1. Ken Mathews, “Preaching Historical Narrative,” in Reclaiming the Prophetic Mantle, ed. G. L. Klein (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 41.
2. Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible As Literature (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 58.
3. Ibid., 34.
4. Mathews, “Preaching Historical Narrative,” 41.
5. John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress in Modern English (North Brunswick, N.J.: Bridge-Logos, 1998), 186.
1. The “book of the chronicles” to which Xerxes made reference was probably some type of logbook recording the daily events of the royal court. It was from this source that the king’s “honor role” was compiled, permitting the crown to reward the memorable deeds of loyal subjects. According to Joyce Baldwin (Esther [TOTC; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1984], 89), the king may have given up all hope of sleeping that night and instead decided to make up arrears in reviewing the records of his reign.
2. See the discussion of “The Roots and the Branches” in Marvin R. Wilson, Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 3–16.
3. Exemplified in the statement, “the Old Testament is not our testament” (Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993], 151). On traditional and progressive dispensationalism, see further Herbert W. Bateman, ed., Three Central Issues in Contemporary Dispensationalism: A Comparison of Traditional and Progressive Views (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999); Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock, Progressive Dispensationalism (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000).
4. The assessment of Robert H. Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 1–13. Bork’s critique of radical individualism and radical egalitarianism in American culture is penetrating, though hardly startling. Pundits in the social science sector have been sounding similar warnings for decades, quite apart from the apocalyptic forecasts of secular “seers” like George Orwell and Alvin Toffler or Christian “prophets” like A. W. Tozer and Jacques Ellul.
5. See J. Richard Middleton and Brian J. Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be: Biblical Faith in a Postmodern Age (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995), 26–27. Sadly, rampant Technicism and Economism within the Pacific-rim nations suggests Asian culture will soon mirror that of the West (cf. ibid., 22).
6. Ryken, How to Read the Bible As Literature, 33.
7. See Neil Postman’s chapter entitled “A Peek-a-Boo World” in Amusing Ourselves to Death (New York: Viking Penguin, 1985), 64–80.
8. Middleton and Walsh, Truth Is Stranger, 69–71.
9. C. S. Lewis, A Preface to Paradise Lost (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1942), 133.
10. My position for understanding the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament is one of “biblical theology” as articulated by John Bright: “the true conclusion of Israel’s history, and the fulfillment of her faith, lies in Christ and his gospel” (The Authority of the Old Testament [repr. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1975], 126). This means the church must recognize the entire Old Testament as valid or normative Scripture by virtue of its inspiration and of its relevance and authority to the church through its theology.
11. Rudyard Kipling, “The Elephant’s Child” (from “Chapter Headings” of the “Just-So Stories” [Rudyard Kipling’s Verse; New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1931]), 678.
12. According to the definition of Burke O. Long, 1 Kings: With an Introduction to Historical Literature (FOTL 9; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984), 250.
13. See ibid., 246 (although Long prefers to identify the Old Testament books of Chronicles as “history”).
14. On the discussion of “plot” in Chronicles see Richard L. Pratt, “First and Second Chronicles,” in A Complete Literary Guide to the Bible, ed. L. Ryken and T. Longman III (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993), 199–202.
15. For a complete catalog of formulaic language in the Old Testament historical books, see the “Glossary” in Long, 1 Kings, 264–65; S. J. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles (FOTL 11; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 437–39.
16. Cf. J. M. Myers, I Chronicles (AB 12; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965), 240; S. Japhet, “The Historical Reliability of Chronicles,” JSOT 33 (1985): 83–107. See further M. P. Graham, K. Hoglund, and S. McKenzie, eds., The Chronicler As Historian. (JSOTSup 238; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1997); K. Peltonen, History Debated: The Historical Reliability of the Chronicler in Pre-critical and Critical Research (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996).
17. As understood by S. L. Johnson, The Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980). For a discussion of variant readings in the Samuel–Kings and Chronicles parallels, see J. Barton Payne, “Validity of Numbers in Chronicles,” Near East Archaeological Society Bulletin 11 (1978): 5–58 (esp. 39–51) and the pertinent sections of his commentary, “1, 2 Chronicles,” in EBC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 4:302. For a more strained approach harmonizing these variant readings, see G. L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982).
18. H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles (NCBC; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 33.
19. Rex Mason, “Some Echoes of the Preaching in the Second Temple? Tradition Elements in Zechariah 1–8,” ZAW 96 (1984): 223–25.
20. E.g., Roddy Braun (1 Chronicles [WBC 14; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1986], xxv) prefers “prophetic oracle,” while William M. Schniedewind (The Word of God in Transition: From Prophet to Exegete in the Second Temple Period [JSOTSup 97; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995, 80ff.) distinguishes between the Chronicler’s “prophetic speeches” and “Levitical prayers.”
21. See further my article “Patchwork Poetry or Reasoned Verse? Connective Structure in 1 Chronicles XVI,” VT 33 (1983): 97–101.
22. Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles (BST; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1987), 14.
23. On plot, plot types, and conflict motifs in biblical narrative, see Ryken, How to Read the Bible As Literature, 33–86.
24. For insightful comments on narrative structure in Chronicles, see Kenneth A. Mathews, “Preaching Historical Narrative,” 27–31.
25. Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles (WBC 15; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1987), xviii.
26. Adapted from Schniedewind, The Word of God in Transition, 123. Note that Schniedewind distinguishes between the prophetic speeches of “prophets” and “inspired messengers” on the basis of “inspiration formulas.”
27. Schniedewind, The Word of God in Transition, 128–29.
28. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 19.
29. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 15–16.
30. Rex Mason, Preaching the Tradition: Homily and Hermeneutics after the Exile (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990), 257.
31. Henry Sloane Coffin, Evangelistic Preaching (New York: Board of National Missions, n.d.), 6.
32. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 15.
33. Alexander Pope, “Essay on Man,” in Collected Poems (London: Dent & Sons, 1924), 184.
34. See the discussion of Kierkegaard’s existential psychology in S. L. Jones and R. E. Butman, Modern Psychotherapies: A Comprehensive Christian Appraisal (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1991), 279–81, esp. the level of the religious stage in his theory of human development (i.e., “a trusting personal relationship with the transcendent God of the Christian faith,” 280).
35. Ibid., 280.
36. It seems the Chronicler’s methods have parallels in several of the modern psychotherapies, including: existential therapy (especially suited for individuals confronting personal crises), transactional analysis (with its emphasis on experience in a group therapy format), and even family therapy (stressing the importance of clearly defined structures and roles, including clarity concerning hierarchical relationships; see Jones and Butman, Modern Psychotherapies, 278–300, 324–45, 349–72).
37. The topic of worship is developed more fully below in the chapter addressing the role of the Levites as facilitators of worship education (1 Chron. 6) and the chapter portraying King David as a worship leader (21:1–29:9).
38. Many commentators recognize a two-stage compilation of the books. Braun suggests the rebuilding of the second temple (ca. 515 B.C.) as the occasion for the initial stratum of Chronicles (i.e., 1 Chron. 10–2 Chron. 36:21), reaching final form about 350 B.C. (i.e., the addition of the genealogies [1 Chron. 1–9] and the epilogue [2 Chron. 36:22–23]). Given the emphasis on the Levitical priesthood and temple worship, it seems more likely that the reforms of Ezra (including the rehabilitation of the priesthood) and the dedication of the city wall rebuilt by Nehemiah (Neh. 12) were the occasions prompting the writing of the core history of Chronicles (ca. 450 B.C.).
39. It appears as if “Darius the Mede” in Dan. 5:30–31 is a local name for Cyrus.
40. See I. Howard Marshall, Luke: Historian and Theologian (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1970), esp. 53–76. For a more detailed assessment of the Chronicler’s historiographical method, see Graham, Hoglund, and McKenzie, The Chronicler As Historian.
41. Marshall, Luke: Historian and Theologian, 77–102.
42. See the discussion of the Chronicler’s sources in H. G. M. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 17–21 (cf. the elaboration on Williamson’s thesis in D. M. Howard Jr., An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books [Chicago: Moody Press, 1993], 238–42).
43. See the discussion of the name “Israel” in the parallel source citations of Kings and Chronicles in Howard, An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books, 240–41.
44. Michael Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985), 387.
45. See ibid., 385–403.
46. Commentators have lamented this disparaging for Chronicles in the LXX, contending that it has contributed to the neglect of the unique contents and message of the books (e.g., Braun, 1 Chronicles, xix).
47. See the article by Gary N. Knoppers and Paul B. Harvey Jr., “Omitted and Remaining Matters: On the Names Given in the Book of Chronicles in Antiquate,” JBL 121 (2002): 227–43.
48. William F. Albright, “The Date and Personality of the Chronicler,” JBL 40 (1921): 104–14.
49. See the watershed study of Sara Japhet, “The Supposed Common Authorship of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah Investigated Anew,” VT 18 (1968): 330–71; cf. her I and II Chronicles (OTL; Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1993), 23–28.
50. E.g., J. A. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles (NAC 9; Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1993), 29.
51. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 14; cf. Darrell L. Bock on Luke as historian, theologian, and pastor (Luke [NIVAC; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996], 21).
