The trauma of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, the exile of thousands of Judea's citizens, and the subsequent return after seventy years to the homeland with the difficult task of starting the new covenant community virtually from scratch-- all contributed to a reassessment of Israel's meaning and destiny. The chronicler-theologian thus composed his work not just as a history of his people from their ancient beginnings but as an interpreted history, one designed to offer hope to the beleaguered community as well as to issue warnings that should they fall back into the ways of their fathers they could expect the judgment of God to be repeated.

Eugene Merrill's work on 1 and 2 Chronicles promises to be a significant contribution to the academic dialogue on these important books. This volume is helpful for the scholar but accessible and useful for the pastor. Merrill provides an exegetical study of each passage in these books, examining a number of themes, especially drawing out three principal theological subjects: (1) David and his historical and eschatological reign; (2) the renewal of the everlasting covenant; and (3) the new temple as a symbol of a reconstituted people. Merrill offers astute guidance to preachers and teachers in his insightful doctrinal commentary on the text.

In this latest addition to the esteemed Anchor Bible series, scholar Gary Knoppers examines one of the most neglected books of the Hebrew Bible and establishes its importance to understanding the nation of Israel.

What was the place of the monarchy in the history of ancient Israel? Was Israel's first king Saul a hero or a disaster? Was David a highly gifted leader and accomplished king or a murderer and a cheat? Did Solomon preside over the most glorious epoch in Israelite history or did he lead the nation into a fateful decline? Knoppers show how the Bible itself contains a variety of fascinating perspectives on major events and characters. One of the most misunderstood books of the Bible, Chronicles presents a distinctive and important viewpoint on much of Israel's past, especially the monarchy. Knoppers shows how Chronicles defends the transition from Saul to David and upholds the Davidic-Solomonic monarchy as a time of incomparable Israelite achievement and glory, a period in which the nation's most important public institutions--the Davidic dynasty, the Jerusalem Temple, the priests, and the Levites--took formative shape.

I Chronicles 10-29, part of a two-volume set on I Chronicles, is the first to employ systematically the witness of the Dead Sea Scrolls to reconstruct the biblical author's text. Knoppers shows how Chronicles is related to and creatively drawn from many earlier biblical books and presents a fascinating look at its connections in both compositional style and approach to historical writings attested in ancient Mesopotamia and classical Greece.

First Kings is not so much a book of history as a book of religion, says Dr. Simon J. DeVries. Through the historic events it relates, the religion of the Hebrew people was being shaped.

Dr. DeVries s thorough overview of the world of 1 Kings its geography, its culture, its politics, and the religious situation brings the biblical record alive in its time and place. Upon this foundation is superimposed a comprehensive, lucid discussion of sacred history as theological testimony, and responsible consideration of 1 Kings as literary composition.

In this commentary, Dr. DeVries provides keen insight into the intricacies of both the events and the textual difficulties of 1 Kings: The throne succession from David to Solomon Solomon s reign his influence and his failings The building of the Jerusalem temple and its significance The division of the United Kingdom The puzzling chronology of the Hebrew kings The problem of heathen shrines and cult objects The role of the prophets in Elijah s time.

For this second edition, he has updated and expanded the bibliography.

Prophecy, a burgeoning new religious impulse of the period of 1 Kings, receives special emphasis as a particularly rich source of profound theological truth communicated in the effective linguistic forms of prophet-narratives.

Whether appearing as historiography or as pious story, the contents of 1 Kings offer themselves as testimonies to the ways of God with men, Dr. DeVries notes. The scene is history; the players are kings and prophets; behind the curtain is the Lord of history, challenging his players to make history the scene of salvific revelation. "