Its throne passed from father to son for more than three centuries, a mix of faithful reformers and wicked idolaters, until Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and carried the people into exile.

The kings of Israel (the northern kingdom)

The ten northern tribes broke away under Jeroboam, who set up golden calves so the people would not worship in Jerusalem. Every one of its kings is judged evil, its dynasties rose and fell by violence, and after about two hundred years Assyria carried Israel away, never to return as a kingdom.

The throne that leads to Christ

The whole tragic history of the kings, good and evil, faithful and fallen, ends in exile with the throne of David seemingly lost. Yet God had promised David a son whose kingdom would last for ever. When the prophets watched Jerusalem burn, they still spoke of a coming righteous King, a Branch from David's line. The New Testament opens by naming Jesus the Son of David, and the angel promised that God would give him the throne of his father David, and of his kingdom there would be no end. Every king in these lists, at his best and even at his worst, points to him.

A note on the record: everything here is drawn from the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. Kings and Chronicles sometimes tell a reign differently, Chronicles often adding a king's repentance or building works, and where they differ this is said plainly rather than smoothed over. The exact lengths and overlaps of the reigns are genuinely complex, because kings often shared the throne with a son for a time, so the totals in Scripture do not always add up in a simple line. The verdict good or evil is the Bible's own assessment, whether a king did right or evil in the sight of the LORD.

Deep lives of two kings are told in full elsewhere: David and Solomon.