2 Chronicles

This book appears to be a continuation of 1 Chronicles. At the end of the book, we see more contextual dating of the writing of the book, as it talks about the end of the Persian exile as Cyrus orders the re-building of Jerusalem, and it ends. Obviously, this book was written quite late, and was most likely dependant on oral legends for information. As we'll see, it left an awful lot to be desired as far as accurate history is concerned.

2 Chr 1:11,12 - God answered Solomon, "Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for possessions, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, and have not even asked for long life, but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself that you may rule my people over whom I have made you king, wisdom and knowledge are granted to you. I will also give you riches, possessions, and honor, such as none of the kings had who were before you, and none after you shall have the like."
Looks like old Solomon was a favorite of God's! In light of the way Solomon's life turned out, I wonder just how wise he could have been. I mean, here, he's talking personally with God, yet in his later years, he wandered away and followed other religions! How wise could that be? Funny, isn't it, how history gets blurry when passed down orally between generations for centuries on end?

2 Chr 2:1,2 - Solomon decided to build a temple for the name of the Lord, and a royal palace for himself. Solomon conscripted seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, with three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
I've lived in cities with less than 150,000 people in them. Somehow, I think they didn't really need this many people to build two buildings, regardless of how bloody huge they were supposed to be!

2 Chr 4:2 - Then he made the molten sea; it was round, ten cubits from rim to rim, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would encircle it completely.
Now, anyone who knows a little about geometry will be able to tell you what's wrong with this! The ratio between a circle's diameter and circumference will always be 1:pi. Since pi is 3.1415926... there is obviously a problem with the measurements given for this metal basin. Even allowing for the understandable ignorance of fractions in those days, we'd have to expect that the circumference should have measured at least 31 cubits. Oddly enough, this verse once led some state legislatures to attempt passing laws that define pi to be 3.0!

2 Chr 5:6 - King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who had assembled before him, were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be numbered or counted.
Maybe all these count-less items mentioned in this story were there because of hyperbole, the deliberate exaggeration of details to convey a sense of enormity. The problem is that there are lots of people who try to take this literally, and think that in one day, there were over a million sheep and oxen killed at this ceremony.

2 Chr 5:9 - The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside; they are there to this day.
As we will see, the "this day" being mentioned here is some time after the end of the Persian exile, long after the original temple (regardless of how it was actually constructed and set up) was invaded and plundered. How likely was it that the poles used to carry the ark were actually still in place? The fact that the place in question was invisible from the less "holy" area of the temple made verification of this statement impossible to any other than priests, who were hardly the type to be trusted.

2 Chr 7:12-16 - Then the Lord appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house so that my name may be there forever; my eyes and my heart will be there for all time.
Once again, hindsight can make putting predictions into the Bible far easier than it would have been at the time these things were supposed to have happened. The fact is that at the time this was written, after the end of the Persian exile, the priests were working hard to get the people back into the habit of following their religion. Making the past unpleasant events look like they happened because the people made God angry was an easy way for the priests to make it look like the lack of religious faith of the people was to blame.

2 Chr 8:7,8 - All the people who were left of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of Israel, from their descendants who were still left in the land, whom the people of Israel had not destroyed-these Solomon conscripted for forced labor, as is still the case today.
You know, it's funny... but in the book of Joshua, it says that all of these people were completely wiped out, and not a single person of any of these nations was left breathing! So, how did they turn out to become the hereditary slaves of the Hebrews?

2 Chr 9:17-22 - The king also made a great ivory throne, and overlaid it with pure gold. The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were attached to the throne, and on each side of the seat were arm rests and two lions standing beside the arm rests, while twelve lions were standing, one on each end of a step on the six steps. The like of it was never made in any kingdom. All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; silver was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon. For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram; once every three years the ships of Tarshish used to come bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
This fellow is sounding more and more like Paul Bunyan! I think it's a pretty easy bet that Solomon was far from being the richest ruler (considering the size of the area he is supposed to have ruled!), and it's also likely that the wisdom part was far less striking than that of many philosophers. Of course, that's open to debate, but since reliable information is scarce, I'll have to remain rather skeptical!

2 Chr 15:3-7 - "...For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law; but when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. In those times it was not safe for anyone to go or come, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. They were broken in pieces, nation against nation and city against city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress. But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded."
Here's a common sentiment - that the problems experienced by Israel were due to the lack of a proper attitude of religious observances. It ignores that fact that other nations had pretty much the same sorts of problems as Israel, in spite of having religions different from Judaism.

