49 Fun Facts About 2 Kings

What did Elisha tell a prophet's widow, whose creditor was coming for her two sons, to borrow from her neighbours?

Empty jars, and not just a few, all filled from her one small jar of olive oil, which stopped flowing when no jar was left; Elisha told her to sell the oil, pay her debts and live on the rest.

What did the Shunammite woman's dead son do seven times as Elisha lay stretched out over him in the rooftop room?

Sneezed seven times, then opened his eyes: the boy had cried 'My head! My head!' in the fields and died on his mother's lap, and she rode to Mount Carmel and refused to leave Elisha's side.

What did Elisha throw into the Jordan so that a borrowed iron axe head would float up from where it sank?

A stick, cut and thrown where the axe head sank, 'made the iron float'; the prophets were by the Jordan cutting poles because their old place had grown too small for them.

How did a watchman on the tower of Jezreel recognise Jehu's approaching chariot while it was still far off?

By his reckless driving: 'he drives like a maniac' in the NIV and 'he driveth furiously' in the King James, a verse that made 'jehu' an English word for a fast driver.

What did Queen Athaliah cry out on finding the seven-year-old Joash crowned in the temple as the trumpets sounded?

Treason, treason was the cry of the usurper who had murdered the royal family six years earlier; Jehoiada the priest had her dragged out and killed where the horses enter the palace grounds, not in the temple.

What sign did Isaiah give the sick King Hezekiah that he would recover?

The shadow went back ten steps on the stairway of Ahaz, at Hezekiah's own choosing, since he said going forward would be 'a simple matter'; God promised to add fifteen years to his life.

What was the last thing King Zedekiah saw before the Babylonians put out his eyes at Riblah?

His sons being executed was Zedekiah's final sight; bound in bronze shackles he was marched to Babylon, having been caught in the plains of Jericho after his army scattered and the city wall was breached.

Where did Pharaoh Necho kill King Josiah, who marched out to stop an Egyptian army bound for the Euphrates?

Megiddo, probably the place behind Revelation's name Armageddon, is where Josiah fell, and his servants carried his body home to Jerusalem in a chariot to be buried in his own tomb.

What did the healed Naaman ask to carry home so that he could worship Israel's God there?

Two mule-loads of earth went home with the Aramean commander, who also asked forgiveness in advance for bowing in the temple of Rimmon whenever his king leaned on his arm.

Which Philistine city's god Baal-Zebub did King Ahaziah send messengers to consult after falling through a lattice?

Ekron's god Baal-Zebub, literally 'lord of the flies', is the name behind Beelzebub, the Gospels' prince of demons; Elijah turned the messengers back, warning that Ahaziah would die in his bed, and he did.

What did Moab's king do on the city wall as the battle at Kir Hareseth turned against him?

Sacrificed his firstborn son, 'who was to succeed him as king', and the besiegers withdrew; Mesha's own boast of winning back land from Israel survives on the Mesha Stele, found at Dhiban in Jordan.

What did Elisha call for before prophesying to three kings whose armies had run dry in the Desert of Edom?

A harpist: while the harpist played, 'the hand of the LORD came on Elisha', and the next morning water flowed in from Edom and filled the valley, though no one saw wind or rain.

What did Elisha throw into a stew of wild gourds that the company of prophets cried was 'death in the pot'?

Flour thrown into the pot made the poisonous stew of wild gourds safe to eat during a famine at Gilgal, and the next verses have Elisha feed a hundred men on twenty loaves of barley bread.

Which two rivers did Naaman say were better than all the waters of Israel when told to wash in the Jordan?

Abana and Pharpar are the rivers of Damascus, and Naaman stormed off in a rage before his servants talked him round: if the prophet had asked 'some great thing', wouldn't he have done it?

Who was telling Israel's king how Elisha raised a dead boy when the boy's mother walked in to reclaim her land?

Gehazi, Elisha's servant, was telling that very story when the Shunammite woman walked in after seven years abroad, and the king gave her back her land and all its income from the years away.

What did Elisha's servant see filling the hills around Dothan once his eyes were opened?

Horses and chariots of fire ringed the hills — 'those who are with us are more than those who are with them' — and Elisha then had the Aramean raiders struck blind and led them straight into Samaria.

