KINGS, BooKs OF ( MAL a Nakuru, 13113XoL fkatXeCciiv, bibloi lmsileiun, Lat. libri regnorum).
The name given to two of the canonical books of the Old Testament. Originally they were but one, but are separated in the Septuagint, in which they are designated 'the third and fourth of the kingdoms'—the books of Samuel forming the first and second. This division was copied by the Vulgate and passed thence into the gen eral usage of Christendom. The exact titles of these books in the English Authorized \Tension are, The First Book of the Kings, Commonly Called the Third Book of the Kings, and the Ncromi Book of the Kings, Commonly Called the Fourth Book of the Kings. They embrace: (1) The reign of Solomon (1. Kings i.-xi.) ; (2,) the history of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Israel to the downfall of the latter (I. Kings xii.-11. Kings xvii.) ; (3) the history of the Kingdom of Judah after the destruction of the northern kingdom until the Babylonian captivity (11. Kings xviii.-xxv.).
The division of Kings into two books is not warranted by the contents any more than the separation of Kings from the two preceding Books of Samuel. The four books constitute a continuous historical series. and the Septuagint, in designating them all a single name, obeys a correct instinct as to their nature. They are also closely attache 1 to all the preceding books, viz. the Pentateuch (again divided into five parts), Joshua, and Judges, so that it has become cus tomary among scholars to designate by the name Outateneli the eight-book group represented by the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Kings. As a matter of fact, this Octateuch is a single work, aiming to furnish in continuous form a history of the Ilebrews from the beginning of time down to the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchad nezzar U. in n.e. 5Sfi. In this Oct:dem-1h 110W ever, which is believed by critics not to have been put together in final shape till 400 n.c., a number of separate works ugly he distinguished. The Pentateuch and Joshua (with perhaps the addition of Judges) constituted each a separate compilation. again based upon the combination of numerous independent productions, and the books of Samuel nod Kings another, though we must be careful not to be led astray into the assumption of a single author for these two hooks. What we have in Samuel and Kings, is a compilation, from various sources, made by a series of editors whose aim it was to carry the history of the Hebrews on from the point where it was left by the compiler of Judges. The first redaction of the sources included in Samuel and Kings appears indeed to have been made before the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah, though after the reformation of Josiah (n.c. 621) ; hut the method of historical composition among the Hebrews, which was mainly compilation, left it open for later editors to make all manner of additions and insertions, which, without neces sarily effacing the work of the earlier editors, would carry the history still further down. The
considerable variations between the Greek and llebrew texts of Samuel and Kings furnish the proof for the assumption of various redactions Of this compilation.
Among the sources embodied in the books of Samuel and Kings the most notable are: In Samuel, (1) a history of Saul, compiled by a Benjamite or Judean, probably in the ninth century B.C., embodied in I. Sam. ix.-xiv.; (2) a history of David, containing (a) a later compila tion (ninth century). embodied in I. Sam. xvi. xxvi. and II. Sam. i.-v., xxi.-xxiii., and (b) a somewhat earlier one (Il. Sam. ix.-xx.) ; (3) a considerably later compilation of the history of Samuel and Saul, scattered through I. Sam. i.-xxvi. In Kings, (1) continuation of the history of David, found in I. and II. Samuel; (2) a biography of Solomon embodied in I. Kings iii.-xi.; (3) stories of prophets, compiled probably in the eighth century B.C., embodied in 1. Kings xvii.-xxi. and II. Kings ii.-xiii.; (4) extracts from compilations known as "Book of the Kings of Israel," and "Book of the Kings of Judah," though it is quite possible that the com piler of Kings has in mind a single work covering the annals of both the kings of Israel and Judah.
These as the main sources have been pieced together and the history of the period has been included in the compilation brought under a single aspect through the skill of editors who viewed the facts of the past as illustrations of their religious theory, which implied that Juda ism] arose in its perfected form in the days of Moses, and that all the disasters and misfortunes happening to Israel are punishment sent by Yahweh for disobedience to Ilis Law as given to the people through Moses. it is therefore necessary before utilizing the valuable material embodied in Samuel and Kings to make due allowance for this theory and to distinguish care fully between facts and the interpretation put upon them. In the second place, as in Joshua and Judges, the careers of the favorite heroes notahly David (q.v.) and Solomon (q.v.)—have been embellished with legends and the characters themselves idealized by projecting into the past views and religious conceptions that belong to much later ages. The same clement of legend, and to a certain extent myth. enters into the stories of the prophets Elijah (q.v.) and Elisha (q.v.). while the kings of Israel and Judah are judged entirely from the point of view of the above outlined pragmatie method, adopted already by the first group of editors.
ButmoctIAPnv. Consult the histories of Stade, Guthe, Wellhausen, Berman, Kent, and Piepenbring, and the commentaries by Kitts) and Benzinge•. Among older commentaries, those of Thenins (2d ed., Leipzig. 1873) and Heil (2d ed., Leipzig, 1S76) are still of value.