The story of the last few kings of Judah – Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah – fills three chapters in II Kings; but the Chronicler wrapped up his account of this material in just fourteen verses: things went from bad to worse through the reigns of those four kings (II Chronicles 36:1-14). Then came the fall of Jerusalem and the Exile (36:15-21).

Another difference in the way the Chronicler closed off the story was this: II Kings had ended with the heartbreak of the people of God in slavery in Babylon, not knowing if they would ever get back to the Promised Land, but the Chronicler ended his book with gladness, for by the time he wrote his account, some of the people of Judah had begun to return to Jerusalem.
So in his last few verses the Chronicler covered the seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity, the fulfillment of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and the rise of Cyrus king of Persia. After the Persian army had conquered Babylon, Cyrus offered these words of encouragement to the people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple (36:20-23): “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him!” (36:23).

We have seen, then, the close parallels between the quartet of books, I Samuel – II Samuel – I Kings – II Kings, and the pair of books, I Chronicles – II Chronicles. There are sections where the Chronicler just copied the material directly out of his predecessor’s work. And yet there are significant differences, as well. We don’t know the name of either historian, but it’s clear that each of them made deliberate selection of what material to include, and how to express each vignette, in order to show how the hand of God was at work over a span of nearly 500 years of biblical history.

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You are the God of restoration, O Lord: when we have been lost, you bring us back again. We pray that you would remind us of this, when we are in the midst of lament: even when the hard times last many years, you are faithful still.