The Book of 2 Kings, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of 2 Kings chapter by chapter. If you have not read our study on 1 Kings we suggest you start there. Because 2 Kings picks up right where 1 Kings leaves off. 1 Kings ended with Ahab dead and his son Ahaziah serving Baal. 2 Kings starts with Ahaziah sick and sending to the god of Ekron instead of the God of Israel. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

2 Kings covers about 300 years. It starts with Elijah going up to heaven in a whirlwind. Then Elisha does more miracles than almost any prophet in the Old Testament. But the kings keep turning away. In chapter 17 the northern kingdom of Israel is carried away by Assyria and never comes back. Judah lasts about 135 more years. It has two good kings. Hezekiah and Josiah. But it also has Manasseh. The worst king Judah ever had. And in chapter 25 Babylon burns the temple and takes Judah away. The book ends in exile.

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. 2 Kings is about the one God. “Thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth” (19:15). 2 Kings is about judgment. God warned his people for hundreds of years. They would not listen. And God did what he said he would do. And 2 Kings is about hope. Even at the very end God kept a light burning for David (8:19). That light leads us to Jesus Christ. We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

We told you in our 1 Kings study that 1 and 2 Kings were one book. The split comes in the middle of the reign of Ahaziah. The Jews believed Jeremiah wrote it.¹ The last thing the book tells us happened in the 37th year of the captivity of Jehoiachin (25:27). So it was finished while the people were in Babylon. The writer was explaining to the exiles why they were there.

2 Kings has three parts.² The ministry of Elisha and the end of Ahab’s house (1–10). The divided kingdom to the fall of Israel (11–17). And Judah alone until the fall of Jerusalem (18–25). We will break it down a little further than that. Elijah taken up (1–2). The ministry of Elisha (3–8). Jehu and the end of Ahab’s house (9–10). Joash and the kings that followed (11–16). The fall of Israel (17). Hezekiah (18–20). Manasseh and Josiah (21–23). And the fall of Jerusalem (24–25).

The writer uses the same pattern we saw in 1 Kings. Every king is judged by whether he did right in the sight of the LORD. Every king of Israel did evil. They all walked in “the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.” Only a few kings of Judah did right. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

2 Kings 1: Is There Not a God in Israel

Ahaziah king of Israel fell through a lattice in his upper room and got hurt (v.2). He sent messengers to Baalzebub the god of Ekron to ask if he would get better. Baalzebub means lord of the flies. The Jews later called the devil Beelzebub (Matthew 12:24). The angel of the LORD sent Elijah to meet the messengers. “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron?” (v.3). Ahaziah would die.

The messengers went back. They did not know Elijah’s name. But they said “He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins” (v.8). Ahaziah said “It is Elijah the Tishbite.” John the Baptist dressed the same way. “And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins” (Matthew 3:4). The king sent a captain with 50 men to bring Elijah. Elijah called down fire and it burned them up (v.10). The king sent another. Same thing. The third captain fell on his knees and begged for his life. God told Elijah to go with him. Elijah told Ahaziah to his face that he would die. And he did (v.17).

2 Kings 2: The Chariot of Fire

“And it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind” (v.1). Elijah went from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan. Three times he told Elisha to stay. Three times Elisha said “As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee” (vv.2, 4, 6). At the Jordan Elijah rolled up his mantle and struck the water. It parted and they went over on dry ground (v.8). Just like Moses at the Red Sea and Joshua at the Jordan.

Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted before he was taken. “Let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me” (v.9). The firstborn son got a double portion of the inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:17). Elisha was asking to be Elijah’s heir. Elijah said it was a hard thing. But if Elisha saw him go it would be his. “And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (v.11). Elisha saw it. He cried “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” (v.12).

