1) Ahaziah is judged by God and dies due to his reliance of
prophets of another god. Elijah is again
shown to be a reliable prophet of God, and can smite soldiers with a word.
2) Elisha is demonstrated to be the true successor to Elijah through a miraculous transition of power. The superiority of God’s anointed prophets over all others is made clear.
3) The kings of Judah and Israel come together for war again (along with the vassal Edom). Israel is demonstrated again to be outside of God’s will, but God (and his prophet Elisha) still act favorably due to the presence of Judah, and Moab is routed.
4) A string of miracles is shown to validate Elisha’s place as a prophet of God.
5) Elisha’s miracle-working in highlighted again. Eligha’s servant is condemned and punished for trying to profit off of the miracle. God continues to control all events.
6) Further demonstrations of Elisha’s miracle-working in diverse settings. Elisha also displays a surprising early example of nonviolence towards enemies.
2) Elisha is demonstrated to be the true successor to Elijah through a miraculous transition of power. The superiority of God’s anointed prophets over all others is made clear.
3) The kings of Judah and Israel come together for war again (along with the vassal Edom). Israel is demonstrated again to be outside of God’s will, but God (and his prophet Elisha) still act favorably due to the presence of Judah, and Moab is routed.
4) A string of miracles is shown to validate Elisha’s place as a prophet of God.
5) Elisha’s miracle-working in highlighted again. Eligha’s servant is condemned and punished for trying to profit off of the miracle. God continues to control all events.
6) Further demonstrations of Elisha’s miracle-working in diverse settings. Elisha also displays a surprising early example of nonviolence towards enemies.
7) God miraculously provides for the people and scatters
their enemies, fulfilling yet another prophecy of Elisha.
8) Elisha helps to provide for the widow he had earlier helped. Political situations in both Israel and Judah deteriorate – though God’s hand is clearly still with Elisha, it appears that little can be done to salvage the larger situation.
9) Elisha commands the anointing of Jehu, who purges those who had led the nation of Israel into adultery, killing the kings of both Israel and Judah as well as Jezebel.
10) Jehu completely wipes out Ahab’s house as the Lord had told, then wipes out the people of Ahaziah as well, then follows by wiping out those who had worshipped Ba’al and his temple. Still, he did not rid Israel of the golden calves. God begins to take territory away from Israel.
11) The mother of the former king of Judah ruthlessly takes the throne, but one of her grandchildren survives the purging and is eventually installed as the rightful king. Athaliah the queen and Mattan the priest of Ba’al are put to death.
12) Jehoash rules Judah long and well, though not perfectly. His priests however, appear either corrupt or incompetent in repairing the house of the Lord. Administrative changes are undertaken to spearhead the repairs on the temple. Aram invades but is bought off with gifts. Jehoash is eventually killed by his own servants for unstated reasons.
13) More kings do what is wrong in the sight of the Lord and Israel suffers, though God has compassion on them and saves them from their enemies at multiple points. Elisha dies, making a last prophecy just beforehand and being responsible for a last miracle just afterwards.
14) The King of Judah basically does what is right in the sight of the Lord, while the King of Israel is disobedient and begins leading his people into ruin. However, when it comes to going to war the King of Israel is in the right and the King of Judah is in the wrong, thus Judah is defeated by Israel and ransacked.
15) Judah enjoys peace under 70 years of two generally righteous kings (though one is struck by leprosy as a punishment from God for not removing the high places), while Israel undergoes extreme turmoil as one evil king after another is killed early in his reign by a new assumer of the throne.
16) The new king of Judah leaves the way of the Lord and practices abominations. When the kings of Israel and Aram come against him, he asks for the help of Assyria, who then conquers much of Israel. Judah then begins being influenced by desire to please Assyria in religious matters, and replaces some of the Temple with things copied from the north.
17) After the reign of one last ungodly king, Israel is fully conquered by Assyria and the people are carried off. This happens due to the myriad ways in which they had failed to follow the Lord their God. Assyria resettled Samaria with peoples from many other nations, who worshipped other gods. He eventually put priests of Israel among them to worship God as well, but their practices became mixed.
18) Hezekiah emerges as one of the best kings of Judah, removing the high places and all idolatry. Perhaps because of this, Judah is not destroyed when Israel is. Still, the king of Assyria eventually goes up against Judah, takes the fortified cities, and makes distressing threats against the king.
19) A distraught Hezekiah goes to Isaiah, who promises him that God will take care of things. Hezekiah prays, Isaiah repeats that God has heard it, and the king of Assyria leaves due to rumors, has his army miraculously destroyed, and is then murdered by his own sons.
20) Hezekiah’s prayer causes God to grant another 15 years to his life. However, his response to the Babylonian envoy leads Isaiah to prophesy that Hezekiah’s descendents will be carried off by the Babylonians. Hezekiah is strangely unperturbed by this revelation.
21) Manasseh reigns over Judah in complete evil in nearly every way. God speaks of great punishment he will bring against Jerusalem and Judah because of this, yet Manassah still reigns 55 years somehow. Amon then reigns in evil after him, but is quickly killed by his servants, who are then killed by the people of Israel.
