Chapter 1
Moving into a new book, the last of the historical books.  Yesterday's reading was mostly about the Southern Kingdom, today we switch to the north.

Ahab dies and Ahaziah becomes King in Israel.  He falls through a lattice and is injured.  He sends people to inquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, as to  whether he will live.  Elijah meets those sent to inquire on the way and prophesies that Ahaziah will die in that bed and never come down.  Elijah's words are "Is there no God in Israel that you have to inquire of Baal-zebub in Ekron?"  Very sarcastic.  This also shows again that Elijah survives Ahab and Jezebel and is still active into Ahaziah's reign.

2022 - Ekron was one of the five principle cities of the Philistines.  The name of their God may well be the origin of our word Beelzebub, as theirs was "Baal-zebub".  I note also that Ahaziah does not inquire of the god of Moab, since they were at war at the time.  Almost like he is willing to inquire of any god but God.  Why is that?

This verse:
8 They answered him, "He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist." And he said, "It is Elijah the Tishbite." [2Ki 1:8 ESV]  Same as John the Baptist.  Are their other similarities between them?  Well...there pretty much have to be some books written that compare the two.  After all John was the "one like Elijah" who was to come.

Ahaziah sends 50 men to get Elijah.  Fire comes down and consumes all 50.  Happens a second time.  Elijah also called down fire on the altar when he contested with the prophets of Baal in Ahab's time.  John the Baptist never did this.  However, the two witnesses in Jerusalem in Revelation are able to call down fire as I recall, and Elijah is taken to heaven in a whirlwind.  He does not die.  

2022 - Calling down fire is a big deal.  So far as the Bible is concerned, up through the present day, only true prophets have ever been able to do this.  But in Revelation, once the Man of Sin is in power, false prophets will also be able to call down fire, and will deceive many when they do so.  The fire will be seen as evidence that they are from God.  I need to look this up and see if it comes in that period between the revealing of the Man of Sin and his true source of power and the rapture.  That is the time that will be cut short lest all men die.  There should be a correlation.  Here are the verses:
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. 12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. 13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, 14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. [Rev 13:11-14 ESV].  Out of the earth, so this is a man, not an angel, who has this power.  This is the high priest of the Man of Sin.  It is hard to say exactly at what time he will be on earth, so hard to say whether he is deceiving those remaining after the rapture, or this is that terrible time in between.  Since it is in 13, and the rapture was in 6 or 7, you'd think later.  But I think John in Revelation relates scenes in heaven, and then relates how those events in heaven are played out on the earth.  So there are "stacked visions", one of each place, and these have to be separated in order to understand the events.  I really need to get back to my Revelation notes and organize them all.

The Captain of the third 50 goes to Elijah, but begs to be spared.  This time, an angel tells Elijah to go with them, and Elijah goes to Ahaziah.  Elijah repeats the prophesy, and Ahaziah dies.  Jehoram becomes King in his place.  Jehoram was also King in Judah.  A different Jehoram?  Ahaziah had no son.  In Chronicles, we see that Athaliah his mother took over, but a young son of Ahaziah is hidden away and becomes King later with the help of Jehoiada the priest.  (This was all in the south though...again, I am very confused.)  So what does it mean saying Jehoram becomes King in Israel?  MSB says they are two different Jehoram's.  The one in the north is another son of Ahab.  See 2K3:1.  It is pretty clear in this verse:
17 So he died according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken. Jehoram became king in his place in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son. [2Ki 1:17 ESV]
So Jehoram became King in Israel in the second year of Jehoram King of Judah.  Same name at the same time.  The one in the north is a second son of Ahab - we don't yet know who his mother was.  Were there also two Ahaziah's?

2021 - I think it is interesting that Elijah called down fire in the case of the prophets of Baal, and now he calls down fire twice when soldiers are sent to get him.  Elijah means "My God is Jehovah", not "I call down fire".  I remember that passage in the NT where the apostles ask Jesus if he wants them to call down fire.  Surely that is a reference to Elijah that I had not seen before.  Here is the verse, and it most definitely looks back to Elijah:  54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" [Luk 9:54 ESV]  In the KJV, Elias is mentioned by name.  Is it really t here???   54 And when his disciples James and John saw [this], they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? [Luk 9:54 KJV].  It appears to be in the Textus Receptus but not the mGNT - the Elias part.
2023 - Double checked this.  Elias is included in the TR, but is not present in the mGNT.  The implication is that older manuscripts do not have that part in them.  Someone decided to insert it so it would tie back to the OT.  Then older manuscripts were found that did not include the reference to Elias.  Dead Sea Scrolls may be the reason for this change.

Per the chart I have, it was Jehoshaphat, Jehoram - who was married to Athaliah who was Ahab's daughter, Ahaziah son of Athaliah, then Athaliah the Queen, followed by Joash the son of Ahaziah rescued and hidden away for seven years in the Temple by Johoiada the high priest in the South.  

Jehoahaz is said to be Jehoram's youngest son in 2Ch 21:17.  Then 2Ch 22:1 says Ahaziah , his (Jehoram's) youngest son, was made King in his place.  How can he have two "youngest" sons???  Unless one was born right after the Arabians looted the place...but it says they took his wives, too.  Found this in 2Ch 22:9 about the death of Ahaziah:
9 He searched for Ahaziah, and he was captured while hiding in Samaria, and he was brought to Jehu and put to death. They buried him, for they said, "He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart." And the house of Ahaziah had no one able to rule the kingdom. [2Ch 22:9 ESV]  I still don't get this.  This is two mornings now that I have bogged completely down here.  
There is a note in MSB for 2Ch 22:1-6, that makes it look like Jehoahaz and Ahaziah in the South are one and the same, and refers me to the notes at 2Ki 8:25-29, but all that note says is that there was an Ahaziah in each kingdom - which I already figured out.  It does not explain how J and A are the same person.  Apparently, you have to link them up because they are BOTH said to be Youngest son of Jehoram and there can only be one person who meets that criteria- so it is the same person.  Dropping the discussion right here.  

In the north, it was Ahab, Ahaziah, Joram, Jehu, Jehoahaz and Joash.  So will again see Kings with the same name, Joash, a bit later.  Ahaziah in the north, dies after a fall, and this Ahaziah has no son, so Joram (Jehoram in 2Ki 1:17) becomes King in his place.  I believe Joram is a different son of Ahab, but hopefully we will figure that out as we go.

Chapter 2
Elijah and Elisha are traveling together the day God is taking Elijah home.  They come to Bethel and all the sons of the prophets there already know, as does Elisha.  So they go further to Jericho.  The sons of the prophets there also know that Elijah will be taken.   Then Elijah says he goes on to the Jordan.  For the third time, he tells Elisha to stay behind, but Elisha refuses.  50 prophets also follow along this time.  Elijah parts the Jordan with his rolled up cloak, and he and Elisha go across.  

2022 - This would qualify as another miracle of Elijah.  So we add calling down fire and parting the Jordan to the list.  Still, it is a very short list, and still, John the Baptist, who came in the spirit of Elijah, did no miracles at all.  Therefore, another Elijah is coming, still future.  Perhaps the High Priest of the Man of Sin will claim to be that Elijah, ushering in the Kingdom of God, as evidenced by his power to call down fire.

Elijah asks Elisha what he can give him, and Elisha asks a double portion of the spirit of Elijah.  If he sees Elijah go, this will be granted to him.  As they go on, chariots and horses of fire separate the two of them, and Elijah goes up by a whirlwind.  So in ESV, it does not say the chariots carried Elijah up, but that they separated the two of them, and a whirlwind carried Elijah up.  

2022 - Here we see the spirit of Elijah given double to another prophet.  Elisha, in this sense, also came in the spirit of Elijah.  So that idea is not at all unprecedented when Jesus ascribes the same characteristic to John the Baptist.
9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you." And Elisha said, "Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me." [2Ki 2:9 ESV]

2021 - I wrote it before, but had forgotten.  Elijah did not go in a chariot of fire, he went in a whirlwind - a tornado.  What I had not noticed before is that there were chariots of fire and horses, plural, not just the one.  In KJV, there is only the one chariot, and horses plural of fire.  Since Elijah so often called down fire, it seems appropriate that fire would be there when he left.  

2022 - This verse:  14 Then he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, saying, "Where is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over. [2Ki 2:14 ESV].  I would call this a miracle performed by Elisha.  So not just Elijah.

2021 - 50 strong men go to search for Elijah's body, thinking the tornado may have dropped him on a mountain or in a valley.  They did not realize that Elijah was gone to heaven in that whirlwind.  The 50 do not find him.

