The Chronology of the Kings of Israel and Judah

Judah used the accession-year system for Rehoboam through Jehoshaphat; then the non-accession-year system was employed from Jehoram to Joash. Beginning with the next ruler, Amaziah, Judah returned to the accession-year system until the destruction of Jerusalem. In Israel, the non-accession-year system only was used throughout its history; that is, from Jeroboam to Jehoahaz. For example, the total number of official years of reign for the Judean kings Rehoboam through Jehoshaphat are 79; the total number of regnal years for the same period in Israel (Jeroboam through Ahaziah) is 86. But when we subtract one year for each of the seven kings of Israel because of Israel’s use of the non-accession-year system, the final sum is 79 years, which agrees with the Judean record.

A further source of confusion is how the regnal years are reported. Since each nation had its own method of reporting (accession year or non-accession-year), it reported the numbers of the other kingdom according to its own method. Thus, Rehoboam had a 17-year reign according to Judah’s accession-year recording system, but Israel’s non-accession-year system reckoned 18 years for Rehoboam. First Kings 15:25 says Nadab’s rule over Israel began in the second year of Asa of Judah. Since Israel used a non-accession-year system, the second year of Asa would be the first year according to Judean accession-year dating. Depending upon which source the author was using, the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings (1Kg 14:19) or the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings (1Kg 14:29), the calculation of the regnal years and the synchronization between two kings must take these differences into account.

A fourth principle used to resolve regnal year numeric conflicts is to recognize that some reigns overlap (especially in Israel) and some kings were coregents (especially in Judah). Sometimes these overlappings and coregencies are mentioned explicitly in the text (see 1Kg 16:21-23) in a form called “dual dating.” More often, the overlapping reigns must be deduced and reconstructed. In all, nine overlapping reigns have been identified, six for Judah and three for Israel.

How is the relative chronology of the Hebrew kings correlated with contemporary historical events? Lists of Assyrian kings record an eclipse which astronomical calculations determine to have occurred on June 15, 763 BC. This allows us to fix the absolute date of most of the Assyrian kings and hence the various events of their reigns from their court records. In the sixth year of Shalmaneser III, the Assyrians fought a coalition of Aramean kings (now modern Syria) called “the Battle of Qarqar” in 853 BC, and among the names of the kings listed is Ahab of Israel. (This event is not recorded in the Bible.) In the eighteenth year of Shalmaneser III, in 841 BC, Assyrian records show that Shalmaneser received tribute from Jehu, king of Israel. There are 12 years between the Battle of Qarqar and the receipt of Jehu’s tribute and also 12 years between the death of Ahab and the ascension of Jehu (1Kg 22:51). Thus, Ahab died in 853 BC and Jehu ascended the throne in 841 BC. This allows for further calculations of absolute dates for many other kings of Israel and Judah. Another synchronization from Assyrian records is the year 701 BC when Sennacherib of Assyria besieged Jerusalem during the fourteenth year of Hezekiah’s reign (2Kg 18:13). From the Battle of Qarqar in 853 BC to Sennacherib’s campaign against Hezekiah in 701 BC is a span of 152 years, according to Assyrian chronology. According to the properly calculated years of Israelite and Judean kings from the death of Ahab to the fourteenth year of Hezekiah is also 152 years, proving the synchronization and method of reckoning regnal years is correct.

The history of biblical studies in the twentieth century has shown again and again that major “problems” of the biblical record have been the result of modern ignorance of the ancient world. The resolution of the apparent conflicts of the chronology of the books of Kings shows the reliability and trustworthiness of the biblical record to the history of the ancient Near East.

See the chart of kings in the section of charts and maps at the back of the Bible. This chart is an absolute chronology of the kings of Israel and Judah, taking into account the beginning of regnal years, overlapping reigns, coregencies, dual datings, and accession- and non-accession-year dating systems.