And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah; and he reigned over Israel two years.
Nadab takes the throne of the northern kingdom from his father Jeroboam, the king who led Israel into idol worship and away from the Lord. Scripture dates his reign by the years of Asa in Judah. It lasted only two years — long enough to show the man he was.
The verse tells us when Nadab reigned; the verse that follows tells us how. Commentators note that the record of his two years contains nothing else at all.
Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, reigned over the ten tribes of Israel only two years (v.25). He followed his father's example. He refused the Word of God and kept up the worship of idols, and so he made Israel sin as his father did (v.26). The record says nothing else about his two-year reign, so nothing in it stands to his credit.
He is also the first link in a chain that never breaks.
Nadab is the first of Jeroboam's 18 successors as kings of the northern kingdom of Israel. Every one of these kings did evil in God's sight. Each walked in the way of Jeroboam and in the sin he used to make Israel sin. What a sad, sad record!
Two years seem too short to judge a man. Yet the time God gave was enough to settle the question.
Nadab reigned over Israel two years. God gave him enough time to make plain whether he would follow his father Jeroboam's ways or follow the Lord. The judgment God pronounced on Jeroboam and his family fell on Nadab while he was leading his people in the siege of the Philistine city of Gibbethon.
Another writer points out why Nadab's reign appears at this spot in the chapter.
So as not to interrupt the account of Asa's reign, verse 17 mentioned Baasha's attack, though it came much later. The Word turns back in verse 25 and tells us of Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, who began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa. His reign lasted two years. That short time was enough to prove his wickedness.
Nadab's name carries a sense that cuts against him. He was willing — but willing for the wrong thing.
So ended the first of the nine royal families that ruled (or misruled) the kingdom of Israel for two hundred and fifty years. Nadab's name means willing, and he seems to have been all too willing to keep up his wicked father's sin and pass it on. He is not once mentioned in the book of Chronicles.
Nadab's death at Gibbethon was more than a military coup. The prophet Ahijah had already said what would come on Jeroboam's family. Nadab's two years brought that word to its end.
His reign was cut short by a revolt. Baasha, of the house of Issachar, struck Nadab down at Gibbethon (Josh. 19:44; 21:23). Baasha then struck down the whole house of Jeroboam. This fulfilled what Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, had predicted, because of the sins Jeroboam committed and made Israel commit, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger. God's predicted judgments never fail in the end.
The same chapter sets Judah beside Israel. Judah's kings also failed, yet the throne there was held together by a promise made to David.
"He walked," it is said, "in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless for David's sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem: because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD." And God forgets it never.
Nadab's sin did not stop with himself. He pulled a whole nation into it, and that makes such sin heavier.
A person's sin becomes far more serious when it makes others stumble. Its results count against those who lead the ignorant and the unsettled along the path of their own disobedience.
Yet a father's record does not settle a son's. We can break the pattern, and there is a better one to copy.
We cannot excuse our own sin by blaming it on the pattern others set for us... But when we accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, we became partakers of the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world through sinful desire (2 Pet. 1:4). The Lord Jesus Himself is the perfect pattern for our lives.
- Pattern — Nadab walked his father's road, and the record of his reign holds nothing to his credit.
- Test — two years were enough time to show which road he would take.
- Willing — his name means willing, and he proved willing to carry his father's sin forward instead of ending it.
- Word — that road ended at Gibbethon, just as Ahijah had said it would. God's announced judgments arrive.
- Choice — an inherited road is no excuse. Christ Himself is the perfect pattern to follow instead.
And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel sin.
Nadab took over the northern kingdom from his father Jeroboam. Scripture sums up his whole two-year reign in one line: he copied his father, including the sin that pulled a whole nation down.
Commentators notice an irony in his name:
Nadab's name means willing. He seems to have been all too willing to continue and pass on the sin of his wicked father.
He inherited more than a throne:
Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, reigned over the ten tribes of Israel only two years. He followed his father's example. He refused the Word of God and kept up the worship of idols, and so made Israel sin as his father did. The record says nothing else about his two-year reign, so there is no hint of anything that was a credit to him.
