1 Kings

Like 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings were originally one book, as I understand it.  It is very much in the same style as 1-2 Samuel.  A very action oriented narrative centered around the kingship of Israel. The events of the book take off immediately after the events in 1-2 Samuel.  It begins with an elderly King David setting up his son Solomon as king.  Early in his reign, God comes to him in a dream and says he can have whatever he wants.  Solomon famously asks for wisdom, and is granted it.  In addition he is given wealth, power and all the other things people love.

The text describes Solomon as being the "wisest man who ever lived", although much of his life he does end up living somewhat foolishly - or at least sinfully anyway.  That said, he ends up being one of Israel's greatest kings, and the nation flourishes more under him than perhaps any other ruler in its history.  It is also under Solomon that the original temple gets built.

His biggest failing was his love for women (especially those who didn't worship Israel's God).  He ended up setting up places for them to worship right next to the temple he had built for God.  That said, like David, he is considered a good king, and both are highly regarded.  However, he is not usually considered to be quite as obedient to God as David was, despite David's own sin and the fact it was Solomon who was chosen to build the temple.

Part way through 1 Kings, Solomon dies (his reign is not described in nearly as much detail as David's and Saul's) and his son Rehoboam becomes king.  Many of the Israelites didn't like him, and set up the former court official Jeroboam as king instead (who had earlier tried to seize power).  Jeroboam became king of the northern tribes, while Rehoboam remained king of Judah.  Jeroboam seems to have cared nothing for monotheism, and set up shrines from many of the surrounding pagan religions.  Several different prophets are described coming to him to tell him to stop his evil practices.  Rehoboam also practiced idolatry as well, and the text describes Judah as doing evil during this time, just like the northern tribes.  Both nations fought against each other for years.  It's not a pleasant time in Israel's history - especially in contrast with the glory years of David and Solomon.

At this point in the text, the word "Israel" gets reserved for the northern kingdom, and "Judah" gets used for the southern kingdom.  A number of king's reigns for both kingdom's gets described rather briefly.  Here's a brief list:

Judah: Abijah - Bad
Judah: Asa - Good
Israel: Nadab - Bad
Israel: Baasha - Bad
Israel: Elah - Bad
Israel: Zimri - Bad
Israel: Omri - Bad
Israel: Ahab - Really Bad

It's important to note, all of those bad Israelite kings' reign took place during the 30+ year reign of Asa.  Each one kept getting killed and replaced by another bad king every few years.

At this point we encounter the prophet Elijah, who was a prophet during the "really bad" king Ahab's reign, in the northern kingdom.  Much of the rest of the book is about him (and other prophets) and their dealings with Ahab and his wife Jezebel.

Eventually Ahab dies and Ahaziah becomes king.  But he too is evil, just like his predecessors.  While Ahab was king, Asa (the good king of Judah) finally dies and his son Jehoshaphat becomes king.  Like his father, he is described as a good king who followed God's ways.  So while Judah's first king was bad, they were followed by two long-lived kings who followed God's ways.  The northern kingdom, on the other hand, was filled with a series of evil kings who were constantly murdering each other.  The northern kingdom is not portrayed as a particularly pleasant place to be.

Since there was so much to cover in this book, I'll save the events of 2 Kings for my next post.