They came to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed for himself eighty men outside, and he said, "The man who lets [anyone] escape from the men who I am {entrusting to you}, {he will pay with his life}!"

And it came to pass as soon as they had ended offering up the burnt-offering, that Jehu said to the couriers and to the captains, Go in, slay them; let none come forth. And they smote them with the edge of the sword; and the couriers and the captains cast them there. And they went to the city of the house of Baal,

And they took out the image of Asherah from the house of Baal, and had it burned.

However, Jehu did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat had encouraged Israel to commit; the golden calves remained in Bethel and Dan.

Nevertheless, the LORD told Jehu, "Because you have done well in carrying out what I saw as the right thing to do by completing everything I had in mind regarding Ahab's dynasty, your sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."

But Jehu did not carefully and wholeheartedly obey the law of the Lord God of Israel. He did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam had encouraged Israel to commit.

Now the days which Jehu had reigned over Israel [were] twenty-eight years in Samaria.

As soon as Ahaziah's mother Athaliah learned that her son had died, she seized the throne and executed the entire royal bloodline.

Then in the seventh year, Jehoiada sent messengers and brought in the commanders of hundreds, the Carites, and the guards. He had them come to him in the Lord’s temple, where he made a covenant with them and put them under oath. He showed them the king’s son

The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David's, which were in the house of Yahweh.

Then Jehoiada the priest commanded the commanders of the hundreds, the appointed of the army, and he said to them, "Bring her out to the house of the ranks! The one coming after her [should] kill her with the sword," for the priest had said, "Let her not be killed in the temple of Yahweh."

Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and had it pulled down: its altars and images were all broken to bits, and Mattan, the priest of Baal, they put to death before the altars. And the priest put overseers over the Lord's house.

All the people of the land rejoiced, and the city rested; [for] Athaliah had been killed with the sword in the palace of the king.

It happened in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash that the priests had not repaired the damage in the temple.

When they saw the chest was full of silver, the royal secretary and the high priest counted the silver that had been brought to the Lord's temple and bagged it up.

They gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of those who did the work, who had the oversight of the house of Yahweh: and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders, who worked on the house of Yahweh,

and to masons, and hewers of stone, and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that had to be laid out on the house for repairs.

because that money had been allocated to the workmen who were repairing the LORD's Temple.

Furthermore, they required no accounting from the men into whose hand they had paid the money to do the work, because the workers acted in good faith.

Jehoash king of Judah took all of the holy objects that Jehoshaphat, Joram, and Ahaziah his ancestors, the kings of Judah, had devoted, and all his holy objects and all of the gold found in the treasuries of the temple of Yahweh, and [in] the palace of the king, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram, so that he went up from Jerusalem.

But he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and he went after the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat with which he had caused Israel to sin, and he did not depart from it.

But Jehoahaz sought the LORD, and the LORD paid attention to him, because the LORD had been watching the oppression that Israel was enduring from the king of Aram.

The LORD provided Israel with a deliverer, so they escaped the Aramean oppression while the descendants of Israel lived in tents as they had formerly.

but they didn’t turn away from the sins that the house of Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit. Jehoahaz walked in them, and the Asherah pole also remained standing in Samaria.

For there was no army left over for Jehoahaz except for fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand infantry, for the king of Aram had destroyed them and made them as the dust at threshing.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He did not turn away from all the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit, but he walked in them.

The rest of the events of Jehoash’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and the power he had to wage war against Judah’s King Amaziah, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

Now Elisha had fallen sick of his disease of which he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.

And he said to the king of Israel, "Put thine hand upon the bow, and when he had put his hand upon the bow, Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands."

The man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria until you had consumed it, whereas now you shall strike Syria just three times."

Later, Elisha died and was buried. Now at that time, various Moabite marauders had been invading the land each spring.

Meanwhile, King Hazael of Aram had been oppressing Israel throughout the reign of Jehoahaz,

But Yahweh had mercy on them and showed compassion to them and turned to them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He was not willing to destroy them nor cast them from his presence up to now.

Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz returned and took the cities from the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael which he had taken from the hand of Jehoahaz his father in the war. Three times Jehoash defeated him and recovered the towns of Israel.