Elisha tears his clothing.  He takes the fallen cloak of Elijah, and strikes the Jordan as he goes back.  It parts for him also and he walks across.  

Elisha heals the water in Jericho by pouring salt in their spring.  There is this interesting pronouncement afterward:
21 Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, "Thus says the LORD, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it." [2Ki 2:21 ESV]
This implies that something about this water was killing people and causing miscarriages.  But it does so no longer.  Salt removed something bad, it did not impart healing.

2022 - Another miracle performed by Elisha.

As he goes on his way, he causes she-bears to "tear" (does not say kill) 42 young unruly boys.  MSB says they were not children but youths in their late teens and twenties.  Baldness was considered a disgrace at the time.  MSB says it may have just been a derogatory expression, or it could be that Elisha had shaved his head to separate him to his office, or he may have been naturally bald.  The term "go up" was the young men being sarcastic and goading Elisha to "go up" into heaven as Elijah had.  They were pretty nasty young people.  Hence, the bears.

Chapter 3
Sort of a "restart" like Chapter 1.  Jehoram becomes King after Ahab, and reigns 12 years.  He was an evil King but not like his parents.  He did tear down the pillar of Baal, but continued the worship of the golden calves.  

The King of Moab, who had been paying tribute to Ahab, rebels when Jehoram becomes King and refuses to pay.  So Jehoram goes to put things right.  He asks Jehoshaphat to come with him and Jehoshaphat agrees.  The King of Edom also goes along.  While marching to Moab they run out of water.  They think Moab will take them captive since they lack water.  They call for a prophet and it turns out that Elisha is with them.  (This is a later battle than the one against Hazael and Syria where Ahab was killed.  This specifically says Moab, and it says that Jehoram, son of Ahab, was king of Israel.  So this battle is after the one where Ahab was killed.  Seems Jehoshaphat learned nothing about allying himself with the north.)

2022 - This verse:
15 But now bring me a musician." And when the musician played, the hand of the LORD came upon him. [2Ki 3:15 ESV].  Isn't this wording interesting.  Elisha asked for music, and somehow, while the music played, the hand of the Lord came on him.  Would that happen if God didn't like music?  And doesn't t his encourage us to have spiritual music playing in the background?

Elisha says that the dry stream bed will be filled with water so that they can all drink.  He also says Moab will fall, and gives detailed instructions on what is to be done.  All the big towns are to be sacked, the springs are to be plugged up, the big trees are to be cut down, and rocks are to cover the best of the land in Moab.  Basically, they are going to send Moab back to the stone age.

2022 - Conquerors in those days made rebellion a serious offense.  These actions - denying water and decent farmland to Moab, would have forced the people there to immigrate elsewhere.  Moab would be depopulated for a long time to come.  An army can drop a lot of rocks on good land.  A few farmers will take years to remove them and start over.  We don't do war this way anymore.  Does that make us more moral, or less?

They do these things.  The way it reads to me is that they get the King of Moab cornered in a town called Kir-hareseth, and are winning that last battle.  The King of Moab tries to break through the lines, but is pushed back.  So this King takes his oldest son, who would be king in his place, and offers him as a burnt offering on the wall of the town.  He kills his own son, the next King of Moab.  There is this wording as to the effect of the sacrifice:
27 Then he took his oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own land. [2Ki 3:27 ESV]

Perhaps the Moabites, seeing that their King was cornered into sacrificing his own son, grew angry, and fought with abandon, and the Israelites decided to retreat.  Chemosh was god of Moab.  Maybe Israel thought Chemosh was fighting for Moab because of their wrath and fierceness.  This would not have been unusual for people who themselves worshiped golden calves.  Maybe they though Moab's idols were more powerful than their golden calves.  In any case, they retreated, leaving the King of Moab alive.

Chapter 4
The widow who lost her husband is given overflowing oil to sell and cover her debts so that the creditor cannot take her sons as slaves.  I have heard a good sermon on this.  She gathered vessels to fill with oil based on her faith.  Had she had more faith, she would have had more oil to sell.

A Shunammite woman befriends Elisha, and builds a little room so he will have a regular place to stay whenever he passes that way.  Because of her kindness, Elisha tells her she will have a son.  She didn't have one, so there would have been no one to care for her after her old husband died.  After the child is a little older, he gets a headache, and dies in his mother's arms.  She gets a donkey and goes looking for Elisha.  Elisha resurrects the child by stretching out on his body two times.  The first time, the child became warm.  The second time, he sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.

2021, The young woman Abishag, who kept David warm in his old age, was a Shunammite.  She is the one Adonijah put Bathsheba up to asking for as his wife.  Solomon saw through this power grab, and Adonijah is executed for it.  So two prominent women of Shunem in the Bible.

These "Shunammite's" have shown up before.  Would be a good study to follow that thread.

Elisha "fixes" a pot of poisoned stew during a famine.  The cook - or someone like that - had gone out and found some wild gourds, picked them, and put them in the stew.  Since there was a famine, perhaps he was thus trying to "stretch" the stew.  But the gourds were poison.  Elisha "fixes" this with some flour.  

Then a man brings them 20 loaves of barley and Elisha says to feed the men with it.  But there are 100 men.  Elisha says it will be enough with some left over.  So they serve the bread, and some was left over.  A preview of the feeding of the 5000?  I never had noticed that this had been performed before.  Jesus does it twice, Elisha does it only once.  

2021 - This whole chapter seems to be about miracles done by Elisha.  This sort of thing is done in the NT to establish the credibility of Jesus and then of the Apostles.  Perhaps it is the same here, though I don't see why it would be necessary.

2022 - Elisha's first "miracle" was stopping the Jordan so he could walk across.  I am not sure about the water in the desert.  It never says that Elisha made that happen.  Never says God made it happen.  Then he does the unending oil miracle with a widow.  Then the miracle of this Shunammite with the very  old husband having a son.  The son dies, and Elisha raises him from the dead.  Then Elisha makes the poison stew not poison, so they can eat it.  Then last in this chapter Elisha feeds 100 men with 20 barley loaves and some grain. The point is that several of these first miracles remind us of Elijah's miracles.  I'm thinking it is because Elisha has a double portion of Elijah's spirit.  So the miracles at first are to show us that this spirit was passed on.  I would further point out that Elisha does MORE miracles than Elijah did.  The question is why?  Why all these miracles at this specific time?  It is kind of out in the middle of the history of the Kings of Israel and Judah.  I am not, so far, seeing any significant change or re-direction or reversal here.  No revival in Israel or Judah, no significantly worsening apostasy.  So why were Elijah and Elisha so openly and unarguably confirmed here by miracles as men of God?  Jesus did miracles.  The apostles did miracles.  I expect there will be miracles before tgt...Why these miracles of Elijah and Elisha?

Chapter 5
2021 - The miracles continue.
Naaman, a leper, is the commander of the army of Syria.  A great man, a mighty man of valor, whom God helped to defeat Syria's enemies.  So God had helped this leper to become renowned in his own country.  Surely God anticipated what was to come, and in fact designed things this way to bring glory to Himself, even from a foreign nation, an enemy nation.  A captured Israeli girl tells Naaman's wife that there is a prophet in Israel who can heal his leprosy.  Naaman gets leave to go and find out, and the King of Syria sends a letter with him to the King of Israel.  Elisha hears of his coming, and tells him to wash 7 times in the Jordan.  But Elisha doesn't even come out to meet him.  Just sends the message.  Naaman, being a bit prideful, is angry about this.  Here is the verse:
11 But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. [2Ki 5:11 ESV]
Funny how we sometimes have expectations of how exactly God should answer our prayers and petitions.  We have a scenario in mind, we know how we would fix this problem!  And then God does it a completely different way, a way that goes so much further than what we would have done.  We have to be careful when we don't see our prayers answered according to our own designs.  We need to be careful and not end up working against God because we are so sure of our own solutions.
Possible FB post.  Noted 8/28/20.
Nevertheless, at his servant's urging, he washes.  He is cured.  Those servants were pretty brave to suggest to their master that he might be wrong, to point out how silly it was not to even try doing what the prophet had said.  No matter how "insufficient" the procedure seems, remember that it is God, not the procedure that cures.

Naaman goes back to give Elisha thank you gifts.  Here is what he says:
15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant." [2Ki 5:15 ESV]
God has been glorified, and this influential foreigner has become not only a believer, but a missionary to his own people of the greatness and glory of God.