Elisha picked up Elijah’s mantle and struck the Jordan. “Where is the LORD God of Elijah?” (v.14). And the waters parted. The sons of the prophets said “The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha” (v.15). Notice something here. Elijah went up. And then his spirit came on the one he left behind. Jesus went up into heaven while his disciples watched (Acts 1:9). Then the Holy Ghost was poured out on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:33). But Jesus did not send someone else. He said “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you” (John 14:18). The Spirit that came was “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).³

Elisha healed the bad water at Jericho by throwing salt in the spring (v.21). Then on the road to Bethel a group of young people came out and mocked him. “Go up, thou bald head” (v.23). They were telling him to go up like Elijah did. Elisha cursed them in the name of the LORD and two bears came out and mauled 42 of them (v.24). The KJV says little children. But the Hebrew word can mean young men.⁴ Bethel was the center of Jeroboam’s calf worship. These were not toddlers playing. They were mocking God’s prophet and the God who took Elijah up.

2 Kings 3: Ditches in the Valley

Moab rebelled against Israel. Jehoram king of Israel went to fight them with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and the king of Edom. After 7 days they ran out of water (v.9). Jehoshaphat asked for a prophet of the LORD. They found Elisha. Elisha told Jehoram he would not even look at him if it was not for Jehoshaphat (v.14). He called for a minstrel. And the hand of the LORD came on him. “Make this valley full of ditches” (v.16). There would be no wind and no rain. But the valley would fill with water. The next morning it did. The Moabites saw the sun shining on the water and it looked red like blood. They thought the kings killed each other. They came to take the spoil and were beaten (vv.22–24).

The king of Moab was desperate. He took his oldest son and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall (v.27). “And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him.” This is a hard verse. We will not go into all the views here.⁵ But notice that God’s people were in the middle of a land where kings burned their own sons. That is why God told Israel to be different.

2 Kings 4: The Widow and the Shunammite

A widow of one of the sons of the prophets came to Elisha. A creditor was coming to take her two sons as slaves (v.1). All she had was a pot of oil. Elisha told her to borrow empty vessels “not a few” (v.3). Shut the door and pour. The oil kept coming until there were no more vessels. “And the oil stayed” (v.6). She sold the oil and paid the debt. God fills as much as we bring him.

A great woman in Shunem made a room for Elisha with a bed and a table and a stool and a candlestick (v.10). Elisha asked what he could do for her. She had no son. Elisha told her she would have a son. She did. But when the boy was older he got sick in the field and died in her lap (v.20). She laid him on Elisha’s bed and went to find him. When people asked if everything was well she said “It is well” (v.26). Elisha came and went in and shut the door and prayed. He lay on the child. The child sneezed 7 times and opened his eyes (v.35).

There was a famine. One of the sons of the prophets put wild gourds in the pot. They cried “O thou man of God, there is death in the pot” (v.40). Elisha threw in meal and it was healed. Then a man brought 20 loaves of barley. Elisha said give it to the people to eat. His servant said how can I set this before 100 men. Elisha said “They shall eat, and shall leave thereof” (v.43). And they did. Jesus fed 5000 with 5 barley loaves and had 12 baskets left over (John 6:9–13). One greater than Elisha was there.

2 Kings 5: Naaman the Leper

Naaman was the captain of the army of Syria. A great man. “But he was a leper” (v.1). A little girl from Israel was taken captive and served his wife. She said “Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy” (v.3). Naaman went to the king of Israel. The king tore his clothes. He thought Syria was picking a fight. Elisha said send him to me.

Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at Elisha’s door. Elisha did not even come out. He sent a messenger. “Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean” (v.10). Naaman was angry. He thought Elisha would come out and wave his hand over the spot. “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” (v.12). His servants talked him into it. If the prophet told you to do some great thing you would have done it. How much more when he says wash and be clean (v.13).

Notice two things. First Naaman was cleansed when he obeyed the word. The Jordan did not have special power. Naaman went down into the water “according to the saying of the man of God.” We have dealt with this in our baptism series. But basically God has always connected his promise to obedience in the water. Peter said “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). Second notice what Naaman confessed. “There is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.”⁶ A Gentile came to know the one God. Jesus used Naaman to show that God cared about the nations (Luke 4:27).

Naaman offered Elisha a gift. Elisha would not take it. But his servant Gehazi ran after Naaman and lied to get silver and clothes (vv.20–23). Elisha knew. “Is it a time to receive money?” (v.26). The leprosy of Naaman came on Gehazi (v.27). Grace cannot be bought. Peter told Simon the sorcerer “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money” (Acts 8:20).

