[91] The Chronology from Solomon to Zedekiah

'If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than any other talent.'
Isaac Newton (1642-1727) English mathematician, philosopher

Historically, Josephus, many Christians and many Jews have added up all of the lengths of the various reigns and of the kings from Jeroboam to Zedekiah and then incorrectly deduced the length of time between them from this sum. This method is only a rough guess at the time from Solomon to Nebuchadnezzar, because it ignores coregencies where two successive kings have coincident regnal years (such as between Jehoshaphat and Jehoram 2 Kings 8:16), and it ignores periods where no king is available to take regnal years. The latter occurs when the first born son is too young to rule, as in the cases of Jehoash and Josiah, or when there is a protracted dispute over who should be king as in the cases of Jotham and Pekah. To this day (1999) no man had correctly interpreted the scriptures and deduced the correct chronology of the Kings of Judah and Israel. This was simply because nobody made the effort. When one considers the huge efforts made by God and many of his angelic sons for us, both in the past and on a daily basis in the present, one sees the gross and short sighted ingratitude of mankind to his creator and his creator's assistants clearly. For there is a wealth of information in the bible on this subject, more than enough to do this task. Have a look at a typical entry for a Judean King:

7 years old Jehoash was when he began to reign. In the 7^th year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and for 40 years he reigned in Jerusalem and his mother’s name was Zibiah (2 Kings 11:21, 12:1)

We get the year he started, the length of his reign, his age at his accession and his mother’s name! But as usual the vital pieces that one needs to finish the puzzle are not immediately apparent.

We are therefore in the situation of the first year Cambridge mathematician who is looking at his tripos examination questions. He has to think and to work to get the correct answer, and he has to use every bit of information in the question, or he knows he has not got the examiner’s mind on the subject. Now the true God has put so much seemingly irrelevant information about these kings, such as their mothers names, their ages when they became king etc. that one is forced to conclude that the whole chronology of the kings is decipherable from the accounts. But more than that we know that there is a further symbolic meaning on top of this chronology! We have no idea what that is. However, even in the literal meaning, we again have to ask ourselves the standard type of bible decoders questions:

1. Does the true God, who invented all language at Babel, have a problem with expressing himself here over a straight forward sequence of Kings?
   

2. Has he forgotten perhaps to tell us about what was happening in Judah between King Amaziah who reigned for 29 years and King Azariah, his son, who only took over some 42 years after his father became king ?
   

3. Does God have some kind of difficulty with counting?

If the reader can convince himself that the answer to the above three rhetorical questions is in the negative, then he is ready to wrestle with the angels and put the jigsaw together.

For the Judean Kings the statement: x years he reigned in Jerusalem, means that the king had x regnal years in Jerusalem.

For the Kings of Israel the statement: y years he reigned in Tirzah (or in Samaria), means that the king had y regnal years in Tirzah (or in Samaria).

Regnal years have to be associated with a place. If there is no place mentioned then the years are not regnal.
All Kings are the sons of the previous king unless otherwise stated

We assume that King Solomon’s last regnal year started in 997Nisan. We shall show this to be true later. Then we can count forwards as far as King Hezekiah with certainty as follows:

The accession year of a king is his first regnal year only if:

[1]    No other king has had it as a regnal year and there was no dispute over who was king at the time
 of his accession. Or if

[2]    He is coregent with his father and he shares the regnal year with him.

The Seer had told Asa: From now on there will exist wars against you (2 Chronicles 26:9).

Jehoshaphat began to reign in place of him and to "make his position strong over Israel". This is possible evidence that he did not get 935 due to a dispute.

And he (Ahaziah) gradually died, according to the word of Jehovah that Elijah had spoken, and Jehoram, began to reign in place of him, in the 2^nd year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah (2 Kings 1:17).