Elisha won't take the gifts. Naaman takes two mule loads of dirt back to Syria, so that he can worship God on God's own land.  And Naaman asks for pardon, as he is a servant, and must take his master to worship Rimmon in Syria, and must bow to Rimmon during his master's worship.  Elisha seems to pardon him for this.  What all would this apply to?  When someone says "Curse God or die"?  When the neighbor you are eating with prays to Allah?  MSB seems to interpret this "special dispensation" the same way I did.
Might be able to do a FB post on this.  The line between obedience on earth and obedience to God.  This man is bowing to idols, but worshiping only God.  And there seems to be a "special dispensation" for this.
Possible, but complicated to word, FB post.

Elisha's servant lies to Naaman in order to get some of the "thank you gifts" Naaman had brought.  Then he lies to Elisha about having done so.  Elisha pronounces this man, Gehazi, and his family and his future descendants, lepers.  Gehazi is immediately white with leprosy.

2022 - More miracles from Elisha.  Healing leprosy in a Syrian.  Then causing Gehazi, and all his descendants, to become lepers..He makes iron float in the Jordan.  Elisha repeatedly tells the King of Israel where the King of Syria is waiting for him - they are at war, and Elisha helps Israel's King avoid being ambushed.  Over and over.  Supernatural knowledge...but not really a miracle I guess.  The Syrian army is blinded.  All of them at once.  

Chapter 6
Iron floats in the Jordan.

Elisha often warns Israel's King about the Syrian Kings intentions.  The Syrian King suspects a traitor in his camp since so many times the King of Israel avoids him successfully.  His servants tell him it is the prophet that is informing the King of Israel.  So the Syrian King determines to capture Elisha, who is staying in Dothan.  A large army including chariots and cavalry, is sent to capture Elisha.  The city is surrounded by this Syrian army, but Elisha prays that they be stricken with blindness, and so they are.  He tells them they are in the wrong city and leads them to Samaria.  Then their site is restored, and they find themselves in the middle of enemy territory with no retreat available.  The King of Israel asks if he should destroy them.  Instead, Elisha has him prepare a feast for them and then send them home.  From then on, Syria does not send raids into Israel.  
2021- 17 Then Elisha prayed and said, "O LORD, please open his eyes that he may see." So the LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. [2Ki 6:17 ESV].  Here again with chariots and horses of fire.  Elisha had seen one of these before.

But later, Ben-Hadad musters his entire army and lays siege to Samaria.  A famine occurs during the siege.  It gets really bad, and a woman asks the King for justice.  She made an agreement with another woman that they would eat her son today, and the other woman's son tomorrow.  But the other woman won't keep her part of the bargain.  The King tears his clothes, and swears to behead Elisha that very day.  In the King's evaluation, it is God who has allowed the Syrians to lay siege to Samaria, and allowed things to get so desperate that people are eating their own children.  He cannot attack God, so he decides to hold the nearest representative of God, the prophet Elisha, accountable for this dire situation.  It does not occur to this King that God has been giving him advice to stay out of trouble, and yet he continues to worship the two golden calves. So the King sends soldiers to get Elisha.

Elisha knows they are coming, and has the door shut.  In the presence of the elders of that place, Elisha calls the King of Israel a murderer.  

Chapter 7
The King's messenger shows up. Elisha tells them that there will be food and plenty the next day.  Lepers go to beg food from Syria since they are starving at the gate of Samaria.  They find the camp abandoned, and eat and drink their fill and take some loot and go and hide it.  Then they tell the King, who thinks it is a Syrian ruse to entice them out of the city.  But scouts sent to check find that the Syrians are indeed gone.  The city residents plunder the Syrian camp, and find food and plenty there.

Chapter 8
The Shunnamite woman had been warned by Elisha that a seven year famine was coming.  She had moved away to Philistia.  She comes home, appeals to the King, whom Gehazi had told the story of Elisha's restoring life to her son, and the King gives back all her goods.  

Ben-Hadad is sick when Elisha comes to Damascus.  One has to wonder what Elisha is doing in Damascus, since the King of Syria had sent a whole army to fetch him back.  And that army came home safely, but never raided Israel again.  Now Elisha goes right into the place where they are.  BH sends Hazael to ask Elisha if BH will recover from this sickness.  The exact answer is unclear, but seems to be that he will not.  It could also be that Elisha says "The sickness won't kill you, but something else will.".  The man sent to inquire stares at Elisha.  Elisha begins  to cry, and when asked about it, says it is because of all the evil Hazael will do to Israel.  There is a LOT of evil that Hazael is to perpetrate on Israel.  Next day, Hazael murders Ben-Hadad in his bed.  

So this is how Hazael, who has been mentioned several times previously, becomes King in Syria.  Hazael kills Ben-Hadad and becomes King in his place.  Not a proper change of Kings at all.   

During Joram, son of Ahab's reign in Israel, Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat, begins to reign in Judah.  He reigns 8 years.  He is an evil king, doing the things that Ahab was doing in the north.  He is married to Ahab's daughter.  So here, the narrative in 2Ki meets back up with the narrative in 2Ch.  We get a repeat of the version in Chronicles.  2Ki says that Jehoram kills the rebelling King of the Edomites, but the Edomite army escapes, and stays in rebellion for a long time (until this day).  Libnah also rebels.  Then Jehoram (also spelled Joram) dies and Ahaziah his son reigns in his place in Judah.  This King only reigns for one year.  His mother is Athaliah, granddaughter of Omri, King of Israel.

Ahaziah goes with Joram, King of Israel, to fight Hazael, King of Syria after Ben-Hadad, in Ramoth-Gilead.  The same place that Ahab - Joram's father, was killed by the forces of Syria, I think under Ben-Hadad.  So both Joram and Ahaziah are doing the very same things that got their fathers killed!

Chapter 9
Elisha sends a son of the prophets to Ramoth-Gilead to anoint Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat King of Israel.  Then the son is to run away quickly.  (What is Jehoshaphat's son doing as King in the north?  Jehoshaphat was a southern King.  Jehu is a commander, and the son anoints him over Israel and tells him he is to wipe out the house of Ahab as Jereboam and Baasha were wiped out and to wreak vengeance on Jezebel.  The reason for this is so that God can be avenged on Jezebel for the blood of all the prophets she killed.  So Ahab is dead, and Jehoram/Joram is ruling in the north, but Jezebel is still alive.  Don't know if Joram is her son or a son of another wife, but at the very least her husband's son is ruling.  She is likely still very well taken care of.  The son of the prophet delivers Elisha's message to Jehu, then he "flees".

Jehu's companions ask him what that mad prophet wanted, and Jehu tells them.  So they blow the trumpet and declare Jehu King.

At the time this all happens, the Northern army is in Ramoth-gilead on guard against an invasion by Hazael.  Joram, King of Israel until a few minutes ago, is in Jezreel recovering from wounds received while fighting against Hazael, and Ahaziah, King of Judah is in Jezreel visiting Joram.  Jehu grabs a chariot and heads for Jezreel.  When Jehu gets close, the guards see him coming.  Joram sends out a messenger, who doesn't return, then a second one, who also does not return.  By now Jehu is close enough that the watchman identifies him.  For some odd reason, despite the messengers not returning, Joram and Ahaziah get in their own chariots and go out to meet Jehu.  The two current kings and son of a southern King just recently anointed as King of the northern Kingdom meet at the property of Naboth the Jezreelite.  We have seen this name Naboth before, but this may be a different Naboth.  (As they begin to speak we learn that Joram is indeed Jezebel's son.)  Things get dicey and Joram turns to get out of there, warning Ahaziah that this is treachery.  But Jehu shoots Joram with an arrow that pierces his heart from behind as he flees.  Jehu orders that Joram be thrown off the wall of Jezreel onto the plot of ground - the vineyard - owned formerly by Naboth.  Ohhhh!  This is why the exact spot of their meeting is mentioned!  It was the murder of Naboth by Jezebel's plotting that had really pushed Ahab the rest of the way over the line.

Seeing this, Ahaziah flees, but Jehu pursues him and says "Shoot him also", and they do so.  Jehu doesn't personally murder Ahaziah.  Ahaziah gets as far as Megiddo with an arrow(s) in him, and dies there.  He is carried home to Jerusalem and buried there.  vs 29:
29 In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah began to reign over Judah. [2Ki 9:29 ESV]
An odd place for this verse.  These usually come at the beginning of a King's reign, not upon his death.  Seems a little out of place.

As Jehu comes into town Jezebel paints up her eyes and calls Jehu a murderer.  Two or three eunuchs throw her down from her tower.  Blood spatters on the wall and the horses, and the horses trample her.  After he eats a good meal, Jehu orders her buried because she's a King's daughter.  But all they find is her skull, her feet, and the palms of her hands because the dogs have eaten the rest.

