History Literature / BooksOfKings

* TheStarscream: Many of Israel's kings became king after betraying and assassinating the former king, then proceeded to kill off their family.

* AntiVillain: King Ahab is [[TakeOurWordForIt said]] to be the most evil of all the kings of Israel, but can fairly easily come across as one of the most sympathetic instead when judged by how he acts in his "onscreen" appearances. Some of this is due to Values Dissonance (the narrator's main complaint against him is that he was tolerant of other religions, which many modern secular people will not think was ''that'' evil), but he also has many traits that would seem positive even at the time. For example, he is a capable soldier and statesman, brave in battle and yet magnanimous in victory (sparing the defeated Aramaeans and making an alliance and trade agreement with them instead of slaughtering them), and dies heroically fighting for his country. (Outside of Literature/TheBible, other old records also show that he was one of the leaders of TheAlliance against the Assyrians, TheEmpire of the day.) In fact, other than his liberal religious policy, the only unambiguously evil things his regime is ever really shown to do aren't even initiated by Ahab, but are either done [[LadyMacbeth at Jezebel's instigation]], or even done by her [[PoisonousFriend behind his back]]--and after her major atrocity (the judicial murder of the innocent farmer Naboth), Ahab is [[VillainousBSOD terribly regretful and ashamed]] about this. Of course, ''as the king'' he is still ultimately responsible for everything (and never punishes Jezebel for any of the evil things ''she'' does), but his characterization is very far from the cackling villain he is sometimes {{flanderized}} as in adaptations.

* DecadentCourt: Elah, king of Israel, was “[[TheAlcoholic drinking himself drunk]] in the house of Azra” when Zimri leads TheCoup against him.

* GodTest: Elijah challenges the worshipers of Baal to a contest where the god who answers by lighting a sacrifice on fire is determined to be God. Needless to say, the contest didn't end well for the Baal worshipers, even after Elijah makes it "nearly impossible" for God to light his sacrifice on fire.

* GoodIsNotSoft: King Josiah is said to have been the most [[IncorruptiblePurePureness utterly incorruptibly pure]] king in the entire Old Testament, and was a good and just ruler who cleaned up in Judah after [[TheCaligula Manasseh's]] reign and created happiness and justice for his people. However, he could still be quite brutal [[PayEvilUntoEvil on the wicked]]. For example, as part of his religious reform campaign, he had the idolatrous priests [[HoistByHisOwnPetard sacrificed on their own altars]]. (Which might sound harsh to modern people, but makes sense in the context of the time--especially if they were priests of [[HumanSacrifice Moloch]].)

* HotConsort: Abishag, who was brought to King David to keep him warm in his final years, except that [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend there was nothing sexual going on between them]]; she was ''literally'' there to warm his bed.

* IfICantHaveYou: In the JudgmentOfSolomon when the king decided to deal with two women arguing over whose baby it is by cutting the child in two, one of the women pleaded for Solomon to spare his life and give him to the other woman, while the other woman basically said, "Let him neither be mine nor yours; have him be cut in two."

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: After God blinds the Syrian army to prevent them from killing Elisha, Elisha prevents the Israelite army from killing the Syrians and [[TurnTheOtherCheek even feeds the Syrians and allows them to return to Syria.]] Soon after, however, the Syrian army puts all of Samaria under siege, causing a countrywide famine.

* TheStarscream: Many of Israel's kings became king after betraying and assassinating the former king, then proceeded to kill off their entire family.

* TeensAreMonsters: The prophet Elisha encounters a gang of malicious youths who insult his baldness and basically tell him to drop dead. God returns the favor by allowing [[BearsAreBadNews two she-bears]] [[KarmicDeath to maul forty-two of them]]. BullyingADragon, indeed. One translation calls these bullies "[[KidsAreCruel little children]]", yet it is far more likely that they were adolescents at youngest.

* YesMan: King Ahab is surrounded by a bunch of prophets who basically act like this when he asks them whether he and King Jehoshaphat should attack Ramoth Gilead or refrain, with all of them saying, "Go ahead and attack, for the Lord will deliver them into your hand." Micaiah son of Imlah, the only true prophet of the Lord present, tells the king that the Lord has put a lying spirit into the mouths of those other prophets in order to get him to fall in the battle.

