4 Kings - Themes and Genre

Themes and Genre

Kings is "history-like," but it mixes legends, folktales, miracle stories and fiction in with the annals, and its primary explanation for all that happens is God's offended sense of what is right; it is therefore more fruitful to read it as theological literature in the form of history. The theological bias is seen in the way it judges each king of Israel on the basis of whether he recognises the authority of the temple in Jerusalem (none do, and therefore all are "evil"), and each king of Judah on the basis of whether he destroys the "high places" (rivals to the Temple in Jerusalem); it gives only passing mention to important and successful kings like Omri and Jeroboam II and totally ignores one of the most significant events in ancient Israel's history, the battle of Qarqar.

The major themes of Kings are God's promise, the recurrent apostasy of the kings, and the judgement this brings on Israel:

• Promise: In return for Israel's promise to worship Yahweh alone, Yahweh makes promises to David and to Israel - to David, the promise that his line will rule Israel forever, to Israel, the promise of the land they will possess.
• Apostasy: the great tragedy of Israel's history, meaning the destruction of the kingdom and the Temple, is due to the failure of the people, but more especially the kings, to worship Yahweh alone (Yahweh being the god of Israel).
• Judgement: Apostasy leads to judgement. Judgement is not punishment, but simply the natural (or rather, God-ordained) consequence of Israel's failure to worship Yahweh alone.

Another and related theme is that of prophecy. The main point of the prophetic stories is that God's prophecies are always fulfilled, so that any not yet fulfilled will be so in the future. The implication, the release of Jehoiachin and his restoration to a place of honour in Babylon in the closing scenes of the book, is that the promise of an eternal Davidic dynasty is still in effect, and that the Davidic line will be restored.