Chapter 10
Jehu tells the keepers of Ahab's 70 sons in Samaria to take their heads and send them to him in Jezreel.  They do so, wantonly beheading these 70 men, who were apparently helpless to do anything about it.  Would have been blood everywhere, and screaming.  This was God's curse on Ahab for these 70 sons of his to die, one and all.  Just like Jereboam and Baasha. We never see anything like this in the Southern Kingdom, because God had promised David to keep his descendants on that southern throne forever.  Remember that these northern Kings very often ascend to the throne by murder, treachery, and plotting.  They don't very often ascend the normal way - when their father dies.  Sometimes a few generations maintain the throne in the north, but eventually, it changes.  God preserves the Southern Kingdom, and Jerusalem, the city where He chose to set his name.  Surely we can see this as God working to make sure David's throne remains in the hands of his descendants.

He piles the heads in two piles at the gates.  Next day he takes responsibility for killing King Joram, but says it is the leaders in Samaria who killed the sons.  He reminds the people of the prophecy concerning Ahab, then kills all Ahab's great men, and his priests, until he has none remaining.

Jehu heads for Samaria.  On the way he meets 42 relatives of Ahaziah coming to visit the royal princes (who have all been beheaded) and the sons of the queen mother (Jezebel).  Jehu has them all taken alive, but then slaughters them at the pit of Beth-eked.  None are left alive.  This Jehu is off to a murderous start!

Still on the way to Samaria, Jehu meets his old friend Jehonadab.  When he finally arrives in Samaria he wipes out "all who remain to Ahab".  This is the end of the house of Ahab, as Elijah the Tishbite prophesied.  This verse, as Jehu and Jehonadab pledge loyalty to each other:
16 And he said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." So he had him ride in his chariot. [2Ki 10:16 ESV]
It is very tempting to see Jehu as a very evil mass murdering usurper.  But we should remember that He was carrying out God's command, as delivered to him by a son of the prophets who came direct from Elisha.  All this barbarism is the fulfillment of God's prophecies by His prophets.  Despite how repulsive it is to us to think of in this day and time, it was no more "wrong" than the invasion and conquest of Canaan and its people.  Jehu is subverting his own qualms about violence and murder to the will of God.  He has zeal for the Lord.

Jehu proclaims that he is a worshiper of Baal, and has all the Baal-worshipers in Israel come to Samaria.  He has them dress up in their finest, and offers a sacrifice.  Then he has every last man of them killed, they destroy the temple of Baal, and burn the pillars of Baal.  This temple is turned into a latrine, as it still is this day.  Again, a mass murder.  Hundreds at least, perhaps thousands.  Killed with swords of the 80 guards Jehu put around the temple of Baal.  This would not have gone quickly.  These people - men, women, and children very likely, would have had time to comprehend what was happening.  They would have been filled with terror, they would have died in pain, and they would have awakened in hellfire.  It seems to me that Jehu did this on his own.  The son of the prophet did not tell him to wipe out Baal worship in the north.

So how, after all this, does he still worship the golden calves set up by Jereboam.  He is still a heathen himself, though he zealously carried out God's commands.  Not only that, but even though he is a calf worshiper, because Jehu had done as the Lord intended, God promises that his descendants to the fourth generation will sit on the throne of Israel.  Recall now that this is the son of Jehoshaphat.  So now relatives will be on the thrones of both Israel and Judah.

This verse comes next:
32 In those days the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel. Hazael defeated them throughout the territory of Israel: [2Ki 10:32 ESV]  God is removing the northern kingdom, a little at a time at first, as birth pangs, but inexorably it is coming apart.  Sure sounds like what is happening in this country today.

Hazael makes many inroads into Israel, and captures much land during Jehu's reign.  He captures the lands east of the Jordan, the land of the tribes that did not take a share of Canaan, but instead remained on the land that was good for herds to the east.  These are the first to go, because they did not follow God's plan.  And also remember the prophecy about Hazael, and all the evil he would do to Israel.

Jehu is King for 28 years.  He dies and is buried in Samaria.  His son Jehoahaz reigns in his place.

Chapter 11
We switch back to Judah.  We have seen this part of the history before, but it seems to have much additional information in 2Ki than it had before.

In Judah, Athaliah kills all the kings (Ahaziah's) family upon hearing that Ahaziah himself is now dead at the hands of Jehu - who is a son of Jehoshaphat.  Joash though, one of the King's young sons, is secreted away by his sister Jehosheba  Perhaps the same mother and father, but in any case, she is Ahaziah's daughter and Joash is Ahaziah's son.  He is hidden in the Temple.  So here, in a very direct way, God is preserving the Davidic line of Southern Kings by saving the life of one and only one descendant that can be traced directly back to David...hmmm...not quite the one and only one.  Jehu, in the north, can also be traced directly back to David, and we know that Jehu will have at least 4 generations of sons that come after him to sit on the northern throne.  Even so, God has chosen and protected another of David's descendants in the South, despite the evil daughter of Ahab, Athaliah, the Queen mother.  Jehoiada, the high priest at the time, looks after Joash for six years.  We will see later that Joash is only seven when he becomes King.  So when he was hidden away he was an infant.  This probably made it easier to disguise his presence, and indicates that he was probably the very youngest of Ahaziah's sons.

This chapter is much like the story in 2 Kings of Jehoiada the priest advancing Joash, when he is only 7 years old, to the throne of Judah.  I note that the worshipers of Baal fare poorly in Judah at this time, only 7 years after Jehu destroys Baal worship in Israel.  So at this time Baal had taken one on the chin, but look at the cost.  So many murdered by Jehu, Athaliah murdered in Judah.  A bloody way for Kings to come to power.  

NOTE:  Jehoash is an alternate spelling of Joash.  These are the same person, the same King, lest I get confused yet again.

Chapter 12
Joash is also spelled Jehoash.  In any case, this is the 7 year old son of Ahaziah, and King of Judah.  Joash is the son of Ahaziah, and the grandson of Athaliah, making him a great grandson of Ahab.  This was also in the 7th year of Jehu, a son of Jehoshaphat, King of Israel. So now we are fixed in time and know the major players.

Jehoash reigned 40 years, and with the help of Jehoiada, was a good king.  But the high places still remained.  Seems no King wanted to pull those down.  Maybe because they were all isolated and attended by the rural people, so the urban Kings let it go to keep the peace?

Jehoash insists that the priests use the money from the assessments and offerings to repair the house of the Lord.  This process is delayed by the priests, who just don't seem to do it, but 23 years into his reign, that is, when Joash is 30, he insists, and instead of keeping the money, the priests give it to workman and repairs of all kinds are made to the temple.  It is at least partially restored to its former glory.  This is still Solomon's temple.    

Hazael goes to war with Gath, apparently takes it, and then decides to take Jerusalem on the way home.  To prevent this, Jehoash pays him tribute of the vessels and holy things in the Temple.  Including all the gold that was found in the Temple.  He just buys off Hazael, who takes the loot and heads on home.  It says a lot about the state of Judah at this time that they don't even muster an army and challenge Hazael.  No one cares enough to do so.  They just give him loot - from the Temple itself, which may have been the only place there was enough of value to be sent as loot - and hide, and wait.  Judah must have been very "downtrodden" by this time, if they could find no one to defend the country, and no one had enough money even to contribute to the buy off of Hazael.

Johoash's reign ends when he is struck down by two of his servants and killed.  Kind of an ignominious end, and we may read more about it in the Chronicles text.  2 Kings makes little of it.  Amaziah his son reigns in his place.

Chapter 13
In the 23rd year of Joash (which is the year Joash insisted that the priests start making some repairs) Jehoahaz, son of Jehu begins to reign in Israel. He is an evil King, after the manner of Jereboam.  God is very angry with Israel over this, and sends/allows Hazael to continually raid in Israel and sort of annex territory from Israel into Syria. Hazael's son Ben-Hadad also campaigns against Israel.  (So Hazael names his own son after the King he himself murdered to rise to power.  Or does Ben-Hadad have some special meaning?)  Jehoahaz seeks God's help and gets it.  This help is in the form of a savior, but no details of this are given here.  It says that the people of Israel lived as before.  So somehow, the raids stopped.  Even so, neither Jehoahaz nor the people stopped worshiping as Jereboam did, and the Asherah also remain.  

