2 Kings

Composition

The Book of Second Kings, often written as the Book of 2 Kings or simply "2 Kings," follows the Book of First Kings ("1 Kings") in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. In the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the original version of the Christian Bible’s Old Testament, 1 and 2 Kings functioned as a single book known as the Book of Kings. This unified Book of Kings was divided into two books in the Septuagint, which is the name given of the first translation of the Christian Bible into Greek. The Septuagint first appeared in the second century BC, at which time 2 Kings became recognized as a separate book in Christianity.

As a matter of theological and cultural tradition, the prophet Jeremiah has historically been cited as the author of both 1 and 2 Kings. While conservative religious scholars and ecclesiastical officials still accept Jeremiah as the author of the books, most modern and secular researchers think someone else wrote and/or arranged the texts. There is no expert consensus as to the identity of the alternative author(s). However, a plurality of scholars subscribe to a theoretical framework suggesting that a single person or unified group of authors compiled, wrote, and/or edited a chronological series of early Judeo-Christian scriptural texts including the Books of Kings during the late stages of Israel’s First Temple period, around 600 BC. This hypothesis is supported by literary features of the scriptural works in question, which display high levels of stylistic cohesion and unity despite supposedly having been written by multiple authors over a period of centuries.

In Christianity, church officials have responded to these authorship questions and controversies by developing a dogmatic doctrine to explain them. This doctrine holds that the Holy Spirit is the author of all scripture, which was given written form by human agents of God. According to its principles, the actual identities of these human authors are therefore irrelevant.

Summary

The narrative of 2 Kings continues from the end point of 1 Kings, which chronicles the final days of King David, the golden age of Israel under David’s successor King Solomon, and King Solomon’s downfall into polygamy and idol worship that ultimately results in Israel being divided into a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom (Judah). In 2 Kings, both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms fall to conquest, which the work frames as a direct consequence of the Israelites’ long drift away from God and reversion to immorality, paganism, and idol worship.

Elijah, a revered prophet who warned of God’s anger at the Israelites’ immoral ways in 1 Kings, is transported to heaven by a whirlwind early in 2 Kings, leaving his protégé Elisha to carry on his ministry. Meanwhile, armies from the neighboring kingdom of Moab rally to attack both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, which temporarily reunites the fractured Israelite tribes. However, the division between the kingdoms is reinstated following the Israelites’ victory over Moab, after which a seven-year famine afflicts them.

In 2 Kings 9, the wicked Jezebel is killed by Jehu, a contender for the Northern Kingdom throne occupied by her son Jehoram. Jezebel was introduced to the biblical narrative in 1 Kings as the wife of the immoral King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom. Her death was foretold by Elijah in 1 Kings, and comes to pass as predicted. Following Jezebel’s death, the Northern Kingdom is purged of the final vestiges of power held by the house of Ahab.

The prophet Elisha dies after the fall of the house of Ahab, but a miracle takes place at his tomb in 2 Kings 13, which recounts the story of a deceased man who was in the process of being buried. During the funeral procession, a band of tomb raiders passes through the area, prompting the mourners to hastily dispose of the man’s body in Elisha’s tomb. Upon coming into contact with Elisha’s remains, the deceased man comes back to life: "[as] soon as his body touched the bones of Elisha, the man was revived and stood up on his feet" (2 Kings 13:21).

Chapters 14–20 of 2 Kings document the continued immorality of the people of both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms under a succession of later rulers. Many Israelites are subjugated by the Assyrian ruler King Tiglath-Pileser, a prolific and successful conqueror who built Assyria into a major regional power during the historical era covered by the Books of Kings. The people of the 10 Israelite tribes of the Northern Kingdom are later taken into captivity in Assyria by King Sargon II, while the evil King Ahaz reigns over the Southern Kingdom for 16 years. Ahaz’s son, King Hezekiah, succeeds him and restores morality to Judah by reinstating God as the kingdom’s sole recognized deity and outlawing the worship of other gods in Solomon’s Temple. King Hezekiah’s faith prompts God to send an angel to protect the Southern Kingdom from Assyria by destroying the Assyrian military, fulfilling a prophecy made earlier by Isaiah.

