The book of 2 Kings, explained simply

Who wrote it

The book does not name its author. An old Jewish tradition says the prophet Jeremiah wrote 1 and 2 Kings. Most modern scholars think instead that unnamed writers and editors put the books together in stages, drawing on older royal records the book itself mentions, such as 'the book of the annals of the kings of Judah.' Many scholars see Kings as part of a larger history running from Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, but how and when it was assembled is still debated.

When

The events run from about 850 BC to about 560 BC. The last event in the book takes place in Babylon around 561 BC, so the book in its final form was finished no earlier than that, most likely while many of Judah's people were living in exile in Babylon, in what is now Iraq.

Who it was written to

It was first for the people of Judah living in exile or in the ruins of their homeland, who had lost their king, their capital and their temple and were asking how this could have happened.

Why it was written

2 Kings tries to explain a national catastrophe. In the writer's view, the kingdoms fell because kings and people repeatedly turned from the LORD to other gods and ignored the prophets sent to warn them. It closes with a small moment, Judah's captive king released from prison in Babylon. Many readers see this as a quiet sign that God's promise to King David's family was not finished, though the book itself does not say so directly.

Big themes

Faithfulness to God and the cost of turning away · Prophets confronting kings · The slow road to exile · Hope for David's family line

How it is laid out

Elijah departs and Elisha's prophetic work (1-8)

Jehu's bloody revolt and the kings after him (9-13)

The last years and fall of the northern kingdom (14-17)

Hezekiah's trust and Manasseh's long, dark reign (18-21)

Josiah finds the lost book and reforms worship (22-23)

Babylon destroys Jerusalem and takes the people into exile (24-25)

A tip for reading it

The story switches back and forth between the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, and a few kings in both kingdoms share names (Ahaziah, and Jehoram, also called Joram). Keeping a simple list of kings as you read helps a great deal. Each reign ends with a verdict on whether the king did right or evil in the eyes of the LORD. That verdict is the writer's religious judgement, mostly about worship, not a full account of the king's politics. Be ready for brutal scenes, including a massacre of a royal family, a siege so desperate that people eat their own children, and the burning of Jerusalem. The book reports these plainly and does not always explain them.