2 Kings 6: Open His Eyes

The sons of the prophets were cutting down trees by the Jordan. An axe head fell in the water. It was borrowed (v.5). Elisha cut a stick and threw it in. “And the iron did swim” (v.6). God cares about small things too. Then the king of Syria was fighting Israel. But every time he made a plan Elisha told the king of Israel where the Syrians would be. The king of Syria thought there was a spy. His servants said Elisha “telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber” (v.12).

So the king of Syria sent an army to Dothan to get Elisha. In the morning Elisha’s servant saw the city surrounded. “Alas, my master! how shall we do?” (v.15). Elisha said “Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (v.16). He prayed “LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see” (v.17). “And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” Then Elisha prayed and God struck the Syrians blind. Elisha led them into Samaria. When their eyes were opened they were in the middle of Israel’s capital. Elisha told the king to feed them and send them home (v.22). “So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel” (v.23). Kindness won where war would not.

Later Benhadad besieged Samaria. The famine was so bad that a donkey’s head sold for 80 pieces of silver (v.25). Two women agreed to eat their sons (vv.28–29). This is what Moses warned would happen if Israel turned away (Deuteronomy 28:53). The king blamed Elisha. He swore he would cut off Elisha’s head that day (v.31).

2 Kings 7: Four Lepers

Elisha said by tomorrow flour and barley would sell for a shekel in the gate of Samaria (v.1). The lord the king leaned on said even if God made windows in heaven that could not happen. Elisha told him “thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof” (v.2). Outside the gate were four lepers. They said “Why sit we here until we die?” (v.3). If they went into the city they would starve. If they went to the Syrians they might be killed. But they might live. So they went.

When they got to the Syrian camp it was empty. “For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses” (v.6). They thought Israel hired the Hittites and Egyptians against them. They ran for their lives and left everything. The lepers ate and drank and hid silver and gold. Then they stopped. “We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace” (v.9). They went and told the city. The people came out and plundered the camp. Flour sold for a shekel just like Elisha said. And the lord who doubted was trampled in the gate. He saw it but did not eat (vv.17–20). Like those four lepers we have good news. We cannot keep it to ourselves.

2 Kings 8: Hazael and a Light for David

Elisha had told the Shunammite woman to leave the land during a 7 year famine. When she came back someone else had her land. She went to the king. At that very moment Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha raised her son. And she walked in (v.5). The king gave her back her land and all its fruit. God’s timing is never an accident.

Elisha went to Damascus. Benhadad was sick and sent Hazael to ask if he would recover. Elisha looked at Hazael until Hazael was ashamed. Then Elisha wept. He said “I know the evil that thou wilt do unto the children of Israel” (v.12). Hazael said “But what, is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing?” (v.13). He went back and smothered Benhadad with a wet cloth and became king (v.15).

In Judah Jehoram became king. He married the daughter of Ahab (v.18). Ahab’s house was now mixed into David’s house. And he did evil. “Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children” (v.19). Remember that verse. God kept that promise all the way to the end of this book. And all the way to Jesus.

2 Kings 9: Jezebel

Elisha sent a young prophet to Ramothgilead to anoint Jehu king over Israel. Elijah was told to do this in 1 Kings 19:16. Now it was done. The prophet told Jehu “thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets … at the hand of Jezebel” (v.7). Then he opened the door and ran. Jehu got in his chariot and headed to Jezreel. The watchman said “the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously” (v.20).

Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah came out to meet him. They met him “in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite” (v.21). Jehu shot Joram through the heart with an arrow. He told his captain to throw the body into Naboth’s field. “According to the word of the LORD” (v.26). Ahaziah ran and Jehu’s men killed him too.

Jehu came to Jezreel. Jezebel painted her face and looked out a window. She called out to him. Jehu said “Who is on my side? who?” (v.32). Two or three eunuchs looked out. He said “Throw her down” (v.33). They did. Later Jehu said to bury her. She was a king’s daughter. But “they found no more of her than the skull, and the feet, and the palms of her hands” (v.35). The dogs had eaten her. “This is the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servant Elijah the Tishbite” (v.36). Elijah said it in 1 Kings 21:23. It came true to the letter.

