Bible Study Notes 9/2/2025
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Let’s backtrack a few years to the beginning of the southern kingdom history . . .
To recall the events taking place in the southern kingdom after the division in 930 BC.
God had promised David that his descendants would rule on the throne in Jerusalem.
David’s son, Solomon, becomes king.
- God told Solomon that he would tear his kingdom away from him because he had married foreign women and worshiped their gods – this happens during the days of Rehoboam with civil way breaks out..
Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, now becomes king over the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi.
- Jerusalem is where the temple is built so there are priests, Levites, who remain in Jerusalem, but there are also Levites who are scattered around Israel, as not all Levites are priests, but priests must be Levites.
- Note that when the northern kingdom ends, many Levites relocate from the north to the southern kingdom to be near Jerusalem.
The Southern Kingdom Simply Explained - Overview
(History of the so. Kingdom is recorded in 1-2 Kings and in 1-2 Chronicles –
The reasons why God brings it to an end are given in 2 Chr. 36)
When Rehoboam becomes king, he establishes pagan practices, just like the surrounding nations, including the worship of foreign gods and the establishment of cult prostitutes.
Judah does evil in God’s sight, more than their forefathers.
There are a few kings in the south who serve God faithfully, such as Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah, but most southern kings do that which is evil in God’s sight – we will encounter many dark periods where sin flagrantly abound, especially during the reigns of Ahaz, Manesseh, Johoiakim, and Zedekiah.
God sends many prophets to the southern kingdom, calling the kings and people to turn from their evil ways and pronouncing that judgment will come if they do not repent: Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and less well-known prophets such as Zephaniah, Joel, and Habakkuk – Jeremiah and Ezekiel in particular expose Judah’s sins in painstaking detail.
- Jeremiah and Ezekiel describe Israel in the north and Judah in the south as two “sisters,” who are “harlots” because they have foreign gods as their lovers.
- They conclude that Judah’s harlotry in the south makes her sister, Israel, in the north, seem righteous!
Even though the southern kingdom remains for over three hundred years, it will finally come to an end in 586 BC, for God’s people will break the Mosaic covenant through their rebellion and disobedience.
- God will set loose the curses of the covenant, using the idolatrous Babylonians as an instrument of his judgment.
- The temple is destroyed in 586 BC; Jerusalem is burned with fire, and the last king, Zedekiah, is brought into exile in Babylon so that only the poor remain in Jerusalem.
There is no longer a king ruling on the throne of David in Jerusalem, so the monarchy officially comes to an end at this time.
1. Remember that the southern kings are all from the chosen line of Judah, which recalls God’s promise of kings to Abraham (Gen 17:6; 49:10) and is the continuation of Judah’s genealogical line.
2. Keep these dates in mind:
Northern kingdom: 930-722 BC
Southern kingdom: 930-586 BC
The first deportation to Babylon, including Daniel: 605 BC
The second deportation, including Jehoiachin and Ezekiel: 597 BC
The final deportation, which includes the destruction of the temple: 586 BC
3. The southern kingdom is in the southern part of what was Israel before the divided kingdom and is called Judah after the tribe of Judah, and it is a reminder that the first king from this royal line is King David, who is from the tribe of Judah.
Unlike the northern kingdom, God does not allow any family of the line of Judah – the southern kingdom – to be entirely wiped out so that the promise God made to David would be fulfilled: David would always have a son to rule on the throne.
4. There are 19 southern kings and one (self-proclaimed) queen, Athaliah.
Co-regencies are acknowledged as we move along the timeline.
Remember that unlike the northern kingdom, every king is a son or a brother of the preceding king (except for Athaliah).
Although all the kings will be mentioned, particular attention will be given the following nine kings: Rehoboam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Josiah, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah.
Introduction to the Southern Kingdom Prophets
Micah; Isaiah; Nahum; Zephaniah; Jeremiah; Joel; Habakkuk
As with the northern prophets, only the most significant are on the timeline.
Isaiah: Insight lacking (Israel is “blind” to God’s ways)
Micah: Miscarriage of justice
Zephaniah: Judgment is nigh
Jeremiah: Jerusalem will fall
Joel: Jumping creatures (locusts) invade Jerusalem
Habakkuk: Have faith (“the righteous shall live by faith”)
Nahum: Nineveh will be judged by God
Ezekiel: Exile to Babylon
Daniel: Defeat of earthly kingdoms
The southern kingdom is longer than the northern kingdom with considerably more prophets, so this section will be provided in two parts.
- Part I will cover the southern kingdom from Rehoboam to Hezekiah, which includes the prophets Isaiah and Micah, spanning about 230 years (930-696 BC).
- Part II will focus on the kings from Manasseh to Zedekiah, which will include the prophets Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Joel, Habakkuk, and Nahum, spanning the last one hundred years (696-586 BC).
Rehoboam
(read about Rehoboam in 1 Kgs. 12:1-24; 14:21-31; 2 Chr. 10-12)
Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, becomes king after his father dies; he reigns from930-913 BC.
Rather than listening to his elders, Rehoboam seeks counsel from young men who advise him to increase the workload of the people.
- His display of arrogance is appalling: He boasts that his little finger is thicker than his father’s loins (1 KGs. 12:10).
- He further says that “my father disciplined you with whips, I will discipline you with scorpions” (2 Kgs. 12:14).
