Rebirth from Temple

As I’ve discussed in a previous post (and, more fully, in a forthcoming article in the Tyndale Bulletin ), Kings is organized by three parallel narratives: the story of the united kingdom (Solomon to Zedekiah and Jehoiachin); the northern kingdom (Jeroboam to the fall of Samaria and the destruction of Bethel); and the Omride dynasty (Omri to Jehu). Each of these ends with a Davidic revival: After Jehu comes Joash; after the fall of Samaria comes Hezekiah; after the fall of Jerusalem comes Jehoiachin’s exaltation. In the first two of these rebirths the temple plays a prominent role: Joash gestates in the temple for seven years before the Davidic dynasty is reborn, and Hezekiah (alone among the Kings in 1-2 Kings) goes into the temple to pray and spends a good part of his reign fixing the temple. This pattern does not hold for the end of Kings, but the connection is noticeable in the other two narratives: The temple is a means for the rebirth of the house of David.