2 Kings 10: Jehu’s Zeal

Ahab had 70 sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote to the leaders. They killed all 70 and sent their heads to Jezreel in baskets (v.7). Jehu said “Know now that there shall fall unto the earth nothing of the word of the LORD” (v.10). Jehu met Jehonadab and said “Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD” (v.16). Then Jehu tricked the worshippers of Baal. He said Ahab served Baal a little but Jehu would serve him much. He gathered them all in the house of Baal and had them killed. They broke down the house of Baal and made it a toilet (v.27). “Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel” (v.28).

But then the writer tells us this. “Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan” (v.29). Jehu got rid of Baal. But he kept the calves. “But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart” (v.31). He had zeal. But his zeal was for getting rid of his enemies. Not for following God with his whole heart. Paul said Israel had “a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2). God gave Jehu’s sons the throne for 4 generations (v.30). But “In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short” (v.32).

2 Kings 11: One Baby Left

When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw her son was dead “she arose and destroyed all the seed royal” (v.1). She was the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel. She killed her own grandchildren to take the throne. The line of David was almost wiped out. But Jehosheba the sister of Ahaziah took the baby Joash and hid him. He was hidden in the house of the LORD 6 years (vv.2–3). One baby. That was all that was left of the line of David. And God kept him alive.

Remember Genesis 3:15. The seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head. All through the Bible the enemy tried to destroy that seed. Pharaoh killed the Hebrew boys. Athaliah killed the seed royal. Herod killed the babies in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16). But God always kept the line alive. In the 7th year Jehoiada the priest brought Joash out and crowned him. He was 7 years old. “And they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king” (v.12). Athaliah came in and cried “Treason, Treason” (v.14). She was taken out and killed. Jehoiada made a covenant “that they should be the LORD’s people” (v.17). And they broke down the house of Baal.

2 Kings 12: Joash Repairs the Temple

“And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him” (v.2). Notice the last part. As long as Jehoiada was alive. Joash had the priests collect money to repair the temple. But after 23 years nothing was done (v.6). So Jehoiada put a chest with a hole in the lid beside the altar (v.9). The people gave and the workmen were paid. Later Hazael king of Syria came against Jerusalem. Joash sent him the gold from the temple to make him go away (v.18). Then his own servants killed him (v.20). 2 Chronicles 24 tells us that after Jehoiada died Joash turned to idols. And he had Jehoiada’s son Zechariah stoned in the court of the temple. Jesus mentioned Zechariah’s death (Matthew 23:35). A good start does not mean a good finish.

2 Kings 13: The Death of Elisha

Jehoahaz and then Jehoash reigned in Israel. Both did evil. But when Jehoahaz prayed “the LORD gave Israel a saviour” (v.5). Elisha got sick. King Jehoash came and wept over him. “O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof” (v.14). The same words Elisha said when Elijah went up. Elisha told the king to shoot an arrow out the window. “The arrow of the LORD’s deliverance” (v.17). Then he told him to strike the ground with the arrows. The king struck 3 times and stopped. Elisha was angry. “Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it” (v.19). He would only win 3 times. Half hearted faith gets half a victory.

Elisha died. The next year some men were burying a man when they saw raiders coming. They threw the body into Elisha’s tomb. “And when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet” (v.21). Even in death God showed that life came through his prophet. And the chapter ends “the LORD was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them … because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (v.23).

2 Kings 14: Amaziah and Jeroboam II

Amaziah reigned in Judah. He did right but not like David. When he killed the men who murdered his father he did not kill their children. Because of what Moses wrote. “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children” (v.6). Deuteronomy 24:16. He beat Edom. Then he got proud and challenged Jehoash king of Israel. Jehoash told him a story about a thistle that asked a cedar for his daughter (v.9). Stay home. Amaziah would not listen. Israel beat Judah and broke down 400 cubits of the wall of Jerusalem (v.13).

In Israel Jeroboam the son of Joash reigned 41 years. He did evil. But he won back land Israel had lost. “According to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spake by the hand of his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet” (v.25). This is the same Jonah who went to Nineveh. Then notice why God helped Israel. “For the LORD saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter … nor any helper for Israel” (v.26). Not because they deserved it. Because God had compassion.

