Whom to Blame for Judah's Doom?: A Narratological and Intertextual Reading of 2 Kings 23: 30-25: 30

Regardless of how these issues are finally resolved, the larger point here is that the subtle switch in time reckoning and the flashback to Solomon are important details in the unfolding storyline, and Collinet routinely draws attention to such matters.B ecause of the nuanced presentation of these detailsa nd the larger interpretiveimplications that emerge, this volume ought to be commended to a wider audience of researchers. More examples could easily be furnished,b ut readers interested in the ending of Kings should be invited to use this study that is replete with literary awareness and theological sensitivity. The last kings of Juda led God's people directly into exile and thus in the catastrophe of the destruction of the First temple. How did that happen? Who was responsible? What kind of role did God play in this drama? These questions will be addressed by Benedikt Collinet. Unlike the narrative suggests, the kings were not the protagonists of the drama but the antagonists to God instead. God used the neighbouring peoples and Babel as tools of punishment. The reason for these punishments was the systemic covenant break of God's people. The consequences of these punishments can be read in Deuteronomy 28. The story is a composed deconstruction of divine salvation promises. The salvation gifts were withdrawn but the promises still remained. The people needed a new beginning that with reference to the exodus could only be indicated or prepared by pardoning Jehoiachin (2 Kings 25:27-30) The Babylonian exile is considered one of the worst trauma experiences in the context of HB/OT, with which a multitude of biblical texts are concerned. The final chapters of 2 Kings offer various theological interpretations of how and why the exile had to occur. Narratively, the study approaches the pericope and seeks to identify these interpretive models