"His sin" points back to one act of Jeroboam's:
Jeroboam was worried about Jerusalem, God's centre. If the Israelites went there to offer sacrifices, they might want to return and accept the rule of Rehoboam. Jeroboam had no real faith in the living God. So, on the advice of his officers, he followed what seemed convenient. He set up not one centre for Israel's worship but two, and both of them stood against God's one centre. To do this he had two golden calves made, one set in Bethel in the south of the land, and the other in Dan in the north. Did he not know about God's judgment on Israel for making a golden calf while Moses was receiving the law at Mount Sinai?
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One writer names what that worship really was:
The godless Jeroboam dared to interfere with the divine order for his own selfish political ends, and set up his calves at Bethel and Dan. But the worship offered there went to demons and not to God.
The verse does not only say Nadab sinned. His sin was one "which he made Israel to sin," and that phrase becomes the verdict on the whole northern line:
Jeroboam was brave and hard-working, yet he turned the people away from God's appointed centre. Of those who followed him the record solemnly repeats that they "walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel to sin." But of David's successors who walked after his example, it says they walked in the ways of David and turned neither to the right hand nor to the left. The one who did not walk in God's statutes sinned himself and turned others out of the way. The one who walked in them turned nobody away from the established Centre, the place where the Lord had put His name.
Even a short reign gave time for a test:
Nadab reigned over Israel two years. God gave him enough time to make plain which way he would go: his father Jeroboam's ways, or the Lord's.
Nadab ran straight into a judgment already spoken against his family:
Baasha then destroyed all the house of Jeroboam. So the prediction of Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, came true: "because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, and because he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger." God's predicted judgments never fail in the end.
The question turns to us:
What pattern do we set for our children? For others at our place of employment? For the next generation? For whoever comes after us? Just as water by nature runs downhill, so it is easier and more natural to set a bad example than a good one.
Yet a bad example is not the last word:
However, we cannot excuse our sin by blaming it on the pattern that has been set for us... But when we accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord, we were made "partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." The Lord Jesus Himself is the perfect pattern for our lives.
- Willing — His name means "willing." He proved willing for the wrong thing: he carried on his father's sin instead of turning from it.
- Way — Jeroboam's sin was the calves at Bethel and Dan. Fear and convenience set up two rival centres against God's one appointed place.
- Wider — The verdict is not "he sinned" but "he made Israel to sin." A leader out of step turns others out of the way, and that verdict follows every king of the northern line.
- Window — Two years were enough. God gave him time to show whether he would follow his father or follow the Lord.
- Word — Ahijah's prophecy against Jeroboam's house came true. God's predicted judgments never fail in the end.
And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which [belonged] to the Philistines, when Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon.
Nadab, son of Jeroboam, is two years into his reign. He is camped outside a Philistine-held town when one of his own men turns on him. It looks like ordinary political violence. Commentators ask a harder question: whose word came true at Gibbethon?
Gibbethon was not neutral ground. Nadab died trying to take it back.
Gibbethon was a town in Dan, allotted to the Levites of the family of Korah (Joshua 19:44; 21:23). It bordered on Philistine land, and the Philistines probably seized it when the Levites moved away to Judah. The name means "lofty place". Nadab was trying to win it back for the crown when he was killed by treachery.
Baasha was not an enemy outside the walls.
Another man, Baasha, of the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab. He killed him at Gibbethon, a Philistine city that Nadab was besieging (v.27). Baasha was on the side of the besiegers, but used the occasion to murder his own king! Then he took Nadab's place as king. In all of this the weakness of the people of Israel is apparent. They accept the authority of a murderer. Perhaps they thought his authority was better than Nadab's, but both men were rebellious against the authority of God.
The people raise no objection, and that is the deeper failure here.
Two years is a short reign. It was still long enough to settle the question about him.
The Word turns back in verse 25 and tells us of Nadab, the son of Jeroboam. He began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa. His reign lasted two years; this short period of time was enough to prove his iniquity. The Lord fulfils His word against Jeroboam in his son and all his family (cf. 1 Kings 14:14).
