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The Book of Kings (Hebrew: סֵפֶר מְלָכִים, Sēfer Məlāḵīm) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Christian Old Testament. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the books of Joshua, Judges and Samuel.

Biblical commentators believe the Books of Kings were written to provide a theological explanation for the destruction of the Kingdom of Judah by Babylon in c. 586 BCE and to provide a foundation for a return from Babylonian exile.[1] The two books of Kings present a history of ancient Israel and Judah, from the death of King David to the release of Jehoiachin from imprisonment in Babylon—a period of some 400 years (c. 960 – c. 560 BCE).[1] Scholars tend to treat the books as consisting of a first edition from the late 7th century BCE and of a second and final edition from the mid-6th century BCE.

David is by now old, and so his attendants look for a virgin to look after him. They find Abishag, who looks after him but they do not have sexual relations. Adonijah, David's fourth son, born after Absalom, decides to claim the throne, so, having received the loyalty of Joab, David's general, and Abiathar the priest, he begins a coronation procession. He begins the festivities by offering sacrifices at En Rogel in the presence of his brothers and the royal officials, but does not invite Nathan the prophet; Benanaiah, captain of the kings bodyguard (or indeed the bodyguard itself); or even his own brother Solomon.

Nathan comes to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, and informs her what is going on. She goes to David and reminds him that he said Solomon would be his successor. As she is speaking to him and explaining her fears that she and Solomon will be treated as criminals after his death, Nathan enters and explains the full situation to David. David reaffirms his promise that Solomon will be king after him and arranges for him to be anointed at the Gihon Spring. The anointing is performed by Zadok the priest. The trumpets are sounded and the population of Jerusalem proclaims him king. This is heard by Adonijah and his fellow feasters, but they do not know what is happening until Abiathar's son Jonathan arrives and informs them. It turns out that by this point Solomon has been seated on the throne and David has been informed, thus completing the ceremony. Adonijah claims sanctuary, but Solomon decides to spare him unless he does something evil.

David advises his son on how to be a good king and to punish David's enemies, and then dies. Adonijah comes to Bathsheba and asks to marry Abishag. Solomon suspects this request is to strengthen Adonijah's claim to the throne and has Benaiah put him to death. He then takes away Abiathar's priesthood as punishment for supporting Adonijah, thus fulfilling the prophecy made to Eli at the start of 1 Samuel. Joab hears what is going on and himself claims sanctuary, but when he refuses to come out of the tabernacle, Solomon instructs Benaiah to kill him there. He then replaces Joab with Benaiah and Abiathar with Zadok. Solomon then instructs Shimei, the Benjaminite who cursed David as he was fleeing from Absalom and whom David has instructed Solomon to punish, to move to Jerusalem and not to leave. One day, two of Shimei's slaves run away to Gath and Shimei pursues them. When he returns to Jerusalem, Solomon has him put to death for leaving Jerusalem and for earlier cursing David. Solomon is finally established as king.

Solomon makes an alliance with Egypt and marries Pharaoh's daughter. After this, he continues the ancient practice of travelling between the high places and offering sacrifices. When he is at Gibeon, God speaks to him in a dream and offers him anything he asks for. Solomon, being young, asks for the wisdom to lead his people well. God is pleased he asks for this and grants him not only this, but also wealth, honour and, if Solomon keeps his commandments as well as David did, long life. Solomon returns to Jerusalem and holds a feast in front of the Ark of the Covenant.

Solomon's newfound wisdom soon gets put to the test when two prostitutes come to Solomon with an issue. During the night, it seems, one of them had rolled over in their shared bed onto her son, killing him, resulting in a situation where the son of one of them is alive and the other is dead, but they cannot agree which is which. Solomon calls for a sword and threatens to cut the living child in two and give a half to each woman. While the mother of the dead child is happy to let the child die, saying that if she can't have him the other one can't either, the mother of the living child pleads that he be given to the other woman as long as he isn't killed. Solomon now knows who the child's true mother is and gives him to her alive. This judgment amazes the Israelites, and Solomon gains a reputation for his wisdom. Solomon uses his wisdom to appoint a cabinet and reorganise the governance of Israel at a local level. In accordance with God's promises to both David and Solomon, the nation of Israel prospers and Solomon's provisions increase. Equally, Solomon's wisdom continues to increase in all areas.

Hiram I, king of Tyre sends an embassy to Jerusalem, hoping to continue the good relationship he had with David. Solomon writes back stating his intention to fulfil David's vow of building a temple. Hiram agrees to supply him with wood in exchange for provisions for his palace, and the two sign a treaty. Solomon and Hiram put together groups of men to transport the logs and cut stone. By this point it has been 480 years since the Exodus, and Solomon begins to build the Temple. It takes him seven years. He also builds himself a palace, which takes him thirteen years. Once the Temple building is finished, Solomon hires a Tyrian half-Naphtalite named Huram to create the furnishings of the Temple.

