Kings of Israel and Judah
The divided kingdom at a glance — every king, his years, his deeds, and his record before God.
Two kingdoms, forty kings, one standard: “he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD” — or he did not. Dates are the commonly reckoned BC years and overlap in a few co-reigns. For the events around these reigns in order, read Samuel & Kings — The Events.
Israel — the Northern Kingdom
Jeroboam IEvil
931 – 910 BC
Set up the golden calves at Bethel and Dan; the sin Israel never left.
NadabEvil
910 – 909 BC
Walked in his father’s sin; slain by Baasha at Gibbethon.
BaashaEvil
909 – 886 BC
Wiped out Jeroboam’s house, then walked in Jeroboam’s ways.
ElahEvil
886 – 885 BC
Assassinated by Zimri while drinking himself drunk at Tirzah.
ZimriEvil
885 (7 days) BC
Murdered his master, reigned a week, and burned the palace over his own head when Omri besieged him.
OmriEvil
885 – 874 BC
Bought the hill of Samaria and founded Israel’s capital; did worse than all before him.
AhabEvil
874 – 853 BC
Married Jezebel, enthroned Baal, hounded Elijah — and humbled himself once, in sackcloth, and God noticed.
AhaziahEvil
853 – 852 BC
Fell through a lattice and sent to Baal-zebub instead of God; Elijah met the messengers with fire’s answer.
JoramEvil
852 – 841 BC
Put away Baal’s image but clung to the calves; wounded at Ramoth-gilead and slain by Jehu in Naboth’s field.
JehuMixed
841 – 814 BC
Executed God’s judgment on Ahab’s house and Baal’s worship — by bloodshed God later judged; kept the golden calves.
JehoahazEvil
814 – 798 BC
Oppressed by Syria until he besought the LORD, who gave Israel a saviour — and Israel changed nothing.
JehoashEvil
798 – 782 BC
Wept over dying Elisha and struck the ground only three times; plundered Jerusalem’s temple treasures in war with Judah.
Jeroboam IIEvil
793 – 753 BC
Israel’s greatest outward prosperity since Solomon — and Amos and Hosea thundered against its luxury and calf altars.
ZechariahEvil
753 – 752 BC
Six months; the fourth and last of Jehu’s line, as God had promised Jehu — and no further.
ShallumEvil
752 (1 month) BC
Murdered Zechariah, reigned a month, and was murdered by Menahem.
MenahemEvil
752 – 742 BC
Bought off Assyria with a thousand talents squeezed from the people; reigned by cruelty.
PekahiahEvil
742 – 740 BC
Two years; murdered by his own captain Pekah in the palace at Samaria.
PekahEvil
740 – 732 BC
Lost Galilee and Gilead to Tiglath-pileser; murdered by Hoshea in a conspiracy.
HosheaEvil
732 – 722 BC
The last king of Israel; Samaria falls after a three-year siege and the ten tribes are carried away.
Judah — the Southern Kingdom
RehoboamEvil
931 – 913 BC
“My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins” — ten tribes gone in a day; Judah under him builds high places.
AbijamMixed
913 – 911 BC
His heart was not perfect with the LORD, yet for David’s sake God gave him victory over Jeroboam’s ambush when Judah cried out.
AsaGood
911 – 870 BC
Cleared the idols, even deposing his own idol-making mother; trusted God against a million Ethiopians — but leaned on Syria at the end and died rebuked.
JehoshaphatGood
873 – 848 BC
Sent teachers with the book of the law through Judah; at the battle he sent singers before the army: “Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established.” His one fault: affinity with Ahab.
JehoramEvil
848 – 841 BC
Athaliah’s husband: murdered his own brothers and walked in Ahab’s ways; died of a loathsome bowel disease, unlamented.
AhaziahEvil
841 BC
Ahab’s grandson through Athaliah; visited Joram at Jezreel and died by Jehu’s arrow in the same purge.
AthaliahEvil
841 – 835 BC
The usurping queen who murdered the royal seed — all but Joash, hidden six years in the Temple by Jehosheba the priest’s wife.
JoashMixed
835 – 796 BC
Crowned at seven; repaired the Temple under Jehoiada’s guidance; after Jehoiada died he fell into idolatry and murdered the priest’s son Zechariah.
AmaziahMixed
796 – 767 BC
Did right, “yet not with a perfect heart”; obeyed the prophet about the hired troops, then carried Edom’s gods home and worshipped them.
Azariah (Uzziah)Mixed
792 – 740 BC
Strong, famous, and God-helped while he sought the LORD; lifted up by pride, he seized the priest’s censer and died a leper in a separate house. Isaiah’s vision came “in the year that king Uzziah died.”
JothamGood
750 – 732 BC
Built the higher gate of the LORD’s house and “became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the LORD his God.”
AhazEvil
735 – 715 BC
Burned his children in the fire, shut the Temple doors, and copied Damascus’s altar — while Isaiah offered him the sign of Immanuel.
HezekiahGood
715 – 686 BC
Broke the brazen serpent when it became an idol, kept the Passover for both kingdoms, and watched God destroy Sennacherib’s army in a night; “after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah.”
ManassehEvil — repented at the end
696 – 642 BC
Fifty-five years of blood and idolatry, worse than the nations God destroyed; carried to Babylon in chains, he humbled himself greatly and prayed — and God heard him.
AmonEvil
642 – 640 BC
Two years in his father’s sins without his father’s repentance; murdered by his own servants.
JosiahGood
640 – 609 BC
King at eight; the Book found, the covenant renewed, the idols of two centuries ground to dust, and such a Passover kept “as was not kept since Samuel.” Slain at Megiddo by Pharaoh Necho.
JehoahazEvil
609 (3 months) BC
Taken in chains to Egypt by Necho — the first king of Judah carried captive.
JehoiakimEvil
609 – 598 BC
Burned Jeremiah’s scroll column by column in the winter fire; rebel and vassal by turns as Babylon closes in.
JehoiachinEvil
598 – 597 (3 months) BC
Surrendered Jerusalem and the Temple treasures to Nebuchadnezzar; thirty-seven years later, lifted out of prison in Babylon and seated above the kings there.
ZedekiahEvil
597 – 586 BC
The last king of Judah: broke his oath, hardened his heart against Jeremiah, watched his sons slain, and was blinded and carried to Babylon. The Temple burned the same summer.