2 Chr 15:12-15 - They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and with all their soul. Whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. They took an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with horns. All Judah rejoiced over the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and had sought him with their whole desire, and he was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.
Well, this is a horrifying precedent - the idea that a nation should follow a particular religion is not so unusual or bothersome, but the idea that any dissenters should be executed is about as repugnant as you can get. Yet here, it's considered a good thing, something God rewards by "being found"!

2 Chr 16:12,13 - In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet, and his disease became severe; yet even in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but sought help from physicians. Then Asa slept with his ancestors, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.
Once again, we see in the Bible some pretty bad advice for the modern person. Asa refused to call on the faith healers of his day, the priests. Instead, he looked to the scientific community (such as it was in those days). Even today, people with diabetes (which can cause severe, long-term foot problems, even to the point of amputation) sometimes seek help from faith healers, rather than accepting their situation and following their doctors' orders, thanks (in a small part at least) to this passage!

2 Chr 18:18 - Then Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing to the right and to the left of him..."
Here's another person who claimed to have seen God, contradicting Jesus. Odd, isn't it?

2 Chr 18:19-22 - "...And the Lord said, 'Who will entice King Ahab of Israel, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?' Then one said one thing, and another said another, until a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, 'I will entice him.' The Lord asked him, 'How?' He replied, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then the Lord said, 'You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.' So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you."
This is what I like to call a "Machiavellian" view of God. In the New Testament, we're told that it's impossible that God would tell a lie. Yet here, we see a prophet claiming that God was making a whole crowd of prophets lie to Ahab in order to trick him into military disaster. As I've said in many instances, the God described in the Bible is far from being a nice character!

2 Chr 20:15-17 - He said, "Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you: 'Do not fear or be dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them; they will come up by the ascent of Ziz; you will find them at the end of the valley, before the wilderness of Jeruel. This battle is not for you to fight; take your position, stand still, and see the victory of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, and the Lord will be with you."
Finally, we see a battle plan where only God will be doing the fighting. That's how you'd expect a war god to operate!

2 Chr 20:22-25 - As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the Ammonites and Moab attacked the inhabitants of Mount Seir, destroying them utterly; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. When Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; they were corpses lying on the ground; no one had escaped. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the booty from them, they found livestock in great numbers, goods, clothing, and precious things, which they took for themselves until they could carry no more. They spent three days taking the booty, because of its abundance.
Exactly how likely is this? That a pair of armies might turn on each other and kill each other to the last man (the last on each side dying simultaneously in a duel, I guess?) might be something we could buy. However, I was wondering why any army would travel with jewelry, extra clothing and the like? Any ideas?

2 Chr 20:31-33 - So Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign; he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi. He walked in the way of his father Asa and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord. Yet the high places were not removed; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their ancestors.
I wonder why the writer says that this king did what was right in God's sight, but didn't have the places of pagan worship removed? Certainly, if we understand the Old Testament correctly, leaving such things standing was an evil thing in God's sight, wasn't it?

2 Chr 21:17-22:2 - They came up against Judah, invaded it, and carried away all the possessions they found that belonged to the king's house, along with his sons and his wives, so that no son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest son. After all this the Lord struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. In course of time, at the end of two years, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great agony. His people made no fire in his honor, like the fires made for his ancestors. He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He departed with no one's regret. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings. The inhabitants of Jerusalem made his youngest son Ahaziah king as his successor; for the troops who came with the Arabs to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram reigned as king of Judah. Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign; he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, a granddaughter of Omri.
Thus we see the weird story of Jehoram, who died at the age of 40, and was succeeded in the throne by his son, Ahaziah who turned out to be 42 years old!

2 Chr 23:9-11 - The priest Jehoiada delivered to the captains the spears and the large and small shields that had been King David's, which were in the house of God; and he set all the people as a guard for the king, everyone with weapon in hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house. Then he brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king, and Jehoiada and his sons anointed him; and they shouted, "Long live the king!"
And here, we see an example of the priesthood determining who will be in charge of the country. This is a spectacularly bad idea, as it gives political power to the priests, who already have enough power as it is!

2 Chr 24:8-10 - So the king gave command, and they made a chest, and set it outside the gate of the house of the Lord. A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the Lord the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full.
And I'll bet they danced as they happily paid the tax required of them! I wonder why I never hear this passage mentioned in churches these days?

