01_Dubovský_321_346 28/10/14 10:32 Pagina 336 336 PETER DUBOVSKÝ the proper names, is the verb hf'[' in 15,34. Moreover, both kings were touched by God’s hand. The Lord struck Azariah with a skin disease and Jotham with the invasions led by Resin and Pekah. Fi- nally, both of them were just kings, but both of them were unable to remove the high places. In sum, the similarities between parts A and A’ are important enough to enable us to connect the description of Azariah’s reign with that of Jotham. Parts B and B’ also display several similarities. Both describe two Israelite kings. In part B Zechariah was a legitimate successor of Jeroboam and Shallum was a usurper; in B’ Pekahiah was a le- gitimate successor of Menahem and Pekah was a usurper. So the first king in each part is a legitimate successor of his father while the second is a usurper. Moreover, each part contains two formulas denoting a coup d’état (see above). The skillfully built parallelism between parts A–A’ and B–B’ leads the reader to the narrative center describing Menahem’s reign (part C). In order to determine the central part of chapter 15, it is necessary to focus on the addendum 31 preceding Menahem’s reign that lists the brutalities he committed (2 Kgs 15,16). Several schol- ars have connected this verse with Shallum’s reign 32. This verse starts with the particle za'. A similar case starting with an za'–clause in 1 Kgs 16,21 clearly connects the za'–clause with what follows and not with what precedes. Moreover, thematically the description regards what follows and not what precedes. Therefore it seems logical that in verse 16 the za'–clause should be connected with the literary unit describing Menahem’s reign, i.e. what follows 33. This clause prefaces the introductory regnal résumé (2 Kgs 15,17) with 31 The literary introductory or conclusive regnal résumés could be pre- fixed, infixed or suffixed with addenda. These addenda in 1 and 2 Kings are of two types: the first type adds further information about the king whose death has already been announced (1 Kgs 16,7; 2 Kgs 15,12). The second type serves as a preface to the reign of the king whose reign is going to be described (1 Kgs 16,21). 32 See for example the division in the Catholic Edition of the Revised Stan- dard Version of the Bible or M.A. SWEENEY, I & II Kings. A Commentary (OTL; London 2007) 372-373. 33 This verse also functions as a narrative transition between the descrip- tion of Shallum’s (2 Kgs 15,13-15) and Menahem’s reign (2 Kgs 15,17-22), in particular by means of repetition of the verb hkn in verses 15 and 16. We