* HenpeckedHusband: King Ahab comes off as rather wimpy in these books, allowing his domineering wife Jezebel control the country. This is taken UpToEleven when he lets her frame a man for crimes he didn't commit and have him executed, because he wouldn't sell his vineyard to him. Ahab should have told Jezebel that this was against the law of Moses, according to which not even a king had a right force anybody to give up their property. But he could never pick up the courage to do that, thus making him an AccompliceByInaction.

* HenpeckedHusband: King Ahab comes off as rather wimpy in these books, allowing his domineering wife Jezebel control the country. This is taken UpToEleven when he lets her frame a man for crimes he didn't commit and have him executed, because he wouldn't sell his vineyard to him. Ahab should have told Jezebel that this was against the law of Moses, according to which not even a king had a right force anybody to give up their property. But he could never pick up the courage to do that.

* TopWife: In 2nd Chronicles 11:21, it says that King Rehoboam of Judah loved Maacah above all the wives and concubines he married (for he had married eighteen wives and had taken sixty concubines), and thus her son Abijah was chosen to be the crown prince that would succeed him as king.

* HotConsort: Abishag, who was brought to King David to keep him warm in his final years, except that [[SheIsNotMyGirlfriend there was nothing sexual going on between them]].
* HumanSacrifice: Besides the religious sacrifice of children that pops up in the kingdom of Judah whenever an evil king rules the throne, the king of Moab in 2nd Kings chapter 3 sacrifices his firstborn son on the wall when he saw that he could not prevail against the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom and their armies.

** King Josiah does the same when he confronts Pharaoh Necho in battle and gets killed.

* BossInMooksClothing: Invoked by King Ahab of Israel, who enters a battle disguised as an ordinary soldier so the enemy won't recognize him. Unfortunately for him, a "random" arrow shot fatally wounds him anyway.

* KingOnHisDeathbed: David, despite being on his deathbed, ensures Solomon’s succession over Adonijah. His final recorded words are encouragements to Solomon.

* DyingCurse: In 2nd Chronicles chapter 24, after King Joash's FaceHeelTurn, Zechariah the son of Jehoidada tells the king, "Thus says God: 'Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, He also has forsaken you.' " When the king commanded Zechariah to be stoned, his last words were, "The LORD look on it, and repay!" Sometime after, the LORD brought judgment upon Joash by bringing the armies of Syria against Judah and Jerusalem, and he was killed.

* HolyIsNotSafe: In 2nd Chronicles, despite warnings from the priests, King Uzziah attempted to burn incense in the temple as a sacrifice to God. God got extremely angry at him for performing a task exclusively reserved for priests and so the king was struck with leprosy.

* HitMeDammit: In 1st Kings 20:35-37, a prophet of God needs to be beaten and bruised in order to deliver the message God had for King Ahab regarding the king of Syria that he granted mercy unto after handing him two defeats with the help of God.

* DownerEnding: The books of Kings, that is. The books of Chronicles, however, ends with King Cyrus of Persia calling for the return of the Jews to their own homeland, setting up for the events in the [[Literature/BookOfEzra books of Ezra]] [[Literature/BookOfNehemiah and Nehemiah]].

* HeelFaceTurn: Chronicles describes King Manasseh who "filled the land with innocent blood from one end to the other" returning to God late in life after his enemies took him captive. They returned him to his kingdom (though his son Amon was on the throne by then) to finish out his life. Most likely the basis for the apocryphal ''Prayer Of Manasseh''. Considering that he was Josiah's grandfather (and Josiah's reign started when he was just eight years old), it seems likely that Manasseh passed some of the lessons he'd learned on to his grandson, warning him not to go ticking off God the way he (and his son Amon) had with all the evil they'd done.

* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: King Ahaziah of Israel falls prey to this [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome at the start of 2nd Kings]], suffering a terrible fall and then being struck down by the Lord for consulting with false gods on the prospect of his recovery from the fall.