2023 - I note that this whole thing about God sending a savior to help Israel at this time is in parentheses.  Again with the parentheses.  What do they mean?  Did Hebrew actually even have parentheses?  How could they have been passed down orally before the Masoretic text came along?   Is there an implication that this part was inserted?  Are there two inserts in this chapter, one about this savior and the other about the guy coming back to life after Elisha's bones touch him?  That Elisha thing is NOT in parentheses?  Well...just checked the MSB, which is NASB, and there are NO parentheses at verse 5 at all.  So that tells me that the ESV means something by the parens that apparently the NASB did not see the same way.  How can I get to the bottom of this???  I looked at the introduction to the translation, sort of "scanned" it, and didn't see anything about parentheses.  I will go back when I get time and read it closely and thoroughly.  If that doesn't work, I'm going to write/email B.B. Kirkbride Bible Company and ask them if they know why they're doing this.
2023 - Here is the footnote to vs 5 from MSB speculating on who this savior might be: "The deliverer was not specifically named.  This deliverer was: 1) the Assyrian king Adad-Nirari KKK whose attack on the Syrians or Arameans, enabled the Israelites to break Syria's control over Israelite territory; or 2) Elisha, who as the leader of Israel's military successes (see v 14; cf 6:13, 16-23) commissioned Joash to defeat the Syrians; or 3) Jeroboam II who was able to extend Israel's boundaries back into Syrian territory (14:25-27).  In NASB, it calls this person a deliverer.  In ESV it is translated Savior.  The Hebrew word is transliterated yaw-shah.  It is translated "save" 149 times. savior 15 times and deliverer 13 times.  This looks like the word is really a verb, and is "converted" to a noun in some circumstances.  ESV seems to have gone with a form of the word most often translated - save - and rendered it savior.

Because of Syrian conquest, Israel only has 10,000 foot soldiers, and a few horseman, and 10 chariots.  That is their entire army, because Hazael has wiped out the rest.  Jehoahaz dies, and his son Joash reigns in his place.

2021 - Here is a case of God helping Israel when He is sought by Israel's King, even though Israel really does not repent of any of the sins God is angry about.  I do not understand this.  But for those who think God is too severe, and blame him for what he allows to happen, there are examples like this of the extraordinary mercy that he shows to those undeserving of mercy that offset the horror allowed to happen to those who don't deserve horror.  There is no constancy of justice in this world, where sin exists and sinners dispense justice.  We cannot expect it, and over and over the Bible shows us that the rain falls on both the evil and the good.

Again we have the same name of a King in north and south.  In Joash's 37th year (of 40, in the south), Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, takes over in the north.  Wouldn't be so bad except they reign at the same time!  He reigns 16 years.  Not much is said about this King of Israel in 2Kings.  He fought against Amaziah, King of Judah, but no details here.  And then he dies, and his son Jeroboam becomes King.  So...Jeroboam II maybe?  I didn't realize there were two with this name.

Then we switch to Elisha, who is sick with the illness he is to die from.  God doesn't just take him, he gets sick and dies.  Elisha does this thing with Joash King of Israel and it is determined that Joash will win three victories over Syria.  Only three.  It could have been more.  Then Elisha dies.

There is this little paragraph, vss 20 and 21, that says as they were burying some guy, apparently so near the grave of Elisha that Elisha's bones were exposed, and the other guy was hastily thrown in the hole because of some Moabite raiders being spotted, and when the freshly dead guy's body touched Elisha's bones, the dead guy came back to life.    This seems awfully like a later inserted section...And I'm sure it's a sin to think so.  MSB says it is real, and that it was a sign that the promises made through Elisha would continue even after Elisha's death, because God's power continued through that.

Jehoahaz indeed fights three battles with Syria - all with Ben-Hadad after Hazael dies - and in so doing, retakes many captured cities of Israel.

Chapter 14
Amaziah begins his reign in Judah.  He did right, but not like David.  More like Joash his father.  He left the high places alone.  Once his power was consolidated, he also killed those who had murdered his father, but he left their children alive, according to God's command  He killed 10,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt, and took Sela and renamed it Joktheel.
Amaziah invites Joash King of Israel to see him.  Joash sends a convoluted message but basically says "Mind your own business, lest you get more trouble than you bargained for."  

Amaziah wouldn't listen, so Israel and Judah went to battle.  Israel wins, they capture Amaziah, they proceed to Jerusalem and break down 600' of the wall, take all the gold and silver from the Temple, take the King's treasury, and some hostages, and head home.  Joash, King of Israel dies, and his son Jeroboam reigns in his place.

As for Amaziah, there is a conspiracy to kill him (Does not seem related to the loss of this battle because it is 15 years later when it happens), and he flees to Lachish.  But they find him and kill him there.  Then they make his 16 year old son Azariah King.

Jeroboam II is an evil King, and they continue to worship the two calves.  However, God remembers his promise to Israel, and restores her borders through Jeroboam, despite the fact that he isn't much good.  God remembers his promises, and uses even men like this to keep His Word, which is a far more important thing than the human lifetime of evil that one man can inflict.  Also this verse, second para below:

2021 - Here is another reason that evil men are sometimes successful and stay in office a very long time.  It is because God has bigger things to preserve.  His promises must stand, even if He raises up evil men to preserve them.  So there is rain on evil and good, and there are promises to be kept.

25 He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gath-hepher. [2Ki 14:25 ESV]
Jonah is very active during this reign, and is in the northern kingdom.  Hard to say if this was before or after Jonah went to Nineveh.  But I note that the book of Jonah is tomorrow's reading in the chronological Bible, so this is the same Jonah.

Also this verse:
27 But the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. [2Ki 14:27 ESV]
Not blot out Israel?  I thought he did say that, and directly to Jereboam for his sins in that first reign...God said this, though:
34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth. [1Ki 13:34 ESV]  So Jereboam's lineage would be wiped out completely.
In the next chapter, this:
10 therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. [1Ki 14:10 ESV]
Jereboam, not the northern kingdom, will be extinguished.

It is because of God's promise to Israel that Jereboam II is allowed to regain and restore Israeli territory.  Since God had not said he would wipe Israel from the face of the earth, Israel had to be preserved, even if that meant using someone like Jereboam II to accomplish it.

Jereboam dies and Zechariah his son reigns in his place.  Seems like this will be the fourth down from Jehu.

Chapter 15
Azariah succeeds Amaziah in Judah.  He is 16 at the time, and reigns 52 years.  He is a good king, but leaves the high places still.  But the Lord made this King a leper, and he lived a separate life.  Azariah's son Jotham was over the household.  Sort of a regent.  That's all it says about Azariah in 2Kings,, even though he reigned over 50  years.  We get more details of how his reign went in 2Ch26.

Zechariah, son of Jeroboam II, reigns in the north...for only six months.  A guy named Shallum conspired and killed Zechariah, and reigned in his place.  So Zechariah must have been the fifth generation, and only four were promised.  Fourth generation confirmed also. Here again, the new king has no relation to the old.  Power was up for grabs in the north.  What a chaotic place it must have been.

Shallum reigns in Israel.  (We see that Uzziah is another name for Azariah.)  He reigns only one month.  Menahem comes up from Tirzah, kills Shallum, and reigns in his place.  Menahem sacks a town called Tiphsah, because they won't acknowledge him as king (?), and rips open the bellies of all the pregnant women there.  How do they even think of  this stuff???  Menahem reigns for 10 years.  Pul of Assyria attacks Israel, and Menahem gives this king 1000 talents of silver to help him consolidate his power in Israel.  

After Menahem, Pekahiah his son reigns.  He lasts two years.  Pekah, the son of Remaliah his captain (Pekahiah's captain), kills the king and Pekah reigns in  his place.  So another change in ruling family.  Another coup - from the son of a military captain, not the captain himself.  All these kings reign during Azariah's 52 years.  Pekah reigns for 22 years.  He also is evil.  It has been a long time since Israel had a good king.  During this reign, Tiglath-pilesar attacks from the north, takes all of Galilee, all the land of Naphtali (those who live in darkness...all these were taken captive), plus more, and he takes the people captive to Assyria.  He enslaves them.   Rips them up from where they are, and takes them back to serve.  After this, Hoshea conspires against the king and kills him, and reigns in his place.  Another non-family change of leadership.  This during the reign of Jotham in Judah.

Jotham succeeds his father Azariah.  He is only 25 when he begins to reign, so Azariah must have ruled on his own despite his leprosy for many years, until Jotham was old enough to help out.  By then, the leprosy might have been quite severe.  He is a good king, but for the high places.  During Jotham's time, Rezin, of Syria, and Pekah of Israel begin to attack Judah.  Note that it says "...the Lord began to send Rezin..." and "Pekah".  So this was not just random.  This was God sending war to Judah, and the only cause for it that we're given is that the high places were still allowed to exist, and that Judah was still sacrificing on the high places instead of to God alone in the Temple built for the purpose. 