52. On the Chronicler as interpreter, see Martin J. Selman, 1 Chronicles (TOTC 10a; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 27–45, esp. 40–43.
53. Specifically, the exegetical approach identified with the Chronicler is that of haggadic exegesis (i.e., exposition that is primarily theological and moral; cf. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Israel, 380–403). The theological transformation of the accounts of Samuel and Kings by the Chronicler represents a reshaping of an earlier biblical tradition for the purpose of addressing a new historical situation. This reinterpretation of earlier Scriptures by a later biblical writer is an Old Testament example of what S. Lewis Johnson has identified in the New Testament as the work of the Holy Spirit in “inspired exposition” (The Old Testament in the New, 39–51).
1. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 89–90.
2. Robert Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Biblical World (New Haven, Conn.: Yale Univ. Press, 1977), 9.
3. Ibid., 18–26; cf. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 1–5; Howard, An Introduction to the Old Testament Historical Books, 249–51.
4. Marshall D. Johnson, The Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies, 2d ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988), 77–82.
5. The custom of naming (the male child) at the time of circumcision (eight days after birth) is a later Jewish practice (cf. Luke 1:59; 2:21).
6. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 93.
7. Understanding the term identity crisis in the less technical sense of “an aggravated life crisis rather than a psychological disorder”; see W. E. Atwater, Adolescence, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988), 138.
8. See Erik H. Erikson, Identity: Youth and Crisis (New York: W. W. Norton, 1968), esp. “The Life Cycle: Epigenesis of Identity,” 91–141.
9. J. Gordon McConville, I and II Chronicles (DSBOT; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1984), 7; we must not overlook the cultural significance of the genealogy, however, in the “honor” and “shame” society of the biblical world. For example, the honor to which one is born into is “ascribed” honor. Honor that has been achieved or earned is understood as “acquired” honor. The genealogies of Chronicles include both the idea of “ascribed” honor (e.g., Er as Judah’s “firstborn” son, 2:3) and “acquired” honor (e.g., Nimrod who became known as a “mighty warrior” for his exploits, 1:10). It is important to note that “shame” may be acquired as well, as in the case of Achar (or Achan, 2:7; cf. John Pilch, Introducing the Cultural Context of the Old Testament [New York: Paulist, 1991], 52–53).
10. It is interesting that the Chronicler opts not to appeal to the dreams and visions of Daniel for an explanation in the delay of the promised Davidic kingdom and restoration of Israel. A careful reading of Daniel indicates a series of four world empires must come and go before God implements his “kingdom program” (cf. Dan. 2, 7, 8). At the time of the Chronicler the Jews are in Stage Two (the Persian period) of that four-stage historical development (with the Babylonian period preceding and the empires of Greece and Rome to follow). To his credit the Chronicler pinpoints the root cause of postexilic Judah’s identity crisis, the demise of Davidic kingship. His two-pronged approach includes both genealogical recitation and historical review. It is possible that the Chronicler already anticipates the spiritual and ethical nature of God’s coming kingdom (in Jesus Christ as the Son of David) and chooses deliberately to avoid any reference to the more nationalistic portrayal in the book of Daniel.
11. On the topic of “victim status” in postmodern North America, see Robert H. Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, 80–82.
12. Middleton and Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, 69–70.
13. Ibid., 70–71.
14. There is a sense in which the Old and New Testaments continually call the reader to consider the biblical metanarrative, whether in divine epithets like “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Ex. 3:16) or in simple admonitions like “remember” (e.g., Deut. 5:15; 2 Tim. 2:8). The Bible is careful to locate the individual believer in a community of faith that spans generations, hence the description of God as one who is faithful and merits praise through all generations (Ps. 100:5; Eph. 3:21).
1. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 48.
2. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 94.
3. Leslie C. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles (Communicator’s Commentary 10; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1987), 43.
4. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 35–44.
5. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 96.
6. Payne, “1, 2 Chronicles,” 4:334.
7. Cf. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 52–53.
8. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 98.
9. On the time frame for the Aramean expansion, see Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 53.
10. E.g., Braun, 1 Chronicles, 37 n. 24.
11. So Selman, 1 Chronicles, 98.
12. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 66.
13. E.g., Braun, 1 Chronicles, 38 n. 52a; Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 55.
14. For the text of the Jehoiachin ration tablet, see D. Winton Thomas, ed., Documents from Old Testament Times (New York: Harper & Row, 1961), 84–86; also ANET, 308.
15. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 100.
16. On the numerous textual problems, see Sara Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 99–102.
17. See Braun’s genealogical chart, 1 Chronicles, 52.
18. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 101.
19. Cf. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 54.
20. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 29–30.
21. Ibid., 30–31.
22. On the theme of readiness see Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 43–44.
23. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 25.
24. Gary M. Burge, “The Greatest Story Never Read,” Christianity Today 43/9 (Aug. 9, 1999): 45.
25. Cf. Middleton and Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, 22–27.
26. Neil Postman, Technopoly (New York: Vintage Books, 1992), 189–90.
27. Ibid., 190. Note the disdain for such ideas in contemporary society as illustrated in the lyrics of the music of popular culture (e.g., “standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold”; R.E.M., Document [International Record Syndicate, Inc., 1987], from Track 10, “King of Birds”).
28. Walter Brueggemann, “Passion and Perspective: Two Dimensions of Education in the Bible,” ThTo 42 (1985): 173.
29. Cf. Thomas H. Groome, Christian Religious Education (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980), 22–23; J. Elias, ed., Psychology and Religious Education (Bethlehem, Pa.: Catechetical Communications, 1975), 65–82.
30. Walter Brueggemann, The Creative Word (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1982), 30–31; for another perspective on education in biblical times emphasizing the Hebrew wisdom tradition, see James L. Crenshaw, Education in Ancient Israel (New York: Doubleday, 1998).
31. Brueggemann, The Creative Word, 47, 50.
32. Ibid., 87.
33. Ibid., 88–89.
34. Ibid., 26–27.
35. Ibid., 18.
1. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 72.
2. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 44.
3. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 59.
4. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 73. On the petition of Jabez as a model for prayer, see Bruce Wilkinson, The Prayer of Jabez (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 2000). Wilkinson is to be commended for introducing millions of readers to Chronicles, and his invitation to pray to the God of the Bible is certainly in keeping with the Chronicler’s message. The premise of this best-selling book is that ordinary Christians need to reach for an extraordinary life by seeking God’s blessing. The prayer of Jabez is treated as a four-part formula for divine blessing: seeking to be blessed by God, seeking greater personal “territory,” depending on God’s power for significant ministry, and fleeing temptation. This prayer formula is offered as a model of prayer for divine blessing and is supported by the guarantee that God always answers this daring prayer. The work, however, begs a critique that places the Jabez prayer formula (or “mantra”) in the larger context of Scripture.
Although unmentioned, the language of the prayer is difficult. (1) It is unclear whether this opening statement of the prayer should be read as a conditional clause (“if you truly bless me,” so NJB) or a wish (“Oh that you would bless me,” so NIV). (2) The final clause can be changed from “so that I will be free from pain” (so NIV) to read “that I may not cause pain” (only NKJV).
The undertones of the “health and wealth gospel” sounded in what some critics call a “self-help” book play well to the consumer culture of North America. But one wonders how the ordinary Christian in Asia or Africa might understand this interpretation of the prayer of Jabez. The suggestion that God’s blessing can be reduced to a formula is simplistic and borders on the irreverent (since God is not to be approached as a “cosmic slot machine,” cf. Job 41:11). The emphasis on abundant personal blessing in the Jabez prayer formula certainly runs counter to the prayer Jesus taught his disciples requesting only “daily bread” (Matt 6:11). (In fact, after reading Wilkinson, one might wonder why Jesus taught his disciples another prayer instead of just giving them the Jabez prayer!) The Jabez prayer formula also seems to gloss over Paul’s exhortation to look out for the interests of others (Phil. 2:4). Finally, the Jabez prayer formula fails to mention virtues like perseverance in the face of suffering or faithful service in humble and thankless situations—standard fare in the Christian life for many servants of Christ’s gospel (although this criticism has been addressed in part in the author’s sequel, Secrets of the Vine: Breaking Through to Abundance [Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 2001]).
More specifically on the content and structure of the Jabez prayer, see Larry Pechawer, The Lost Prayer of Jabez (Joplin, Mo.: Mireh, 2001), who concludes that the only request of the prayer is “more pasture land” (61). In part, his analysis is based on the alternate pointing of the Heb. word meraʿah (“from evil”) so as to read mirʿeh (‘pasture land”), thus rendering the prayer: “Now Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, saying, ‘If you would only bless me, then enlarge my territory that your hand may be with me, and provide me with pasture land so that I will not be in distress’” (59).
5. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 56.
6. Williamson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 60.
7. The LXXb reads “Rechab,” possibly connecting 4:12 with 2:55 (so Braun, 1 Chronicles, 57).
8. E.g., Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 74.
9. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 56 n. 15c.
10. Williamson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 60.
11. Ibid., 60–61; cf. Michael Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 33–34, on “Irnahash” as a town devoted to a particular industry (i.e., a “city of bronze”).
12. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 102.
13. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 47–48.
