Old Testament
2 Kings
25 chapters
Start reading: 2 Kings 1About this book
Second Kings continues the story of the two kingdoms and follows them to their ends. It opens as Elijah is taken up and his successor Elisha begins a ministry of miracles that reach the poor, the sick and even foreign commanders. Meanwhile the kings of Israel and Judah mostly drift from the Lord. The northern kingdom falls to Assyria, and the writer explains plainly that the people had ignored warning after warning from the prophets. Judah lasts longer, helped by reforming kings such as Hezekiah and Josiah, but it too falls, as Babylon destroys Jerusalem and the temple and carries the people into exile. The book ends with a small, unexpected kindness to David's descendant in captivity, a quiet sign that the story is not finished. It is a hard book about consequences, written to explain the exile, yet it leaves room for mercy.
- Author
- Unknown; Jewish tradition names Jeremiah, and many scholars see a compiler working from royal records and prophetic accounts.
- Date
- The events run from roughly the 850s to 560 BC; the final form comes from the exile or soon after.
- Audience
- Israelites in exile, needing to understand why Jerusalem fell and whether God's promises to David still held.
Themes
Prophetic warningReform and relapseJudgment and exileA lingering hope for David's line
Outline
- 1:1–2:25Elijah departs, Elisha begins
- 3:1–8:29The ministry of Elisha
- 9:1–16:20Jehu and the two kingdoms
- 17:1–17:41The fall of the northern kingdom
- 18:1–20:21Hezekiah's faith
- 21:1–23:30Manasseh and Josiah's reform
- 23:31–25:30The fall of Jerusalem and exile
Key verses
Chapters of 2 Kings
- 12 Kings 1After King Ahaziah of Israel is injured in a fall, he sends messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, rather than the God of Israel.
- 22 Kings 2As the Lord prepares to take Elijah to heaven, Elijah tries three times to leave Elisha behind, but Elisha insists on staying.
- 32 Kings 3Joram of Israel, joined by Jehoshaphat of Judah and the king of Edom, marches against Moab, whose king Mesha has stopped paying tribute.
- 42 Kings 4Elisha helps a prophet's widow, whose sons are about to be sold for debt, by multiplying her small jar of oil until she fills every vessel she can borrow.
- 52 Kings 5Naaman, commander of Aram's army, has leprosy, and a captive Israelite girl suggests he see the prophet in Samaria.
- 62 Kings 6Elisha makes a lost iron axe head float.
- 72 Kings 7Elisha announces that by the next day, flour and barley will sell cheaply at the gates of Samaria.
- 82 Kings 8Elisha warns the Shunammite woman to leave for seven years because of a coming famine, and when she returns, the king, who happens to be hearing Gehazi's stories about Elisha, restores her house and fields.
- 92 Kings 9Elisha sends a young prophet to Ramoth Gilead to anoint Jehu, commander of the army, as king of Israel and charge him to destroy Ahab's house in judgment for the blood of the prophets and servants.
- 102 Kings 10Jehu continues eliminating Ahab's house: he has seventy princes of Samaria executed and kills relatives of the fallen Ahaziah.
- 112 Kings 11When Ahaziah dies, his mother Athaliah seizes the throne of Judah and kills the royal heirs, but Jehosheba, the king's sister, hides the infant Joash in the temple.
- 122 Kings 12Joash does right in the Lord's eyes as long as the priest Jehoiada guides him, though the high places remain.
- 132 Kings 13In Israel, Jehoahaz and then Joash reign, both continuing Jeroboam's sins.
- 142 Kings 14Amaziah of Judah does what is right, though not like David, and avenges his father's murder while sparing the killers' children, following the law.
- 152 Kings 15This chapter moves quickly through several reigns.
- 162 Kings 16Ahaz of Judah abandons the ways of David, even sacrificing his son in the fire and worshiping at the high places.
- 172 Kings 17In Hoshea's reign, Assyria besieges Samaria for three years and deports the Israelites, ending the northern kingdom.
- 182 Kings 18Hezekiah becomes king of Judah and is praised as one who trusted the Lord more than any king before or after him.
- 192 Kings 19Hezekiah tears his clothes, goes to the temple, and sends to the prophet Isaiah, who reassures him that Assyria will hear a report and withdraw.
- 202 Kings 20Hezekiah becomes terminally ill, and Isaiah tells him to put his house in order.
- 212 Kings 21Manasseh becomes king at twelve and reigns fifty-five years, reversing his father's reforms.
- 222 Kings 22Josiah becomes king at eight and does right in the Lord's eyes.
- 232 Kings 23Josiah gathers the elders and reads the whole book of the covenant to the people, and they commit themselves to it.
- 242 Kings 24Jehoiakim serves Babylon for three years, then rebels, and the Lord sends raiders against Judah, as announced by the prophets, because of Manasseh's innocent bloodshed.
- 252 Kings 25Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem for about two years until famine breaks the city.