Week 19 II Chronicles
A couple of days ago I said I wanted to see how Solomon’s story ended.
The reason was because The David Story in I Chronicles had some pretty obvious, I would say glaringly obvious omissions that made the story a sunny one.
Today I see the chronicler doing the same thing with Solomon. The dark and gloomy I Kings ending of The Solomon Story is collapsed into three informational verses: Solomon was king for forty years; he died; and – if you want more info – go and read Nathan, Ahijah, or Iddo. Nothing about the Solomon who turned his back on the Lord.
There’s two things I plan to do this week:
First, I’m going to see how the chronicler deals with the other kings of Judah. Will he highlight them, too?
My second goal is to answer a question (it’s a bit complicated so I doubt I’ll figure it out): why did the chronicler omit this material? What was he doing? Why the exclusions?
Afterthought: As I finish reading I realize I’m more bothered by what the writer didn’t say than what he did so I ask myself: what do chapters one-to-nine actually say about Solomon? One thing I see: at least 135 verses out of 201 are about the temple – prepping, building, dedicating. So, 67% of the chronicler’s Life of Solomon is about the temple. That’s surprising enough to keep in mind.
Note: see the contrasting accounts of Solomon’s end-of-life in II Chronicles 9:29-31 and I Kings 11.