14. Ibid., 44–45.
15. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 33–34.
16. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 115.
17. “Bithiah,” in ISBE, 1:520.
18. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 34.
19. John Stott, “Who Is My Neighbor?” in The Challenge of Christ’s Compassion (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975), 16–17.
20. Terry C. Muck, Those Other Religions in Your Neighborhood (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), esp. 32–34.
21. John Piper, Desiring God (Sisters, Ore.: Multnomah, 1996), 277–86.
22. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 71.
23. Ibid.
24. For example, see Charles Colson and Richard Neuhaus, eds., Evangelicals and Catholics Together: Toward A Common Mission (Dallas: Word, 1995); James S. Cutsinger, ed., Reclaiming the Great Tradition: Evangelicals, Catholics and Orthodox in Dialogue (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1997).
25. See Stephen L. Carter, The Culture of Disbelief: How American Law and Politics Trivialize Religious Devotion (New York: Anchor Books, 1994).
26. For examples, see Kenneth Collins, ed., Exploring Christian Spirituality: An Ecumenical Reader (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000); William A. Dyrness, Learning About Theology from the Third World (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990); and Robert E. Webber, Ancient Future Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999).
1. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 68.
2. See further De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 50–51.
3. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 35.
4. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 76. Note his literal translation, “and their genealogical registration was theirs” (1 Chron. 4:33).
5. Cf. Walter Brueggemann, The Land (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977), esp. 67–70 (“The Land As Threat”) and 151–58 (“Separatism As a Way to Save the Land”).
6. According to Selman, 1 Chronicles, 104, the name Gedor may be the Geder of Josh. 12:13. R. J. Coggins (The First and Second Books of the Chronicles [CBC; Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1977], 32), however, cautions against the tendency to identify every unknown place with a well-known site with a similar name.
7. The Aramaic Targum and the Latin Vulgate translate “their dwellings” for “Meunites” on the basis of the Arabic “ma an,” meaning “tent” or “dwelling” (so NJB).
8. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 124–25.
9. For a modern sociology of nostalgia, including a discussion of the differences between a “nostalgic experience” (i.e., a personally experienced past) and an “antiquarian feeling” (i.e., a powerful, even knowledgeable identification with some previous period of history), see Fred Davis, Yearning for Yesterday (New York: Free Press, 1979), esp. 8–26. According to Davis’s distinctions, the Chronicler evokes antiquarian feelings in his audience in his retelling of the storied days of the Hebrew monarchy. Davis’s categorization of the “ascending orders of nostalgia” is also helpful in assessing the Chronicler’s approach to historiography. First Order nostalgia is a positively toned evocation of the lived past in the context of some negative feeling toward the present (or impending circumstances). Second Order nostalgia moves from sentimentality about the past to some reflective and empirically oriented evaluation of the nostalgic experience (i.e., some estimate of the truth and accuracy of the nostalgic claim). Third Order nostalgia not only questions issues of historical accuracy related to the nostalgic claim but also critically analyzes (or objectifies) the nostalgic feeling itself. Applying Davis’s rubrics for nostalgia to antiquarian feelings suggests the Chronicler is primarily seeking to evoke First Order feelings for the past in his audience. The question remains whether or not he is skilled enough as a psychologist to subtly move his audience to Second and Third Order reflection on the nostalgic claims of the Hebrew monarchy as theological preparation for the messianic kingdom. Personally, I suspect that he is both an astute theologian and psychologist, given his understanding of the Exile as an event for which there is “no remedy” (2 Chron. 36:16).
10. Jacques Ellul, Reason for Being: A Meditation on Ecclesiastes, trans. Joyce M. Hanks (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990), 69.
11. C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (New York: Macmillan, 1961), 77–78.
12. Brueggemann, The Creative Word, 37–38.
13. Ibid., 19–32.
14. H. Eising, “
,” TDOT, 4:65.
1. See Myers, I Chronicles, 35, on the importance of Judah as the tribe of King David and the home of Israel’s national political and religious institutions.
2. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 105.
3. Peter R. Ackroyd, I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah (TBC; London: SCM, 1973), 36.
4. The metathesis or shifting of consonants is attested elsewhere in Chronicles (e.g., almuggim [1 Kings 10:11] to algummim [2 Chron. 9:10]), perhaps for euphonic reasons (see Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 64).
5. On the Mesha Stone see Andrew Dearman, ed., Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab (Archaeology and Biblical Studies 2; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989).
6. Ibid., 179–80.
7. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 69, 71.
8. On this hypothetical source, see further T. N. D. Mettinger, Solomonic State Officials (Lund: Gleerup, 1971), 39.
9. According to Eugene H. Merrill, 1, 2 Chronicles (Bible Study Commentary; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1988), 32, the Transjordan tribes ended up as refugees in the Habor (Khabur) River valley, a tributary of the Euphrates River. The towns of Halah, Habor, and Hara cited by the Chronicler remain unidentified. Gozan may be the modern day Tell Halaf on the Habor River.
10. E.g., Edward L. Curtis, The Books of Chronicles (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1910), 120.
11. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 78.
12. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 36.
13. See Selman, 1 Chronicles, 105, on the recurring theme of the demotion of the firstborn in Chronicles (cf. Deut. 4:40).
14. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 52–53.
15. On the idolatries of contemporary culture, see Marva J. Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 41–56.
16. See Carter, The Culture of Disbelief, 23–43.
17. See Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, 66–82, on how the rise of radical egalitarianism fosters a “victim status” mentality that removes any need for corporate accountability or personal responsibility.
1. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 60.
2. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 69.
3. Johnson, The Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies, 77–82.
4. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 38.
5. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 108.
6. Ibid., 109.
7. Myers, I Chronicles, lxiii.
8. Generally the Chronicler prefers Gershom for the more familiar Gershon. The NIV reads “Gershon” for “Gershom” in 6:16, 17, 20, 43, 62, and 71 (see textual note on 6:16).
9. For example, the NIV drops one of the names for Elkanah as a redundancy (see text note).
10. E.g., Selman, 1 Chronicles, 110–11.
11. Cf. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 72, on the orthographic (or spelling) variants between the sources.
12. Japhet, I & II Chronicles, 440.
13. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 112.
14. E.g., Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 73–74.
15. Ackroyd, I and II Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, 40.
16. On the basis of 1 Sam. 14:3 and 1 Chron. 24:3 it is possible to reconstruct Ahimelech’s lineage to Ithamar through Ahitub I, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, son of Ithamar, son of Aaron. This would make Zadok son of Ahitub II, a later descendant of Eleazar, son of Aaron.
17. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 98–99.
18. James L. Crenshaw, Old Testament Wisdom: An Introduction (Atlanta: John Knox, 1981), 12.
19. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 46–47. On the ministry of the Levitical priesthood, see Roland deVaux, Ancient Israel: Religious Institutions (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1965), 345–405; Andrew E. Hill, Enter His Courts with Praise! (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 138–54.
20. Hermann Ridderbos, Studies in Scripture and Its Authority (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978), 23–24.
21. Hill, Enter His Courts with Praise! 147–48.
22. A. W. Tozer, Worship: The Missing Jewel (Camp Hill, Pa.: Christian Publications, 1992).
23. Ibid., 22–24.
24. Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), 193.
25. Ibid., 196.
1. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 114.
2. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 103.
3. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 76.
4. On the lamed of introduction (welibne), see GKC § 143e.
5. E.g., Payne, “1, 2 Chronicles,” 4:357–58. Note also the reference to “200 chiefs” of Issachar in 12:32.
6. See the helpful chart in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 108.
7. E.g., Braun (1 Chronicles, 106, 109) restores the tribe of Dan in the list by emending 7:12.
8. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 114–15.
9. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 78.
10. Ibid., 79.
11. Some of the internal confusion of Manasseh’s genealogy may be clarified by recognizing words like “sister” (7:15, 18 NIV) are better understood less technically as simply “relative” in this context (so Selman, 1 Chronicles, 116). For a more comprehensive analysis see D. Edelman, “The Manassite Genealogy in 1 Chronicles 7:14–19,” CBQ 53 (1991): 179–201. Seven of the thirteen clans of the tribe of Manasseh are attested in the Samaria ostraca, extrabiblical commodities receipts recorded on potsherds dating to the eighth century B.C. (see further Klaas A. D. Smelik, Writings from Ancient Israel [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991], 55–62).
12. The emphasis on tribal descent cannot be understood in absolute terms, as mingling of the tribes through intermarriage occurred through the passing of time. For example, the Judahite clan of Hezron married into the Manassite clan of Makir (1 Chron. 7:14; cf. 2:21). Makir also took a wife from one of the clans of Benjamin (cf. 1 Chron. 7:7, 12, 15–16). See further Merrill, 1, 2 Chronicles, 36.
13. See W. Rudolph, Chronikbücher (HAT; Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1955), 64.
14. The phrase “native-born men of Gath” (7:21) simply identifies the assailants as members of the indigenous population. The use of the verb “went down” is well chosen because the Ephraimites descended from the hills to the lowlands to raid cattle (so Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 181).
15. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 185.
16. Cf. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 427, 430.
17. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 71.
