Translation: The Last Kings of Judah

The dissertation thesis Die letzten Könige von Juda will be translated into English. This is because more than half of the literature used in this monograph are originally English. The author discusses not only the German but also the English discourses and therefore this work is part of both scientific communities. The Last Kings of Judah deals with the end of the Book of Kings (23:30-25:30). The study aims at a narratological and an intertextual perspective on this narration. The 2nd Book of Kings end with the Babylonian Exile and leaves the people of Israel with the question, whether their God has left them and whose fault this is. They come to the conclusion that they were not able to live the ways of the Torah. Of special importance is the Deuteronomistic Law with its special contract in Dtr 28. The contract includes not only blessings but also curses. These curses will hit Israel, when it ignores the ways of the Lord. Israel breaks the contract again and again and God always teaches them lessons, but they havent heard. In the end the structure of Sin is so bad in the community, that God only has the chance to destroy their society or to kill them all. He decides to do the first thing and he punishes them with the contract curses. They lose their capitol city, the Temple and their freedom. The King is arrested in Babel and so are the people. But there still is a glimmer of hope. The last King is not sentenced to death but released after some decades. This is no Happy End. It is a foreshadowing of a new beginning. As Joseph got rescued by God in Gen 37-50 as Prelude to the Exodus happening, Jehoiachins Release might be the Prelude of a second Exodus.