2 Kings: Bible Study and Commentary

The last kings of Judah and Israel

A Bible Study in EasyEnglish (2800 word vocabulary) on the Book of 2 Kings

Keith Simons

EasyEnglish is a system of simple English designed by Wycliffe Associates (UK).

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• Go to chapter: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

  2 Kings chapter 1

• 1:1 - King Ahaziah loses control over Moab
• 1:2 - The false god Baal-Zebub
• 1:3-4 - Elijah's message from God to Ahaziah
• 1:5-8 - Ahaziah's officials tell him Elijah's message
• 1:9-12 - Fire from heaven twice prevents Elijah's arrest
• 1:13-16 - A captain who humbly shows respect to Elijah
• 1:17-18 - Joram of Israel and Jehoram of Judah

  2 Kings chapter 2

• 2:1 - The last day of Elijah's life on earth
• 2:2 - Elisha refuses to leave Elijah
• 2:3-6 - Elisha and the 'sons of the prophets'
• 2:7-8 - Elijah crosses the river Jordan on dry ground
• 2:9-10 - A double portion of Elijah's spirit
• 2:11-12 - Elijah rises to heaven with a chariot of fire
• 2:13 - The cloak of Elijah
• 2:14-15 - Elisha separates the waters of the river Jordan
• 2:16-18 - Men from Jericho try to find Elijah
• 2:19 - Jericho's people ask Elisha to pray for them
• 2:20-22 - God cures the waters at Jericho
• 2:23 - Young people at Bethel insult Elisha
• 2:24-25 - Elijah curses the young people, and bears attack them

  2 Kings chapter 3

• 3:1-3 - Ahab's son, King Joram
• 3:4-6 - Moab's king refuses to accept Joram's authority
• 3:7-8 - Jehoshaphat and Joram decide to attack Edom
• 3:9-10 - The armies of Judah, Israel and Edom have no water
• 3:11-12 - Three kings go to see Elisha
• 3:13 - Elisha deals firmly with Joram
• 3:14 - Elisha's respect for Jehoshaphat
• 3:15 - Elisha requests a harp as he prophesies
• 3:16-19 - Water for the armies; and success in war
• 3:20 - No rain – but water came
• 3:21-24 - The defeat of Moab's army
• 3:25 - Joram cruelly shows his power over Moab
• 3:26-27 - Moab's king murders his son in an act of religion

  2 Kings chapter 4

• 4:1 - A family in a desperate situation, because of debt
• 4:2 - God would use what the widow had to provide for her family
• 4:3-4 - Many jars of oil from a single jar
• 4:5-6 - God provides enough oil to pay the debts
• 4:7 - Elisha advises the widow what she should do with the oil
• 4:8-10 - A room for Elisha in Shunem
• 4:11-13 - A reward for the woman who helped Elisha
• 4:14 - Help that only God can give
• 4:15-17 - Elisha promises that the woman will have a child
• 4:18-21 - The child dies
• 4.22-23 - The woman decides to go to Elisha
• 4:24-26 - The woman needed Elisha's prayers
• 4:27-28 - The woman reminds Elisha of God's promise to her
• 4:29-30 - The woman needed to depend on God alone
• 4:31 - Gehazi's bad report
• 4:32-34 - Elisha's desperate prayers
• 4:35-37 - The dead boy recovers
• 4:38 - A meal for the sons of the prophets at Gilgal
• 4:39 - Uses and dangers of wild foods
• 4:40-41 - Can something good correct what is bad?
• 4:42 - The first grain of the harvest
• 4:43-44 - God increases the food, to satisfy all the men

  2 Kings chapter 5

• 5:1 - Naaman, commander of Aram's army
• 5:2-3 - The maid of Naaman's wife
• 5:4-6 - Naaman takes gifts, and a letter from his king
• 5:7 - Joram's fear when he read the letter from Aram's king
• 5:8 - Elisha tells Joram to send Naaman to him
• 5:9-10 - 'Wash 7 times in the river Jordan'
• 5:11 - Naaman's proud attitudes
• 5:12 - The reasons for Naaman's anger
• 5:13 - Naaman's servants urge Naaman to obey Elisha
• 5:14 - God cures Naaman
• 5:15 - Naaman declares that Israel's God is the only God
• 5:16 - Elisha refuses to accept any gift
• 5:17 - Naaman asks to build an altar to Israel's God
• 5:18-19 - Naaman's official duties and his duties to God
• 5:20 - Gehazi promises to obtain a gift from Naaman
• 5:21 - Naaman's respect for Gehazi as the servant of Elisha
• 5:22 - Gehazi lies to Naaman
• 5:23 - Naaman gives double what Gehazi requests
• 5:24-25 - Elisha shows that Gehazi acted wrongly
• 5:26-27 - Gehazi's leprosy

  2 Kings chapter 6

• 6:1-2 - The sons of the prophets by the Jordan river
• 6:3 - Elijah goes with the sons of the prophets
• 6:4-5 - The loss of the axe head
• 6:6-7 - The axe head floats
• 6:8-10 - Elisha prevents attacks against Israel
• 6:11-12 - Even abroad, people know about God's work in Elisha's life
• 6:13 - Elisha in Dothan
• 6:14 - A plan to take Elisha to Aram
• 6:15 - Aram's army surrounds Dothan
• 6:16-17 - Elisha's servant sees God's army of angels
• 6:18-19 - Elisha prays for the enemy soldiers to be blind
• 6:20 - Elisha leads the enemy soldiers into Samaria
• 6:21-22 - Joram urges Elisha to let him kill the soldiers from Aram
• 6:23 - How Aram's attacks to rob Israel's people ended
• 6:24-25 - Aram's whole army surrounds Samaria
• 6:26-27 - An appeal for help in a desperate situation
• 6:28-29 - The awful situation which caused Joram to want to kill Elisha
• 6:30 - Royal clothes on top of sackcloth
• 6:31 - Joram promises to kill Elisha at once
• 6:32 - The prophet's work in a city in desperate circumstances
• 6:33 - Joram blames God for his troubles

  2 Kings chapter 7

• 7:1 - Elisha declares cheap prices at Samaria's market
• 7:2 - Evidence that God would rescue Samaria's inhabitants
• 7:3-4 - Four men with leprosy at the gate of Samaria
• 7:5-7 - Aram's army runs away
• 7:8 - A camp without soldiers
• 7:9 - A day of good news
• 7:10-12 - The king doubts the report
• 7:13 - The men who looked for Aram's army
• 7:14-15 - Evidence that Aram's army ran away in a desperate manner
• 7:16 - Cheap prices at the market, as God had said
• 7:17 - The death of the official who laughed at God's message
• 7:18-20 - The evidence that God defeated Aram's army

  2 Kings chapter 8

• 8:1 - A famine that lasted for 7 years
• 8:2 - Philistia: a place of safety
• 8:3 - An appeal to the king for the return of land
• 8:4 - Gehazi tells the king about Elisha
• 8:5-6 - Joram accepts the account of the boy whom God raised to life
• 8:7 - God sends Elisha abroad, to Damascus
• 8:8-9 - Ben-Hadad tries to pay Elisha to cure him
• 8:10-12 - Hazael's great cruelty
• 8:13 - Why did God allow Israel's enemies to be so powerful?
• 8:14-15 - Hazael becomes king by lies and murder
• 8:16-19 - Jehoram, king of Judah
• 8:20-21 - Edom's wars against Judah
• 8:22 - The loss of Edom and Libnah
• 8:23-24 - Jehoram's evil acts, his troubles and death
• 8:25-27 - Ahaziah becomes king of Judah
• 8:28-29 - Ahaziah visits Joram