Finally, after six months, we have arrived at the penultimate stage of the Israelite story, and it is without doubt the lowest and saddest point in their journey. So much so, that we will spend the majority of the next six months reliving it. It is known by one simple, desolate word: Exile.

It is here that we realise what Kings has all been about. From Solomon, to Ahab to Josiah, the story has been relentlessly stampeding towards collapse. Even the great reformers could not turn Israel’s heart back to Yahweh. The Council for the Defence lies in tatters and the verdict is final. Israel has failed. It’s over.

And so, Sargon II, the mighty King of Assyria, invaded Israel, deposed King Hoshea (Joshua) and deported anyone of note to the towns of the Habor River, far away from their beloved homeland.

Judah, however, managed to last out the Assyrian crisis. Forced to become a Vassal after invasion by the later King Sennacherib, Judah, under Hezekiah, still in service to the King of Egypt, survived the demand for total Assyrian allegiance after almost two hundred thousand Assyrian soldiers died suddenly in camp on a single night. With the balance of power shifting, however, it was only a matter of time before the ascending Babylonia would put Judah through a test she could not withstand.

It was in fact a good hundred years before King Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Judah, forcing King Jehoiakim to become his Vassal. Even the King of Egypt was overthrown as the Babylonian empire spread, yet Jehoiakim still found strength to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar. His son, King Jehoiachin, however, saw Jerusalem captured and all the nobles, craftsmen and artisans carried off to serve in Babylon. Even after this, Jehoiachin’s puppet successor (and uncle) King Zedekiah, rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, so Jerusalem again came under siege. Eventually, having fallen, Jerusalem was burned to the ground and her walls were smashed. The remaining inhabitants of Judah, petrified of the Babylonians, fled to Egypt. And so the Promised Land was utterly wrenched from its people; the people to whom it had so violently been given.

Understanding this relatively short section of Israelite history is crucial for understanding the prophetic literature we are soon to encounter. The exile to Babylon with which we are more easily familiar is, as we have read, a several-stage process and follows a century of political upheaval in the region. For example, Ninevah, the capital of the violent Assyrian Empire is the subject of the prophecies of Nahum. Ninevah’s destruction by the Babylonian King Nabopolassar in 612 BCE created a power vacuum as Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt jostled for supremacy. The later Kings of Judah (Hezekiah, Manasseh, Josiah, Jehoahaz et al) played these super-powers off against each other in a bid to survive. Thus these nations all make their way into the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, and so on. Approximately two thirds of the remaining readings for the Old Testament are concerned with the period covered by this last section of Kings and will take us again and again through the political upheaval of these hundred or so years.

As we end the Kings narrative, we should not move on without noting the overwhelming belief by the Redactor that the Exile was God’s doing. The point is laboured that both Israel and Judah were dissolved because of their sin and their failure to keep faithful to the Covenant with Yahweh (2Kgs 17:7-23; 24:20). The faith of Hezekiah is contrasted with the wickedness of Manasseh. And the finding of the ‘Book of the Law’ by Hilkiah which prompts the reforms of Josiah is the poignant end to the period. You cannot read it and not ask why the Book of the Law was not found earlier? Too little, too late, is the message from Kings; Jehoiakim undoing so much of Josiah’s good work and provoking judgement from The Suzerain, greater even than Assyria or Babylonia.

We have months to explore the nuances of this Exile and the understanding Israel developed of its ongoing relationship with Yahweh. For now, it is enough to say that the Children of Israel are scattered and the blame has been laid squarely at their feet.