We know that Ahab died in 917, this being his 22nd regnal year. We know that Jehoram of Ahab acceded in that year because we read:

And it came about that as soon as Ahab died, the king of Moab began to revolt against the king of Israel. Consequently King Jehoram went out on that day from Samaria and mustered all Israel (2 Kings 3:5,6).

But Jehoram acceded in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat:

As for Jehoram the son of Ahab, he became king over Israel in Samaria in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, and he continued to reign for 12 years (2 Kings 3:1)

So the 18th of Jehoram was the 22nd of Jehoshaphat, so the first of Jehoshaphat was the 5th of Ahab which was 934. So Jehoshaphat definitely did not get 935 as a regnal year in Judah. Whereas Ahaziah acceded in the 17th of Jehoshaphat:

As for Ahaziah the son of Ahab, he became king over Israel in Samaria in the 17th year of Jehoshaphat and he continued to reign over Israel for two years (1 Kings 22:51).

So Ahaziah was coregent with Ahab for the two regnal years of 918 and 917. But we read:

Finally Ahab lay down with his forefathers and Ahaziah his son began to reign in place of him (1 Kings 22:40).

So Ahaziah died having fallen through a grating in his roof chamber (2 Kings 1) after Ahab was shot by an arrow whilst he was disguised (1 Kings 22). But both of these deaths were in 917.

In the 12^th year of Jehoram the son of Ahab, the king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram the king of Judah became king. 22 years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign and for 1 year he reigned in Jerusalem (2 Kings 8:25,26)

In the 12^th year of Jehoram son of Ahab (905) Ahaziah reigned for 1 year in Jerusalem. His reign was cut short by death from Jehu in that year. 

And Ahaziah the king of Judah himself saw it and took flight by the way of the garden house. Later Jehu went in pursuit of him and said: Him also strike him down! So they struck him down while in the chariot on the way up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he continued his flight to Megiddo and got to die there (2 Kings 9:27).

We know that Jehu had before this killed Jehoram of Ahab shooting him through the heart with an arrow whilst Ahaziah was still alive (2 Kings 9:21-24). But Jehoram of Ahab was killed in 905, his twelfth and last regnal year, and this was the last and only regnal year of Ahaziah of Judah, so both deaths were in 905. Elisha had just before this called one of the sons of the prophets and told him to anoint Jehu. He did this saying:

I do anoint you as king over Jehovah's people, that is over Israel. And you must strike down the house of Ahab your Lord (2 Kings 9:6).

Then Ahab's servants blew the horn and said: Jehu has become king! (2 Kings 9:13). So the order of events all of which occurred in 905 was the Elisha asked one of the sons of the prophets to anoint Jehu as king of Israel and executioner of the house of Ahab. Jehu was so anointed, then he killed Jehoram and then he killed Ahaziah.

The last, the 28^th regnal year of Jehu, was 877. So someone else or no-one had 876, the 7th of Athaliah, which the bible refers to as such, was 898. So Jehoash had 897 as his first regnal year.

There is nothing to indicate full coregency between Jehoahaz and Jehoash such as the terms ‘over all Israel’ and ‘over Israel’ as in the case of Baasha and Elah. No coregency is explicitly stated as with Jehoshaphat and Jehoram. If Jehoash and Jehoahaz had been fully coregent then the first regnal year of Jehoash would have been 860, so the second would have been 859. So Amaziah and Jehoash of Judah would have had to have been fully coregent in 858, the 40^th year of Jehoash in which he was murdered by Jozacar and Jehozabad, his servants. We read of Amaziah:

And it came about that as soon as the kingdom had become firm in his hand, he began to strike down his servants that had struck down the king, his father (2 Kings 14:5).

Since it took a while for his kingdom to become firm, and since his father was murdered by his father’s servants who then became his servants, it is apparent that he was not fully coregent with his father. If he had been his kingdom would have been firm already, and his servants would not have felt the need to kill the father in order to change the king.

Therefore Jehoash and Jehoahaz were not fully coregent. So Jehoash’s regnal years had to wait until those of Jehoahaz ended in 859.