His death ended more than his own reign, and his name carries an irony.
So ended the first of the nine dynasties that ruled, or misruled, the kingdom of Israel for two hundred and fifty years. Nadab's name means willing. He seems to have been too willing to continue his wicked father's sin and pass it on.
Ahijah had spoken against Jeroboam's house long before this. The word looked forgotten. Then Nadab's death outside Gibbethon settled the account.
Baasha, of the house of Issachar, rose up and cut his reign short. He struck down Nadab at Gibbethon (Josh. 19:44; 21:23). Baasha then struck down all the house of Jeroboam. So the prediction of Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh, came true. God's predicted judgments never fail in the end. He carried out every judgment He threatened against Israel. One day He will do the same with the judgments written against our own age, this evil age.
Being used by God is not the same as pleasing Him. The instruments of His anger came under judgment themselves.
God might use Jeroboam to discipline Solomon and his house. He might use the kings of Assyria to discipline Jeroboam's subjects. He might use Nebuchadnezzar to discipline Judah and its kings. But God was obliged to judge each of them in turn. These rods of His anger (Isa. 10:5) were no more faithful to God than the people He used them against.
Baasha is the clearest case. He destroyed one house, then went the same way himself.
The Lord had said through the prophet Ahijah that Jeroboam's descendants would be completely destroyed, because of his wickedness. But Baasha was no better, and his own descendants fell under the same judgement.
Step back from one murder to the whole period.
This whole account is filled with wars and cruelty. It follows Solomon's reign of peace, which ended so quickly because the king and his people were unfaithful... This is one of the main symptoms of decline. War is declared, relentless war between people of the same race.
- Sin sown. Jeroboam's wickedness is the root. Everything at Gibbethon is its harvest.
- Word spoken. Ahijah announced the end of Jeroboam's house long before. Nadab's death is that word coming due, not politics running its course.
- Willing wrongly. Nadab's name means willing, and two years were enough to show what he was willing to continue.
- Rod used. God can use a murderer to carry out His word. He still judges that murderer, whose own line fell the same way.
- Judgment certain. Delay is not cancellation. God's predicted judgments never fail, including those written against our own age.
And Baasha slew him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead.
Nadab, son of Jeroboam, had reigned over Israel only two years when one of his own soldiers killed him and took his throne. Behind that murder stood a judgment God had already passed on Jeroboam's family.
Two years on the throne was a test, and Nadab failed it.
Nadab reigned over Israel two years. God gave him enough time to make plain whether he would follow his father Jeroboam's ways or follow the Lord. God had pronounced judgment on Jeroboam and his family. That judgment fell on Nadab while he led his people in the siege of the Philistine city Gibbethon.
Nadab's death ends the first ruling family of Israel, and his name matched his choices.
So ended the first of the nine dynasties that ruled — or misruled — the kingdom of Israel for two hundred and fifty years. Nadab's name means willing. He seems to have been all too willing to continue his wicked father's sin and to pass it on. He is not mentioned once in the book of Chronicles.
Nadab died at a place with its own sad history — a town meant for God's servants that had slipped into enemy hands.
Jeroboam and his sons had thrown out the priesthood God had appointed, and stopped them from serving the Lord as priests. So Nadab followed in his father's ways, but God did not allow him to continue long in his wickedness... Gibbethon was a town in Dan, allotted to the Levites of the family of Korah. It bordered on the land of the Philistines, and the Philistines probably seized it when the Levites moved to Judah. The name means lofty place. Nadab was trying to win the town back for the crown when Baasha killed him by treachery. But this happened in fulfilment of the prophecy of Ahijah.
The same deed can be a crime in the man's hand and a fulfilment in God's.
Baasha made sure that none of Jeroboam's descendants would challenge him. He killed them all. On his part this was vicious cruelty. Yet by killing them he fulfilled the Word of the Lord spoken by Ahijah the prophet. Ahijah had given the message of judgment to Jeroboam's wife, for her to pass on to Jeroboam.
Baasha ends the verse on the throne he stole. The people around him are the other half of the story.
