Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 2 Kings
Second Kings carries the story of God's people through the mighty ministry of Elisha to the tragic fall of both kingdoms: Israel to Assyria and Judah to Babylon. It is a sober record of what happens when a nation forsakes the living God, and of a God whose word never fails. This commentary walks through it verse by verse.
About This Commentary
Second Kings, once joined to First Kings as a single book, tells the long decline of the divided kingdom. It opens with the prophet Elijah still on the scene and soon hands his mantle to Elisha, whose ministry of miracles and prophetic word fills its early chapters. Kings rise and fall, most of them wicked, and the two kingdoms slide toward ruin: Israel is carried away by Assyria and, at last, Judah is taken into Babylon.
This commentary covers 2 Kings verse by verse, with the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, verified background, and an Apostolic reading. Through all the failure of kings, the book holds up one steady truth: the word of the LORD comes to pass, and the God who judges idolatry is the same God who calls His people to seek Him. References are given at the foot of each chapter.
This commentary on 2 Kings is complete, covering all twenty-five chapters verse by verse.
Author
Not named in the book; Jewish tradition suggests Jeremiah.
Setting
From the last days of Elijah to the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon.
Key People
Elijah, Elisha, the kings of Israel and Judah.
Theme
A nation reaps what it sows, yet God's word stands forever.
Translation
King James Version (KJV) throughout.
The Chapters
2 Kings Commentary
The chapters below are available now. The rest are being written and will open here as they are finished and verified.
2 Kings 1:1-18
Is There No God in Israel?
Injured King Ahaziah sends to a Philistine idol instead of the LORD, and God meets his messengers with a piercing question, then vindicates His prophet and His word.
Read Chapter 1 →2 Kings 2:1-25
Where Is the LORD God of Elijah?
Elijah is taken to heaven in a whirlwind with a chariot of fire, and his mantle falls to Elisha, who had asked for a double portion of his spirit. The Jordan parts again, and Elisha's ministry begins with healing at Jericho and judgment at Bethel.
Read Chapter 2 →2 Kings 3:1-27
Make This Valley Full of Ditches
Three kings march against Moab and are trapped without water. Elisha commands them to dig ditches, and God fills the valley with water though no rain falls, and gives Moab into their hand. Moab's king offers his own son in desperation.
Read Chapter 3 →2 Kings 4:1-44
There Shall Not Be Room Enough to Receive It
A cluster of Elisha's miracles of grace: the widow's oil that fills every vessel, the Shunammite woman given a son and that son raised from death, the poisoned pot healed, and a hundred men fed from a few loaves with food to spare.
Read Chapter 4 →2 Kings 5:1-27
Wash, and Be Clean
Naaman the Syrian leper is pointed to the prophet by a little captive maid, offended by the simple command to wash in Jordan, then cleansed and brought to confess the one true God. Elisha refuses reward, but greedy Gehazi takes the leper's disease.
Read Chapter 5 →2 Kings 6:1-33
They That Be With Us Are More
Elisha makes a borrowed axe head float, and opens his servant's eyes to see the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire around the Syrian army. He leads the blinded enemy into Samaria and feeds them home. Then a siege brings dreadful famine.
Read Chapter 6 →2 Kings 7:1-20
This Day Is a Day of Good Tidings
Elisha promises sudden plenty and a scoffing officer doubts. That night God routs the Syrians with a phantom noise, and four lepers find the abandoned camp and carry the good news to the starving city. Every word of the LORD comes true.
Read Chapter 7 →2 Kings 8:1-29
For David His Servant's Sake
The Shunammite's land is restored by God's timing, Elisha weeps over the cruelty Hazael will do, and Hazael murders his master to seize Syria. In Judah, the house of Ahab corrupts Jehoram and Ahaziah, yet God keeps the lamp of David burning.
Read Chapter 8 →2 Kings 9:1-37
What Peace, So Long as the Whoredoms of Jezebel?
Jehu is anointed king to execute God's judgment on the house of Ahab. He kills Joram in the field of Naboth and strikes down Ahaziah, and Jezebel is thrown from her window and devoured by dogs, exactly as Elijah had foretold.
Read Chapter 9 →2 Kings 10:1-36
Come, and See My Zeal for the LORD
Jehu cuts off all the house of Ahab and, by a ruse, destroys the worshippers of Baal out of Israel. God rewards his obedience, yet he clings to Jeroboam's golden calves and takes no heed to walk in God's law with all his heart.
Read Chapter 10 →2 Kings 11:1-21
Behold the King's Son
Athaliah murders the royal seed and seizes the throne, but the infant Joash is hidden six years in the temple. The faithful priest Jehoiada crowns the true king, cuts off the usurper, and renews the covenant, tearing down the house of Baal.