2 Kings 15: Kings Come and Go

Azariah reigned in Judah 52 years. He is also called Uzziah. He did right. But the LORD struck him with leprosy and he lived in a separate house until he died (v.5). 2 Chronicles 26 tells us he went into the temple to burn incense. Only the priests could do that. Isaiah saw the LORD “in the year that king Uzziah died” (Isaiah 6:1).

In Israel things fell apart fast.⁷ Zachariah reigned 6 months and was killed by Shallum. He was the 4th generation of Jehu. Just like God said (v.12). Shallum reigned 1 month and was killed by Menahem. Menahem paid off the king of Assyria with 1000 talents of silver (v.19). His son Pekahiah was killed by Pekah. In the days of Pekah the king of Assyria came and took Galilee and carried the people captive (v.29). Then Hoshea killed Pekah. Five kings in a short time. Four of them murdered. The end was coming.

2 Kings 16: Ahaz

Ahaz reigned in Judah. He was one of the worst kings Judah had. He “made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen” (v.3). Syria and Israel came against Jerusalem. Ahaz sent to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria. “I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me” (v.7). He paid him with the silver and gold from the house of the LORD. Then he went to Damascus and saw an altar he liked. He sent the pattern back to Jerusalem. And he moved the altar of the LORD aside to make room for it (vv.10–14).

Isaiah went to Ahaz during this time. He told Ahaz to trust God and ask for a sign. Ahaz refused. So God gave him one anyway. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). Matthew tells us this was fulfilled when Jesus was born. “They shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us” (Matthew 1:23).⁸ When the king of David’s line trusted Assyria instead of God, God promised that he himself would come. Not a second person with God. God with us.

2 Kings 17: Removed Out of His Sight

Hoshea was the last king of Israel. He stopped paying tribute to Shalmaneser king of Assyria and sent to Egypt for help. The king of Assyria put him in prison. Then he besieged Samaria 3 years. “In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria” (v.6). This was 722 BC. The 10 northern tribes were scattered. They never came back as a nation.

Then the writer stops and tells us why. “For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt” (v.7). They walked in the ways of the nations. They built high places in every city. They set up images and groves on every high hill. They served idols. God sent prophets to warn them. “Turn ye from your evil ways” (v.13). “Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God” (v.14).

“And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal” (v.16). They passed their children through the fire. They used divination and enchantments. “Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only” (v.18). And it all goes back to one man. “Jeroboam drave Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin” (v.21). It started with two golden calves. It ended with a nation gone.

The king of Assyria brought people from other nations to live in Samaria. They did not fear the LORD. So God sent lions among them (v.25). The king sent back one of the priests of Israel to teach them how to fear the LORD. “They feared the LORD, and served their own gods” (v.33). These people became the Samaritans.⁹ That is why the Jews and the Samaritans did not get along in Jesus’ day. Jesus told the Samaritan woman “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). You cannot fear the LORD and serve other gods. It is one or the other. Just like Elijah said on mount Carmel.

2 Kings 18: He Trusted in the LORD

Hezekiah the son of Ahaz became king of Judah. “He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him” (v.5). He took away the high places and broke the images. And he broke in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses made. Israel had been burning incense to it. He called it Nehushtan (v.4). We saw this serpent in our Numbers study. God used it to save lives. Now people were worshipping it. Hezekiah destroyed it.

In his 14th year Sennacherib king of Assyria came and took all the walled cities of Judah (v.13).¹⁰ Hezekiah paid him silver and gold. But Sennacherib still sent his army to Jerusalem. His spokesman Rabshakeh stood outside the wall and shouted in Hebrew so the people could understand. “On whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?” (v.20). He said Egypt was a broken reed. He said the LORD sent him. He said “Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered at all his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?” (v.33). He put the LORD in the same group as the idols of the nations. That was his mistake.

2 Kings 19: Thou Art the God, Even Thou Alone

Hezekiah tore his clothes and went into the house of the LORD. He sent to Isaiah the prophet. Isaiah said “Be not afraid of the words which thou hast heard … Behold, I will send a blast upon him” (vv.6–7). Sennacherib sent a letter saying the same things. Hezekiah took the letter into the house of the LORD and spread it out before God (v.14). Then he prayed.