Chapter 16
Also about Ahaz.  A few details not covered in 2Ch 28:
5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to wage war on Jerusalem, and they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. [2Ki 16:5 ESV]  So we see here that Israel and Syria teamed up to take Jerusalem but couldn't do it.  So the captives taken - referenced in 2Ch 28, must have been from the surrounding area.
2023 - Ahaz was an evil King in Judah.  He even burned his own son as an offering to some pagan god.  So we see that the purpose of God in sending Rezin and Pekah to attack Judah may have just been preparatory to what needed to happen to Ahaz.  The hostile attitudes were already in place when Ahaz came to power.  And while Ahaz was King, they even attacked Jerusalem itself.

2Ch implied that Assyria did nothing to help Ahaz after he paid them tribute.  But this chapter says Tiglath-Pilesar III made war on Syria at Damascus and took it, killing Rezin in the process.  And here also it says Assyria took the Syrian captives to Kir...where ever that may have been.  A note in MSB says that extant Assyrian records show that in 733 BC T-P III besieged Damascus for two years, and then it fell.  These records also say Rezin, King of Syria was executed by Tig, and that the captives went to Kir.  So we have to interpret what was in 2 Chron about Ahaz being afflicted instead of helped as meaning that Assyria took Ahaz's bribe, treating Judah from then on as a vassal stated, and they invaded Syria for their own reasons, throwing no bones at all to Judah.  As I read it, Tig left Judah to deal with the encroaching Edomites and the Philistine raiders alone.  

Ahaz goes to meet T-P at Damascus, and is impressed by the altar he sees there.  Seems like this would be the altar built for the Syrian god.  (MSB note says it is more likely this altar was to an Assyrian god.)  Ahaz has this altar - whatever god it served - copied in Jerusalem and put in the Temple, and has all the people's sacrifices made on it.  Ahaz reserves the bronze altar that was God's to make "inquiries"...The priest at the time, I assume the high priest, Urijah, agrees to all these changes.  So here, instead of shutting down the temple, Ahaz corrupts its use, and offers sacrifices himself to the Syrian god within the Jewish temple.  Not only is Ahaz corrupt, but the High Priest of God goes along with it.  
2021 - It seems to me at this point that Ahaz was probably offering sacrifices to God, but doing so on what he thought was a "way more cool" altar, originally built to honor an Assyrian deity.  Ahaz rejects not only the uniqueness of God, but discounts His commandments as to how he wants sacrifices offered.  This throws out a huge portion of Mosaic Law.  Surely this would anger God greatly.  But there is nothing about God getting angry and sending chastisement or punishment on Judah - or on Ahaz.

Ahaz also made other modifications of the Temple - originally designed by God himself - as if he could do it better.  At the age of 36, Ahaz dies.  We don't get any information about that in 2Ki either.

Hezekiah becomes king.

Chapter 17
In Israel, Hoshea becomes King, four years before Ahaz dies.  He is a different kind of bad king.  By this time, Assyria has a new King also.  One of the notes at this site, https://biblehub.com/topical/s/shalmaneser.htm, says we do not know if Shalmanesar was the son of Tiglath-Pilesar or a usurper.

Shalmanesar invades Israel, wins, and requires that Hoshea pay tribute to him from that point forward.  Hoshea eventually rebels against this tribute and conspires with So, King of Egypt, and stops paying Shalmanesar. Shalmanesar King of  Assyria finds out Hoshea is talking to So, King of Egypt.  He puts Hoshea in prison and in anger invades Israel.  He gets to Samaria and besieges it for three years.  He defeats them and carries them all away as slaves and scatters them across Assyria and the land of the Medes.  This is the end of Israel, of the Northern Kingdom, and it has lasted until the present time.  All because of her first King, Jereboam I, and the two golden calves he required the north to worship instead of in the Temple in Jerusalem.

There is a long accounting of the sins of Israel against God, and of all the chances He gave them to repent.
2021 - This is a good history of all that the people did, and kept doing, despite all God did to correct them.  This is free will in action if ever there was free will.  Defiance and stubbornness in the face of wisdom.  It s a good history chapter.

Vs 18 says none was left but the tribe of Judah.  I have seen this  before.  But what about Benjamin?  Didn't Benjamin stay with Judah?

Assyria sends their own settlers to Samaria and they move in.  God sends lions to kill them because they do not worship him.  Assyria decides they need to worship the God of Israel to stop this.  A priest is sent back to instruct them with some success.  But they also worship the gods they left behind.  Succoth-benoth and so on.  A study could be made of all these false gods.  It is these resettled Assyrians that become the Samaritans of Jesus' time.  It is because of where they came from that the people of Judah and Jerusalem despised them.  Even though these new settlers were doing a much better job of worshiping God than the 10 tribes had done.  I can't help but be reminded of the English resettlement of Northern Ireland with Scottish Presbyterians.  Could this be where the idea came from?

Despite the priest that was sent back to teach the new settlers how to worship the God of Israel, they still worshiped the gods of the lands from which they'd been moved.  This verse:
34 To this day they do according to the former manner. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes or the rules or the law or the commandment that the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. [2Ki 17:34 ESV]

And also this last verse of 17:
41 So these nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their children did likewise, and their children's children--as their fathers did, so they do to this day. [2Ki 17:41 ESV]
Samaria is a bit of a mixed bag.  They worship God, but not exclusively as required, and they violate many of His most profound commandments.  Judah hated them, and this sequence - this national identity they have as settlers or more likely captives and former slaves from Assyria - should be kept in mind in the New Testament.  Isn't it interesting that the Messiah would spend the majority of his life and ministry in these "occupied" territories instead of in Judah itself?  This implies that even the "split loyalties" of the Samaritans were more acceptable to God than the completely legalistic and ritual-only worship of Judah.

2023 - So in this chapter we see the end of Israel, the removal of all the Israelites and the resettlement of Israel with captured peoples from Assyria.  The reasons are outlined, and they are quite simple.  It was because they did not keep the covenant that their fathers had made.  These new people didn't get it right either, nor did their children, or their children's children.  That is, failing to worship God is a generational failing.  It gets passed on.  Each generation is responsible for teaching the next.  And look at us in this country.  Even the "good" ones among us have rebellion in their houses.

Chapter 18
(MSB says 18 begins the last major division of the books of Kings.  It goes from Hezekiah in 722 BC to the captivity and destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC.  Kings opens with the building of the temple and ends with the destruction of the temple.  A sad story of a people who will not remain true to God.)
Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, begins to reign in Judah.  MSB has a lot of numbers, says Hezekiah was a co-regent for a number of years, and began to reign on his own in 715 BC and reigned until 695 BC.  He reigned another 9 years with his son, Manasseh.  Isaiah and Micah were active during this reign.
Hezekiah was a very good King, following the ways of David.  He removed the high places and cut down the Asherah.  I think he is the first one to do that.  Good kings before him still left the high places intact.  It says he also destroyed the bronze serpent Moses had put up in the wilderness.  Israel still had it and some were worshiping it up to this time.  They called it Nehushtan.  Says he was the best of all the kings that came after, and that came before.  I think this would make him a better king than Solomon - after all, Solomon let things go the wrong way.  (Says the same thing about Josiah later.)

vs. 7 says he rebelled against the King of Assyria and would not serve him.  He struck down the Philistines.  In Hezekiah's fourth year, Shalmaneser, King of Assyria comes against Samaria and lays siege to it.  Takes three years for it to fall.  What was it like in Jerusalem, not so very far away, to watch Samaria surrounded for three years, to watch that nation try to go on with no King and no capitol city?  No word at all from their government for three years.  Did Hezekiah consider going to their aid?  Did Samaria under Hoshea appeal to Jerusalem and others for help during that three years?  That is a long time to do nothing....
Once the city falls, the Samaritans were taken away as captives.  This was the ultimate result of their choice to NOT follow the commands of God.  vs 12:
12 because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but transgressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed. [2Ki 18:12 ESV]
The northern kingdom never existed again.  The people never came back.  Present day Israel encompasses that territory, but the people there were made up of the few who escaped exile and those that Assyria sent there to resettle the area.  As we read earlier, in Isaiah I think it was.  Could have been a footnote.  Or maybe it was in 2K17, and this is a repeat of it.   