What sold for eighty shekels of silver during the famine in Samaria while Ben-Hadad's army sat outside its walls?

A donkey's head fetched eighty shekels as the siege dragged on, and when a mother told the king she had cooked and eaten her son, he tore his robes to reveal sackcloth underneath.

Who discovered that the Aramean army besieging Samaria had fled, leaving tents, horses and food behind?

Four men with leprosy, sitting at the city gate with nothing to lose, walked into a deserted camp: the LORD had made the Arameans hear the sound of a great army bearing down on them.

What became of the royal officer who doubted Elisha's promise to end Samaria's famine?

Trampled to death at the gate he had been put in charge of, as crowds poured out to plunder the Aramean camp; Elisha had told him he would see the cheap food but never eat any.

How did Hazael kill the sick King Ben-Hadad after Elisha said Hazael would rule Aram?

Smothered him with a wet cloth: Hazael 'took a thick cloth, soaked it in water' and held it over the king's face, the day after Elisha had stared at him and begun to weep over what he would do to Israel.

Where was Jehu, then an army commander, anointed king in a back room by a young prophet whom Elisha had sent?

Ramoth Gilead, the border fortress Israel was holding against Hazael's Aram, is where Jehu's fellow officers laid their cloaks under him on the bare stairs, blew a trumpet and shouted 'Jehu is king!'

On whose plot of ground did Jehu have King Joram's arrow-pierced body thrown, calling it payment for an old crime?

Naboth the Jezreelite's plot got Ahab's son: Jehu reminded his chariot officer Bidkar that they had ridden behind Ahab when the LORD vowed to repay Naboth's blood on that very ground.

What did Jehu turn the temple of Baal in Samaria into after luring its worshippers inside and slaughtering them?

A latrine, 'to this day', the writer adds — yet Jehu kept the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, so the book marks him down for not turning from 'the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat'.

Whom did Jehu help up into his chariot, saying 'come with me and see my zeal for the LORD'?

Jehonadab son of Rekab laid down rules his descendants were still keeping in Jeremiah's day, refusing wine, houses and vineyards, and Jeremiah held them up to Judah as a model of obedience.

What did Jehoiada the priest set beside the altar, with a hole bored in its lid, to fund King Joash's temple repairs?

A chest with a bored lid became the collection box after the priests had let the temple go unrepaired into the twenty-third year of Joash's reign; the king's secretary and the senior priest counted the silver together.

Where was King Joash of Judah murdered by his own officials after he had bought off Hazael with the temple's gold?

Beth Millo, 'on the road down to Silla', is where the king crowned at seven fell to Jozabad and Jehozabad; his son Amaziah executed them but spared their children, as the Law of Moses required.

Why did the dying Elisha grow angry after King Jehoash of Israel struck the ground with arrows?

He struck only three times, and Elisha said five or six strikes would have wiped out Aram; now Jehoash would defeat it just three times.

What happened to a corpse thrown into Elisha's tomb when raiders interrupted a burial?

The man came back to life and stood up the moment his body touched Elisha's bones, a wonder from the prophet who had asked Elijah for a double portion of his spirit.

With what fable did Jehoash of Israel warn Amaziah of Judah to stay home?

A thistle proposing to a cedar, then crushed underfoot by a passing wild beast, was Jehoash's picture of Amaziah's pride after beating Edom; he then broke down 400 cubits of Jerusalem's wall and emptied the temple.

Which prophet does 2 Kings 14 credit with foretelling Jeroboam II's restored borders?

Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet who ran from God's call to Nineveh and was swallowed by a huge fish, turns up here promising Israel's expansion 'from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea'.

Who killed King Zechariah of Israel in front of the people, ending Jehu's dynasty, and then ruled for a month?

Shallum son of Jabesh cut Zechariah down after six months on the throne, fulfilling the promise that Jehu's line would last four generations, and a month later Menahem killed Shallum.

How did King Menahem of Israel raise the thousand talents of silver he paid Pul of Assyria?

A levy on every wealthy man, fifty shekels of silver each, raised the money, and the king of Assyria withdrew and stayed in the land no longer.

What did King Ahaz of Judah send Uriah the priest a detailed sketch of after meeting Tiglath-Pileser in Damascus?

An altar he had seen in Damascus, which Uriah finished copying before Ahaz got home; the king then moved the old bronze altar aside and ordered the daily offerings made on the new one.

