002_cudworth_498_523 24/02/15 11:57 Pagina 518 518 TROY D. CUDWORTH direct insight into the Chronicler’s own understanding of the divi- sion of the kingdom. From this text, Knoppers contends that the Chronicler’s Abijah condemns Jeroboam for his institution of a false kingship in 13,5-7, a blatant assault on the divinely sanctioned Davidic kingdom. Of course, such an interpretation would give vi- ability to his argument that the Chronicler inserted Jeroboam’s name in the text at 10,2.3, and 12 (see above). Though Japhet places the blame more on the people (less on Jeroboam), she also argues that the Chronicler uses the speech in 2 Chr 13,4-12 to change his- tory with a revision of the northern secession more favorable to Re- hoboam 61. In what follows, I will show that the Chronicler has stayed much closer to the storyline in 1 Kings than Knoppers or Japhet have argued. Abijah’s speech divides nicely into two parts, an explanation of how the once unified kingdom split in the past (vv. 5-7) and a com- parison of the two autonomous kingdoms in the present (vv. 8-12). The second quite clearly contains a rebuke directed at the north- erners for their idolatrous cult, but does the first really offer an indictment for the establishment of a separate kingship as Knoppers and Japhet have claimed? 62 Abijah’s opening statement may seem to point in that direction. After a brief address to the northerners (v. 4b), Abijah declares, “Do you not know that YHWH the God of Israel gave kingship over Israel to David and his sons forever as a covenant of salt?” (v. 5) 63. The content of this verse refers back to 1 Chr 17,14 when YHWH prom- ised David a place in his (i.e. God’s) kingdom for all time. Later, at the end of his reign, David’s speech to the different leaders of Israel in 28,1-10 asserted the continuance of this promise since God had chosen his son Solomon after him “to sit on the throne of the kingdom of Yahweh over Israel” (v. 5). Even so, an element of individual conditionality remained in the covenant for the Da- vidic kings as stated later in v. 9b: “If you seek (Xrd) him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake (bz[) him, he will cast you off forever”. For Solomon specifically, this meant carrying out 61 JAPHET, I & II Chronicles, 691-692. 62 See also DE VRIES, 1 and 2 Chronicles, 295; KLEIN, 2 Chronicles, 200. 63 See the discussion in JAPHET, I & II Chronicles, 691. This expression points to the eternal nature of the covenant; cf. Lev 2,13; Num 18,19.