2 Kings: two kingdoms fall
2 Kings runs from the ministry of Elisha, Elijah's successor, to the fall of both kingdoms, Israel to Assyria and Judah to Babylon. A people who would not hear the prophets came under the covenant's judgment, yet God did not forget his promise to David.
About the book
2 Kings is the second half of one book. In the Hebrew Bible Kings is a single book; the division into two comes from the Greek Old Testament.
Its author and date are discussed in the lesson on 1 Kings. In brief: Jewish tradition names Jeremiah Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra, and those who hold to it point out that the book's closing pages (24:18–25:30) are nearly the same as Jeremiah 52. Many scholars see Kings as the last part of a ‘Deuteronomistic History’, Israel's story told in the light of Deuteronomy's teaching and completed in the exile. On either view the last event it records falls about 560 BC, so the book was finished during the exile in Babylon.
Its story lies in the era the map under the Jesus tab calls the divided monarchy (930–586 BC), with only its last scenes in the exile. It covers nearly three centuries: from Elisha in the ninth century BC to the fall of Samaria, the northern capital, to Assyria in 722 BC, and of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC (some scholars date it 587). For a people who had lost their land, it answered two questions: how had this happened, and was any hope left?
How it unfolds
| Chapters | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1–8 | Elisha: Elijah taken up, Elisha's miracles, the healing of Naaman the Aramean |
| 9–17 | Two kingdoms: from Jehu's revolt to the fall of Israel (722 BC) |
| 18–21 | Judah: Hezekiah's trust and Jerusalem spared; the sins of Manasseh |
| 22–25 | Josiah's reform, the fall of Jerusalem (586 BC), Jehoiachin released |
Key passages
When Samaria falls, chapter 17 stops to say why. The people the LORD had brought out of Egypt worshipped other gods, and he had not left them unwarned:
Yet through all His prophets and seers, the LORD warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes …” But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God.
2 Kings 17:13-14
Judgment came, but only after long warning. Matthew Henry, commenting here, says "the Assyrian was but the rod of his anger" Matthew Henry: behind the rise and fall of empires stands the God of the covenant.
The book weighs every king by one measure: whether he "did what was right in the eyes of the LORD" (2 Kings 18:3) or did evil. Two kings of Judah shine. "Hezekiah trusted in the LORD, the God of Israel" (2 Kings 18:5); when Sennacherib of Assyria besieged Jerusalem, he spread the enemy's letter before the LORD and prayed, and the city was spared. Under his great-grandson Josiah the Book of the Law was found in the temple. "When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes" (2 Kings 22:11), and then he led the people in renewing the covenant and cleared the land of idols:
Neither before nor after Josiah was there any king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, according to all the Law of Moses.
2 Kings 23:25
Yet the very next verse says the LORD did not turn from his anger, because of all that Manasseh had done (2 Kings 23:26). One king's reform could not undo generations of turning away. Even so, God kept the promise he had made "to maintain a lamp for David and his descendants forever" (2 Kings 8:19).
The book and Christ
In the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus reminded his hearers of Elisha. There were many lepers in Israel in his time, "Yet not one of them was cleansed … only Naaman the Syrian" (Luke 4:27). A foreign general who dipped himself seven times in the Jordan and came up clean was a sign that God's mercy would reach beyond Israel to the nations, and Jesus set his own ministry in line with that mercy.
Most of the kings of 2 Kings forsook the covenant, and even the best king's reform could not hold up a falling kingdom. The book leaves its readers waiting for a son of David who would keep it. The New Testament presents Jesus as "the son of David" (Matthew 1:1), who said of his Father, "I always do what pleases Him" (John 8:29).
The book ends after Jerusalem has burned, with Judah's captive king brought out of a Babylonian prison:
So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he dined regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life.
2 Kings 25:29
It is a small scene, but David's house has not been cut off. Matthew Henry draws the lesson: "Let none say that they shall never see good again, because they have long seen little but evil" Matthew Henry. Matthew's genealogy calls this king Jeconiah and carries his line on past "the exile to Babylon" (Matthew 1:12) to Jesus. Even at the end of a fallen kingdom, the promise was not forgotten.
Reading it
Two chapters a day takes about thirteen days; begin with 2 Kings 1. As the lesson on 1 Kings suggests, keep a list of the kings of Israel and of Judah beside you, since the story moves back and forth between the two kingdoms, and watch for the verdict given on each king.
When you reach chapters 18–20, open Isaiah 36 to 39 alongside them: they tell nearly the same story, with the prophet at the centre of the crisis. Then go on to 1 Chronicles, which tells the same history again in the light of David's house and the temple.
Practice
- Practice 1 of 6
How does 2 Kings unfold?
- Practice 2 of 6
According to 2 Kings 17, why did the northern kingdom fall?
- Practice 3 of 6
What did King Josiah do when he heard the words of the Book of the Law found in the temple?
- Practice 4 of 6
In Luke 4:27, whom does Jesus name as the one leper cleansed in Elisha's time?
- Practice 5 of 6
How does 2 Kings end?
- Practice 6 of 6
When, and to whom, did Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, fall?
Reading to the end marks it read; tap to switch it.
Related topics
Source
- The Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b–15a — Completed c. 6th century. The Jewish tradition of who wrote (or compiled) each book of the Hebrew Bible: Moses his own book, the portion of Balaam and Job; Joshua his and the Torah's last eight verses (his death recorded by Eleazar and Phinehas); Samuel his, Judges and Ruth (finished by Gad and Nathan); David the Psalms with the elders; Jeremiah his, Kings and Lamentations; Hezekiah and his company Isaiah, Proverbs, the Song and Ecclesiastes; the Men of the Great Assembly Ezekiel, the Twelve, Daniel and Esther; Ezra his and the genealogies of Chronicles.
Lessons from the Bible, the church's creeds and classic commentary. Each book's author and date are given as the church has received them, and scholars who see them otherwise are presented fairly. Scripture quotations: BSB.