18. E.g., “What did we gain by carrying out his requirements?” Mal. 3:14; cf. Middleton and Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, 70–81; see also the Contemporary Significance section of 2:3–3:24.
19. On the “law of human nature,” see C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (New York: Macmillan, 1952), esp. 17–30.
20. George E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1973), 200.
21. On “metanarrative” in postmodernism see Middleton and Walsh, Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be, 69–71.
22. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 38.
23. Cf. Christopher J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 46–54; see further Aida B. Spencer and William D. Spencer, The Global God (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998); Walter C. Kaiser, Mission in the Old Testament: Israel As a Light to the Nations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000).
24. On the “worship response” of service, see Robert E. Webber, Common Roots (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978), 101–2; Andrew E. Hill, Enter His Courts with Praise! 157.
25. There is a sad twist of irony in the application of the Chronicler’s principle of ethnic and racial inclusivism to contemporary evangelical settings. Rather than promoting the principle of unity and inclusion in the body life of the church, disagreement over the place of certain of the charismata of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church continues to foster attitudes of exclusivism that lead to division and schism among Christians. Even more sardonic is the so-called “inclusive language debate” as it relates to the practice of Bible translation (but one item in the larger category of “gender issues” confronting popular culture in North America and hence the church). Once again, “well-meaning” Christians in both camps (i.e., the egalitarians and the complementarians) have managed to controvert the biblical principles of unity and inclusion into partisan flag-waving and sectarian sparring (see further, D. A. Carson, The Inclusive Language Debate [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998]). Meanwhile, a generation of young people thoroughly immersed in postmodernism (the millennial generation, 1982–2000) continues its drift after the siren of popular culture as the evangelical church minds (or mines?) its pronouns (see further Leslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989], as well as the “redemptive hermeneutic”’ of William J. Webb, Slaves, Women, and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutic of Cultural Analysis [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2001]).
26. Andrew E. Hill and John H. Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 485.
1. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 44.
2. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 44–45.
3. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 189.
4. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 118.
5. It is not within the scope of this commentary series to treat textual problems in any detail. For a discussion of the pertinent issues, see the textual notes in Braun, 1 Chronicles, and Japhet, I and II Chronicles. On the differences between the genealogies of Benjamin found in 7:6–12; 8:28–38; and 9:35–44, Wilcock has aptly commented: “Alert and intelligent people who were prepared to let such ‘contradictions’ stand as part of a historical record presumably had sound reasons for doing so” (The Message of Chronicles, 44).
6. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 189–90.
7. On the literary form of the Benjamite genealogy, see De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 83–88.
8. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 83.
9. Cf. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 119.
10. Cf. the NRSV, “… and Gera, that is, Heglam” (NIV, “… and Gera, who deported them”). See further Braun, 1 Chronicles, 121 n. 7b.
11. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 100.
12. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 84.
13. Myers, I Chronicles, 61.
14. E.g., Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 101.
15. Ibid.
16. According to Japhet’s historical reconstruction (I and II Chronicles, 198–99), Micah (8:35) may have been a contemporary of King Solomon. If the ten generations between Micah and Ulam are an uninterrupted accounting of Micah’s descendants, then Ulam and his sons would have lived near the end of the seventh century B.C. (before the destruction of Jerusalem).
17. E.g., Braun, 1 Chronicles, 129–30; Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 87.
18. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 198–99.
19. David W. Henderson, Culture Shift (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 192.
20. See esp. ch. 13, “Leaving Meaning Behind,” in ibid., 184–99.
21. For a historical overview and theological assessment of the “prosperity gospel” movement, see Bruce Barron, The Health and Wealth Gospel (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1987).
22. Cf. Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, 82.
23. Gene Edwards, A Tale of Three Kings (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1992), 13.
24. Henri J. M. Nouwen, Can You Drink the Cup? (Notre Dame, Ind.: Ave Maria Press, 1996), 51.
1. Note that Selman, 1 Chronicles, 122, and Braun, 1 Chronicles, 130, prefer the conjectural emendation “the book of the kings of Israel and Judah” in 9:1 as an error of haplography (contra NIV, “the book of the kings of Israel”).
2. See the discussions in Myers, I Chronicles, 67–71; Selman, 1 Chronicles, 123–24.
3. On terminology related to the elements and formulas of the genealogical genre see the glossary in De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 426–39.
4. See Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 105–6.
5. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 127.
6. Ibid., 129.
7. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 142.
8. So Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 217.
9. On the Chronicler’s preoccupation with worship see Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 45–46.
10. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 218.
11. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 144.
12. See Andrew E. Hill, Malachi (AB 25D; New York: Doubleday, 1998), 71.
13. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 218.
14. Cf. ibid., 219.
15. The topic of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is a difficult one and requires a separate study. Essentially, what is explicit in the New Testament concerning the work of the Holy Spirit is implicit in the Old Testament (apart from the “baptism of the Holy Spirit” [Acts 1:5]) and the universal and more permanent distribution of spiritual gifts among the people of God [1 Cor. 12:7–12]; cf. Leon J. Wood, The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976); Wilf Hildebrandt, An Old Testament Theology of the Spirit of God (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1995).
16. So Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 75–76.
17. See McConville, I and II Chronicles, 13.
18. See Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 107.
1. See De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 117.
2. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 221.
3. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 134; cf. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 111.
4. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 134–35; cf. Y. Aharoni and M. Avi-Yonah, The Macmillan Bible Atlas, rev. ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1977), 64.
5. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 223–24.
6. Instances of suicide are rare in the biblical record. See further A. J. Droge, “Suicide,” ABD, 6:225–31.
7. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 224.
8. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 93.
9. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 150.
10. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 225.
11. Ibid., 233.
12. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 54.
13. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 101.
14. See further the helpful comparative chart of David’s “mighty men” as listed in 2 Sam. 23 and 1 Chron. 11 in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 161–62.
15. E.g., Selman, 1 Chronicles, 142.
16. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 243.
17. Reading the Greek and Latin textual variant “Thirty” for the MT “Three,” following the NLT and NRSV.
18. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 143.
19. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 105.
20. See William L. Moran, The Amarna Letters (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1992), EA 71, 73, 82, 90, 93, 105, 127, 131, 139.
21. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 145.
22. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 107.
23. Myers, I Chronicles, 92.
24. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 124.
25. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 265.
26. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 147.
27. Myers, I Chronicles, 98.
28. John W. Wenham, “Large Numbers in the Old Testament,” TynBul 18 (1967): 44–53.
29. Payne, “1, 2 Chronicles,” 4:378.
30. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 91.
31. William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 665.
32. Ibid.
33. S. D. Gaede, When Tolerance Is No Virtue (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 20–30.
34. See the attempt to “objectify” the discussion by presenting the views of normative pluralism, inclusivism, salvation in Christ, and salvation in Christ alone as equally viable theological positions in Dennis L. Okholm and Timothy R. Phillips, eds., More Than One Way? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).
35. Gene E. Veith, Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1994), 143–56.
36. Bennett, The Book of Virtues, 11.
37. Bork, Slouching Towards Gomorrah, 82.
38. Bennett, The Book of Virtues, 11.
1. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 272.
2. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 113.
3. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 135, 426, 434.
4. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 149.
5. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 276.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 173.
9. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 115.
10. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 279.
11. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 153.
12. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 280.
13. Ibid.
14. E.g., Japhet, ibid., 281; Selman, 1 Chronicles, 154.
15. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 129.
16. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 178.
17. Cf. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 156.
18. See the helpful comparative chart in Myers, I Chronicles, 107.
19. Payne, “1, 2 Chronicles,” 4:338.
20. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 130.
21. Ibid., 134–35.
22. Ibid., 135.
23. Cf. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 124.
24. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 163.
25. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 190.
26. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 166.
27. After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the Mosaic tabernacle was located in Shiloh (Josh. 18:1). By the time of Samuel the tabernacle had been moved to Nob (1 Sam. 21:1). Saul’s slaughter of the priests at Nob for their aiding and abetting the fugitive David probably occasioned the relocation of the tent-shrine in Gibeon (1 Sam. 22:1–19).
28. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 127.
29. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 140.
30. See further J. A. Loader, “Redaction and Function of the Chronistic ‘Psalm of David,’” OTWSA 19 (1976): 69–75; Andrew E. Hill, “Patchwork Poetry or Reasoned Verse? Connective Structure in 1 Chronicles XVI,” VT 33 (1983): 97–101.
31. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 174.
32. See the discussion in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 198–99.
33. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 156–57.
34. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 174.
35. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 132.
36. According to Henri Frankfort, the king in the ancient world could render no greater service than to build a house for his god (Kingship and the Gods [Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1978, reprint], 267; see esp. 267–74).
37. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 179.
38. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 136.
39. Japhet (I and II Chronicles, 337–38) has carefully documented the divergences in the two texts of the prayer of David; primary among them are the numerous changes in Chronicles in the divine names and titles. Among the twenty-five divine titles in the Samuel account and the twenty-three divine titles in the Chronicles account, only eight correspond exactly in the two versions. One explanation seems to be the growing sensitivity in later Judaism for the reverencing of certain divine names—to the point of not even writing them down.
40. Samuel E. Balentine, Prayer in the Hebrew Bible (OBT; Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993), 19–21.
41. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 336.
42. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 176.
43. H.-J. Fabry, “
[stool],” TDOT, 3:328.
44. Robert Schaper, In His Presence (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984), 160.
45. Vernon H. Kooy, “Symbol,” IDB, 4:472.
46. Pierre Babin, The New Era in Religious Communication (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1991), 151.
47. Ibid., 149; on art as “indirect communication” see Robert E. Webber, “The Arts As Vehicles of Communication,” in The Complete Library of Christian Worship, ed. R. E. Webber (Nashville: StarSong, 1994), 4:522–23.
48. Babin, The New Era in Religious Communication, 35.
49. Ibid., esp. chs. 6 and 7 (pp. 110–67).
50. Ibid., 113.
51. Ibid., 152.
52. Robert E. Webber, Ancient Future Faith (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 107.
53. Lynn Mackenzie, Non-Western Art: A Brief Guide, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2001), 1–2.
1. See further De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 159–67.
2. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles (1987), 132–33.
3. For a discussion of the textual problems related to the numbers in the battle report of 18:3–4, see Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 346–47.
4. Cf. ibid., 348, on the Chronicler’s tendency “to ‘modernize’ the historical testimony” (in this case, the place names).
5. D. J. Wiseman, “‘Is It Peace?’—Covenant and Diplomacy,” VT 32 (1982): 311–26.
6. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 189.
7. E.g., ibid.,190.
8. So Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 351.
9. Ibid.
10. E.g., Myers, I Chronicles, 138; George E. Mendenhall, “The Monarchy,” Interp 29 (1975): 155–70.
11. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 190.
12. Cf. Mendenhall, “The Monarchy,” 165–66.
13. Cf. Myers, I Chronicles, 138.
14. E.g., Braun, 1 Chronicles, 203, 205; Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 352.
15. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 352.
16. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 153.
17. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 191.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 193.
20. Cf. H. W. Hertzberg, I and II Samuel (OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1964), 303–4.
21. Myers, I Chronicles, 133.
22. Braun’s “when they knew they had offended David” is weak (1 Chronicles, 206).
23. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 360.
24. On the correctness of the Chronicler’s figure in the battle report of 1 Chron. 19:18 see Payne, “1, 2 Chronicles” (4:402).
25. P. Kyle McCarter, II Samuel (AB 9; New York: Doubleday, 1984), 313; on the administration of the Davidic state, see Myers, I Chronicles, 140; Selman, 1 Chronicles, 197.
26. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 365
27. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 199.
28. Ibid.
29. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 65.
30. Ibid.
31. George E. Ladd, “Kingdom of God,” ISBE, 3:26.
32. George E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 51; cf. Greg Boyd, God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997), 238, who identifies the unifying theme of Jesus’ ministry as the conflict between the kingdom of God against the kingdom of Satan. The idea of God as a “warrior” is one of the “hard teachings” of the Bible. Despite all the difficulties associated with the concept ethically and theologically, Peter C. Craigie reminds us that “God as Warrior does provide hope for sinful humankind because ‘God the warrior’ did become “God the crucified” (The Problem of War in the Old Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1978], 43, 101–2). On the theme of God as the “divine warrior” in the Old and New Testaments, see Tremper Longman III and Daniel G. Reid, God Is a Warrior (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995).
33. Note the superscription connects Ps. 60 with David’s wars against Aram Naharaim and Aram Zobah.
34. Gustaf Aulén, Christus Victor, trans. A. G. Hebert (New York: Macmillan, 1969), 4–5.
35. See Aulén on Anselm of Canterbury, ibid., 84–92.
36. Boyd, God at War, 241.
37. Ibid., 248.
38. Cited in Walter Martin, The New Age Cult (Minneapolis: Bethany, 1989), 13.
39. Aulén, Christus Victor, 159.
1. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 426, 434.
2. Cf. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 160.
3. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 431.
4. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 216–18.
5. Payne, “1, 2 Chronicles,” 4:407.
6. See the helpful discussion in Selman, 1 Chronicles, 202–4. For a more complete presentation of the complex interplay of divine judgment and mercy in this chapter see McConville, I and II Chronicles, 72–74.
7. Cf. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 140.
8. McConville, 1 and II Chronicles, 75.
9. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 95–96.
10. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 214.
11. Ibid.
12. E. Ball, “The Co-regency of David and Solomon (1 Kings 1),” VT 27 (1977): 268–79.
13. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 215.
14. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 222.
15. Payne, “1 Chronicles,” 4:412.
16. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 218.
17. Ibid.
18. See Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 169, on the possibility of a coregency between David and Solomon, based on Egyptian models.
19. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 223.
20. See the helpful genealogical charts in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 232–34.
21. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 160.
22. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 417–18.
23. So concludes Julia M. O’Brien in a detailed study of the issue: Priest and Levite in Malachi (SBLDS 121; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990).
24. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 163, also sees a contradiction between David’s appointment of the priestly divisions (24:3) and the reference to lot-casting (24:5). Presumably, however, David appoints the priestly divisions while the lot-casting determines the allocation of duties to those divisions.
25. For a concise overview of the controversy surrounding Zadok’s genealogical roots, see Eugene E. Carpenter, “Zadok 1,” ISBE, 4:1169–70.
26. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 231.
27. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 173.
28. See the discussion in Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 164.
29. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 229–30.
30. Myers, I Chronicles, 167–68.
31. There are textual difficulties in 24:26–27. The NIV (following the Vulgate) reads the Heb. beno as a proper name “Beno,” the son of Jaaziah. Braun (1 Chronicles, 237) understands the word lit. as “his son” (i.e., Jaaziah as the son of Mushi).
32. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 234.
33. It is possible that Ethan and Jeduthun are one in the same person; see “Jeduthun” in NBD, 545.
34. De Vries, 1 Chronicles, 206, 435.
35. See further Braun, 1 Chronicles, 243–46; Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 437–39.
36. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 439.
37. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 235.
38. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 167.
39. On the method of lot-casting see Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 447–48.
40. De Vries, 1 Chronicles, 434.
41. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 180.
42. See Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 457.
43. See further discussion in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 246 n. 16.
44. Here the NIV follows the LXX and reads “their brothers” for the MT “Ahijah.”
45. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 241.
46. Ibid., 242.
47. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 173.
48. See the helpful comparative chart of David’s tribal officers in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 259.
49. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 246.
50. E.g., Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 175–76; cf. the rebuttal by Selman, 1 Chronicles, 246–47.
51. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 247.
52. See the helpful comparative chart of Hebrew tribal lists in Braun, 1 Chronicles, 260.
53. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 479.
54. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 177.
55. An example of what Williamson (1 and 2 Chronicles, 179) calls “repetitive resumption” (cf. 15:11).
56. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 251.
57. Ibid., 252.
58. According to one summary of the use of the term “election” in the Old Testament; see George E. Mendenhall, “Election,” IDB, 2:76–82.
59. Braun, 1 Chronicles, 279–80.
60. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 258–59.
61. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 103.
62. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 507; Selman, 1 Chronicles, 258.
63. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 103.
64. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 186.
65. Ibid.
66. The Old Testament tends to use terminology that distinguishes “tempting” (Heb. nasah; Gk. peirazo) from “testing” (Heb. baḥan; Gk. dokimazo). The first set of words tends to have a pejorative connotation in the sense that this tempting or testing is designed to disapprove and ruin one’s faith in God. The second set of terms has a more positive connotation in the sense that this testing is designed to approve or build up one’s faith in God. Typically, God does not engage in the former, but Satan does. In his providential rule of the created order God is able to overturn the tempting of Satan and use that experience to encourage faith in the believer (e.g., the story of Job; cf. Jas. 1:12). The Bible admonishes the faithful not to “tempt” (Heb. nasah) God out of an unbelieving and rebellious heart (Deut. 6:16), although on occasion he may encourage the righteous to “test” (Heb. baḥan) him with a view toward bolstering wavering faith (cf. Mal. 3:10). In a similar fashion, according to the book of James, God does not “tempt” anyone (Gk. peirazo), but he may use “testing” (Gk. dokimazo) to nurture and mature faith and godliness in the believer (James 1:3, 13).
67. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 158.
68. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 92.
69. For example, see David Baron and Lynette Padwa, The Management Methods of Moses: 50 Leadership Lessons from the Greatest Manager of All Time (New York: Pocket Books, 2000); Donald K. Campbell, Nehemiah: Man in Charge (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1979); J. I. Packer, Nehemiah: A Passion for Faithfulness (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1995), esp. 69–112 on “Man-Management.”
70. For example, Laurie Beth Jones, Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership (New York: Hyperion, 1995); Bob Briner, The Management Methods of Jesus (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1996).
71. Andrew E. Hill and Gary A. Herion, “Functional Yahwism and Social Control in the Early Israelite Monarchy,” JETS 29 (1986): 277–84.
72. Walter Brueggemann, David’s Truth in Israel’s Imagination and Memory (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1985).
73. Hartwick Classic Leadership Cases: King David (Oneonta, N.Y.: Hartwick Humanities in Management Institute, 1994), 6. More generally on the life of David, see Gene Edwards, A Tale of Three Kings (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1982); Eugene H. Peterson, Leap Over a Wall: Earthy Spirituality for Everyday Christians (New York: HarperCollins, 1998).