“Thou art the God, even thou alone.” “Thou art the LORD God, even thou only.” Hezekiah knew the gods of the nations were “no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone” (v.18). There is one God. He alone made heaven and earth. Isaiah says the same thing many times. “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me” (Isaiah 45:5).

God answered through Isaiah. Sennacherib would not come into the city or shoot an arrow there (v.32). “For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake” (v.34). That night “the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand” (v.35). 185,000 men. When they woke up in the morning they were all dead. Sennacherib went home to Nineveh. Later while he was worshipping in the house of his god two of his sons killed him with the sword (v.37). The man who mocked the God of Israel died in front of his own god. And his god could not save him.

2 Kings 20: Fifteen Years

Hezekiah got sick. Isaiah told him “Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live” (v.1). Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed and wept. Before Isaiah got out of the middle court God sent him back. “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee” (v.5). God added 15 years to his life (v.6). Hezekiah asked for a sign. Isaiah asked if the shadow should go forward 10 degrees or back. Hezekiah said back. “And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the LORD: and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward” (v.11). Prayer changes things.

Then the king of Babylon sent messengers with a present. Hezekiah showed them everything. All the silver and gold and spices and his whole armory. “There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not” (v.13). Isaiah came and told him the day would come when all of it would be carried to Babylon. And some of his own sons would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon (vv.17–18). Daniel and his friends were taken just like that (Daniel 1:3–6). Hezekiah said “Is it not good, if peace and truth be in my days?” (v.19). He was glad it would not happen in his lifetime. That was not his best moment. The chapter ends by telling us he made a pool and a conduit and brought water into the city (v.20).¹¹

2 Kings 21: Manasseh

Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king. He reigned 55 years (v.1). Longer than any king of Judah. And he was the worst. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah tore down. He built altars for Baal and made a grove like Ahab did (v.3). He built altars for the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD (v.5). He made his son pass through the fire and used witchcraft and dealt with familiar spirits (v.6). He put a carved image in the house of God. The house where God said “will I put my name for ever” (v.7). “Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel” (v.9). And he “shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another” (v.16).

God said “I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down” (v.13). 2 Chronicles 33 tells us that later in his life Manasseh was taken to Babylon in chains and humbled himself and God brought him back. Even the worst king could repent. But the damage was done. His son Amon reigned 2 years and did evil and was killed by his servants (vv.19–23).

2 Kings 22: The Book of the Law

Josiah was 8 years old when he became king. He reigned 31 years. “And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in all the way of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left” (v.2). In his 18th year he sent to repair the temple. Hilkiah the high priest said “I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD” (v.8).¹² It had been lost. The people of God lost the word of God in the house of God. Shaphan the scribe read it to the king. “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes” (v.11). He knew they had not done what the book said.

He sent to Huldah the prophetess. She said judgment would still come on Jerusalem. “Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods” (v.17). But to Josiah she said “Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD … thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place” (vv.19–20).

2 Kings 23: Josiah’s Reform

Josiah gathered all the people and read the whole book to them. He made a covenant before the LORD “to walk after the LORD, and to keep his commandments … with all their heart and all their soul” (v.3). Then he cleaned house. He burned the vessels made for Baal. He broke down the houses of the sodomites by the house of the LORD (v.7). He defiled Topheth so no one could burn their children to Molech (v.10). He took away the horses the kings had given to the sun (v.11). He destroyed the high places Solomon built for Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Milcom (v.13). 300 years later.

Then he went to Bethel. To the altar Jeroboam built. He broke it down and burned it. He took bones out of the graves and burned them on the altar “according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these words” (v.16). That was the man of God from Judah in 1 Kings 13:2. He said a child named Josiah would be born to the house of David and would burn men’s bones on that altar. About 300 years before Josiah was born God called him by name. And it happened exactly like God said.

Josiah kept the Passover. “Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days of the judges that judged Israel” (v.22). Then the writer says this about him.