Jozacar and Jehozabad and conspirators took 857 or at least prevented Amaziah from getting it as a regnal year.

And Amaziah the son of Jehoash the king of Judah continued to live after the death of Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz the king of Israel for 15 years (2Kings 14:17).

Finally Jehoash lay down with his forefathers, and Jereboam himself sat upon his throne. In turn Jehoash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel (2 Kings 13:13).
There appears to be no reason why 842 could not have been regnal for Jeroboam II.

Jerusalem conspirators for the years 827 to 816 !!! Possibly not in David’s line, and hence not mentioned in the bible (as far as we can see). There was a conspiracy against Amaziah in Jerusalem, he was put to death in Lachish (2 Chronicles 25:27).

Hoshea the son of Elah, formed a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah and struck him and put him to death, and he began to reign in place of him in the 20^th year of Jotham the son of Uzziah (2 Kings 15:30)

Hoshea begins to reign in the 20^th year of Jotham, a man who only had 16 regnal years, so the last 4 must have been non regnal due to a dispute. Now the 20th of Jotham was the 21st of Pekah at the least, but of course Pekah died in his 20th year. So Pekah died in the 19th year of Jotham at the most. So Hoshea's first 'accession' was one year after Pekah was killed, in the 20th of Jotham or 743. But Hoshea did not get any regnal years as king over Israel in Samaria until the 12^th year of Ahaz. So he must have begun to reign non comprehensively until the 12^th year of Ahaz. The first of Jotham was 762 so the 20^th was 743, but Pekah was killed in his 20^th which was 744, which was Jotham’s 19^th.

And Uzziah the king continued to be a leper until the day of his death, and he kept dwelling in a house exempt from duties, as a leper; for he had been severed from the house of Jehovah, while Jotham his son was over the king's house, judging the people of the land (2 Chronicles 26:21).

So there was no coregency between Uzziah and Jotham. Jotham judged but Uzziah ruled in his leprosy.

Now Jotham: Continued to do what was right in Jehovah’s eyes whereas his son Ahaz: Did not do what was right in the eyes of Jehovah his God. Therefore Jotham should not have yielded a coregency to his son, a wrongdoer in Jehovah’s eyes, because this would have not been right in Jehovah’s eyes. As regards the end of Jotham’s reign we read:

In those days Jehovah started to send against Judah, Rezin the King of Assyria and Pekah the son of Remaliah. Finally Jotham lay down with his forefathers and was buried with his forefathers in the city of David his forefather; and Ahaz his son began to reign in place of him (2 Kings 15:37,38).

Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign… Consequently Jehovah, his God, gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, so that they struck him and carried off from him a great number of captives and brought them to Damascus. And into the hand of the king of Israel he was given, so that he struck him with a great slaughter. Accordingly Pekah, the son of Remaliah killed in Judah 120,000 in one day, all valiant men, because of their leaving Jehovah the God of their forefathers (2 Chron 28:1-6).

So Pekah was disputing the throne of Judah in the coregency period between Jotham and Ahaz. Jotham’s 16^th regnal year was 747 and Ahaz acceded in 747, but Pekah’s last year, 744, was not a regnal year of Jotham (his last was his 16^th), so neither was it a regnal year of Ahaz. Furthermore 743 is called ‘the 20^th year of Jotham’ which is saying that Jotham is reigning again, which he would be doing once Pekah is out of the way. Likewise his coregent son would be reigning. So Ahaz’s first regnal year is 743. So neither Jotham nor Ahaz had 746 745, 744 as regnal years, Pekah, the tail end of a smoking log, prevented it.

