Kings, Prophets, and Exile

They demanded a king to be like all the other nations. They discovered what kings actually cost.

From the quiet midnight calling of young Samuel to the catastrophic fall of Jerusalem and a stunning confrontation with Alexander the Great, the story of Israel's monarchy is an epic of grand ambition, devastating civil war, and ultimate ruin.

Kings, Prophets, and Exile: A True History of Israel's Throne, the Prophets Who Confronted It, and the Fall That Sent a Nation into Exile, delivers a gripping, modern narrative retelling of Books Six through Eleven of Flavius Josephus's masterwork, The Antiquities of the Jews.

Bridging the sacred accounts of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Daniel, and Ezra with the wider ancient Mediterranean world, this second installment of The Antiquities of the Jews Retold places biblical history under a historian's microscope. Here, royal court intrigue collides with the brutal imperial politics of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia.

Inside Volume II of The Antiquities of the Jews Retold, you will discover:

• The Rise and Fall of Kings: Saul's descent into paranoia and the eerie séance at Endor; David's rise, his tragic moral unraveling over Bathsheba, and Absalom's bloody rebellion; and Solomon's golden reign where silver was as common as stones.

• A Kingdom Torn in Two: Rehoboam's arrogance, Jeroboam's golden calves, and the catastrophic two-hundred-year civil rivalry between Israel in the north and Judah in the south.

• The Prophets Who Defied Thrones: Elijah's clash with the priests of Baal at Mount Carmel, Elisha's miracles, Micaiah's solitary defiance, and Jeremiah's unheeded warnings from the bottom of a muddy cistern.

• The Annihilation of Two Nations: The ruthless Assyrian deportation that erased the northern ten tribes, followed by Nebuchadnezzar's siege, the blinding of Zedekiah, and the burning of Solomon's Temple.

• Survival and Return: Daniel's trials in the courts of Babylon and Persia, Esther's daring gamble, the rebuilding of the Second Temple under Ezra and Nehemiah, and Alexander the Great's dramatic peaceful entry into Jerusalem.

• Critical "Historical Depth" Sidebars: Engaging archaeological and textual explorations contrasting Josephus's account with the Tel Dan "House of David" inscription, the Kurkh Monolith, Sennacherib's siege reliefs, and the Babylonian Chronicles.

Complete with a detailed timeline, an extensive cast of characters, and historical maps, Kings, Prophets, and Exile offers a masterfully sequenced, human-scaled chronicle of faith, power, and survival.