2 Kings
Second Kings tells of the ministries of Elijah and Elisha and the tragic end of both kingdoms: Israel falls to Assyria and Judah to Babylon.
AuthorDeuteronomistic school
DateAround 850-560 BC
AudienceIsrael in exile
🎯 Learning objective
Understand the message of 2 Kings, its historical setting and its place in the history of salvation.
🏛️ Historical context
Assyria destroys Samaria in 722 BC. Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, destroys Jerusalem and the temple in 587 BC and deports much of the people.
🔙 Background
It continues 1 Kings: after Elijah, his disciple Elisha receives his spirit while the kings keep turning away from God.
🧭 Structure of the book
Chapters 1-13: Elijah taken up and Elisha's ministry
Chapters 14-17: fall of the northern kingdom
Chapters 18-25: Judah until the Babylonian exile
⭐ Key events and teachings
- 1Elijah goes up to heaven in a chariot of fire (ch. 2)
- 2Elisha heals Naaman the Syrian (ch. 5)
- 3The fall of Samaria (722 BC) and its theological explanation (ch. 17)
- 4King Hezekiah's reform (ch. 18-20)
- 5Josiah's reform and the finding of the book of the Law (ch. 22-23)
- 6Destruction of Jerusalem and the exile (ch. 25)
🏷️ Main themes
📖 Verses to memorize
- 2 Kings 2:11And as they went on, walking and talking together, behold, a fiery chariot and fiery horses parted them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
- 2 Kings 5:14Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child: and he was made clean.
- 2 Kings 6:16But he answered: Fear not: for there are more with us than with them.
- 2 Kings 17:13And the Lord testified to them in Israel, and in Juda, by the hand of all the prophets and seers, saying: Return from your wicked ways, and keep my precepts, and ceremonies, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers: and as I have sent to you in the hand of my servants the prophets.
- 2 Kings 23:25There was no king before him like unto him, that returned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his strength, according to all the law of Moses: neither after him did there arise any like unto him.
💭 For reflection
- Why does Jesus recall the healing of Naaman (Lk 4:27)?
- What does the fall of Jerusalem teach me about faithfulness?
It continues the history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah until their fall: Elijah's ascension, the miracles of Elisha, the destruction of Samaria and, finally, the fall of Jerusalem and the exile to Babylon.