2 Kings Themes

There are bad betrayals and good betrayals in 2 Kings. The bad betrayals involve the various conspiracies that bring down different kings. For example, when Hazael smothers the sick king Ben-Hadad...

While betrayal is clearly a really bad thing (duh), its opposite quality—loyalty—is usually rewarded and praised by God (yay). But the people of 2 Kings need to go through trials of faith and d...

In the song "Power," Kanye West poses the question "You got the power to let power go?" That question basically means the same thing as, "Do you have the power to remain humble?" The people who do...

War: all the time. There's tons of warfare in 2 Kings. War is, like, the main thing that kings do—it's all over the place. Sometimes these wars are fought for selfish or trivial or stupid reasons...

Considering that this is, you know, the Bible, religion is a pretty big theme. In this case, it has to do with the clash between different interpretations of ancient Israelite religion. The people...

Sin, for the authors of 2 Kings, is a form of forgetfulness, you could say. When people forget God, they tend to fall into sin. This takes the form of engaging in various prohibited religious pract...

Justice and judgment provide the response to the previous category: sin. Justice is what punishes or cleanses sin, after all. The God of 2 Kings is big on justice, though he's not without his merci...