This page gives you questions and leader’s notes for studying 2 Kings 25, the final chapter of the book. It works for a small group, a Sunday class, or personal study, and each question points to specific verses so you can go straight to the text. The chapter records the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon, the end of Judah’s kingdom, and a small sign of hope at its close.
2 Kings 25 at a Glance
The chapter moves in four stages. First comes the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, which lasts until famine takes hold and the city wall is breached (verses 1-4). King Zedekiah is captured, forced to watch his sons die, and taken to Babylon (verses 5-7). Then the city and the temple are burned and its treasures carried off, and most of the people are deported, though some of the poor are left to work the land (verses 8-17). The chapter ends with the appointment of Gedaliah as governor, his murder, and a flight to Egypt, followed by the release of Jehoiachin from prison in Babylon (verses 22-30).
Observation Questions
Use these questions first, before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask the group to point to the exact words in the text, and resist the urge to explain until the facts are clear on the table.
2 Kings 25:1-2
1 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it. 2 So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
(WEB)
Read these verses first to set the scene of a siege that drags on for years. Hearing the dates aloud helps the group feel the length of the crisis before they discuss its causes and effects.
2 Kings 25:8-10
8 Now in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 9 He burned the LORD’s house, the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, he burned with fire. 10 All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down the walls around Jerusalem.
(WEB)
These verses describe the burning of Jerusalem and the breaking of its walls. Reading them together gives the group a clear picture of the scale of the destruction before the chapter turns to the people who survived it.
2 Kings 25:12
But the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to work the vineyards and fields.
(WEB)
This short verse notes that some of the poorest were left in the land. Reading it on its own lets the group pause on a detail that is easy to overlook in a long chapter of loss.
2 Kings 25:21
The king of Babylon attacked them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.
(WEB)
This verse states plainly that Judah went into captivity out of its land. It works well as a turning point in the session, giving the group a clear statement to reflect on before the discussion of Gedaliah.
2 Kings 25:27-30
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison; 28 and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon, 29 and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life; 30 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him from the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.
(WEB)
Ending the reading here lets the group hear the chapter close with a note of kindness rather than defeat. Pause afterward to let people respond to the image of a prisoner eating at the king’s table.
Memory Verse for 2 Kings 25
2 Kings 25:30
And for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him from the king, every day a portion, all the days of his life.
(WEB)
This verse is a good choice for memorization because it is short and ends the book on a steady, specific provision. Ask members to repeat it aloud and think about one daily gift they receive from God or from others.
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come to you in the aftermath of loss, as the people of Judah once did. We bring our own losses, the places that have crumbled and the plans that have broken down. Give us the honesty to name what has been taken and the courage to look for the people you have left in our midst. Teach us to care for those who seem overlooked, and to receive the quiet kindnesses that sustain us. Keep our hearts steady when fear speaks louder than your promises, and let us trust that you are still at work in the places we cannot see. Amen.
