The book does not give a date
There is no verse in 1 Chronicles that says, “This book was written in this year.” So any exact date goes beyond what the book itself tells us. The safest answer is that it was written after the Babylonian exile, not during the reigns of David or Solomon that fill much of its story.
That may feel less definite than we would like. Still, the book gives useful clues about the time and people it was written for.
It looks back after the exile
In its list of families living in Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles plainly refers to Judah having been taken to Babylon because of unfaithfulness. That is a backward-looking comment from someone writing after that national disaster had taken place. The writer is helping a later generation understand how they got there and who they still were as God’s people.
The emphasis is striking. The book begins with Adam and traces family lines through Abraham, Jacob, David, and the tribes of Israel. For people returning to a damaged land and rebuilt city, those names were not dry records. They connected real families to God’s promises.
So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies; and, behold, they were written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah, who were carried away to Babylon for their transgression.
The genealogies point to a later setting
The royal family line in 1 Chronicles includes Jeconiah, the king taken into exile, and continues with descendants after him. This does not tell us the exact year the book was completed, but it shows that the record reaches beyond the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.
Because of clues like these, many readers place the final compilation in the Persian period, after Babylon had fallen and Jewish communities had begun returning to Judah. Some date it in the fifth century BC, while others allow for the fourth century BC. Faithful readers can differ over the narrower date because Scripture does not settle it.
And the sons of Jeconiah; Assir, Salathiel his son, Malchiram also, and Pedaiah, and Shenazar, Jecamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah. And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and Shimei: and the sons of Zerubbabel; Meshullam, and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister: And Hashubah, and Ohel, and Berechiah, and Hasadiah, Jushab–hesed, five. And the sons of Hananiah; Pelatiah, and Jesaiah: the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shechaniah.
Why the date matters
Knowing that 1 Chronicles was likely shaped after the exile helps explain its focus. It gives careful attention to David’s line, the priests and Levites, the temple, worship, and the people’s shared history. It reminds a scattered and recovering people that God had not forgotten his covenant with David.
The writer also refers to earlier written records about David and Israel. Chronicles is not pretending that its story appeared from nowhere. It gathers Israel’s remembered history and directs it towards worship and faithfulness in the present.
So, rather than reading 1 Chronicles only as a record of long-ago kings, read it as encouragement for people rebuilding their life with God. Its message is steady: God’s purposes have not been cancelled by failure, loss, or exile.
Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,