8) Elisha helps to provide for the widow he had earlier helped. Political situations in both Israel and Judah deteriorate – though God’s hand is clearly still with Elisha, it appears that little can be done to salvage the larger situation.
9) Elisha commands the anointing of Jehu, who purges those who had led the nation of Israel into adultery, killing the kings of both Israel and Judah as well as Jezebel.
10) Jehu completely wipes out Ahab’s house as the Lord had told, then wipes out the people of Ahaziah as well, then follows by wiping out those who had worshipped Ba’al and his temple. Still, he did not rid Israel of the golden calves. God begins to take territory away from Israel.
11) The mother of the former king of Judah ruthlessly takes the throne, but one of her grandchildren survives the purging and is eventually installed as the rightful king. Athaliah the queen and Mattan the priest of Ba’al are put to death.
12) Jehoash rules Judah long and well, though not perfectly. His priests however, appear either corrupt or incompetent in repairing the house of the Lord. Administrative changes are undertaken to spearhead the repairs on the temple. Aram invades but is bought off with gifts. Jehoash is eventually killed by his own servants for unstated reasons.
13) More kings do what is wrong in the sight of the Lord and Israel suffers, though God has compassion on them and saves them from their enemies at multiple points. Elisha dies, making a last prophecy just beforehand and being responsible for a last miracle just afterwards.
14) The King of Judah basically does what is right in the sight of the Lord, while the King of Israel is disobedient and begins leading his people into ruin. However, when it comes to going to war the King of Israel is in the right and the King of Judah is in the wrong, thus Judah is defeated by Israel and ransacked.
15) Judah enjoys peace under 70 years of two generally righteous kings (though one is struck by leprosy as a punishment from God for not removing the high places), while Israel undergoes extreme turmoil as one evil king after another is killed early in his reign by a new assumer of the throne.
16) The new king of Judah leaves the way of the Lord and practices abominations. When the kings of Israel and Aram come against him, he asks for the help of Assyria, who then conquers much of Israel. Judah then begins being influenced by desire to please Assyria in religious matters, and replaces some of the Temple with things copied from the north.
17) After the reign of one last ungodly king, Israel is fully conquered by Assyria and the people are carried off. This happens due to the myriad ways in which they had failed to follow the Lord their God. Assyria resettled Samaria with peoples from many other nations, who worshipped other gods. He eventually put priests of Israel among them to worship God as well, but their practices became mixed.
18) Hezekiah emerges as one of the best kings of Judah, removing the high places and all idolatry. Perhaps because of this, Judah is not destroyed when Israel is. Still, the king of Assyria eventually goes up against Judah, takes the fortified cities, and makes distressing threats against the king.
19) A distraught Hezekiah goes to Isaiah, who promises him that God will take care of things. Hezekiah prays, Isaiah repeats that God has heard it, and the king of Assyria leaves due to rumors, has his army miraculously destroyed, and is then murdered by his own sons.
20) Hezekiah’s prayer causes God to grant another 15 years to his life. However, his response to the Babylonian envoy leads Isaiah to prophesy that Hezekiah’s descendents will be carried off by the Babylonians. Hezekiah is strangely unperturbed by this revelation.
21) Manasseh reigns over Judah in complete evil in nearly every way. God speaks of great punishment he will bring against Jerusalem and Judah because of this, yet Manassah still reigns 55 years somehow. Amon then reigns in evil after him, but is quickly killed by his servants, who are then killed by the people of Israel.
22) Josiah contrasts Manasseh as the best of kings, doing
everything right in the Lord’s sight and staying in the path of David. His staff rediscover the book of the law,
causing great mourning and repentance in Josiah for all the ways the people had
fallen short of following. God
acknowledges Josiah’s repentance and states that no disaster will come upon
them during his reign.
23) Josiah holds a public reading of the law, destroys all
vestiges of idolatry and worship of other gods, and holds a Passover as had
never been held. Still, God’s anger does
not turn from Judah and his promise to destroy Judah remains. After Josiah is killed by the Egyptian
Pharoah, his sons Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim rule over Israel, and do so with evil.
24) Babylon takes control over Judah, first with the kind
Jehoiakim as a vassal and then through direct invasion and rule during
Jehoiachin’s reign. All the upper
classes and all the wealth, including the wealth of the temple, are taken out
of Jerusalem. The invasion is described
as God’s punishment on Judah and the evil of the kings, especially
Manasseh. Zedekiah becomes king after
invasion, and continues to be evil just like Jehoiachin and Jehoiakim before
him.
2 Kings: The first part follows Elisha, whose ministry
before God is confirmed with many wonders and the success of his
prophecies. Most of the kings of Israel
and Judah commit evil, primarily idolatry and non-sanctioned religious
practices, but the occasional Judean king is righteous and at times correct
temple worship is re-established and the land sees peace. However, the predominance of bad kings nd the
people’s following of them causes land to gradually be lost to outside forces,
with the northern kingdom eventually conquered completely. Obedient kings in Judah allow it to last for
some time later, but Manasseh’s incredible evil leads God to condemn Judah as
well, and all Israel goes into exile.