Another man, Baasha, of the tribe of Issachar, conspired against Nadab. He killed him at Gibbethon, a Philistine city that Nadab was besieging. Baasha was on the side of the besiegers, but used the occasion to murder his own king! Then he took Nadab's place as king. In all of this the weakness of the people of Israel is clear. They accept the authority of a murderer. Perhaps they thought his authority was better than Nadab's. But both men were in rebellion against the authority of God.
Baasha wiped out one royal line and started another. His own ended the same way.
He conspired against Nadab king of Israel, killed him and all the royal family, and reigned in his place... The word of the Lord through the prophet Ahijah had said that every descendant of Jeroboam would be destroyed, because of his wickedness. But Baasha was no better, and his own descendants fell under a similar judgment.
What God says He will do, He does — and the principle reaches past Israel.
Baasha then struck down all the house of Jeroboam. So he fulfilled the prediction of Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh. This judgment came because of the sins Jeroboam committed and led Israel into, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger. God's predicted judgments never fail in the end. Judgments stand written against our own age, this evil age. The Lord will one day carry them out, just as He carried out every judgment He had threatened against Israel.
- Word spoken. Ahijah had already told Jeroboam's family what was coming; verse 28 is the date that word came due.
- Word tested. God gave Nadab two years — enough time to show whether he would turn to the Lord or walk in his father's way.
- Word fulfilled. Baasha's act was vicious cruelty on his part, and at the same time it carried out what God had said.
- Word repeated. Baasha was no better than the house he destroyed, and his own descendants fell under a similar judgment.
- Word certain. God's predicted judgments never fail in the end — including those written against our own age.
And it came to pass when he was king, he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left to Jeroboam none that breathed; until he had destroyed him, according to the word of Jehovah which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite,
Baasha seizes the throne of Israel and wipes out every descendant of Jeroboam. It looks like ordinary palace violence, but Ahijah had announced this sentence years earlier — so how can a murderer's ambition carry out God's own word?
Ahijah spoke this word long before Baasha acted, and the years in between weakened nothing. What God said would happen, happened — and judgments still ahead work the same way:
Baasha then struck down all the house of Jeroboam. This fulfilled the prediction of Ahijah, the prophet of Shiloh. God's predicted judgments never fail in the end. One day the Lord will carry out the judgments written against our own age, this evil age, just as He carried out every judgment He threatened against Israel.
Behind the slaughter lies a charge: Jeroboam sinned, and he made Israel sin. Scripture will not let his name stand without that line attached.
Jeroboam stands out in the Old Testament as the great division maker. Under him the great mass of God's people, ten of the twelve tribes, broke away from God's centre at that time. Like a death knell, the words the Spirit uses to mark out this man come again and again: "Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."
The same phrase follows king after king. Making others sin carries a weight of its own:
A person's sin becomes much more serious when it turns into a stumbling block for others. Those who drag the ignorant and the unsteady into their own disobedience must answer for its consequences.
The verse says Baasha left "not one that breathed." He wiped out the family to secure his own throne, and the same act carried out what God had said.
Baasha made sure that none of Jeroboam's descendants would challenge him. He killed them all. On his part this was vicious cruelty. Yet in killing them he fulfilled the Word of the Lord spoken through Ahijah the prophet (v.29). Ahijah had given the message of judgment to Jeroboam's wife (ch.14:10-11) to carry to Jeroboam.
Carrying out God's word changed nothing in Baasha himself.
He may have known something of God's purpose to cut off Jeroboam's house. Even so, his motive was not righteousness, as Jehu's was later. He was no better than the men he murdered, and he went on walking in their sin.
Later, God passed sentence on Baasha's own house. The killing that carried out God's word still counted against the man who did it:
One more verse is added, to emphasise that God judged Baasha and his family because of his idolatries and his murder of the house of Jeroboam. God, who looks on the heart, sees him only as an assassin serving his own ambitious designs, killing king Nadab and the entire house of Jeroboam.