74. Calvin Miller, Leadership (Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1987); for a similar study stressing the importance of character formation among those in leadership positions, see Richard D. Phillips, The Heart of an Executive: Lessons in Leadership from the Life of David (New York: Doubleday, 1999).
75. Miller, Leadership, 32.
76. Ibid., 41.
77. Ibid., 60.
78. Ibid., 70.
79. Ibid., 106.
80. Ibid., 114–17.
81. Ibid., 120.
82. Marva Dawn, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 76–82; on “David’s Kind of Worship,” see Sally Morgenthaler, Worship Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 37–38.
83. Robert E. Webber, Worship Old and New, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 149.
84. On the structure of worship see Andrew E. Hill, Enter His Courts with Praise! 50–51, 231–32; Barry Liesch, The New Worship: Straight Talk on Music and the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 47–74; Ralph P. Martin, Worship in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974), 130–39; Robert E. Webber, ed., The Complete Library of Christian Worship; vol. 1: The Biblical Foundations of Christian Worship (Nashville: StarSong, 1993), 123, 137–38; and vol. 2: Twenty Centuries of Christian Worship (Nashville: StarSong, 1994), 131–33, 247–48.
85. Robert E. Webber, Blended Worship: Achieving Substance and Relevance in Worship (Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1996).
86. I am indebted to two graduates of the Institute for Worship Studies, Eric Bolger and Heather Hood, for the impetus to explore David’s role as a worship leader in ancient Israel (esp. Hood’s unpublished paper: “Worship Leading in the New Millennium: Lessons from the Life of David,” submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for DWS 501: Biblical Foundations and Historical Development of Worship).
87. The idea for using Ps. 62 as a paradigm for worship leadership germinated from a sermon by John Casey, senior pastor at Blanchard Road Alliance Church (Wheaton, Ill.), entitled “How to Worship God in Trouble” and given on March 5, 2000.
88. Marva Dawn, A Royal “Waste” of Time (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), 23–36.
89. For this reason the observance of the Lord’s Table or the Eucharist is important to Christian worship. It is both a memorial of Christ’s atoning work on the cross and an act of covenant renewal on the part of the believer, who rests in that relationship with God established by the cross.
90. On worship as “spiritual warfare” I am attracted to W. Brueggemann’s contention that “the act of praise is indeed world-making for the community which takes the act of worship as serious and realistic … worship is not only constitutive, but inevitably polemical. Praise (of Jesus) insists not only that this is the true world, but that other worlds are false.… The church sings praises not only toward God but against the gods” (Israel’s Praise: Doxology Against Idolatry and Ideology [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988], 26–27).
1. Mark A. Throntveit, When Kings Speak: Royal Speech and Royal Prayer in Chronicles (SBLDS 93; Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987), 52.
2. Ibid., 63.
3. On psalmic types see Bernhard W. Anderson, Out of the Depths: The Psalms Speak for Us Today, 3d ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster, 2000).
4. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 259.
5. Anderson, Out of the Depths, 133.
6. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 509; cf. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 191.
7. Cf. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 197; cf. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 260.
8. See Japhet’s comments on Ezra 6:10, I and II Chronicles, 512.
9. So Merrill, 1, 2 Chronicles, 83.
10. Cf. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 262–63.
11. Myers, I Chronicles, 200.
12. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 191.
13. Leslie C. Allen, “
,” NIDOTTE, 1:1037.
14. Craig D. Erickson, Participating in Worship (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1989), 5–9.
15. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 193.
16. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 115.
17. Ibid.
18. Cf. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 105.
19. Tertullian, Ad Nationes, 13.
20. Cf. C. G. Fry, “Synergism,” in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2d ed., ed. W. A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 1161–62.
21. While folklorist and literary constructions of an alternative reality have been with us ever since humankind began telling and writing stories, Neil Postman (Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology [New York: Knopf, 1992], 117) correctly associates Virtual Reality primarily with computer-generated images. He mused that VR may provide therapy of sorts for those who can no longer cope with the real world. Howard Rheingold (Virtual Reality [New York: Summit Books, 1991], 391) ventured that people will use cyberspace as a hybrid of entertainment, escape, and addiction because reality has always been too small for the human imagination.
22. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 115.
23. Andrew W. Blackwood has traced every criticism of God to one unspoken assumption, “that God should have arranged the world so that man will be comfortable” (Out of the Whirlwind: A Study of Job [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1959], 151).
24. Cf. C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970).
25. Anderson, Out of the Depths, 76.
26. For example, the assumption of Job’s friends that all human suffering is retributive (i.e., just punishment for sin; cf. Job 4:7–9; 8:20; etc.). Their skewed theology was inadequate for suffering that was necessarily mysterious, since God’s character and plan are inscrutable (cf. 11:7; 42:3; see further R. B. Y. Scott, The Way of Wisdom [New York: Macmillan, 1971], 144–47).
27. Anderson, Out of the Depths, 62, 64–65.
28. C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1955), 220.
29. Ibid., 221.
30. Ibid., 238.
1. As defined earlier, a report is a brief, self-contained prose narrative relating a single event, while the account is a narrative combining several reports organized around a major event or significant theme.
2. This simple chiastic outline of 2 Chron. 1–9 follows the example of Selman, 1 Chronicles, 285–86. For a more elaborate chiastic schema see Raymond B. Dillard, 2 Chronicles (WBC 15; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1987), 5–6.
3. M. J. Selman, 2 Chronicles (TOTC 10b; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 285.
4. Ibid., 288.
5. S. Wagner, “
,” TDOT, 3:293–98.
6. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 292.
7. Ibid., 295.
8. See Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 13–14.
9. See the discussion of the archaeological evidence for Solomon’s chariot cities in ibid., 13.
10. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 304.
11. Carol Meyers, “Cherubim,” ABD, 1:900.
12. See discussion in Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 30. Descriptions of the two bronze pillars are found in 1 Kings 7:15–22; 2 Kings 25:17; 2 Chron. 3:15–17; and Jer. 52:21–22.
13. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 309.
14. Cf. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 210–11.
15. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 125.
16. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 324.
17. See Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 47.
18. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 129.
19. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 147.
20. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 327–28.
21. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 132.
22. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 221.
23. See John. W. Wenham, “Large Numbers in the Old Testament,” TynBul 19 (1967): 49–53.
24. So Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 234.
25. E.g., Selman, 2 Chronicles, 335.
26. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 264–65.
27. Ibid., 265.
28. Jacob M. Myers, II Chronicles (AB 13; Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965), 47.
29. See Carl G. Rasmussen, NIV Atlas of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 123.
30. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 239.
31. Wenham, “Large Numbers,” 49.
32. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 65.
33. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 268.
34. Ibid., 430.
35. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 143.
36. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 71.
37. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 335.
38. Ibid.
39. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 148.
40. See the discussion in J. A. Montgomery and H. S. Gehman, The Books of Kings (ICC; London: T. & T. Clark, 1951), 221–22; for examples of throne ornamentation (including ivory insets) see Andre Parrot, The Arts of Assyria (New York: Golden Press, 1961), 155–57; J. W. and G. M. Crowfoot, Early Ivories from Samaria (London: Palestine Exploration Fund, 1938), pl. 9, fig. 1; G. Loud, The Megiddo Ivories (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1939), pl. 4, figs. 2a, 2b. Finally, note the depictions of the Phoenician King Ahiram on a sphinx throne with footstool and the Aramean King Bar Rakab seated on a throne with footstool in ANEP, no. 458 and no. 460.
41. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 235.
42. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 73.
43. Ryken, How to Read the Bible As Literature, 119.
44. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 431.
45. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 73.
46. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 273.
47. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 239–40.
48. William Dyrness, Themes in Old Testament Theology (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1979), 148.
49. R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah and Lamentations (TOTC; London: Tyndale, 1973), 85–86.
50. A. Kapelrud, “Temple Building: A Task for Gods and Kings,” Orientalia 32 (1963): 56–62.
51. Frank H. Gorman, The Ideology of Ritual: Space, Time and Status in the Priestly Theology (JSOTSup 91; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990), 18.
52. Ibid., 19.
53. Ibid., 28.
54. Ibid., 37–38.
55. Ibid., 44.
56. Ibid.
57. See the cover story by LyNell Hancock, “Breaking Point,” Newsweek (March 6, 1995), 56–63.
58. For example, see Andrew Stephen, “Bigger and Better Here: Road Rage,” New Statesman (April 2, 1999), 24–26; Timothy Roche et al., “Voices from the Cell” (on School Rage), Time (May 28, 2001), 32–38.
59. Walter Liefeld, “Prayer,” ISBE, 3:937.
60. Arthur P. Boers, “Learning the Ancient Rhythms of Prayer,” Christianity Today 41 (Jan. 8, 2001): 38.
61. James F. White, A Brief History of Christian Worship (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), 55.
62. See Boers, “Learning the Ancient Rhythms of Prayer,” 38–45; esp. the bibliography cited addressing the “daily office,” 38–39.