With all his heart and all his soul and all his might. Those are the words of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:5. “Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Josiah was the king who kept the first commandment. One God loved with everything. “Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath … because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal” (v.26). It was too late for Judah. Josiah was killed at Megiddo fighting Pharaohnechoh (v.29). His sons who reigned after him did evil. Pharaoh made Jehoiakim king and made Judah pay tribute.

2 Kings 24: Nebuchadnezzar

“In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him” (v.1). God sent bands of Chaldeans and Syrians and Moabites and Ammonites against Judah. “Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh” (v.3). Babylon was the tool. God was the one doing it.

Jehoiakim died. His son Jehoiachin reigned 3 months. Then Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem. Jehoiachin surrendered. Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon with his mother and his wives and his officers (v.15). He carried out the treasures of the house of the LORD and cut in pieces the vessels of gold Solomon made (v.13). Just like Isaiah told Hezekiah. He took 10,000 captives. All the craftsmen and smiths. “None remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land” (v.14). Ezekiel was taken in this group (Ezekiel 1:1–2). Nebuchadnezzar made Jehoiachin’s uncle Mattaniah king and changed his name to Zedekiah (v.17). Zedekiah did evil and rebelled against Babylon (v.20).

2 Kings 25: The Temple Burned

In the 9th year of Zedekiah Nebuchadnezzar came with his whole army and built forts around Jerusalem (v.1). The siege lasted until the 11th year. The famine was terrible. Then the wall was broken. Zedekiah ran at night. The Chaldeans caught him in the plains of Jericho. “And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon” (v.7). The last thing he saw was his sons die.

Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard came. “And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem” (v.9). The army broke down the walls. They broke the two brass pillars Jachin and Boaz and the brass sea and carried the brass to Babylon (v.13). The house where the glory of the LORD filled the temple in 1 Kings 8 was burned to the ground. Everything God warned about in Deuteronomy 28 and 1 Kings 9:7 came true. The rest of the people were carried away.

Nebuchadnezzar made Gedaliah governor over the few who were left. But Ishmael of the seed royal killed him (v.25). And “all the people, both small and great … arose, and came to Egypt: for they were afraid of the Chaldeans” (v.26). Back to Egypt. The story that started with God bringing Israel out of Egypt ended with them running back. This is what Moses said would happen in Deuteronomy 28:68.

But that is not how the book ends. The last four verses tell us that after 37 years in prison Jehoiachin was let out.¹³ The king of Babylon spoke kindly to him. He took off his prison clothes. And he ate at the king’s table every day for the rest of his life. Just like Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 9. The son of David was still alive. The light for David had not gone out. Matthew lists Jehoiachin in the family line of Jesus. “And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel” (Matthew 1:12). From that line came Jesus Christ.

We have gone through 2 Kings chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First 2 Kings is about the one God. Elijah asked “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel” (1:3). Naaman the Syrian said “there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel” (5:15). Hezekiah prayed “thou art the God, even thou alone” and “thou art the LORD God, even thou only” (19:15, 19). And Josiah loved God with all his heart and soul and might (23:25). Just like the Shema says. The gods of the nations could not save their people. Sennacherib died in front of his god. Baal could not save Jezebel. There is one God. And he alone made heaven and earth.

Second 2 Kings is about judgment. God warned his people for hundreds of years. He sent Elijah and Elisha and Jonah and Isaiah and many more. “Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets” (17:13). They would not hear. Israel went to Assyria. Judah went to Babylon. The temple burned. Not because God was weak. Because God was faithful to his word. He told them in Deuteronomy 28 what would happen. And it did.

Third 2 Kings is about hope. God kept a light burning for David (8:19). When Athaliah killed the seed royal one baby was hidden in the house of the LORD. When Ahaz trusted Assyria God promised Immanuel. And when the book ends in Babylon the son of David is let out of prison and eats at the king’s table. God was not finished.

And 2 Kings points us to Jesus Christ. Elijah went up and his spirit came on Elisha. Jesus went up and came back in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. Naaman went down into the water according to the word and came up clean. Elisha fed many with a few loaves. And the light God promised David came into the world. “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). Immanuel. God with us. 2 Kings ends with the people in Babylon. The next book goes back to the beginning and tells the story again from the priests’ point of view. That is where 1 Chronicles begins.