Seder Olama timeline of Jewish history

Chronicles דברי הימים

The last book of the Tanakh: genealogies from Adam and the history of the house of David retold.

Chronicles closes the Tanakh and begins with the word «Adam»: its first nine chapters are unbroken genealogy, from the first man through the tribes to those who returned from Babylon. For a generation rebuilding a country this was not tedium but documentation — who belonged where, who was a kohen, who a Levite.

It then retells the history of the kings, but differently from Shmuel and Melachim. The northern kingdom is almost absent, while everything touching the Temple is detailed: how David gathered materials and arranged the Levites' watches, how they sang, how Chizkiyahu and Yoshiyahu purified the house. Episodes damaging to David's line are omitted; the book looks at history as continuity rather than judgment.

The Tanakh ends mid-sentence, with Cyrus's decree: «whoever is among you of all His people — let him go up».

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