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of the royal palace, and took captive his sons and wives, while He smote him besides with incurable disease (2Ch 21:11., 2Ch 21:16-18). Because of the visit which Ahaziah made to Joram of Israel, when he lay sick of his wound at Jezreel, the judgment was (2Ch 22:7) pronounced: “The destruction of Ahaziah was of God by his coming to Joram.” When Amaziah, after his victory over the Edomites, brought back the gods of Seir and set them up for himself as gods, before whom he worshipped, the anger of Jahve was kindled against him. In spite of the warning of the prophets, he sought a quarrel with King Joash of Israel, who likewise advised him to abandon his design. “But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that He might deliver them over, because they had sought the gods of Edom” (2Ch 25:20). With this compare 2Ch 25:27 : “After the time that Amaziah turned away from the following Jahve, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem.” Of Uzziah it is said (2Ch 26:5), so long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper, so that he conquered his enemies and became very mighty. But when he was strong his heart was lifted up, so that he transgressed against Jahve his God, by forcing his way into the temple to offer incense; and for this he was smitten with leprosy. Of Jotham it is said, in 2Ch 27:6, “He became mighty, because he established his ways before Jahve his God.”
From these and similar passages, which might easily be multiplied, we clearly see that the chronicler had in view not only the Levitic worship, but also and mainly the attitude of the people and their princes to the Lord and to His law; and that it is from this point of view that he has regarded and written the history of his people before the exile. But it is also not less clear, from the quotations we have made, in so far as they contain practical remarks of the historian, that it was his purpose to hold up to his contemporaries as a mirror the history of the past, in which they might see the consequences of their own conduct towards the God of their fathers. He does not wish, as the author of the books of Kings does, to narrate the events and facts objectively, according to the course of history; but he connects the facts and events with the conduct of the kings and people towards the Lord, and strives to put the historical facts in such a light as to teach that God rewards fidelity to His covenant with happiness and blessing, and avenges faithless defection from it with punitive judgments. Owing to this peculiarity, the historical narrative