2 Kings

Author: Unknown

2 Kings follows Israel to the fall of Samaria and Judah to the fall of Jerusalem.

Outline

  1. Elijah and Elisha (1–8)

    Elijah is taken up, and Elisha’s miracles continue the prophetic challenge to the northern kings.

  2. The house of Ahab ends (9–13)

    Jehu destroys Ahab’s house and Baal’s worship, and the dynasty’s violence does not end there.

  3. Samaria falls (14–17)

    Assyria takes the northern kingdom, and the narrator explains the exile by Israel’s refusal to hear.

  4. Judah alone, then exile (18–25)

    Hezekiah and Josiah reform, later kings do not, and Babylon burns the temple and the city.

Key verses

  • 2 Kings 17:13–14

    The fall of Samaria is tied to warnings the people would not hear.

  • 2 Kings 22:8

    Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the temple during Josiah’s repairs.

  • 2 Kings 25:8–9

    The Babylonian captain burns the house of the Lord and the king’s house.

2 Kings continues the reign of Ahaziah and the work of Elijah without a pause. Ahaziah dies as Elijah said he would. Elijah and Elisha travel from Gilgal to the Jordan. Elijah strikes the water with his mantle, they cross, and a chariot of fire separates them. Elijah goes up in the whirlwind. Elisha takes up the mantle, strikes the water, and asks where the God of Elijah is. The sons of the prophets see that the spirit of Elijah rests on him. The miracles that follow — healing the water, multiplying oil, raising the Shunammite’s son, feeding a hundred men, healing Naaman the Syrian — keep the same point. The Lord’s word is at work in Israel even when the throne is hostile, and it is not confined to Israel. Naaman, a commander of Aram, is cleansed, and Gehazi’s greed is judged.

Political violence fills the middle of the book. Elisha sends a prophet to anoint Jehu. Jehu kills Joram of Israel, Ahaziah of Judah, and Jezebel, whose body is eaten by dogs as Elijah had said. He slaughters Ahab’s seventy sons and the worshipers of Baal. The narrator says Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel and also that he did not turn from the sins of Jeroboam. Reform and the golden calves stand in the same reign. Athaliah, of Ahab’s house, seizes Judah and kills the royal seed. Joash is hidden in the temple and crowned. The Davidic line survives an attempt to end it. Later, Jehoash of Israel fights Amaziah of Judah and breaks down part of Jerusalem’s wall. The two kingdoms wound each other while larger empires gather.

Assyria ends the northern kingdom. Hoshea stops tribute. Shalmaneser besieges Samaria for three years. The city falls, and Israel is carried to Assyria. Chapter 17 stops the chronicle and explains. This happened because the people feared other gods, built high places, and would not listen to the prophets. The Lord had warned Israel and Judah. They would not hear. The king of Assyria settles other peoples in the cities of Samaria. They fear the Lord and serve their own gods. The mixed worship of the land is part of the aftermath, not an afterthought.

Judah remains, and the book refuses to flatten its kings. Hezekiah trusts the Lord, removes the high places, and rebels against Assyria. Sennacherib’s official stands at the wall and mocks the idea that the Lord can save the city. Hezekiah spreads the letter before the Lord. Isaiah says the king of Assyria will not enter the city. The angel of the Lord strikes the camp, and Sennacherib returns home and is killed by his sons. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, undoes the reform, fills Jerusalem with innocent blood, and is said to have done more evil than the nations the Lord drove out. Josiah finds the book of the law while the temple is being repaired, tears his clothes, and keeps a Passover. Huldah says the disaster written in the book will still come, but not in Josiah’s days. Josiah dies at Megiddo against Pharaoh. The last kings are vassals of Egypt and then of Babylon. Jehoiachin is carried away. Zedekiah rebels. Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem. The city is breached, the king is blinded, and the house of the Lord is burned. Gedaliah is appointed and then murdered. The book’s last paragraph is small and deliberate. In the thirty-seventh year of the exile, Evil-merodach releases Jehoiachin from prison and gives him a seat above the other captive kings. The line of David is not restored to Jerusalem. It is not erased either.

Chapters