Baasha was not a special case. God has often put power in guilty hands to discipline others:
God might use Jeroboam to discipline Solomon and his house. He might use the kings of Assyria to discipline Jeroboam's subjects. He might use Nebuchadnezzar to discipline Judah and its kings. But God had to judge every one of them in turn. These rods of His anger (Isaiah 10:5) were no more faithful to God than the people He used them against.
- Word spoken. Ahijah named the end of Jeroboam's house long before Baasha rose. The sentence stood on record, waiting.
- Word delayed. The quiet years changed nothing. God's predicted judgments never fail, including those written against our own age.
- Word fulfilled. Baasha's massacre was vicious cruelty. It also carried out the prophecy. Both are true at once.
- Word returned. God looks on the heart. He saw an assassin serving his own ambition, and He judged Baasha's house for the same killing.
- Word to us. Jeroboam is remembered for making Israel sin, not just for his own sin. Guilt grows heavier when your sin becomes a stumbling block for others.
because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to sin; by his provocation with which he provoked Jehovah the God of Israel to anger.
Baasha had just wiped out Jeroboam's whole family. This verse stops to say why: two charges stand against Jeroboam — what he did himself, and what he drew Israel into — and together they provoked God to anger.
The verse looks back. Baasha's move looks like a soldier's power grab. In fact it carried out a sentence God had already announced through the prophet Ahijah.
Baasha made sure that none of Jeroboam's descendants would challenge him. He killed them all. On his part this was vicious cruelty. But by killing them he fulfilled the word of the Lord spoken through Ahijah the prophet (v.29). Ahijah had given the message of judgment to Jeroboam's wife (ch.14:10-11) to pass on to Jeroboam. Verse 30 is a reminder that this judgment was because of Jeroboam's many sins by which he made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger.
It is the second charge — that he made Israel sin — which follows Jeroboam through the rest of the Bible.
Jeroboam stands out in the Old Testament as the great division maker. Under him the great mass of God's people, ten of the twelve tribes, broke away from God's centre at that time. Like a death knell, the Spirit describes this man again and again with the same sad words: "Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin." One chapter alone repeats it four times (2 Kings 15:9, 18, 24, 28). There is something appalling about it. This special way of speaking marks out how terrible this man's sin is in God's sight. Every true heart feels how awful it is. Personal sins are bad enough, but to turn away God's people from the centre which He has set up — what could be worse?
His name became a byword for the worst kind of evil.
Scripture charges Jeroboam with doing evil above all who had been before him, and his doings became a proverb. For Israel to sin "as Jeroboam the son of Nebat" was a mark of complete wickedness.
Jeroboam's new worship came from human advice, and people still defend the same thing today.
Instead of asking God, Jeroboam "took counsel," clearly from men, and the result was the setting up of the two golden calves, one at Dan in the far north, and the other at Bethel. Some argue that Jeroboam was really worshipping the Lord, but with the help of visible images. People urge this today to excuse blatant idolatry. The Bible does not support this. It says plainly: "Then this thing became a sin." God does not need an image to enable men to worship Him. In fact, Scripture condemns the very idea from start to finish.
Killing his family did not end the damage. What one man started became the settled pattern of a nation.
What Jeroboam introduced was a lasting dishonour to the Lord until He removed Israel from the land. Eighteen kings sat on Israel's throne after Jeroboam. Of almost every one the record says the same thing: he followed, or did not turn from, the ways of Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin.
Scripture ties responsibility to position. That is why Jeroboam answers not only for what he did, but for whom he took with him.
Position and privilege increase responsibility. If a priest or a ruler sinned, he had to bring a larger sacrifice than one of the common people (Leviticus 4)... Whenever leaders go astray, the results are more serious. Leaders have more influence, both for good and for evil... A private Christian who falls into error or immorality influences only his own circle. But if a well-known teacher in the Church leaves the way of truth, he often draws thousands after him into his own evil path.
Baasha carried out the sentence. That gave him no protection. He went on to repeat the very sin he had punished.
Baasha was God's instrument of judgment to wipe out the house of Jeroboam. Now he had to face the same judgment he had handed out. It is easy, we find, to condemn others and deal harshly with them for their sins. How solemn when we then go ahead and repeat the same sins ourselves! This is no trifling matter before God.
