For centuries scholars have puzzled over the problem of Old Testament chronology. One of the most difficult issues has been the synchronization of the reigns of the Hebrew kings. The biblical records provide much information about these kings and how they relate to each other, but when all the information is put together it seems contradictory. As early as the third century B.C. attempts were made to correct these seeming errors in the biblical text. Solutions to these difficulties appeared even more remote as scholarship succeeded in determining the exact dates of events in ancient Babylon and Assyria, these dates seemed to be in hopeless conflict with the Bible.