When speaking of this Book, its correct name is "the First Book of Chronicles" (not the book of the first chronicles).

I & II Chronicles were written after the return from the Exile in Babylon. They were intended to put the Jews back in touch with their spiritual and religious roots, and refresh their memory of the history leading up to the Exile. The Series then continues with the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Note on differences in names between Samuel/Kings and Chronicles : during the Exile in Babylon the Hebrew language changed with respect to vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and even the way the letters of the alphabet were written. Hence the pronunciation and spelling of some personal and topographic names changed : eg. Araunah (II Samuel 24:18) became Ornan (I Chronicles 20)

Note on some of the names of the kings : Hebrew was originally written without any vowels. Only the consonants were written, and the reader filled in the vowels because he knew what the names were. However, with the passage of the centuries some of the names became ambiguous, and so we sometimes find two similar names for one person eg. Joash & Jehoash, Joram & Jehoram etc. Similar things happened with some Egyptian and Mesopotamian names, eg. Nebuchadnezzar or Nebuchadrezzar.

See the History Page for the reigns of the kings of Judah and Israel

1 Chronicles 1:1 - 2:4 - a review of the genealogies from Genesis.
1 Chronicles 2 - an abbreviated review of the genealogies of the sons of Jacob
1 Chronicles 3 - a review of the genealogies of the Davidic royal house, including the time of the Exile
1 Chronicles 3:19 - Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem after the Exile in Babylon (Ezra 2:1-2)
1 Chronicles 4 - 7 - a review of the genealogies of the families Israel. Anyone returning to Jerusalem from the Exile had to be able to prove that he was a member of a Jewish family, and had to be able to trace his genealogy to these families.
1 Chronicles 5:1 - see Genesis 35:22 & Genesis 39:3-4
1 Chronicles 5:26 - Tiglath-pileser (Pul) of Assyria took the tribes who had settled east of the Jordan, and carried them into captivity from which they did not return
1 Chronicles 6 - a review of the genealogies of the Levites and Priests
1 Chronicles 6:27-28 - Elkanah was the father of the Prophet Samuel
1 Chronicles 8 - a review of the genealogies of the tribe of Benjamin and of the royal family of Saul
1 Chronicles 9:1-34 - the families who returned from the Babylonian Exile
1 Chronicles 9:35-44 - a repeat of the genealogy of king Saul and his family
1 Chronicles 10 - a review of the death of Saul and his sons, and of the bravery of the men of Jabesh-gilead (compare I Samuel 31)
1 Chronicles 11 - compare II Samuel 5 & 23:8-39
1 Chronicles 11:6 - fills in the details that it was Joab who was first to enter Jerusalem, and so became commander of David's army
1 Chronicles 12 - the men who joined David at Ziklag before the death of Saul were not named in the account in I Samuel 27:1-7
1 Chronicles 13 - David is now king at Jerusalem. compare II Samuel 6:1-11
1 Chronicles 14 - compare II Samuel 5:11-25
1 Chronicles 15 - fills in the details of those who helped David bring the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem. compare II Samuel 6:12-23
1 Chronicles 16 - the Psalm that David composed for the event (not recorded in II Samuel).
1 Chronicles 17 - compare II Samuel 7
1 Chronicles 18 - compare II Samuel 8
1 Chronicles 19 - compare II Samuel 10
1 Chronicles 20 - compare II Samuel 11:1, 12:26-31 & 21:4-8
1 Chronicles 21 - compare II Samuel 24. In the earlier version it is said that God moved David to carry out the census, in the sense that God, who is in ultimate control, allowed it to happen. In the account in Chronicles the writer records that it was Satan who provoked David to number Israel. During the Exile the Jews had been exposed to the dualisitic ideas about the universe current in Persia, and had come to apply the name "Satan" to the personification of evil. For the variation in price between the two accounts, see the text book.
1 Chronicles 22:7-10 - compare II Samuel 7:1-16
1 Chronicles 22:13 - compare Joshua 1:6-9
1 Chronicles 23 - the family of the Levites
1 Chronicles 24:1 - the "sons of Aaron" were the male descendents of Moses' brother Aaron, and were the hereditary priests of Israel
1 Chronicles 25 - the Temple musicians
1 Chronicles 28:1-7 - compare I Chronicles 22:7-10 & II Samuel 7:1-16
1 Chronicles 29:10-13 - a psalm which is not recorded elsewhere
1 Chronicles 29:22 - "they made Solomon the son of David king the second time" the first time was when David was still alive, and Solomon became co-regent (I Kings 1:32-40); the second time would have been after the death of David, when Solomon would have been proclaimed sole king
1 Chronicles 29:29 - the Books of Nathan and of Gad are no longer in existence