Read Chapter 11 →2 Kings 12:1-21
To Repair the Breaches of the House
Joash does right under Jehoiada's guidance and repairs the neglected temple, the money handled by men who deal so faithfully they need no auditing. But the high places remain, he buys off Hazael with the temple treasures, and his reign ends in murder.
Read Chapter 12 →2 Kings 13:1-25
The Arrow of the LORD's Deliverance
Israel is oppressed under Jehoahaz and Joash, yet God hears their cry and remembers His covenant. The prophet Elisha dies, promising deliverance through arrows shot in faith, and even his dead bones raise a man to life.
Read Chapter 13 →2 Kings 14:1-29
Thine Heart Hath Lifted Thee Up
Amaziah of Judah begins well and defeats Edom, but pride draws him into a ruinous war with Israel. In the north, Jeroboam II's long reign restores Israel's borders, a mercy God gives an undeserving people, as the prophet Jonah had foretold.
Read Chapter 14 →2 Kings 15:1-38
The LORD Smote the King
Azariah (Uzziah) is struck with leprosy for proud presumption; Israel's throne changes hands in a spatter of blood as Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, and Pekah rise and fall; Assyria begins to carry Israel away; and Jotham reigns in Judah.
Read Chapter 15 →2 Kings 16:1-20
I Am Thy Servant and Thy Son
The wicked Ahaz passes his son through the fire, spurns God's help and hires Assyria against Syria and Israel, copies a pagan altar for the temple, and desecrates the house of the LORD, a king who feared everything but God.
Read Chapter 16 →2 Kings 17:1-41
They Feared the LORD, and Served Their Own Gods
Samaria falls and Israel is carried into exile. The chapter explains why: generations of idolatry and stubborn unbelief against the God who redeemed and warned them. Foreign settlers then fill the land with a divided, syncretistic worship.
Read Chapter 17 →2 Kings 18:1-37
He Trusted in the LORD God of Israel
Hezekiah tears down the idols, even the bronze serpent, and trusts the LORD as none before or after him. Assyria invades Judah, and the field commander Rabshakeh hurls a blasphemous assault on Judah's trust before the walls of Jerusalem.
Read Chapter 18 →2 Kings 19:1-37
Spread It Before the LORD
Hezekiah spreads Sennacherib's blasphemous letter before the LORD and prays for deliverance to God's glory. God answers through Isaiah, and in one night the angel of the LORD destroys the Assyrian army; the blasphemer falls by the sword.
Read Chapter 19 →2 Kings 20:1-21
I Have Heard Thy Prayer, I Have Seen Thy Tears
Sick unto death, Hezekiah prays and God adds fifteen years, turning back the sun's shadow as a sign. But flattered by Babylon's envoys, he proudly shows all his treasures, and Isaiah foretells that all of it, and his sons, will be carried to Babylon.
Read Chapter 20 →2 Kings 21:1-26
Manasseh Made Judah to Sin
Manasseh, the most wicked king in Judah's history, rebuilds the idols, defiles the temple, and fills Jerusalem with innocent blood. God pronounces the doom of Jerusalem. Amon repeats his father's sin, and young Josiah is made king.
Read Chapter 21 →2 Kings 22:1-20
I Have Found the Book of the Law
Young Josiah does right and repairs the temple, where the lost Book of the Law is found. When it is read, the tender-hearted king rends his clothes, and the prophetess Huldah confirms coming judgment but promises mercy to a humbled heart.
Read Chapter 22 →2 Kings 23:1-37
He Turned to the LORD With All His Heart
Josiah reads the book of the covenant to the nation and leads them to covenant with the LORD. He carries out the most thorough purge of idolatry in the Bible, fulfilling a prophecy spoken 300 years before, and keeps an unequalled Passover. Yet God's wrath against Manasseh's sin is not turned away, and the good king dies at Megiddo.
Read Chapter 23 →2 Kings 24:1-20
Which the LORD Would Not Pardon
Babylon rises and Egypt retreats. Jehoiakim rebels and dies, and the LORD sends raiders against Judah for the sins of Manasseh. Jehoiachin surrenders after three months and is carried to Babylon with the temple treasures and ten thousand captives, and the puppet king Zedekiah is set up to fall.
Read Chapter 24 →2 Kings 25:1-30
So Judah Was Carried Away Out of Their Land
The siege breaks Jerusalem; Zedekiah is caught, blinded, and led to Babylon. The temple, palace, and city are burned and the walls torn down, and the people are exiled. Gedaliah is murdered and the remnant flees to Egypt, yet the book ends with the Davidic king Jehoiachin lifted from prison, a flicker of covenant hope.
Read Chapter 25 →