This is a summary of the books of first and second Chronicles as recorded in The Bible Brief, Bible summary book
When Chronicles was written:
Around 400 B.C.
Who:
Traditionally written by Ezra.
People & Places:
King David; Twelve tribes
Israel; Judah; Jerusalem
Sound-Bites:
So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the Lord; and they anointed David king over Israel, according to the word of the Lord through Samuel. (Ch.11:3)
It happened when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and celebrating; and she despised him in her heart. (Ch.15:29)
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. (Ch.29:11)
The Messianic Link:
Messiah would come from the tribe of Judah (1 Chron 5:2, Luke 3:23-32)
Chronicles in Brief:
The book of 1 Chronicles begins with a genealogy of the tribes of Israel and the house of David, covering in some extra detail most of the information already covered by 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings.
By chapter 10, most of the genealogies have gone, to be replaced with more detail regarding the defeat and death of Saul and the reign of King David.
David is inspired by the devil to take a census of the people, (Ch.21) thus incurring the wrath of God and losing 70,000 men to pestilence.
The book ends with the death of King David and the beginning of the rule of his son, Solomon.
Notes & Quotes:
This book fills in the ‘gaps’ regarding the genealogy and history of the Israelites. The main lessons to be found here are that God is faithful and (Ch.11:1-3) and that disobedience brings judgement as sure as obedience brings blessing.
2 Chronicles:
When 2 Chronicles was written:
Around 400 B.C.
Who:
Traditionally written by Ezra.
People & Places:
King David; King Solomon; Rehoboam: Jeroboam; Nebuchadnezzar
Judah; Israel; Jerusalem; Mount Moriah; Persia
Sound-Bites:
Now Solomon the son of David established himself securely over his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him and exalted him greatly. (Ch.1:1)
When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them the people answered the king, saying,
“What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Every man to your tents, O Israel;
Now look after your own house, David.” Ch.10:16)
The Messianic Link:
Typified in Solomon’s temple, and in the greatness and wisdom of Solomon
2 Chronicles in Brief:
This book is mainly concerned with the southern kingdom of Judah, and only mentions Israel when the two ‘collide’, so to speak. Taken from a priestly point of view, it tends to concentrate on the spiritual well-being or otherwise of Judah.
In chapters 2-7, Solomon builds and dedicates the Temple. Thereafter the rules of the different kings are gone into in more detail, as is the destruction of both the northern and the southern kingdoms.
The book ends with the return from exile in Babylon, of the southern kingdom of Judah.
Notes & Quotes:
It is well noted that only the southern kingdom of Judah actually returned back home again, after the fall of Babylon, to the Persian King, Cyrus the Great. This is because The Lord made sure that his people in captivity would still retain their identity, thereby ensuring the lineage through which the Messiah would come.
Israel, the idolatrous Northern Kingdom, was, however, scattered throughout the lands of the Assyrians, never to be found again.