* TooDumbToLive: The King of Israel sends some soldiers to bring Elijah to him. Their leader isn't very respectful, so Elijah makes a snarky comment and [[KillItWithFire burns them with divine fire]]. The King sends a second group of soldiers, and their leader, apparently not noticing the charred corpses and burned rocks and whatnot, ''makes the exact same disrespectful demand as the first''. [[KillItWithFire The results are predictable.]] Thankfully, the third batch learned from their mistakes and humbles himself before the prophet.

* DesecratingTheDead: In 2nd Kings chapter 23, in fulfillment of a prophecy made years before in 1st Kings chapter 13, King Josiah desecrates the bones of the dead priests that served the altars of the idols King Jeroboam I of Israel had set up by burning their bones on the altar to desecrate the altar itself, preventing anyone else from using it. He stops when he comes to the tomb of the prophet who declared that he would desecrate the altar and leaves his tomb alone, along with that of the prophet who tested him after.

* DesecratingTheDead: In 2nd Kings chapter 23, in fulfillment of a prophecy made years before in 1st Kings chapter 13, King Josiah desecrates the bones of the dead priests that served the altars of the idols King Jeroboam I of Israel had set up by burning their bones on the altar to desecrate the altar itself, preventing anyone else from using it. He stops when he comes to the tomb of the prophet who declared that he would desecrate the altar and leaves his tomb alone.

* GeneralRipper: General Jehu can come across as a very early example: an undisputed FourStarBadass, he is also a [[KnightTemplar fanatical fundamentalist]] who launches a MilitaryCoup to root out the kingdom's ungodly leadership when a prophet tells him to, and then a [[ThePurge violent purge]] of all supporters of the old regime, as well as everyone who followed the religion of [[WarGod Baal]] and [[LoveGoddess Astarte]]. He is a [[GoodIsNotSoft heroic]] example, however, since (according to the narrator, at least) [[TheExtremistWasRight God really did approve of everything he did]]. Although, when all was said and done, Jehu only got rid of the Baal worship and not also the idol worship that was instituted by the first King Jeroboam, and thus his dynasty only lasted until the fourth generation. (According to the prophet [[Literature/BookOfHosea Hosea]], God thought that Jehu may have gone a little too overboard in his zeal for purging out both the royal family of Ahab and Baal worship.)

* MeaningfulEcho: In 2nd Kings chapter 2, Elisha cries out “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” when he sees his master and mentor Elijah the prophet go up into heaven in a whirwind. Years later, in Chapter 13, Joash king of Israel would say the same to Elisha upon his death bed, meaning that Elisha has earned his place alongside Elijah as a true prophet of God.

** God sends a lying spirit to all the false prophets in Ahab’s court, so they will entice him into battle against Syria, where Ahab will be killed. When the prophet Micaiah reveals this to Ahab, the king [[CassandraTruth refuses to believe him]] and [[ShootTheMessenger has Micaiah imprisoned]]. Ahab is then killed in battle against the Syrians.

* IWarnedYou: The LORD and his prophets had long warned that Israel/Judah’s continual apostasy would lead to exile. After over 400 years, it finally happens.
--> Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer, saying "Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments and My statutes, in accordinace with all the Law that I commanded your fathers, and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets." But they did not listen but were stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their God. (2 Kings 17:13-14)

* FairWeatherFriend: After hearing that David held a [[AwesomeMomentOfCrowning massive inauguration for Solomon]], “then all the guests of [[FakeKing Adonijah]] trembled and rose and each went his own way” (1 Kings 1:49).

* GuardianAngel: God provides an invisible army of horses and chariots of fire to protect Elisha from the Syrian army.

* InTheBack: Jehu spears Joram in the back as he is trying to escape and warn King Ahaziah of Jehu’s [[TheCoup coup]].

* BabyBeMine: In the case that was brought before King Solomon of two prostitutes that became mothers, one of the women accidentally killed her own son while sleeping with him, so she swapped the dead child with the other woman's living child. Now the both of them were complaining that the living child was their own and the dead child was the other woman's. Solomon settled this by threatening to slice the living baby in two and giving each woman half a child, with the woman that pleaded for the child to be spared and given to the other woman to be the actual mother of the living child.