50 Fun Facts About 2 Chronicles

The queen of which land brought camels laden with spices to test Solomon with hard questions?

Sheba's queen left breathless, saying she had not been told half of Solomon's greatness, and gave him 120 talents of gold.

When God told Solomon at Gibeon to ask for anything, what did the new king request?

Wisdom and knowledge pleased God so much that he added the riches, wealth and honor Solomon had not asked for.

Rehoboam said his father had disciplined Israel with whips; what did he threaten to use instead?

Scorpions were the last straw: Israel answered that it had no share in David, went home to its tents, and never accepted Rehoboam's rule.

How was King Uzziah punished for burning incense in the temple, a task reserved for priests?

Leprosy broke out on Uzziah's forehead while he raged at the eighty priests blocking him, and he lived in a separate house until he died.

Whom did Jehoshaphat station ahead of his army as it marched out to face Moab and Ammon?

Singers led the way with a hymn about God's enduring mercy, and Judah's soldiers never had to fight that day.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God vows to hear, forgive and do what if his people humble themselves?

Heal their land was God's night-time answer to Solomon's prayer, a promise meant for years of drought, locusts or plague.

What did God send to cut down the Assyrian commanders camped against Hezekiah's Jerusalem?

An angel wiped out the officers and soldiers, and the Assyrian king went home in disgrace, where his own sons killed him in his god's temple.

Which animals, twelve in all, lined the six steps of Solomon's great throne of ivory and gold?

Lions stood on both sides of all six steps, with two more beside the armrests, and the chronicler says no other kingdom had a throne like it.

Which king of Babylon carried off the temple vessels and King Jehoiachin after a three-month reign?

Nebuchadnezzar came back for more: his army later burned the temple, tore down Jerusalem's wall and led the survivors into exile.

What did the priest Hilkiah find in the temple during King Josiah's repairs to the building?

The Book of the Law made Josiah tear his robes when it was read to him, for it showed how far Judah had strayed.

On which mountain did Solomon build the temple, at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite?

Mount Moriah echoes Genesis, where Abraham was sent to the region of Moriah to offer Isaac on one of its mountains.

Solomon named the temple's right-hand pillar Jachin; what did he call the one on the left?

Boaz, a name the King James margin glosses as 'in it is strength', is also the name of David's great-grandfather, the husband of Ruth.

What filled Solomon's temple when the ark arrived, so that the priests could not stand to serve?

A cloud marking God's glory rolled in just as 120 trumpeters and the Levite musicians struck up together in praise.

What alone lay inside the ark when it reached Solomon's temple, placed there by Moses at Horeb?

Two tablets from the covenant at Horeb were all it held; the New Testament letter to the Hebrews also pictures a jar of manna and Aaron's staff inside.

Whose advice did Rehoboam follow when he refused to lighten the yoke Solomon had laid on Israel?

The young men who had grown up with Rehoboam told him to boast that his little finger was thicker than his father's waist.

Which king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in Rehoboam's fifth year and took Solomon's gold shields?

Shishak came with 1,200 chariots and stripped the temple and palace, so Rehoboam had cheaper bronze shields made for his guards.

King Abijah told Jeroboam's army that God gave David the kingdom forever by a covenant of what?

Salt sealed the promise in Abijah's speech, which he shouted from Mount Zemaraim to an enemy army twice the size of his own.

Which invader brought a vast army and 300 chariots against King Asa at Mareshah, only to be routed?

Zerah fled after Asa prayed that God could help the powerless as easily as the mighty, and Judah chased his army as far as Gerar.

How did King Asa punish his kinswoman Maacah for making an idol?

Deposed her as queen mother is the short version: Asa also cut down her idol, crushed it and burned it beside the Kidron brook.

When King Asa fell gravely ill late in his reign, whose help did he seek rather than God's?

Physicians were Asa's only resort, and the chronicler counts that against a king who had once trusted God to defeat a huge army.

To which Syrian king did Asa send temple silver and gold, buying help against Baasha of Israel?

Ben-hadad took the payment, broke his pact with Baasha and raided Israel's northern towns, forcing Baasha to abandon the fort he was building at Ramah.

Which seer did King Asa throw into prison for rebuking his alliance with the king of Syria?

Hanani told Asa he had been foolish to buy foreign help and would face wars from then on; the furious king jailed him and oppressed some of his people.

A seer told King Asa that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro across what, seeking loyal hearts?

The whole earth is searched, the seer said, so that God can show himself strong for anyone whose heart is fully his.

In which part of his body did King Asa suffer a severe disease during his final years as king?

His feet became diseased in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, and Asa died two years later, laid on a bier heaped with spices and perfumes.

Jehoshaphat allied with which king of Israel and joined his campaign to retake Ramoth-gilead?

Ahab feasted Jehoshaphat in Samaria to win him over, and afterwards a seer met the king of Judah with the charge of helping the ungodly.

Which prophet, hated by Israel's king for never predicting good, foretold disaster at Ramoth-gilead?