63. Ibid., 40.
64. Ibid., 45.
65. See Peter G. Cobb, “The History of the Christian Year,” in The Study of Liturgy, ed. C. Jones, G. Wainwright, and E. Yarnold (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1978), 403–19.
66. Terrence J. German, “Christian Year,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2d ed., ed. Walter A. Elwell (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 237.
67. Jacques Ellul, The Subversion of Christianity, trans. G. W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986), 63. One example of this application of the notion of “sacred time” to specific days of the week is the “Christian Sabbath” (i.e., the equation of Sunday as the Old Testament Sabbath). For a historical and theological discussion of the issue, see D. A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to Lord’s Day (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982). Although the Chronicler places more emphasis on “festival time,” the topic of “Sabbath time” offers another fruitful area of study for contemporary application to the theme of recovering order from chaos. See further Abraham J. Heschel’s classic essay, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1952); cf. Marva Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989).
68. E. H. Van Olst, The Bible and Liturgy, trans. J. Vriend (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991), 38.
69. Ibid., 39.
70. Dyrness, Themes in Old Testament Theology, 148–51.
71. Webber, Worship Old and New, 225–26.
1. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 238.
2. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 280.
3. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 359.
4. Ibid., 363.
5. Ibid., 364.
6. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 95.
7. Ibid.
8. Ibid., 96.
9. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 244.
10. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 256.
11. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 99–100.
12. Ibid., 100; for more on Pharaoh Shishak and his Palestinian campaign see F. Clancy, “Shishak/Shoshenq’s Travels,” JSOT 86 (1999): 2–23; K. A. Kitchen, “The Sheshonqs of Egypt and Palestine,” JSOT 93 (2001): 3–12.
13. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 375.
14. Ibid., 377.
15. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 163.
16. Ibid.
17. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 379.
18. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 252–53.
19. Ibid., 252.
20. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 164.
21. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 272.
22. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 382.
23. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 165.
24. A. M. Harmon, “
” NIDOTTE, 4:202.
25. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 383.
26. I. Swart, “
,” NIDOTTE, 3:26.
27. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 171.
28. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 282.
29. Ibid., 285.
30. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 393.
31. See N. Andreasen, “The Role of the Queen Mother in Israelite Society,” CBQ 45 (1983): 179–94.
32. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 272.
33. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 125.
34. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 255–58.
35. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 275.
36. See the protracted discussion of the diagnoses of Asa’s malady in Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 276.
37. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 276.
38. E.g., Selman, 2 Chronicles, 404.
39. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 278.
40. Ronald P. Chadwick, Teaching and Learning: An Integrated Approach to Christian Education (Old Tappan, N.J.: Revell, 1982), 27–28.
41. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 298.
42. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 411.
43. Cf. Patrick Miller, “The Divine Council and the Prophetic Call to War,” VT 18 (1968): 100–107.
44. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 183.
45. Ibid., 186.
46. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 299–300.
47. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 139.
48. Ibid., 147–48.
49. See Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 289.
50. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 149.
51. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 419.
52. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 149–50.
53. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 419.
54. Ibid., 422.
55. See David L. Petersen, Late Israelite Prophecy: Studies in Deutero-Prophetic Literature in Chronicles (SBLMS 23; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1977), 72; Anderson, Out of the Depths, 49–76.
56. Hill, Enter His Courts with Praise! 133.
57. See ibid., 135.
58. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 300.
59. On the seeming contradiction of Jehoshaphat removing the high places (17:6) but not removing the high places (20:33), see comments on the similar report for Asa’s reforms in 15:1–19.
60. Abraham J. Heschel, The Prophets (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 1:3–26.
61. Cf. Claus Westermann, Basic Forms of Prophetic Speech, trans. H. C. White (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991), 90–98.
62. Hill and Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament, 409.
63. E. T. Mullen Jr., “Divine Assembly,” ABD, 2:214–17.
64. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 437–39.
65. See, e.g., H. Thomas Johnson, Relevance Regained: From Top-Down Control to Bottom-Up Empowerment (New York: Free Press, 1992).
66. On how the Christian church might respond to the influence of consumerism, see Rodney Clapp, ed., The Consuming Passion: Christianity and the Consumer Culture (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998).
67. Haddon W. Robinson, Biblical Preaching, 2d ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001), 201; cf. Keith Willhite, Preaching with Relevance: Without Dumbing Down (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2001), who offers ten “how-to steps” on relevant pulpit communication.
68. Webber, Blended Worship, 27.
69. Alex Luc, “
,” NIDOTTE, 3:804.
70. R. B. Y. Scott, The Relevance of the Prophets (New York: Macmillan, 1953).
71. Ibid., 204–5.
72. Ibid., 206–27.
73. Ibid., 204.
74. Webber, Worship Old and New (1994), 170.
75. Webber, Blended Worship, 45.
76. Ibid.
77. John Bright, The Authority of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, repr., 1975), 156.
78. Michael Duduit, “The Church’s Need for Old Testament Preaching,” in Reclaiming the Prophetic Mantle: Preaching the Old Testament Faithfully, ed. George L. Klein (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 9–16.
1. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 806.
2. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 164.
3. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 435.
4. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 164; cf. Dennis Pardee, “Ancient Hebrew Epistolography,” JBL 97 (1978): 322.
5. The NIV inserts “Ahaziah” for the variant form “Jehoahaz” found in the MT.
6. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 436.
7. Victor P. Hamilton, “
,” NIDOTTE, 3:358.
8. Along with the NEB, NKJV, and NRSV, the NIV understands the MT “two days” as an idiom for “two years,” in keeping with the context, which suggests the protracted nature of the king’s illness.
9. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 301.
10. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 172.
11. Ibid., 173.
12. See Andreasen, “The Role of the Queen Mother,” 179–94.
13. The NIV reads “twenty-two” for the accession age of Ahaziah, following the Greek and Syriac versions, instead of the number “forty-two” in the MT.
14. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 202–7.
15. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 175.
16. Ibid.
17. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 444.
18. See Winfried Theil, “Athaliah,” ABD, 1:511–12.
19. John Gray, I and II Kings (OTL, 2d ed.; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1970), 565.
20. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 323.
21. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 182.
22. Ibid.
23. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 206.
24. See, e.g., H. Wheeler Robinson, Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel, rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980); John J. Pilch, Introducing the Cultural Context of the Old Testament (New York: Paulist, 1991), 95–116; Joel Kaminsky, Corporate Responsibility in the Hebrew Bible (JSOTSup 196; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1995).
25. On the traits of “group solidarity,” see Pilch, Introducing the Cultural Context, 97–98.
26. Robinson, Corporate Personality, 27.
27. Charles Jencks, ed., A Post-Modern Reader (New York: St. Martin’s, 1992), 10–39.
28. See ibid., 34–39; Webber, Ancient Future Faith, 37.
29. Veith, PostModern Times, 143–56.
30. Cf. Webber, Ancient Future Faith, 34–37, 78–83.
31. Walter Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1997), 453–54.
32. Ibid., 459.
33. Ibid., 464.
34. Ibid., 459.
35. Ibid., 470.
36. Ibid., 470–74.
37. Ibid., 476.
38. On the structure of the psalmic lament form, see Anderson, Out of the Depths, 60–62.
1. See the discussions in Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 187–88; Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 318–19.
2. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 450.
3. Matthew, however, identifies Zechariah as the son of “Berekiah” rather than the son of Jehoiada. It is unclear whether Berekiah is an alternate family name or a priestly title for Jehoiada.
4. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 193.
5. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 214–15; Selman, 2 Chronicles, 458.
6. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 198.
7. Ibid., 199.
8. Ibid., 200.
9. Morton Cogan, Imperialism and Religion: Assyria, Judah, and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B. C. (SBLMS 19; Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1974), 9–21.
10. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 462.
11. The NIV reads Jehoash for the related Hebrew name Joash (25:17, 18, 21, 23, 25) to avoid confusion with King Joash of Judah (24:1).
12. Ibid., 463.
13. Cf. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 325.
14. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 458.
15. See Alfred J. Hoerth, Archaeology and The Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 329–31, 336–38; on the historical grounding of the figure of King Uzziah, see Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 883–84.
16. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 209; see esp. his discussion of “crown lands.”
17. Williamson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 337–38.
18. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 209–10; cf. the discussion in Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 883.
19. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 470.
20. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 211.
21. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989).
22. Sean Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998); Sandra and Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998); Stephen R. Covey, Living the 7 Habits (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999).
23. See, e.g., Lowell O. Erdahl, 10 Habits for Effective Ministry (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996); George Barna, The Habits of Highly Effective Churches (Ventura, Calif.: Regal, 2000).
24. Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, 236–60.
25. Ibid., 239.
26. Ibid., 240.
27. James H. Ropes, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle of St. James (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1973), 168.
28. Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline (New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 84.
29. Ibid., 86.
30. Richard J. Foster, Freedom of Simplicity (New York: Harper & Row, 1981), 57.
31. Ibid., 57–58.
32. Foster, Celebration of Discipline, 92–95.
33. Ibid., 95.
34. Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1953), 261.
1. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 473.
2. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 225.
3. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 474.
4. So ibid., 475.
5. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 220–21.
6. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 479.
7. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 345–46.
8. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 222.
9. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 347.
10. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 223.
