2 Kings (KJV)
25 chapters · 719 verses. Choose a chapter to read it in the King James Version.
About the Book of 2 Kings
Second Kings traces the decline of Israel and Judah to their respective exiles, narrating prophetic ministry and persistent covenant unfaithfulness. It explains the exile as the consequence of forsaking the LORD.
- Genre
- Historical narrative
- Author
- Anonymous; traditionally attributed to Jeremiah
- First audience
- Judah, likely during or after the exile
How to read it: Read narrative through its covenant lens, seeing the exile as the outworking of the warnings given in the law and the prophets.
It opens: “Then Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.” (2 Kings 1:1)
Chapters
Key verses in 2 Kings
The verses of 2 Kings that the rest of Scripture cross-references most often.
I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.
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.
For the LORD had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us.