Micaiah stood alone against 400 court prophets, was slapped in the face for it and sent to prison on bread and water.

How did Israel's king try to stay safe at Ramoth-gilead while Jehoshaphat fought in royal robes?

He disguised himself, yet an arrow shot at random slipped between the joints of his armor and he died propped in his chariot at sunset.

How were the armies of Ammon, Moab and Seir destroyed before Jehoshaphat's troops even reached them?

They turned on each other until none was left, and Judah spent three days carrying away the plunder.

Which prophet sent King Jehoram of Judah a letter warning that a bowel disease would kill him?

Elijah, famous for spoken prophecy, here condemns Jehoram in writing for murdering brothers the letter calls better than he was.

How does 2 Chronicles sum up the public reaction when the brutal King Jehoram of Judah died?

No one regretted it: Jehoram got no memorial fire like earlier kings and was buried outside the royal tombs.

Which queen seized Judah's throne by killing the royal heirs after her son Ahaziah was slain?

Athaliah ruled for six years without knowing that one infant prince had been smuggled into the temple, and her last recorded word was a cry of treason.

Which priest sheltered the boy Joash in the temple and led the coup that crowned him king?

Jehoiada armed his guards with spears and shields that had belonged to David, and when he died at 130 he was buried among the kings.

What did King Joash place at the temple gate to collect money for repairing the building?

A chest replaced the Levites' slow collection round the towns, and it filled so fast that officials emptied it day after day.

What became of the priest's son Zechariah when he rebuked King Joash's Judah for idolatry?

He was stoned in the temple court on the orders of Joash, the very king his father had saved and crowned, and died asking God to take note.

In the fable Israel's king sent Amaziah of Judah, which plant asks a cedar for a marriage alliance?

A thistle gets trampled by a passing wild beast in the fable, a jab at Amaziah's swagger after beating Edom; he fought anyway and was captured.

To which 'city of palm trees' did Samaria's leaders return captives from Judah in Ahaz's reign?

Jericho was where the captives were handed back after the prophet Oded shamed their captors into clothing, feeding and anointing them first.

Which Assyrian king invaded Judah and sent envoys to taunt the defenders on Jerusalem's wall?

Sennacherib stayed at the siege of Lachish while his officers shouted in Hebrew at Jerusalem's walls that no nation's god had ever stopped him.

Hezekiah blocked the upper outlet of which spring and channelled its water to the City of David?

Gihon's diversion is listed among Hezekiah's great works; before the Assyrians arrived he had also stopped the springs outside the city to deny them water.

Which prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed with King Hezekiah when Assyria threatened Jerusalem?

Isaiah is also credited in 2 Chronicles with writing down the deeds of Hezekiah and, before him, of King Uzziah.

Which idolatrous king of Judah repented as a prisoner in Babylon and was given back his throne?

Manasseh had been dragged off in chains by Assyrian commanders; once home he threw out his idols and repaired the altar.

Which prophetess, a wardrobe keeper's wife, told King Josiah he would die before disaster struck?

Huldah warned that Jerusalem's doom was certain, but said the king's tender heart and tears had been heard.

In which valley did archers fatally wound King Josiah as he tried to block Pharaoh Necho's army?

Megiddo was a battle Josiah chose: Necho insisted his quarrel lay elsewhere, on the Euphrates, and warned him to stay out of it.

Which prophet composed laments for King Josiah after the king died of his battle wounds?

Jeremiah's laments for Josiah were still chanted by male and female mourners long afterwards, as a fixed custom in Israel.

2 Chronicles says no Passover like Josiah's had been kept in Israel since the days of which prophet?

Samuel's era is the benchmark for Josiah's feast, where the king alone gave 30,000 lambs and goats and 3,000 cattle.

2 Chronicles closes with which Persian king's decree inviting the exiles to go up to Jerusalem?

Cyrus says God has charged him to build a house in Jerusalem, and the book stops mid-invitation with the words 'let him go up'.

What does 2 Chronicles say the land of Judah finally enjoyed during the seventy years of exile?

Its sabbath rests ran for as long as the country lay desolate, which the chronicler presents as a prophecy fulfilled.

Who was Judah's last king, who broke his oath to Babylon's king and would not humble himself?

Zedekiah reigned eleven years, stiffening his neck against every warning, before the Babylonians burned the temple and emptied the country.

Christian Bibles place Chronicles after Kings; where does it usually stand in the Hebrew Bible, the Tanakh?

At the very end in the usual printed order: Chronicles closes the Writings, the third section of the Tanakh, so the Hebrew Bible finishes with a call to go up to Jerusalem.

Which book follows 2 Chronicles in Christian Bibles and opens by repeating its closing verses?

Ezra picks up exactly where Chronicles stops, and Jewish and Christian tradition long named the scribe himself as the author of both.

Greek translators titled Chronicles 'Paralipomenon'; what does that name for the book mean?

Things left out shows the Septuagint translators saw Chronicles as a mere supplement to earlier books, though much of that earlier material is copied almost unchanged.