As a result, ten tribes rebel and move to the north under Jeroboam, leaving the tribes of Judah and Benjamin in the south, along with the tribe of Levi (1 Kgs 12-13; 2 Chr. 10).
But Rehoboam gathers a large army to attack the northern tribes to regain the kingdom that has been torn away from him.
- He is prevented from doing so by the word of the LORD through Shemaiah, the man of God who reminds him that the division of the kingdom has come from God (1 Kgs. 12:24).
This begins the divided kingdom in 930 BC – It takes place because of God’s judgment against Solomon for his idolatry, in fulfillment of God’s word to Jeroboam through Ahijah (1 Kgs. 11:11-13).
- The reason God doesn’t tear the kingdom completely away from Rehoboam is because of God’s promise to David that he would always have a descendant ruling of the throne in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 7:12-16; 1 Kgs. 11:13).
When Rehoboam becomes king, he strengthens his kingdom by building defensive cites that are well-fortified and amply supplied with weapons (2 Chr. 11:5-12) and appoints his sons ass leaders throughout these cities (2 Chr. 11:18-23).
Rehoboam’s mother is Naamah, an Ammonite (1 Kgs 14:21, 31), and is one of the women Solomon had married from among the surrounding nations (1 Kgs. 11:1).
- During Solomon’s reign, the god of the Ammonites, Milcom, was one of the foreign gods that was worshiped (1 Kgs. 11:5), so idolatry was already in place and therefore not surprising to read what occurs during the reign of Rehoboam: READ 1 Kgs. 14:22-24.
Because of Judah’s unfaithfulness during the reign of Rehoboam, God sends Shishak, king of Egypt, to invade Judah with thousands of chariots and horsemen.
Shishak succeeds in capturing some of the fortified cities of Judah and arrives as far as Jerusalem.
- The prophet Shemaiah speaks to Rehoboam and those gathered in the city, saying, “Thus says the LORD, ‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak” (2 Chr. 12:5).
- Upon these words, Rehoboam and the princes of Judah humble themselves before God, so then Shemaiah announces that God will not pour out his wrath on Jerusalem through Shishak (2 Chr. 12:5-12).
- So Jerusalem is not destroyed, although Shishak attacks Jerusalem and carries away treasures from the house of God; the line of Judah is preserved.
After Rehoboam dies, his son Abijah becomes king.
Let’s move aside and look at Judah and why God did not destroy them:
Judah is indistinguishable from other nations because of their idolatry and turning away from the LORD God.
- The temple in Jerusalem remains the central place of worship, but Rehoboam builds high places for foreign gods and introduces male cult prostitutes – obviously all prohibited under the Mosaic law.
- Judah’s sins are increasing and God’s people are provoking him to jealousy “more than all that their fathers had done” (1 Kgs. 14:22).
Remember that God had judged:
- the inhabitants of Canaan because of their “abominations” (Lev. 18:24-25) (Deut. 9:4-5) and thus the land had vomited them out (Lev. 18:28);
- the Israelites even after Moses warned them that when they entered the land, they were not to do any of the abominations as the nations did, so that the land would not vomit them out (Lev. 18:26-30);
- But NOW God’s people are doing “according to all the abominations of the nations.”
Note that when the kings from the line of Judah act abominably, God does not wipe out their entire families, as he does with several northern kings and their families, such as Jeroboam, Baasha, and Ahab.
- The more lenient treatment of the southern kings is not due to their righteousness or morality, but because of God’s promise to David that he would always have a son to sit on the throne (2 Sam. 7:12-16; 2 Chr. 13:5; Ps. 89:4; Jer. 33:17, 20-21, 25-26).
- The continuation of the line of Judah is not based on the obedience or merits of the kings, but on God’s faithfulness to preserve his covenant promises to David (2 Sam. 7:12-16).
- God promised David that he would punish his sons when they failed to keep his laws, but he would not remove his lovingkindness from them, as he had done to Saul (2 Sam. 7:14-15; Ps. 89:30-37).
- God will extend mercy to David’s descendants, even when they behave abominably like the pagan nations.
Here is a good example in King Jehoram – using him to make an overall connection throughout the southern kingdom and its preservation:
- King Jehoram’s family is not wiped out entirely, even though he is a murderer, marries the daughter of Ahab, does evil in God’s sight, builds high places for idol worship, and entices Judah into “whoredom,” just like Ahab did in the north (2 Chr. 21:1-7, 11-15).
- God strikes Jehoram with an incurable illness that leads to his untimely death, but God does not wipe out Jehoram’s entire family, for one son remains alive.
- Jehoram’s “seed” is preserved, therefore, because God was “not willing to destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his sons forever (2 Chr. 21:7; cf. 1 Kgs. 15:4; 2 Kgs. 8:19; 2 Chr. 23:3).
The days are coming, however, when the southern kingdom will come to an end, and the people will be deported to Babylon, but God will preserve a remnant, thereby ensuring that the line of Judah continues (Mt. 1:1-17).
- God has promised to raise up a son of David from the tribe of Judah who will rule forever (2 Sam. 7:12; 1 Chr. 17:11; 23:5), and this divine promise will not be thwarted by human sin.
(Much gratitude is given to Dr. Carol Kaminski for her Old Testament Survey course at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the study materials that accompany and inform this teaching.)