2 Chr 31:6-11 - The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of the dedicated things that had been consecrated to the Lord their God, and laid them in heaps. In the third month they began to pile up the heaps, and finished them in the seventh month. When Hezekiah and the officials came and saw the heaps, they blessed the Lord and his people Israel. Hezekiah questioned the priests and the Levites about the heaps. The chief priest Azariah, who was of the house of Zadok, answered him, "Since they began to bring the contributions into the house of the Lord, we have had enough to eat and have plenty to spare; for the Lord has blessed his people, so that we have this great supply left over." Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare store-chambers in the house of the Lord; and they prepared them.
So, not only were the priests eating the food offered as sacrifice to God (a common practice all across the world in most religions that practicied sacrifices), but when the supplies were more than they could eat, did they even consider giving their surplus to the poor? Did it cross their minds that maybe they should give some of this overage back to the people who had given? Perish the thought!

2 Chr 33:1-3 - Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign; he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had pulled down, and erected altars to the Baals, made sacred poles, worshiped all the host of heaven, and served them.
We have to wonder at this point which nations it may have been that were driven out before the Hebrews as they entered their "promised land"? It certainly couldn't have been the Perrizzites and all that group, as they appeared in 1 Chronicles as slaves, serving the Hebrews in a hereditary manner.

2 Chr 33:7,8 - The carved image of the idol that he had made he set in the house of God, of which God said to David and to his son Solomon, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever; I will never again remove the feet of Israel from the land that I appointed for your ancestors, if only they will be careful to do all that I have commanded them, all the law, the statutes, and the ordinances given through Moses."
Here we have a sample of the way history can be re-written from generation to generation. If you'll look in Genesis, you'll see repeated examples of the promise made to the various patriarchs, from Abraham on down. In most cases, there was no mention of a requirement to obey any laws. That changed, of course, but one has to wonder when it changed, and exactly why?

2 Chr 34:3-5 - For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still a boy, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles, and the carved and the cast images. In his presence they pulled down the altars of the Baals; he demolished the incense altars that stood above them. He broke down the sacred poles and the carved and the cast images; he made dust of them and scattered it over the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. He also burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
This is what being a priest behind a child's throne is all about! Catch them while they're young, and they can be molded into a lean, mean purging machine for the "right religion"!

2 Chr 34:14-21 - While they were bringing out the money that had been brought into the house of the Lord, the priest Hilkiah found the book of the law of the Lord given through Moses. Hilkiah said to the secretary Shaphan, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord"; and Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan. Shaphan brought the book to the king, and further reported to the king, "All that was committed to your servants they are doing. They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workers." The secretary Shaphan informed the king, "The priest Hilkiah has given me a book." Shaphan then read it aloud to the king. When the king heard the words of the law he tore his clothes. Then the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, the secretary Shaphan, and the king's servant Asaiah: "Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found; for the wrath of the Lord that is poured out on us is great, because our ancestors did not keep the word of the Lord, to act in accordance with all that is written in this book."
It's interesting, I think, that this book of the laws from Moses would be such a strange find to these people. After all, weren't they constantly on the lookout to follow these laws? They were certainly keen on purging competing religions out of their land, though they never appear to have succeeded. It occurs to me that this account of the "finding of the Torah" might not be so very far from historically accurate. Given the circumstances, it could be that the book of Hebrew myths could very well have been re-worked during the time of captivity and "discovered" by the priests at the time of their re-occupation of the temple.

2 Chr 35:1-3 - Josiah kept a passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; they slaughtered the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month. He appointed the priests to their offices and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord. He said to the Levites who taught all Israel and who were holy to the Lord, "Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon son of David, king of Israel, built; you need no longer carry it on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and his people Israel."
Oh come on! Who could believe that these people, who were supposed to have been in captivity under a foreign power for years on end, would still be carrying around a solid gold box with their god inside?

2 Chr 35:20-24 - After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, King Neco of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him. But Neco sent envoys to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you." But Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but joined battle in the plain of Megiddo. The archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded." So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. There he died, and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
An interesting history lesson is contained here. One of the most important forces in the history of the area called "the holy land" is the fact that it was "on the way" between major centers of civilization. As a meeting-place for several trade routes, it was key, strategically, and armies often passed through or overran the area. It's little wonder that the inhabitants became xenophobic and managed to incorporate so many aspects of the religions of the nations that passed through over the centuries! Here, the Egyptian king appears to have been "on the way" to some unnamed place he considered more important, but Josiah attacks the trespassers. Neco claims to have God on his side, an odd thing for an Egyptian to do, considering their normal multi-theism. Looking at the original Hebrew text, it appears that the words translated as "God" is really the plural "gods" and is mistranslated!

2 Chr 36:9 - Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.
Excuse ME!? I thought that a child didn't reach the age of accountability until the time of his bar mitzvah at the age of 13. How could an 8-year-old king possibly be responsible for doing evil during a period of three months?