Do not be afraid, and do not let your heart itself be timid because of the two tail ends of these smoking logs, because of the hot anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah (Isaiah 7:4)

Since Hezekiah acceded in the 15^th year of Ahaz (12+3), it is apparent that the two were coregent, since Ahaz had 16 regnal years. This was a full coregency because the 4^th year of Hezekiah was the 7^th year of Hoshea which was 725:

And it came about in the 4th year of king Hezekiah, that is the 7th year of Hoshea the son of Elah the king of Israel, that Shalmaneser the king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and began to lay siege to it (2 Kings 18:9).

So Hezekiah's first regnal year was 728 which was the 16^th of Ahaz. So Ahaz reigned intermittently from 747 to 728

And it came about in the 4^th year of King Hezekiah, that is the 7^th year of Hoshea, the son of Elah, the king of Israel, that Shalmanezer, the king of Assyria, came up against Samaria and began to lay siege to it. And they got to capture it at the end of 3 years, in the 6^th year of Hezekiah, that is the 9^th year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was captured (2 Kings 18:9,10).

These years were 725 to 723. So Samaria and the Kings of Israel fell in 723N-722N, in the 9^th year of Hoshea, to Shalmanezer of Assyria.

From Hezekiah to Zedekiah:

And in the 14^th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and proceeded to seize them (2Kings 19:29).

And I shall certainly add 15 years to your days, and out of the palm of the king of Assyria I shall deliver you and this city (2Kings 20:6).

Sennacherib was not the outright king of Assyria in the 14^th year of Hezekiah, 715, Sargon II was (Sennacherib was his son).

Accordingly the King of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah the King of Judah 300 silver talents and thirty gold talents. Therefore Hezekiah gave all the silver that was to be found at the house of Jehovah and in the treasures of the King’s house (2 Kings 18:14,15).

These silver talents are years. All of the years of existence of both of the houses until that day. Having assumed that the last, the 40^th, regnal year of Solomon is 997, we have the first as 1036.

In the 4^th year the house of Jehovah had its foundation laid, in the lunar month of Ziv, and in the 11^th year, in the lunar month of Bul, that is the 8^th month, the house was finished (1 Kings 6:37,38).

And his own house Solomon built in 13 years (1 Kings 7:1)

And it came about at the end of 20 years in which Solomon built the two houses, the house of Jehovah and the house of the king (1 Kings 9:10).

So the temple was started in 1033 BC and completed in 1026Heshvan, and the king's house was started in 1026 BC and completed in 1014 BC. 1033 BC to 1014 BC is 20 years counting inclusively. So both houses were in existence in 1014 BC.

1014 BC to 715 BC is 300 years counting inclusively.

Hezekiah had 29 regnal years. So Manasseh’s first regnal year was 699, he was Hezekiah's son and there was no nation of Israel to challenge for the throne, so he would have taken over on his father's death (we presume), as would Amon his son (we presume). But not Josiah his son, who was too young at the time of his father's death.

Amon became king aged 22 like Ahaziah. Ahaziah’s son Jehoash did not reign until he was 7, in the 7^th year after his father's death. Likewise there must have been a similar gap between Amon and Josiah, who didn’t reign until he was 8 years old. Amon was killed by conspirators, then the people of the land killed the conspirators and made Josiah king (2Chronicles 33:24,25).

From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, and down to this day, these twenty-three years the word of Jehovah has occurred to me, and I kept speaking to you people, rising up early and speaking, but you did not listen (Jeremiah 25:1-3).

First year of Nebuchadnezzar = 604, so 13^th year of Josiah was 626, normally these things are an inclusive count. E.g. Jesus was in grave for 3 days even though he rose on the third day, and the three year siege was from 9^th year of Zed to 11^th, etc. So the first regnal year of Josiah was 638, so his accession was 639 when he was 8, so his first year was 646, so he was born in 647.

