The Divided Kingdom
- When
- c. 850–560 BC
- Written by
- Unknown; tradition names Jeremiah
- Chapters
- 25
The big idea
Elisha carries on Elijah’s work, but both kingdoms keep turning from God. Israel falls to Assyria, and at last Judah falls to Babylon and Jerusalem burns.
Themes
- Faithful kings
- Prophets and power
- Judgment on idolatry
- Exile
Memory verse
Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
Key passages
- 2Elijah taken up
- 5Naaman healed
- 17The fall of Israel
- 22–23Josiah finds the law
- 25The fall of Jerusalem
Links to other Scripture
- Luke 4:27Naaman the Syrian
- Matthew 17:1–3Elijah at the Transfiguration
- Matthew 1:11The carrying away to Babylon
- Hebrews 11:35Women received their dead
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. What do you ask God for most boldly?
- Naaman nearly missed his healing because the cure seemed too small. Where are you resisting a simple step?
- Judah fell after years of warnings. What warning have you heard more than once that you keep postponing?
- In one sentence, this book is about…