In vs 13, another Assyrian King, Sennacherib, takes all the fortified cities of Judah.  Remember, Hezekiah has rebelled against Assyria.  Hezekiah sends a message to Sennacherib admitting he's made a mistake, and offering to pay whatever price Sennacherib asks.  The price is in gold and silver, and a lot of it.  Hezekiah puts together all he can find, mostly stripped from the Temple, its vessels, and it pillars and doors, overlaid with gold.  A delegation from Sennacherib arrives, and a delegation from Jerusalem goes out to meet them.  The message from Sennacherib is a question about whom Hezekiah is trusting to protect him.  Sennacherib thinks it is either Pharoah, in Egypt, and there are many aspersions cast on him by the delegation, or on God.  Sennacherib knows that Hezekiah tore down all the Asherah, and thinks those were for worshiping the God of Hezekiah, so why would he think God would help him.  Sennacherib has a lot of information, but it is interesting that his information is only twisted half truth and partial misunderstanding.

At the end of this, the delegation from Hezekiah asks the Rabshakeh who speaks for Sennacherib, to speak in Aramaic, and not in Hebrew.  They don't want the "public", the men assembled on the wall, to hear the words of Sennacherib.  So the Rabshakeh addresses the men on the wall directly, and in their own language.  He tells them they are doomed if Hezekiah persists in rebellion.  He says not to listen if Hezekiah tells them that God will deliver them.  He tells them if they'll come out and surrender, they will live on their own land, or on a land much like it elsewhere, but they will live.  He tells them that the gods of other nations didn't protect them from Sennacherib, how could they think the God of Israel could do better?  

The words are reported back to Hezekiah.

Study:  Seems like Sennacherib makes three claims.  Look at each.  I suspect he pitted himself directly against the living God, almost a challenge to God, and we will see the results in coming chapters.

Chapter 19
This chapter reads very much like the account in Isaiah.  Some believe that this was in fact copied from Isaiah's writing about the event.  
Hezekiah is terrified by the words sent from Sennacherib.  He sends his closest advisors to make sure that Isaiah knows the Assyrian King has challenged God with his words.  Has belittled the God of Israel.  Isaiah does know, and sends word back that God will make Sennacherib leave, and that he will then be killed in his own country.
Sennacherib hears a rumor that the King of Cush is coming against him.  I think Cush is modern day Ethiopia for the most part.  Its King at the time was Tirhakah.  Wikipedia says Kush was present day Sudan.  He reigned from 690-664 BC.  So this is a real person.  
Hezekiah goes into the Temple, and prays that God will show that, unlike the gods of other lands that conquering Assyrian armies have thrown into fires and burned up, because they were just idols, He is the one true God of Israel, and He will not be overcome, nor mocked, nor belittled.
Isaiah is given a message for Hezekiah from God, after Hezekiah has prayed his prayer in the Temple.  vs 21-28 are the answer.

God indicates that the particular choice of words Sennacherib used makes his a personal challenge to God.  He didn't just threaten Jerusalem, he said the God of Israel was powerless against him.  Always a very dangerous position to take.  God says that all of Sennacherib's accomplishments were foretold, by God, long ago, and that his success is due to God's plan, not to his own pitiful human plans.  And God says that even now, Sennacherib will act according to God's plan, and not to his own, and in so doing, Sennacherib will demonstrate that Israel's God is also his God, whether Sennacherib cares to acknowledge it or not.  Good one for FB, using vs 28.

The sign referred to the two years that Sennacherib went about his destructive business in Israel and Judah.  He did destroy much, he ransacked and pillaged and devastated the land.  BUT, in the third year, after God sent him home, the people could immediately go back to business as usual.  There was no tribute, no slavery, no ongoing consequence to Judah.  And they quickly repopulated the land.  
God's angel kills 185,000 overnight in the camp of the Assyrians.  Sennacherib goes home.  As he is worshiping the Assyrian gods in their temple, two of his own sons murder him.  Esarhaddon becomes King of Assyria.
There are some outside sources that talk about Sennacherib.  Apparently Sennacherib himself never claimed to have defeated Jerusalem, but only to have besieged it.  He was killed in a temple by one or two of his sons, depending on which account you read.  There is also speculation in this article about what "really" killed so many in the Assyrian army - though this mass death is not reported by Sennacherib in his account of the time. 

Chapter 20
This chapter begins at about the same spot as 2Chron32:24 with Hezekiah's illness unto death.
Isaiah tells Hezekiah that this sickness will end in his death.  Hezekiah prays that God will give him more time, and God hears him.  Even before Isaiah leaves the palace, God tells him to go back and tell Hezekiah he gets 15 more years.  Furthermore, Jerusalem would be delivered from the King of Assyria.  (This was Sennacherib and the 185,000 dead in the night.  Also, to lay a cake of figs on the boil.  So it seems Hezekiah's illness at this time was an infected boil maybe that had gone septic?   As a sign of this promise, the sun moves backward ten steps.  Always heard this was in degrees.  What it says is that it went back ten steps on the steps of Ahaz, so some kind of synchronized solar clock.  It also says that Hezekiah got to choose whether the shadow would go forward or backward.  Hezekiah said it was "easy" to make it go forward 10, so he asked that it go backwards ten steps.  MSB says this is the first biblical mention of a way of marking time.

Emissaries come from Babylon to see Hezekiah.  He gets proud and shows off everything in his kingdom.  No treasure of Judah is hidden from them.  Isaiah asks Hezekiah about it.  Isaiah tells Hezekiah that Babylon will take all this treasure away, but that it will be in the days of Hezekiah's sons, not in Hezekiah's time.  And this good king, this great man, essentially says "That's fine, as long as it does not happen to me."  Here is the actual verse.  I see no other way to read it:
19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD that you have spoken is good." For he thought, "Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?" [2Ki 20:19 ESV]  How else can you read "Why not.."?
Seems like he's wasting that extra 15 years...
Hezekiah's 15 years elapse, and he dies.  Manasseh reigns in his place.

Chapter 21
Manassah becomes King at the age of 12, and reigns 55 years.  He sets about undoing all the good Hezekiah had done.  He rebuilds those high places that had finally been destroyed, begins Baal worship, builds an Asherah, and worships "all the host of heaven" - astrology and so on.  Perhaps this is God's way of showing that Judah should be destroyed, as was Hezekiah's pride.  God knew the people would turn to idols given any choice at all...but that's not right.  There was true revival in Hezekiah's early days.  Why did it not last?  How was Manassah able to so easily turn the people back to idols?

Manassah even builds altars to false gods inside the Temple.  He burns his own son as an offering.  He uses fortune-telling and omens, mediums and necromancers.  He looks for guidance from demons in disguise - that's what these things are - instead of seeking God's guidance.  This plumbs the depths of fallen man in my opinion.  How can any man do such a thing?  There is something missing from such a man.  He even puts the Asherah he carved into the Temple of God.  Judah has become worse than the nations driven out before them.  Found this verse that might have some bearing:
5 Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely. [Pro 28:5 ESV]
In vs 8, we have this:
8 And I will not cause the feet of Israel to wander anymore out of the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they will be careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the Law that my servant Moses commanded them." [2Ki 21:8 ESV]
A succinct restatement of God's conditional covenant with the nation of Israel.  But they have rarely complied, and Manasseh has now undone all that Hezekiah did right.

Next, God responds through His prophets, and passes judgement on Israel.  The words are heavy with doom, and strike fear into me to even hear them.  Here they are, as this chapter quotes them.  A bit long, but worth seeing:
10 And the LORD said by his servants the prophets, 11 "Because Manasseh king of Judah has committed these abominations and has done things more evil than all that the Amorites did, who were before him, and has made Judah also to sin with his idols, 12 therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Jerusalem and Judah such disaster that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 And I will forsake the remnant of my heritage and give them into the hand of their enemies, and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies, 15 because they have done what is evil in my sight and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day." [2Ki 21:10-15 ESV]
God declares the same fate for Judah and Jerusalem that Samaria has already suffered.  They are going to be over run, destroyed, made "not a nation".  So this disaster that is coming is not just about what Manassah is doing, not just the consequence of Hezekiah's pride, but the culmination of all the evil and provocation of the children of Israel since their departure from Egypt.  I cannot find a good number for the year they left Egypt, perhaps it goes too far back.  Best number I found was 13th Century BCE.  If I have my numbers right, Manassah became co-regent in just about 600 BCE.  So the 7th century BCE.  By this probably inaccurate reckoning, about 600 years had passed.    Seems too short...but that's all I have for now.