His 4^th regnal was 604 which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar

Twenty-three years old was Jehoahaz when he began to reign, and for three months he reigned in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. And he began to do what was bad in Jehovah's eyes, according to all that forefathers of his had done.
And Pharaoh Nechoh got to put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, to keep him from reigning in Jerusalem, and then imposed a fine upon the land of a hundred silver talents and a gold talent.
Furthermore, Pharaoh Nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father and changed his name to Jehoiakim; and Jehoahaz he took and then brought to Egypt, where he eventually died. And the silver and the gold Jehoiakim gave to Pharaoh. Only he taxed the land, to give the silver at the order of Pharaoh.
According to each one's individual tax rate he exacted the silver and the gold from the people of the land, to give it to Pharaoh Nechoh.
Twenty-five years old was Jehoiakim when he began to reign, and for eleven years he reigned in Jerusalem. (2 Kings 23:31-36).

So Jehoahaz was stopped from reigning by Nechoh, so no one was reigning for a period and then Jehoiakim had 11 regnal years starting in 607. Jehoiakim was not a vassal of Jehovah because he was a vassal of Pharaoh Nechoh, being chosen by him and paying him an annual tribute. Now Jesus has said, when asked on his views about paying tax:

Pay back Caesar's things to Caesar, but God's things to God. And they began to marvel at him (Mark 12:17).
So if Pharaoh is getting the tax, then he is Caesar, not God. So God relinquished his Kingship of Judah at the accession of Jehoiakim, who was no longer a vassal of the Almighty, but rather a vassal of Egypt.

Technical note

It is helpful to realise that Gedaliah (who is believed by the Watchtower to be the last King of Judah) was the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan the secretary of Josiah, the son of Azaliah the son of Meshullam. And that Josiah commanded Hilkiah the high priest and Ahikam and Shaphan, saying:

Go enquire of Jehovah in my own behalf.. (2 Chronicles 34:21).

So it looks like Gedaliah was a Levite. Certainly there is no obvious evidence that he was from Judah. Hence he cannot have sat on David’s throne. - End Technical Note.

Furthermore the king of Egypt made Eliakim, his brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim, but his brother Jehoahaz, Necho took and brought to Egypt (2 Chronicles 36:4).

Nechoh changed the ‘el’ in his name to ‘Jeho’. He substituted God for Jehovah, a Satanic deception designed to legitimise a vassal of his, making Eliakim appear to be a vassal of the true God, which he wasn’t. This change would have been made to pacify the 'people of the land’, who had chosen his brother Jehoahaz, in Nechoh’s absence.

The word that occurred to Jeremiah from Jehovah in the tenth year of Zedekiah the king of Judah, that is, the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar (Jeremiah 32:1).

History has the first regnal year of Nebuchadnezzar (Nebuchadrezzar) as 604, The Assyrian Eponym Chronicle has a campaign by Shalmanezer against somewhere from the year 725 until 723 for 3 years. The Babylonian Chronicle has the main event of Shalmanezer’s reign as the destruction of Samaria (Cambridge Ancient History CAH). Shalmanezer acceded in 727 and had 722 as his last regnal year. The Babylonian Chronicle has his dying in 722Tebeth. (CAH). So from this we deduce that Samaria fell in the last year of the siege, namely the year 723N to 722N. Necho acceded in 610 (CAH).

And they got to capture it at the end of three years; in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Israel, Samaria was captured (2 Kings 18:9,10).

Taking 723 BC as the year in which Samaria fell, the above Chronology can be used to deduce that Solomon’s last regnal year was 997 BC.

So now the Assyrian, Babylonian, Egyptian, and Biblical Chronologies are synchronised !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_Kings (Ptolemy)

27 And it came about in the 37th year of the exile of Jehoiachin the king of Judah, in the 12th month, on the 27th day of the month, that Evil-merodach the king of Babylon, in year to reign of the first [his first regnal year], raised up the head of Jehoiachin the king of Judah out of the house of detention; (2 Kings 25 NWT)

HAE: History of Ancient Egypt
COP: Chronicle of the Pharaohs
CAH: Cambridge Ancient History

The 390 error years of Israel in Ezekiel4: The easy way to get from Solomon to Zedekiah

See U16.