KINGS, TIIE BOOKS OF, the name of two books of the Old Testament. They originally formed only one book in the Hebrew text, and are entitled r.,''tht, that is, ' kings.' In the Septuagint they aro divided into two books, and are entitled 'the third and fourth books of reigns' or kingdoms (Swam:3v Tpfrs Kul rerdpru); since the first and second books of Samuel are called in this translation the first and second books of Kings.
These books contain an account of Jewish history from the death of David to that of Solomon (1 Kings, 1-xi.); an account of the division of the kingdom under his successor Rehoboam, and the history of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, to the conquest of the former by the Assyrians under Shalumneser (1 Kings, xii.-2 Kings, xvii.); and the separate history of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, till they were carried away captiVe to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in the reign of Jelloiachin. (2 Kings, xviii.-xxv.) The period covered by the two books is 455 years.
These books, in common with the books of Chronicles and many others of the Old Testament, are generally ascribed to Ezra, though the Jews give the authorship to Jeremiah or Isaiah, but neither the author nor the time in which they were written can be determined with any degree of certainty; and Biblical scholars are much divided in opinion on the subject. It is evident from many passages, and
especially from the last chapter of those books, that a portion of them must have been written in the time of the Babylonian captivity; but there are also other passages which must have been written before the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, and while the temple at Jerusalem was still standing. (1 Kings, viii. 8; ix. 13, 21; x. 12; xii. 19 ; 2 Kings, viii. 22; x. 27 ; xiv. 7; xvii. 23, 34, 41.) It is therefore probable that these books are only a collection of different documents written by persons present at the events narrated, and that the compiler only wrote such portions as were necessary to connect the different documents, and to form one continuous narrative.
But though there may be uncertainty as to the writer, there is none as to the truth of the matters they record, of which the internal evidence is sufficient proof, independent of which other parts of the sacred writings bear testimony to their integrity, as Matt. xii. 42; Romans, xi. 4, &e., and our Lord, in Luke iv. 26, quotes the example of Elijah and Elisha that prophets have no honour in their own country. The Jews have uniformly accepted these writings as divinely inspired, and Christians as uniformly placed them among the canonical books.