several occasions in Judah’s history, groups of Northerners joined themselves to Judah. Some descendants of these defectors had returned from the Babylonian exile with the first returnees (1 Chr. 9:3–9). The book of Chronicles offers a balanced assessment on this complex situation. On the one hand, it strongly favors the political and religious structures of the South over those of the North. This loyalty to Judah becomes apparent by comparing the record of Kings and Chronicles. The Chronicler omitted