The two Books of Kings.
The two Books of Kings.
§ 129. The two Books of Kings are called by the Hebrews 
[“Kings”]; the Greeks and Latins [call them] 3 and 4 Kings because they reckon 1 and 2 Samuel as Books of Kings also. Various prophets wrote the history of the kings, but we cannot know and define for certain who gathered that [history] into a single volume and compendium. Many attribute it to Ezra.
** Procopius of Gaza, Rabbi Kimchi, and Isidore say that Jeremiah gathered this work into a single volume because the last chapter of the Books of Kings agrees in style, words, and story with the last chapter of the Book of Jeremiah. It appears, however, that this volume was gathered by abridging parts of the books of the days of the kings of Judah and Israel and the writings of the prophets Nathan, Ahijah of Shiloh, Iddo the Seer, and Shemaiah, Hozai,20 Jehu, and Isaiah, which were quoted quite frequently in 3 and 4 Kings. **
Augustine explains that both are to be numbered with the prophetic books (De civ. Dei, bk. 17, c. 1). First Kings consists of twenty-two chapters and contains the history of 118 years: forty under Solomon (1 Kings 11:42); seventy-eight under the rest of the kings of Judah, because Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, ruled for seventeen years (1 Kings 14:21); Abijam, three years (1 Kings 15:2); Asa, forty-one years (1 Kings 15:10); Jehoshaphat alone, seventeen years (1 Kings 22:52). When we reduce these to a single sum, they total seventy-eight years. Add the forty years of Solomon and this totals 118 years. It describes the history not only of those five kings of Judah but also of the kings of Israel in the specific sense: Jeroboam, who ruled for twenty-two years (1 Kings 14:20); Nadab, who ruled for two21 years (1 Kings 15:[25]); Baasha, who ruled for twenty-four years (1 Kings 15:33); Elah, who ruled for two years (1 Kings 16:8); Zimri, who ruled for seven days (1 Kings 16:15); Tibni, who ruled with Omri for four years; Omri, who ruled alone for eight years—twelve years in all (1 Kings 16:23); and Ahab, who ruled for twenty-two years (1 Kings 16:29). The divisions of this book can be arranged according to the history of these kings. One might divide [1 Kings] not inconveniently into two parts, the first of which describes the kingdom of Israel in flower as it was established under Solomon, and the latter describes its decline under the kings of Israel, specifically speaking, and the kings of Judah.
Second Kings consists of twenty-five chapters and contains the history of 320 years. It describes the activities of sixteen kings of Judah: Jehoram, who ruled alone for eight years and for four years with his father, Jehoshaphat (2 Kings 8:17); Ahaziah, who ruled for one year (2 Kings 8:26); Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, who ruled for six years (2 Kings 11:3); Jehoash, who ruled for forty years (2 Kings 12:1); Amaziah, who ruled for twenty-nine years, twelve of which were spent in exile (2 Kings 14:[2]); Azariah or Uzziah, who ruled for fifty-two years (2 Kings 15:2); Jotham, who ruled for sixteen years (2 Kings 15:33); Ahaz, who also ruled for sixteen years (2 Kings 16:[2]); Hezekiah, who ruled for twenty-nine years (2 Kings 18:2); Manasseh, who ruled for fifty-five years (2 Kings 21:1); Amon, who ruled for two years (2 Kings 21:[19]); Josiah, who ruled for thirty-one years (2 Kings 22:1); Jehoahaz, who ruled for three months (2 Kings 23:31); Jehoiakim, who ruled for eleven years (2 Kings 23:36); Jehoiachin, who ruled for three months (2 Kings 24:8); and Zedekiah, who ruled for eleven years (2 Kings 24:18). It also recounts the reigns of twelve kings of Israel: Ahaziah, who ruled for [two years] (1 Kings 22:51); Jehoram, who ruled for twelve years (2 Kings 3:1); Jehu, who ruled for twenty-eight years (2 Kings 10:36); Jehoahaz, who ruled for seventeen years, fifteen by himself and two with his son (2 Kings 13:1); Jehoash, who ruled for sixteen years (2 Kings 13:10); Jeroboam, who ruled for forty-one years (2 Kings 14:23); Zechariah, who ruled for six months (2 Kings 15:8); Shallum, who ruled for one month (2 Kings 15:13); Menahem, who ruled for ten years (2 Kings 15:17); Pekahiah, who ruled for two years (2 Kings 15:23); Pekah, who ruled for twenty years (2 Kings 15:27); Hoshea, who ruled as a free man for nine years (2 Kings 17:1), afterward was a tributary of the king of Assyria for nine years, and finally was taken into captivity by that king (2 Kings 17:6). We can divide [2 Kings] according to the series of these kings.
First Kings contains 809 verses; 2 Kings has 712.