However, the Southern Kingdom descends back into immorality during the rule of King Manasseh, who undid many of King Hezekiah’s religious reforms and restored polytheism in Judah. His grandson, King Josiah, locates a lost book of Judaic law in carrying out repairs to Solomon’s Temple. Reading the book to the people of Judah, King Josiah restores the religious reforms of Hezekiah, reinstating God as the sole recognized deity in the Southern Kingdom and destroying the temples and veneration sites devoted to pagan divinities. Following King Josiah’s death, the Babylonians attack the Southern Kingdom, capturing many of its citizens along with its incumbent ruler, King Zedekiah.

Themes

Commentators on the Book of Second Kings frequently note the curated and pointed manner in which it records and interprets history. According to the prevailing historical view among secular scholars, the division of Israel’s 12 tribes into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms—and the kingdoms’ eventual conquest by neighboring powers—were the result of a complex confluence of the political and economic forces shaping the regional events of the era. Yet, in both 1 and 2 Kings, these events are carefully framed as direct consequences of the Israelites’ immorality, spiritual alienation from God, and reversion to pagan customs and idol worship.

One of the main ways in which 2 Kings expands upon and explores this pervasive idea is through depictions of the wicked acts and moral failures of a succession of rulers, both in the Northern and Southern Kingdoms. Despite the moral interventions of figures such as King Hezekiah and King Josiah, 2 Kings largely depicts human rulers as highly prone to corruption and sin. This portrayal follows a thematic pattern established in 1 Kings, implying direct and contrasting comparisons that position earthly power as a destructive and inferior imitation of God’s heavenly power.

The otherworldly abilities of God’s chosen prophets can be viewed as a reminder of God’s superiority. Multiple miracles take place in 2 Kings: Elijah draws on divine power to divide the Jordan River, as does Elisha, his successor. Notably, Elijah is one of only two biblical figures who enters heaven without dying—a feat that not even Jesus Christ performed. (The other biblical figure to enter heaven without dying is Enoch in the Book of Genesis, whose miraculous passing is not explained.) Elijah and Elisha are also responsible for raising multiple people from the dead in the Books of Kings, with Elijah praying to God to resurrect the son of a widow in 1 Kings and Elisha restoring life to the dead on two occasions in 2 Kings. Elisha also performs other miraculous feats in 2 Kings, healing a leper and making the head of an axe float in the air.

The Book of Second Kings portrays the rulers of the Northern Kingdom as corrupt and immoral almost without exception while the Southern Kingdom has some righteous rulers and some wicked rulers. God ultimately passes judgment on the entire Israelite nation in the Books of Kings, permitting the Israelites to be conquered and subjugated under foreign powers. Commentators note that this judgment fulfills the warnings God communicated to Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy, which promised that the Israelites would only keep their "promised land" in Canaan by remaining faithful to God. As documented in the Books of Kings, the Israelites of both kingdoms fail to honor the commitments they made in the covenant, prompting God to punish them.

Bibliography

Carmichael, Callum. The Cambridge Companion to the Bible and Literature. Cambridge University Press, 2020, pp. 26–48.

"Introduction to the Book of 2 Kings." Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2022, www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-seminary-teacher-manual/introduction-to-the-book-of-2-kings?lang=eng. Accessed 20 Apr. 2022.

Lamb, David T. 1-2 Kings. Zondervan Academic, 2021.

Lemaire, Andre, Baruch Halpern, and Matthew Joel Adams. The Books of Kings: Sources, Compilation, Historiography, and Reception. Brill, 2010.

Lovell, Nathan. The Book of Kings and Exilic Identity: 1 and 2 Kings as a Work of Political Historiography. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Stulac, Daniel J.D. Life, Land, and Elijah in the Book of Kings. Cambridge University Press, 2020.

Swindoll, Chuck. "Second Kings." Insight for Living Ministries, 2022, insight.org/resources/bible/the-historical-books/second-kings. Accessed 20 Apr. 2022.