2 Kings
Second Kings is the long, sorrowful descent from Elijah's fiery chariot to the smoking ruins of Jerusalem. Elisha's ministry brims with mercy, floating axe heads, healed lepers, multiplied bread, but the nations he serves keep sliding toward judgment. The northern kingdom falls to Assyria in 722 BC, its people scattered for persistent idolatry. Judah lasts longer, buoyed by reformers like Hezekiah and Josiah, yet the rot runs too deep, and Babylon finally burns the temple and drags the people into exile. Even then, the final paragraph leaves a Davidic king alive, a flicker of hope.
Anonymous; compiled from royal annals and prophetic narratives during the exile.
Events c. 850–560 BC; completed in the exile.
Exiles in Babylon, asking why God's people lost the land.
To explain the fall of both kingdoms as covenant judgment, while preserving hope in God's promise to David.