11. Ibid.
12. See Donald J. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings (TOTC 9; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 261–62.
13. See the discussions in Cogan, Imperialism and Religion, 73–77; J. McKay, Religion in Judah and Israel Under the Assyrians (SBT, 2d series; Naperville, Ill.: Allenson, 1973), 5–12.
14. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 230.
15. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 228. On Hezekiah’s religious reforms, and specifically his appeal to the northern tribes of Israel, see Andrew G. Vaughn, Theology, History, and Archaeology in the Chronicler’s Account of Hezekiah (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1999), 169–81.
16. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 484.
17. See Peter Ackroyd, “The Temple Vessels—A Continuity Theme,” in Studies in the Religion of Ancient Israel, ed. P. de Boer (VTSup 23; Leiden: Brill, 1972), 166–81.
18. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 489.
19. Ibid., 490.
20. See Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 361–62.
21. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 352.
22. Cf. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 245; Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 355.
23. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 361–62.
24. On the former position see Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 371; on the latter position see Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 356.
25. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 356.
26. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 245.
27. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 501.
28. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 357.
29. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 249
30. See ibid., 251.
31. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 377.
32. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 508.
33. Japhet, I and II Chronicles, 982–83.
34. William W. Hallo, gen. ed., The Context of Scripture: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 2:303.
35. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings, 276. Moreover, extant Assyrian annals make no reference to a second Judean campaign by Sennacherib.
36. Note that this is the only direct reference to the Hebrew language in the Old Testament, cf. Isa. 19:18.
37. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 513.
38. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 385.
39. Wiseman, 1 and 2 Kings, 285.
40. Hallo, The Context of Scripture, 2:145–46.
41. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 388.
42. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 366.
43. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:194.
44. Louis Jonker, “
,” NIDOTTE, 3:141–42.
45. See, e.g., H. W. F. Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon (New York: New American Library, 1968), 353.
46. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 245–55.
47. For example, Bennett, The Book of Virtues.
48. Ibid., 442. To be fair to Bennett, it is possible to understand “encouragement” as a subcategory of “compassion” (pp. 105–82) or “courage” (pp. 439–524).
49. Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Encouraged (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor, 1984), 23–34.
50. Larry J. Crabb and Dan B. Allender, Encouragement: The Key to Caring (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 23–25; cf. David G. Peterson, “The Ministry of Encouragement,” in P. T. O’Brien and D. G. Peterson, eds., God Who Is Rich in Mercy (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1986), 235–53.
51. Crabb and Allender, Encouragement, 79.
52. Leonard Sweet, Soul Salsa (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 104.
1. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 434.
2. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 366–67.
3. See Myers, 1 Chronicles, 198–99; Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 264–65.
4. Bruce M. Metzger and Roland E. Murphy, eds., The Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (NRSV; New York: Oxford, 1991), 281–82.
5. Cf. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 390.
6. See Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 265.
7. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 522.
8. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 240.
9. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 524.
10. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 371.
11. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 519.
12. Ibid., 525.
13. De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 402.
14. Cf. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 276.
15. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 396.
16. E.g., see Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 276–77; Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 374–75.
17. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 400.
18. Cf. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 280, who outlines seven reasons why the general consensus favors the identification of the law scroll with the book of Deuteronomy.
19. Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 402.
20. See Selman, 2 Chronicles, 535.
21. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 258.
22. On this reality Michael Wilcock laments that Josiah is a “pastor alone” in that the people are not with him (The Message of Chronicles, 269–70).
23. Thompson, 1, 2 Chronicles, 379.
24. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 282.
25. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 536.
26. On the pedagogical role of the Levites in ancient Israel see comments on 1 Chron. 6.
27. See Dillard’s helpful discussion of scholarly conjecture on the transfer of the ark of the covenant (2 Chronicles, 284 n. 3.c–d).
28. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 262.
29. E.g., Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 406–7; Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 291.
30. E.g., Selman, 2 Chronicles, 539–40.
31. C. Begg, “The Death of Josiah in Chronicles: Another View,” VT 37 (1987): 1–8.
32. See further Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon; idem, The Might That Was Assyria (London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1984).
33. Rex Mason, “Some Echoes of the Preaching in the Second Temple? Tradition Elements in Zechariah 1–8,” ZAW 96 (1984): 223–25.
34. William Barclay, Turning to God: A Study of Conversion in the Book of Acts and Today (repr. of 1964 Epworth ed.; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972), 26–30.
35. Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature, 75–81.
36. Eugene H. Merrill, “History,” in Cracking Old Testament Codes, ed. D. Brent Sandy and Ronald L. Giese (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 1995), 91.
37. Kenneth A. Mathews, “Preaching Historical Narratives,” in Reclaiming the Prophetic Mantle, ed. George L. Klein (Nashville: Broadman, 1992), 25.
38. Ibid., 27.
39. Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature, 40.
40. Shimon Bar-Efrat, Narrative Art in the Bible (Bible and Literature Series 17; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1989), 45.
41. John R. W. Stott, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 305.
42. Ibid., 138–44.
43. Scott, The Relevance of the Prophets, 218.
44. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:185.
45. Barclay, Turning to God, 31.
46. Heschel, The Prophets, 2:65.
47. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (New York: Macmillan, 1963), 45.
48. C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (New York: Macmillan, 1950), 75–76.
49. Warren W. Wiersbe, ed., The Best of A. W. Tozer (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 175–76.
50. See Pierre Babin, The New Era in Religious Communication (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 31.
51. Ibid., 149.
52. Bar-Efrat, Narrative Art in the Bible, 45.
1. John Bright (A History of Israel, 4th ed. [Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000], 327) is among those who suggest King Jehoiakim was assassinated amid hopes of gaining milder treatment from the Babylonians.
2. See Donald J. Wiseman, Notes on Some Problems in the Book of Daniel (London: Tyndale, 1965), 18.
3. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 36.
4. McConville, I and II Chronicles, 266.
5. Ryken, How to Read the Bible As Literature, 33.
6. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 545.
7. Selman, 1 Chronicles, 36.
8. The word “remedy” in 36:16 is derived from the same root as the word translated “heal” in 7:14 (rpʾ ). Context suggests God has voided the promise to “heal” the land, making petition for God’s intervention futile.
9. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 549, who contends that Israel’s “unfaithfulness” (Heb. maʿal, i.e., failure to give God his due and usurping it for oneself) is the chief cause of the Babylonian exile.
10. See Robinson, Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel.
11. See V. H. Matthews and D. C. Benjamin, Old Testament Parallels: Laws and Stories from the Ancient Near East, 2d ed. (New York: Paulist, 1997), 203–28.
12. Adapted from R. B. Y. Scott, The Way of Wisdom (New York: Macmillan, 1971), 144–47.
13. Harold S. Kushner, When Bad Things Happen to Good People (New York: Schocken, 1981).
14. Ibid., 2.
15. Ibid., 3.
16. C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain (orig. 1962; New York: Touchstone, 1996); for a more “existential” treatment (i.e., anecdotal or experiential approach), see P. Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1977); Paul Brand and Philip Yancey, Pain: The Gift Nobody Wants (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993).
17. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 31.
18. Ibid., 94.
19. Ibid., 103.
1. For an alternative paragraph structure marking the beginning of the epilogue with 36:21, see Selman, 2 Chronicles, 550.
2. See the glossary in De Vries, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 434.
3. For an example of the former see Williamson, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 419; for the latter see Selman, 2 Chronicles, 551.
4. T. C. Eskenazi (“The Chronicler and the Composition of 1 Esdras,” 48 CBQ [1986]: 39–61) cites this feature as evidence that Chronicles and 1 Esdras have a common author; cf. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 443.
5. Selman, 2 Chronicles, 551.
6. For an English translation of the Cyrus cylinder, see Matthews and Benjamin, Old Testament Parallels, 193–95.
7. This fact is attested by the copies of letters sent to the Persian king by various lower-tier administrators from the satrap that included the province of Judah (e.g., Ezra 4:7–22; 5:6–17); cf. Jon L. Berquist, Judaism in Persia’s Shadow (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), esp. 60–61, 132–35.
8. Dillard, 2 Chronicles, 302, has noted a certain irony in the fact that the building of both the first and second temples were subsidized by funds from Gentile nations.
9. The title “God of heaven” is used in official documents and in the Jews’ dealings with Gentiles (see Joseph Blenkinsopp, Ezra-Nehemiah [OTL; Philadelphia: Westminster, 1988], 75; cf. Ezra 5:12; 7:12, 21, 23; Jonah 1:9; the phrase also occurs frequently in the Elephantine papyri).
10. Cf. F. Charles Fensham, Ezra and Nehemiah (NICOT; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), 43–44.
11. Charles Colson, Kingdoms in Conflict (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1987).
12. Ibid., 49.
13. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 443.
14. Heschel, The Prophets, 1:194.
15. Wilcock, The Message of Chronicles, 288.
16. Allen, 1, 2 Chronicles, 443–44 (lit., “the Lord his God is with him”). Unfortunately, the NIV’s “may his God be with him” obscures this fact in its attempt to harmonize 2 Chron. 36:23 with Ezra 1:3.
17. Ibid., 443.
1. Texts out of chronological sequence are [bracketed].