First book of Kings -- Who shall inherit the grand years of David? (chs. 1-4) -- Solomon enthroned (ch. 1) -- "Blood will have blood" (2:1-11) -- "The wisdom of Solomon" (2:12-46) -- Dreams and shadows of dreams (ch. 3) -- The apotheosis of empire (ch. 4) -- Stone upon stone, the king constructs immortality (chs. 5-9) -- The "great pyramid" of Solomon (ch. 5) -- The house of the Lord? (ch. 6) -- A palace fit for a king? (ch. 7) -- The temple dedicated : folly, fiction, obsession (ch. 8) -- The tyrant and the convenient deity (ch. 9) -- From Solomon to Jeroboam : kings run amok (chs. 10-13) -- The king and the queen : wisdom compounded, unconfounded (10:1-13) -- The great king : possessed by possessions (10:14-29) -- Shadows over the empire (11:1-8) -- Enemies and traitors : the decline and fall (11:9-43) -- The seamless cloak, torn (ch. 12) -- No strange gods before me (ch. 13) -- Of kings and their gods : a tale of woe (chs. 14-22) -- Jeroboam and Rehoboam : undone by idols (ch. 14) -- A line of nonentities (chs. 15-16) -- At long last, relief : Elijah the plainspoken (chs. 17-18) -- Elijah and Elisha: God's chosen chooses (ch. 19) -- King Ahab and the deity (chs. 20-21) -- War, and yet again war (ch. 22) -- Second book of Kings -- Of kings and prophets : light and darkness contending (chs. 1:1-6:23) -- Ahaziah : another king falls (ch. 1) -- "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its driver!" (ch. 2) -- Elisha : a prophet to love and to loathe (chs. 3-4) -- A virtuous duet and a dubious spirit (ch. 5) -- A gift of unexpected mercy (6:1-23) -- Famine and fury : war and its shadows (6:24-17:41) -- The horrid banquet of war (ch. 6) -- A moment's relief : the siege lifted (ch. 7) -- Something terrible beyond telling (ch. 8) -- The blood of kings--and queens (chs. 9-11) -- A king's greed, a prophet's epitaph (chs. 12-13) -- The spoils of war, continued (chs. 14, 15, 16) -- Exile : the final tragedy (ch. 17) -- Dawn at last : Isaiah and the last days of empire (chs. 18-25) -- Hezekiah : king of contradiction (ch. 18) -- Isaiah : prophet of hope against hope (ch. 19) -- A puzzle of praise for a foolish king (ch. 20) -- Innocent blood on royal hands (ch. 21) -- The scroll : restored for good? (chs. 22-23) -- Light amid the king's dark legacy (chs. 24-25)