Rhetorical Analysis Of The Book 1, Two Kings In The Bible

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In the books 1,2 Kings in the Bible the author(s) uses a rhetorical feature in the way he introduces each king. The author(s) not only includes historical data like the name of the king, the date of his accession to the throne, and the name of the kingdom he ruled, but they also give a theological assessment of each king whether the king appeared to be a virtuous or wicked. Introducing each of the kings the author repeatedly measures the king’s reign to how well the king adhered to God’s covenant. In each of the summaries of the kings the author uses a recurring phrase of stating if the king did what was right or evil in the eyes of the Lord. In addition to whether the king did good or evil in the eyes of the Lord, the writer uses the life and reign of David as the standard by which the lives of the later kings are measured.
The outline of the genesis of Kings is recorded with mostly good news until we read in 1 Kings 11:9-10, “The Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. Although he had forbidden Solomon to follow other gods,
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If we are to closer examine the introduction of each king, we would notice the ideas for a king that is described as “doing right in the eyes of the Lord” is a king that focuses on being obedient to their obligations of the Mosaic covenant. After reflecting about the way that the introduction of each king begins with the following statement of their adherence to the covenant, the report of a good king is mostly followed by that of a king that “does evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The writer uses a rhetorical feature of beginning each King with a description of their genealogy to their ancestor, how old they were when they came to reign, how long they reigned for, and their relationship with