The so-called historical books of the Hebrew Bible provide a sweeping view of ancient Israel in the period from circa 1225 BCE to circa 400 BCE. These books form a continuous series in the Christian canon, extending from Joshua through Judges, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and concluding with Esther. In the Jewish canon, Joshua through Kings are called the Former Prophets, 1-2 Chronicles and Nehemiah are included in the Writings, as is Esther, which is grouped with four other shorter books connected with Jewish festivals (the Megilloth). Joshua through Kings are probably named Former Prophets because they contain traditions about prophets who preceded Hosea (the first book listed in the Latter Prophets, also known as the Writing Prophets), and there is major attention to the prophets Elijah and Elisha in 1-2 Kings.
The flow of Israelite life begins with Joshua’s conquest of Canaan and continues with the leadership of “judges” before recounting the fortunes of the united and divided kingdoms in 1-2 Samuel and 1-2 Kings. Interestingly, 1-2 Chronicles covers in part the same ground as Kings but does so by repeating much of Samuel-Kings, to which it adds traditions of its own, producing a decidedly more religious view of the monarchy than the former. Oddly, the period of the exile is omitted and the story line jumps to the postexilic return to Palestine (Ezra-Nehemiah) and ends with the outlier short story about a Jewess who rises to the status of queen of Persia (Esther).