Commentaria in III Regum
The Third Book of Kings
In the first book of Kings we heard the deeds of the last two Judges, namely Heli the high priest and Samuel the prophet, and the acts of Saul, the first king of Israel. This first book therefore contains the chronology of eighty years: for Heli ruled over Israel forty years, and Samuel and Saul together as many. Interwoven with these events are the deeds of David in his youth, before he was made king: namely his anointing as king by Samuel, the duel with Goliath, the war with the Philistines, and his flights and hiding places when Saul pursued him.
In the second book of Kings we heard the acts of David from the beginning of his reign to his end and death, a space of forty years; for David reigned that many years.
There now follow the two last books, namely the third and fourth of Kings, which relate the deeds of Solomon and of all the other kings who were David’s descendants, down to the Babylonian captivity, in which Jerusalem was overthrown by Nabuchodonosor and the Chaldeans, and the Jews were carried over into Babylon; which was a space of 430 years. The history of so many years of the kings is therefore woven through in these two books, and for that reason these two books are called by the Hebrews properly the books of Kings, and by the Greeks of Kingdoms, whereas the first two are called the books of Samuel.
The Series of the Times in Which They Reigned
Add up all these years and you will find 430, which I said are treated in these two books.
Now most of these kings were wicked, but a few were pious, namely Josaphat, Joatham, Ezechias, Josias.
Furthermore, twelve of them preceded Romulus and Rome; for Rome began to be founded about the eleventh year of Joatham. Whence it follows that the first eleven kings preceded the beginning of the Olympiads. For the Olympiads began to be celebrated and reckoned about the fortieth year of Azarias or Ozias; wherefore the Olympiads precede the founding of Rome by 23 years, as all chronologers admit. See the chronological table which I prefixed to the Pentateuch. St. Jerome favors this, who in chapter 1 of Isaias, verse 4, asserts that Ezechias began to reign in the 129th year of Romulus: therefore Romulus began to reign at Rome in the fourth year of Achaz, who was the father of Ezechias. In that year, then, Rome was already founded; that is, it began to be founded about the eleventh year of Joatham, and the building of it lasted for seven or eight years, so that it was finished about the fourth year of Achaz, and then Romulus began to reign in it. Eusebius, however, records this somewhat later, placing the beginning of the Olympiads in the 49th year of Azarias and the founding of Rome in the fifth year of Achaz. Others differ, but by a slight difference of a few years.
Procopius, Isidore, the Abulensis and Rabbi Moses Kimchi, whom Sixtus Senensis cites in book 1, think that the author of the third and fourth books of Kings was Jeremias, who collected them from ancient annals and diaries; whence also the last chapter of Jeremias is the same as the last chapter of the fourth book of Kings. But because under Roboam the kingdom of Israel, or of the twelve tribes, was torn and divided into two (for ten tribes appointed Jeroboam king for themselves, while the tribe of Juda alone with Benjamin adhered to king Roboam): hence this kingdom and its kings are called those of Juda, while the others are called the kings of Israel, or of the twelve tribes, whose deeds are likewise recounted in these two last books of Kings; hence I shall likewise set out their order and the time in which they reigned. These ruled over the ten tribes for 256 years. For they began in the first year of Roboam, and ceased in the sixth year of Ezechias, in which, as is said in 4 Kings 17:10, Samaria and the kingdom of Israel were overthrown by Salmanasar king of the Assyrians, and the ten tribes were carried away into Assyria. Wherefore this Assyrian captivity of the ten tribes preceded the Babylonian captivity, in which Juda and Benjamin were carried away to Babylon in the last year of Sedecias, 134 years later.
THE FIRST KING OF ISRAEL, OR OF THE TEN TRIBES, THEREFORE WAS:
1. Jeroboam, who reigned We must add the interregnum of eleven years which came between Zacharias and Jeroboam, as I shall show at 4 Kings 15:8.
Finally, all these kings of Israel without exception were wicked, being schismatics and idolaters.