- Sinned. Jeroboam's own idolatry was real sin, not a harmless shortcut. Scripture refuses the excuse that images just help people worship the true God.
- Spread. The charge that follows him through the whole record is that he made Israel sin, turning God's people away from the centre God had set up.
- Provoked. Both charges together stirred God's anger, and the verse gives them as the reason his family fell.
- Outlived. The sin outlasted the sinner. Eighteen later kings walked in his way, and in the end God removed the nation from the land.
- Repeated. Baasha carried out the sentence, then copied the sin and came under the same judgment. Condemning another man's sin is no protection against doing it.
And the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
Nadab ruled Israel for two years, and the record of his reign closes with a question asked over king after king. Two things are worth asking here. What was that book of records? And why does Scripture say so little about a king's life and so much about his sin?
Nadab was the son of Jeroboam. His father's family was the first royal line of Israel, and it ended with Nadab. One writer marks how little the inspired record says about him.
So ended the first of the nine dynasties that for two hundred and fifty years ruled (or misruled) the kingdom of Israel. Nadab's name means willing, and he seems to have been too willing to continue and carry on the sin of his wicked father. He is not mentioned even once in the book of Chronicles… The inspired record of his uninteresting reign ends with the usual formula used in Kings.
Two years is a short reign. One writer says God measured that time out for a purpose.
Nadab reigned over Israel two years. God gave him enough time to make plain whether he would follow his father Jeroboam's ways or whether he would follow the Lord.
A second writer names who ended that reign, and points back to a word already spoken:
The Lord's word against Jeroboam is fulfilled concerning his son and all his family… Baasha conspires against him. He strikes him and kills him at Gibbethon. Then he reigns in his place, in the third year of Asa, king of Judah.
The book named here is not the Bible's own books of Chronicles. It was a state register, and it no longer exists.
These chronicles were drawn up during the reigns of all the rulers of those times, whether Jewish or Gentile. They have nothing to do with the Word of God. There you find what it has not pleased the Lord to record or to explain. These chronicles have been lost. The believer has no need of any of them; he has God's Word. There in God's account he finds all that is necessary for him, as well as the divine estimate of people, events, and things. Writings that are not inspired may record deeds, and even record them very accurately. But such deeds never carry more than human judgment.
The same writer weighs what has been lost against what stands:
While they still existed, they testified to the divine character of this Word and to the reality of the facts recorded in it. Now that they have disappeared, they have no other witness than the mention of them in the sacred writings. These things fell into ruin and vanished. The Word of God remains — the only monument, the only document that cannot be shaken.
Kings points back to such registers again and again. One writer shows that Chronicles works from other papers.
These two interesting books differ in another clear way. Their writers got their material from different sources. In Kings it is always plainly taken from state records: "the book of the acts of Solomon" (1 Kings 11:41), "the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah" (1 Kings 14:29), "the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel" (1 Kings 14:19), and so on. Chronicles takes in more of the writings of particular people, or selections from them — "Samuel the seer," "Nathan the prophet," "Gad the seer," "the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite," "the visions of Iddo the seer."
One writer meets this same closing question elsewhere in Kings, and answers it:
Yes, and they, along with the wicked acts recorded here, are written in God's books above — not merely in "the chronicles of the kings of Israel," but in the record of the deeds and doings of every man's life, whether good or evil. Solemn facts for us all!
- Recorded — Nadab's other acts went into Israel's royal registers, papers kept by the state. The Bible's books of Chronicles never mention him.
- Lost — those registers have vanished. The Word of God stands as the one document that cannot be shaken. The believer needs nothing else.
- Selected — Kings draws on state records. Chronicles draws on the writings of prophets and seers. What Scripture leaves out, God chose to leave out.
- Weighed — human records can be accurate, yet they carry only human judgment. God's account gives His own estimate of people and events.
- Remembered — two years were enough to show which way Nadab would go. His deeds stand written in God's books above, as every life's deeds do.