Manassah, who had turned Israel so far away, who had done so much evil, and shed so much innocent blood, apparently dies a natural death and gets buried in the garden of his house.  He experiences nothing that we would call punishment for his crimes while he is alive.  The only punishment, even for such affronts to God right in God's own Temple, comes after death.  Punishment before death must pale in comparison to what awaits after.  Think of punishment in this world as just a drop in the bucket.  It doesn't really add to the whole of eternal punishment that comes after.

Manasseh's son Amon reigns in his place.  He reigns only two years, and follows in his father's footsteps.  He does all the same idolatrous things.  His servants murder him in his own house.  But the people don't like this apparently and kill the servants, and then Josiah reigns in Amon's place.  Amon was only 24 when he died.  Josiah must have been pretty young when they made him king.  (8 years old, we're told in the next chapter.)

Chapter 22
Josiah becomes King for 39 years at the age of 8.  He is a very good King.  Josiah notifies Hilkiah the High Priest, to start using the money the Temple takes in to make repairs and get the Temple in order.

Hilkiah finds an apparently old, neglected, probably "lost" book of the law.  It makes its way to Josiah eventually.  Josiah tears his clothes on hearing the law, realizing that they and their fathers have strayed so very far from what God commands.  He realizes the wrath of God that has been incurred, and knows that it is entirely their fault.  Josiah has them inquire of Huldah the prophetess, and she tells them that God's wrath will not be turned back.  It is coming, and it will not be quenched, because the violations of His law are so many they must be dealt with.  Note that these sins have accumulated against the nation, and not so much against individuals.  God also says that this coming wrath will be put off until after Josiah's death, because he was truly penitent upon realizing the mistakes they were making.  So another principle:  God's punishment of a nation can be postponed by a leader who is truly interested in following after Him and His ways.  I don't know of a place where one good man delayed wrath, but Kings, as head of the nation, can bring this about.  

Chapter 23
Josiah calls all the people to the Temple, reads the book to them, and then swears to perform all that is written there.  He makes a covenant.  So do all the people.  Then Josiah has all the idols and instruments of false gods brought out of the Temple.  He burns them, and sends even the ashes far away.  He also deposed all the priests to these false gods who had been set up by the Kings that came before him.

He broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes.  Does not specifically say they were homosexuals, at least not in this translation.  NKJV calls them perverted persons.  KJV calls them sodomites.  Would need to look into the actual word used, and see how it is translated elsewhere.  See if it always means homosexuals, or can mean either.  Or both really.  In any case, they were evicted.  Josiah "defiles" all the worship places dedicated to all kinds of false gods that were being worshiped in and around the Temple and Jerusalem.  He sort of says "In your face, Molech..." and so on.  He gets rid of every idol, instrument, and deposes every false priest in the land.  Total house-cleaning.  He even pulls down the altar at Bethel that Jereboam had set up for the northern kingdom to worship a golden calf.  He burned all the bones in the tombs near this altar, as had been predicted in 1Ki 13:2.  The predictor is only referred to as "A man of God", sent for the purpose of telling Jereboam that human bones would someday be burned on this altar.  In vs 20, it looks to me like Josiah burned the then current priests of these places on the altar, again sort of daring that golden calf to do something about it.  

Josiah re-institutes the Passover.  Amazingly, it had not been properly observed since the time of the judges, in either Israel or Judah.  So even David didn't get that right.  Because of all these things that Josiah did, this is written of him:
25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him. [2Ki 23:25 ESV]
What an epitaph.

Even given this intense a revival in Judah and Jerusalem, we see this in the very next verse:

26 Still the LORD did not turn from the burning of his great wrath, by which his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked him. [2Ki 23:26 ESV]
Once a nation has crossed God's line, there is no escape, no undoing.  There is only short term forbearance.  And it is interesting that the pronouncement is because of Manasseh.  Sure, idolatry and paganism were running rampant in Judah, but it says it is because of Manasseh's provocation that wrath is coming.

Josiah is killed by Pharoah Neco, when Josiah goes out to meet Neco as he approaches Assyria.  He kills Josiah at Megiddo as soon as he sees him.  No talk, no questions, just kills him.  Josiah's body is taken by chariot to Jerusalem, where he is buried.  MSB says we don't know why Josiah went to talk to Neco, or why he didn't want Neco's army to join the Assyrian army against Babylon.  Says there will be more detail in 2 Chron 35.  Jehoahaz, Josiah's son, reigns in his place.

Jehoahaz reigns only 3 months.  Pharoah Neco captures Jehoahaz, and has him taken to Egypt so that he will not rule Judah.  Jehoahaz dies in Egypt.  Neco makes another son of Josiah, Eliakim, sort of a vassal king and demands an annual tribute.  He also changes Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim.  He reigns 11 years.  He is an evil king, as might be expected at this point.

Chapter 24
Neb came up, and Jehoiakim was his servant 3 years.  After that, Jehoiakim rebels against Neb.  God sends bands of Chaldeans, Moabities, Ammonites, and Syrians to destroy Judah, as was prophesied, because of all the innocent blood shed by Manasseh, that God will not forgive.  Here is the verse:
3 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he had done, 4 and also for the innocent blood that he had shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon. [2Ki 24:3-4 ESV]
God avenges innocent blood, against individuals in eternity, and certainly against countries in history.
Jehoiakim dies, his son Jehoiachin becomes king.  Egypt stayed home, because Neb had taken much of his land.
Jehoiachin only reigns 3 mos.  He was evil for that three months.  8th year of Neb's reign.  Jehoiachin gives himself up to Neb - who actually comes to the city of Jerusalem.  Also gives up his Mom, servants, and officials.  Neb carries off the Temple treasures.  Neb cuts in pieces the golden vessels of the temple Solomon had made.  10,000 captives were taken.  He took away all but the poorest of the people.  Neb makes Mattathiah, the King's Uncle, King in his place and changes his name to Zedekiah. (So now the names make some sense.)

2022 - This verse:
20 For because of the anger of the LORD it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. [2Ki 24:20 ESV].  That is, without the oversight of God, Zedekiah just went stupid.  Surely we are seeing this same kind of insanity today.  

Zedekiah reigns 11 years.  He also does evil in God's sight.  God has thrown them out anyway.  Zedekiah rebels against Nebuchadnezzar.  Duh!

Chapter 25
Neb comes back and besieges Jerusalem a second time.  They build siege works.
The siege lasts 30 months.  The city has no food left at all.  The wall is breached, the city falls.  Z and "all the men of war" sneak out and make a run for the Arabah.  Not sure how they could have gotten out while surrounded, but they did.  Also hard to believe the entire army fled and left all the civilians to their fate.  Doesn't work out for them though.  They are caught by the Chaldeans.  Zedekiah's sons are killed and he is taken in chains to Babylon - but blinded first.
A month later, Nebuzaradan, Capt of the King's Guard, comes and burns the Temple, the King's house, and all the houses in Jerusalem.  Then many more go into captivity, as in Jeremiah.  They carry away all the vessels left in the Temple, and all the bronze.  Loot it completely.  Further, they don't take most of the vessels intact, but cut them up and carry them away in pieces.  Likely they were easier to transport that way...and likely it was easier to steal a little gold here and there since all the pieces might not be accounted for.  We know some vessels survived because they are brought out later by a Babylonian King on the night Babylon falls to Medo-Persia.  Nebuzaradan finds some more officials who had not been captured.  Among them:
18 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; [2Ki 25:18 ESV]
MSB says Seraiah was the grandson of Hilkiah the High Priest...so perhaps Seraiah was serving as High Priest at the time.  These, and a number of other "leaders" are taken to Nebuchadnezzar.  They are killed.  So at this point Zedekiah King of Judah is blind and in chains, and the High Priest has been killed, with no immediate successor.  Judah has been destroyed physically, governmentally, and religiously.  Everyone of any use has been taken captive to Babylon, and only the lowest of the low - who couldn't take care of themselves anyway - are left in the country.
Nebuchadnezzar appoints Gedeliah governor when he leaves.  Gedeliah is not a member of the royal family, but of a family that served in Josiah's time.  When word gets out, survivors come to Gedeliah.  Those who come to him are called "the captains and their men" so these might have formed the core of a defensive army in Judah.  They "regroup".  But Ishmael, son of Syria's King, comes and kills Gedeliah and those found with him. Israel's enemies want them gone, and do this to insure that they remain powerless.  The remaining people flee to Egypt.
In year 37 of the exile, Evil-Merodach frees Jehoiachin from prison, sets him at his table above other captured kings, and gives him a regular allowance.  For as long as he lived.
This is the last chapter of 2Kings.