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2 Kings 3 Bible study: An easy thing in the LORD's sight
Jehoshaphat gave Ahab's son the answer he gave Ahab (1 Kings 22:4) and asked again for a prophet of the LORD; Elisha swore Elijah's own oath (1 Kings 18:15). The valley filled with no wind or rain seen: "an easy thing in the LORD’s sight" (3:18). And whose "great wrath" came in 3:27, the text doesn't say.
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“For the LORD says, ‘You will not see wind, neither will you see rain, yet that valley will be filled with water, and you will drink, both you and your livestock and your other animals.”
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“In 2 Kings 3:7, Jehoshaphat answers the king of Israel with the same words he spoke to Ahab in 1 Kings 22:4.”
Is that in 2 Kings 3, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
Not like his father, but
Jehoram is weighed the way 2 Kings weighs its kings. "He did that which was evil in the LORD’s sight, but not like his father and like his mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made" (3:2) (tap pillar). Then comes the "but" that runs the other way: "Nevertheless he held to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, with which he made Israel to sin. He didn’t depart from them" (3:3). When the king of Israel comes to Elisha, the prophet sends him back to "the prophets of your father, and to the prophets of your mother" (3:13). The chapter doesn't name his mother. Later, when Jehu meets Joram, he speaks of "your mother Jezebel" (9:22), and 8:16 calls this king "Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel". The pillar comes up again in Jehu's day: "They broke down the pillar of Baal" (10:27). The chapter doesn't say whether it is the same pillar, or what Jehoram did with the one he put away.
Where it leads to Jesus
Possible with God
2 Kings 3:18leads toMatthew 19:26
With "no water for the army" (3:9), the king of Israel says the LORD has called the three kings together "to deliver them into the hand of Moab" (3:10). The LORD's word through Elisha is, "This is an easy thing in the LORD’s sight" (3:18). When the disciples asked, "Who then can be saved?" (Matthew 19:25), Jesus, "Looking at them", said, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26). Jesus spoke of who can be saved, not of water or war, and he doesn't cite 2 Kings 3, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some hear in both the same thing about God: what is beyond people is not beyond him. Others read Jesus' words as about salvation only, and draw no line to this chapter.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Kings 3
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Kings 3 is waiting in Favor
- Jehoshaphat's question, again
- Neither wind nor rain
- Into whose hand?
- Edom, red and blood
- At the time of the offering
- 13 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
Favor reads the Bible in order, so you'll reach 2 Kings 3 with everything before it in view. First week free, then $10 a month per person.
The Hebrew word behind it
קָלַלqalalsay ka-LAL
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "be slight, swift, trifling", and for the form here, "appear trifling". Strong's: "to be (causatively, make) light, literally (swift, small, sharp, etc.) or figuratively (easy, trifling, vile, etc.)". "This is an easy thing in the LORD’s sight" (3:18) is said to kings whose army has no water (3:9), after the king of Israel has said the LORD called them together "to deliver them into the hand of Moab" (3:10). It is the same verb as in 1 Kings 16:31, "As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat". Later in 2 Kings, Hezekiah says, "It is a light thing for the shadow to go forward ten steps" (20:10).
For your group
2 Kings 3 Bible study questions
- 1The kings marched seven days and had no water before Jehoshaphat asked for "a prophet of the LORD" (3:9-11). What usually has to happen before you stop and ask God what he says?
- 2The kings were told to make the valley full of trenches while they would see neither wind nor rain (3:16-17). When has doing what God said felt like digging in a dry place?
- 3"This is an easy thing in the LORD’s sight" (3:18). What feels impossible to you right now, and what would it look like to bring it to God this week?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Kings 3 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Questions
What is Favor?
Favor is a Bible study app that explains every chapter as you read: the Hebrew and Greek behind the words, the details most readers miss, and how each part of the Bible leads to Jesus. Read on your own, or start a Bible study with friends, family or your church.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home