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Glite Dictionary
2 Kings

2 Kings

1 6.8
A book of the Bible that tells the history of Judah and Israel
  • noun
translation icon : 2 Reyes

Examples

  • 2 Kings 15:16 He Menahem, king of Israel, sacked Tiphsah and ripped open all the pregnant women.

    Blog text (33)

  • The prophetic events are beautifully illustrated in 2 Kings, particularly the story of Elijah.

  • In 2 Kings, the fall of Jerusalem is a pivotal moment in the history of Israel.

  • The lessons of faith and leadership can be found throughout 2 Kings as it details the reigns of various kings.

Synonyms

II Kings
vs2 Kings
8.8

The second book of the Old Testament that tells the history of Judah and Israel

uses an Arabic numeral in its title instead of Roman numerals

Surface Forms

2 Kings singular

Morphology

2 + king

The meaning 'the second book of Kings' is directly derivable from '2' (second) + 'kings' (plural of king) and follows the common numbering convention for books/volumes. This compositional pattern is cross-linguistically familiar (e.g. Spanish '2 Reyes'), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the MWE's referent.

Etymology

2 Kings gets its name because editors split an older 'Book of Kings' into two parts. The second part keeps telling the story of the kings of Israel and Judah, so 2 Kings refers to 'the second book of Kings' in the Bible.