We see wicked kings who introduce false worship and righteous kings
who bring about reforms and try to overthrow false worship. Israel
yields to evil and is finally cut off, but Judah repents and is
restored to perpetuate the kingdom and to be the medium through
which Jesus came.

The Kingdom of Solomon. Solomon began in glory, flourished a while and
then ended in disgrace. He sacrificed the most sacred principles of
the nation in order to form alliances with other nations. He attempted
to concentrate all worship on Mount Moriah, probably hoping that in
this way he might control all nations. He finally became a tyrant and
robbed the people of their liberty.

The Two Kingdoms. This is a sad story of dissension and war and
defeat. Israel or the northern kingdom was always jealous of Judah. It
was by far the stronger and possessed a much larger and more fertile
land. There were nineteen king, from Jeroboam to Hoshea, whose names
and the number of years they reigned should be learned together with
the amount of scripture included in the story of each. Judah or the
southern kingdom was always a little more faithful to the true
worship. There were twenty kings, from Rehoboam to Zedekiah, whose
lives with the number of years they reigned and the scripture passages
describing each, should be tabulated and learned.

The Captivity. It is made clear that the captivity is because of sin.
God having spared them for a long time. (1) Israel was taken captivity
by the Assyrian Empire, whose capital was Nineveh. This marks the end
of the northern tribes. (2) Judah was captured by the Babylonian
Empire, but after a period of seventy years, the people were restored
to their own land.