srael," "Book of the
Kings of Israel," and "Affairs of the Kings of Israel" (2 Chron. xxxiii.
18), refer to a single work is not disputed. Under one or other title
this book is cited some ten times. Whether it is identical with the
Midrash[2] of the book of Kings (2 Chron. xxiv. 27) is not certain. That
the work so often cited is not the Biblical book of the same name is
manifest from what is said of its contents. It must have been quite an
extensive work, for among other things it contained genealogical
statistics (1 Chron. ix. 1), and it incorporated certain older prophetic
writings--in particular, the _deb[=a]r[=i]m_ ("words" or "history") of
Jehu the son of Hanani (2 Chron. xx. 34) and possibly the vision of
Isaiah (2 Chron. xxxii. 32). Where the chronicler does not cite this
comprehensive work at the close of a king's reign he generally refers to
some special authority which bears the name of a prophet or seer (2
Chron. ix. 29; xii. 15, &c.). But the book of the Kings and a special
prophetic writing are not cited for the same reign. It is therefore
probable that in other cases than those of Isaiah and Jehu the writings
of, or rather, about the prophets which are cited in _Chronicles_ were
known only as parts of the great "book of the Kings." Even the
genealogical lists may have been derived from that work (1 Chron. ix.
1), though for these other materials may have been accessible.

The two chief sources of the canonical book of Kings were entitled
_Annals_ ("events of the times") _of the Kings of Israel_ and _Judah_
respectively (see KINGS). That the lost source of the _Chronicles_ was
not independent of these works appears probable both from the nature of
the case and from the close and often verbal parallelism between many
sections of the two Biblical narratives. But while the canonical book of
Kings refers to separate sources for the northern and southern kingdoms,
the source of _Chronicles_ was a history of the two kingdoms combined,
and so, no doubt, was a more recent work which in great measure was
doubtless based upon older annals. Yet it contained also matter not
derived from these works, for it is pretty clear from 2 Kings xxi. 17
that the _Annals of the Kings of Judah_ gave no account of Manasseh's
repentance, which, according to 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18, 19, was narrated in
the great book of the Kings of Israel. It was the opinion of Bertheau,
Keil and others, that the parallelisms of _Chronicles_ with _Samuel