Quiz ques­tion: which of these names does not belong in the list of the first kings of Israel: Saul, Ish­bosheth, David, Solomon? If you answered ​“Ish­bosheth,” you’re wrong. He was the sec­ond king of Israel and ruled for two years. If this fact stuns you, you need to read Nor­man Gelb’s Kings of the Jews.
Nor­man Gelb, a his­to­ri­an and a jour­nal­ist, author of almost a dozen books, relates the biogra­phies of the fifty-plus kings, and two queens, who ruled Israel over a thou­sand year peri­od. Writ­ing in a clean nar­ra­tive style, he sets the stage for each peri­od of the monar­chy (there were sev­er­al breaks in sov­er­eign­ty). His retelling of the com­plex events of the Mac­cabean peri­od is one of the best I’ve read. Each king faced sev­er­al of the same chal­lenges: bal­anc­ing or play­ing off hun­gry region­al super­pow­ers as well as local threats; estab­lish­ing and pro­tect­ing trade routes and alliances; pros­per­i­ty and pover­ty; mil­i­tary and admin­is­tra­tive gov­er­nance, to name a few. In addi­tion, Jew­ish kings had the unique prob­lem of adher­ing to Jew­ish law and tra­di­tion while accom­mo­dat­ing pagan reli­gions, which was more of a chal­lenge than you might have expect­ed. Gelb also describes the only two times in his­to­ry that Jews con­vert­ed oth­ers by force.
Read straight through this his­to­ry of the Jews in their land up to the Com­mon Era, or dip into it as a ref­er­ence book. Either way, you’ll learn a lot about a fas­ci­nat­ing top­ic. Bib­li­og­ra­phy, chronol­o­gy, end notes, index.