Which king of Israel did Shalmaneser of Assyria jail after finding he had sent envoys to Egypt?

Hoshea had stopped paying tribute and sent envoys to So king of Egypt, so the Assyrian jailed him, besieged Samaria for three years and deported its people to Assyria.

What plagued the settlers Assyria moved into Samaria until an exiled priest was sent back to teach them the LORD's ways?

Lions killed some of the settlers, so the king of Assyria sent an exiled priest back to Bethel to teach them, yet each national group still set up its own gods in the towns where it settled.

Which language did Hezekiah's officials ask the Assyrian envoy to speak so the men on the wall could not follow?

Aramaic was refused: the field commander stood and shouted in Hebrew to the men on the wall, urging them to surrender and be carried off to a land like their own, a land of grain and new wine.

What did Hezekiah do with Sennacherib's threatening letter before Isaiah promised the city's safety?

Spread it out in the temple before the LORD and prayed over it, and Isaiah's answer was that the Assyrian would 'not enter this city or shoot an arrow here' — and that night the camp was struck.

How did Sennacherib die after returning to Nineveh from his failed campaign against Hezekiah's Jerusalem?

Slain by his sons at prayer: Adrammelek and Sharezer cut him down in the temple of his god Nisrok and fled to Ararat, and another son, Esarhaddon, became king.

Whose envoys did Hezekiah show all his treasures, prompting Isaiah to foretell that everything would be carried off?

Marduk-Baladan, king of Babylon, had sent them after Hezekiah's illness, and when Isaiah said all of it would go to Babylon, Hezekiah called the word good, thinking at least his own days would be peaceful.

What does 2 Kings 21 say King Manasseh filled Jerusalem with 'from end to end' during his fifty-five-year reign?

Innocent blood filled Jerusalem under Manasseh, whom Talmudic tradition says had the prophet Isaiah sawn to death, and the LORD vowed to wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish.

Who killed the officials who assassinated King Amon of Judah in his palace after a reign of only two years?

The people of the land executed all the plotters and made Amon's eight-year-old son Josiah king, and he went on to reign for thirty-one years.

Who found the Book of the Law in the temple during Josiah's repairs and handed it to Shaphan the secretary?

Hilkiah the high priest's find was read to Josiah, who tore his robes and sent to ask the LORD, fearing his anger because earlier generations had not obeyed the book.

Which site in the Valley of Ben Hinnom did Josiah desecrate so no one could burn a child there to Molek?

Topheth lay in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, whose Hebrew name gave us the word Gehenna; at Bethel, Josiah burned bones from nearby tombs to defile Jeroboam's high place, as a man of God had foretold.

Which festival did Josiah order kept from the rediscovered book, in a way not seen since the days of the judges?

Passover had not been kept like that 'in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings', the writer says, and it fell in the eighteenth year of Josiah — the year the book came to light.

Which son of Josiah did Pharaoh Necho put on Judah's throne after chaining King Jehoahaz at Riblah?

Jehoiakim was the new name Necho gave Eliakim, while his brother Jehoahaz, deposed after three months, was carried off to Egypt and died there.

Which Babylonian king released Jehoiachin from prison in the thirty-seventh year of his exile?

Awel-Marduk, Nebuchadnezzar's son, gave him a place at the king's table for life, and ration tablets dug up at Babylon list rations for Jehoiachin, 'king of the land of Yahudu', and his five sons.

Which commander of Nebuchadnezzar's imperial guard set fire to Jerusalem's temple, palace and every important building?

Nebuzaradan burned the city on the seventh day of the fifth month, carried its people into exile, and left only some of the poorest behind to work the vineyards and fields.

Whom did Nebuchadnezzar appoint over the people left in Judah, a governor later assassinated at Mizpah?

Gedaliah son of Ahikam was killed by Ishmael, a man of royal blood, and the Fast of Gedaliah still marks it, usually on the third of Tishrei, the day after Rosh Hashanah ends.

How does Sennacherib's own prism describe shutting Hezekiah up in Jerusalem?

Like a bird in a cage: the prism boasts of forty-six of Hezekiah's fortified cities taken and of gold, silver and his daughters later brought to Nineveh, but it never claims Jerusalem fell.