Nearly all biblical scholars agree that I and II Chronicles could not have been written later than the end of the fifth century B.C., perhaps around 400. One reason for this is that the last person mentioned in I and II Chronicles is Anani of the eighth generation from Jehoiachin (
I Chronicles 3:24). Jehoiachin was taken captive by the Babylonians in 598 B.C. If twenty-five years are allotted for each generation, Anani would have been born between 425 and 400 B.C. This would place the book between 598 and 400 B.C.