Once everything is finished, Solomon has the things which David prepared for the Temple brought in. He then organises a ceremony during which the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant, containing the Tablets of the Law, into the Temple. A cloud fills the Temple, preventing the priests from continuing the ceremony. Solomon explains that this is the presence of God, and takes the opportunity to make a dedication speech, in which he expresses thanksgiving that he could build the Temple, and sees it as the fulfilment of God's promise to Moses. He then begins to pray, emphasising his humility in building the Temple and asking God to act as he has promised to in relation to various functions of the Temple. He then makes another speech, largely re-iterating the points he made in the first speech. The dedication is completed with sacrifices, a celebration is held for fourteen days, and everyone returns home. God speaks to Solomon and accepts his prayer, re-affirming his vow to David that his House will be kings forever unless they begin worshipping idols.

Solomon gives twenty towns in Galilee to Hiram as thanks for his help, but they are virtually worthless. He begins building and improvement works in various cities in addition to his major projects in Jerusalem and puts the remaining Canaanites into slavery. He also fulfils his religious duties and builds a navy.

The Queen of Sheba hears of Solomon's wisdom and travels to Jerusalem to meet him with her large and gold-laden caravan. Solomon satisfies her with his wisdom and wealth, and she praises him, saying she did not fully believe the stories about Solomon until she came to see him. The Queen gives Solomon 120 talents and a large amount of spices and precious stones. To compete with this, Hiram sends a large amount of valuable wood and precious stones. Solomon also gives the Queen gifts and she returns to her country. Solomon by now has 666 talents of gold, and decides to make shields and cups out of gold. He also maintains trading relations with Hiram, from whose country he receives many exotic goods. Overall, Israel becomes a net exporter of golden goods.

Solomon amasses 700 wives and 300 concubines, many from foreign countries, including from countries God told the Israelites not to intermarry with. Solomon begins to adopt elements from their religions, including worship of the goddess Astarte and the evil Ammonite god Moloch, thus breaking the commandment 'Thou shalt have no other gods before me'. He builds shrines in Jerusalem to Moloch and Chemosh, an evil Moabite god. God informs Solomon that because he has broken this commandment, the entire kingdom except one tribe will be taken away from his son.

At the same time, Solomon begins to amass enemies. When Joab committed genocide against the Edomites, a young prince named Hadad managed to escape Egypt, where he became a favourite at Pharaoh's court, with Pharaoh giving him his own sister-in-law's hand in marriage and incorporating him into palace life. When Hadad hears Joab and David are dead, he returns to Edom. Another enemy is Rezon the Syrian, a survivor of the defeat of the Zobahite army during David's reign, who allies himself with Hadad and causes havoc for Israel from his base in Damascus.

Before Solomon can deal with these enemies, he must quash a revolt at home. He appoints one of his officers, Jeroboam, to supervise the building of the palace terraces and reconstruction of the city walls. When this turns out well, he puts him in charge of the workforce of the Tribe of Joseph. One day, Jeroboam meets the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite, who is wearing a new cloak, on the road out of Jerusalem. Ahijah tears his cloak into twelve parts and gives ten of them to Jeroboam, saying that Jeroboam will rule over ten tribes of Israel upon Solomon's death as punishment for Solomon's idol worship. In addition to this, God makes the same promise to Jeroboam as he did to David. Solomon tries to kill Jeroboam, but he flees to Egypt. Solomon dies after having reigned for forty years and is succeeded by his son Rehoboam.

Rehoboam travels to Shechem to be proclaimed king. Upon hearing this, Jeroboam returns from Egypt and asks for the people to be treated better than under Solomon. Three days later, having ignored his older advisors' advice to agree and instead listened to his friends, he instead says that he will treat them much worse than Solomon. This greatly displeases the Israelites, who begin to question why they are united under a single king who clearly doesn't care about them at all. When he sends a new minister of forced labour named Adoniram, they stone him to death. Rehoboam returns to safety in Jerusalem. The Israelites proclaim Jeroboam king. Judah remains loyal to Rehoboam, and he also controls Benjamin. From these two tribes, Rehoboam amasses an army to attack the north, but the prophet Shemaiah prevents the war.

Back in Shechem, Jeroboam becomes worried about the possible return of his tribes to loyalty to the House of David, and decides the best way to prevent this is to stop them worshipping the God of Israel, since he considers the point at which they are most likely to defect to be when they travel to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. To this end, he sets up golden calves at altars at Bethel and Dan and appoints his own priests and festivals, thus creating a specific Israelite religion. One day, a prophet comes by and announces that some day a Davidic king named Josiah will be born and violently abolish Jeroboam's religion. Seeking to seize him, Jeroboam stretches out his hand, but it becomes withered and, as a sign, the altar splits open and its ashes pour out. After the prophet heals Jeroboam's hand, the king invites him to a meal, but the prophet says that God told him not to eat there. On his way home, another prophet invites him in for dinner by lying about a prophecy. As punishment, God has the initial prophet killed by a lion. The prophet who invited him in buries him in his own tomb, and tells his sons to bury him in the same tomb and prophecies that the prophecy made to Jeroboam will come true. Despite all this, Jeroboam does not change his ways.

The kings who follow Rehoboam in Jerusalem continue the royal line of David, i.e., they inherit Yahweh's promise to David.

In the north, dynasties follow each other in rapid succession, and the kings are uniformly bad, i.e., they fail to follow Yahweh alone.

Courtesy--wikipedia
- I Kings

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