Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 158:632 (Oct 2001)
Article: The Message of the Book of Kings in Relation to Deuteronomy and Jeremiah
Author: Gershon Galil

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BSac 158:632 (Oct 01) p. 406

The Message of the Book of Kings
in Relation to Deuteronomy and Jeremiah

Gershon Galil

[Gershon Galil is Senior Lecturer and Chairman of the Department of Jewish History, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel.]

Why was the Book of Kings written and what was its message? Various opinions concerning this issue have been suggested by scholars.1 It is clear that this book presents a confession of sin and a justification of divine judgment. It is also clear that the author was intensely interested in the fulfillment of the word of God in history. However, one should ask whether the author of Kings presented the destruction of Jerusalem as a final end or as a new beginning? Did he view the relationship between God and Israel as an everlasting bond or did he

BSac 158:632 (Oct 01) p. 407

regard the catastrophe as the last station on a long, painful, and disappointing path?

If the author of 1 and 2 Kings focused only on the past, expressing no hope for the future, as Noth and other scholars suggest,2 the message of this book is negative. The readers would then comprehend the futility of obeying God’s orders, since their fate had been already determined by their ancestors and therefore could not be changed. Indeed such a view was prevalent among the exiles: “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Ezek. 18:2).3

Did the author of the Book of Kings in fact compose this text of such broad scope only to tell his readers that their relationship with God had ceased? Is Kings nothing but a gloomy and pessimistic accusation that contains no hope, consolation, or clemency?

The fall of the kingdom of Judah and the destruction of the Lord’s city and temple had created a profound crisis in Judah. The elite of Jerusalem and Judah suffered great economic and social losses and were driven from their land, deposed from their positions, and cast into a foreign land. Yet the greatest loss of all was their disillusionment, the loss of the belief in the immunity of Jerusalem, and in the idea that God would never harm His city or abandon His land (Jer. 7:14). The relationship between God and Israel suffered from a severe and unprecedented crisis: The prophets’ warnings were fulfilled and the people of Judah were exiled.

One of the main questions the exiles asked was whether the breach between God and His people was final, or if there was still hope...

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