He did right in the eyes of Yahweh, only not as David his ancestor; as all which Jehoash his father had done, he did.

It happened that when the kingdom was firmly in his hand, he killed his servants who had killed his father the king.

But the sons of the killers he did not kill, as it is written in the scroll of the law of Moses which Yahweh had commanded, saying, "Fathers should not be killed because of children, and children should not be killed because of fathers; but a man should die because of his [own] sin."

And Jehoash, king of Israel, made Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, prisoner at Beth-shemesh, and came to Jerusalem, and had the wall of Jerusalem pulled down from the doorway of Ephraim to the door in the angle, four hundred cubits.

Jehoash died, as had his ancestors, and he was buried in Samaria alongside the kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam reigned in his place.

Azariah built up Elat and restored it to Judah after the king had passed away.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He did not turn away from all the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the sea of the plain, according to the word of Jehovah the God of Israel, which he had spoken through his servant Jonah the prophet, the son of Amittai, who was of Gath-Hepher.

The Lord saw Israel's intense suffering; everyone was weak and incapacitated and Israel had no deliverer.

And Jehovah had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens; and he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.

And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he warred, and how he recovered for Israel that which had belonged to Judah in Damascus and in Hamath, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Jeroboam died, as had his ancestors the kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah became king in his place.

He did right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that Amaziah his father had done.

The Lord afflicted the king, and he had a serious skin disease until the day of his death. He lived in a separate house, while Jotham, the king’s son, was over the household governing the people of the land.

Later, Azariah died, as had his ancestors, and they buried him with his ancestors in the City of David. His son Jotham then reigned in his place.

He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh as his ancestors had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which he caused Israel to sin.

This was what the Lord had said to Jehu, Your sons to the fourth generation will be kings of Israel. And so it came about.

At that time Menahem destroyed Tiphsah, all who [were] in it, and all its territory from Tirzah, because [it] had not opened [to him], so he destroyed it and ripped open all of its pregnant women.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. Throughout his reign, he did not turn away from the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight and did not turn away from the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

And Pekah, the son of Remaliah, a lord of his, conspired against him and slew him in the palace of the king's house, with Argob and Arieh and fifty men with him that were Gileadites: and when he had killed him, reigned in his room.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He did not turn away from the sins Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit.

He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, according to all that Uzziah his father had done.

Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for sixteen years. He did not practice what the LORD considered to be right, as had his ancestor David.

but walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and even caused his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations that Jehovah had dispossessed from before the children of Israel.

So King Ahaz went to meet Tiglath-Pileser the king of Assyria [in] Damascus, and he saw the altar which [was] in Damascus, so King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest the builder's plan of the altar and the {exact model of how it had been made}.

So Uriah the priest built the altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus; thus Uriah the priest did before King Ahaz came from Damascus.

And when the king had come from Damascus, the king saw the altar: and the king approached to the altar, and offered on it.

And he made perfume with his ascending-sacrifice, and with his meal-offering, and poured out his drink-offering, - and dashed the blood of the peace-offerings which he had, upon the altar.

And Urijah the priest did according to all that king Ahaz had commanded.

Later, King Ahaz ordered the side panels removed from the bases, along with the washing bowls that had stood on top of the bases. He also removed the large bowl that was called the Sea from on top of the bronze bulls that supported it, and put it on a stone base.

The covering for the Sabbath which they had built in the palace and in the entrance of the king to the outside, he removed [from] the temple of Yahweh because of the presence of the king of Assyria.

And he did evil in the sight of Jehovah, but not as the kings of Israel that had been before him.

But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea, for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and he did not offer tribute to the king of Assyria as [he had] year after year; so the king of Assyria arrested him, and confined him [in] a house of imprisonment.

Now [this] happened because the {Israelites} had sinned against Yahweh their God when he brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and they feared other gods.

They walked in the statutes of the nations whom Yahweh had driven out from before the {Israelites}, which the kings of Israel had introduced.

and there they burned incense on all the high places, as did the nations that Jehovah had carried away from before them, and they wrought wicked things to provoke Jehovah to anger;

They served idols which Yahweh had said to them, "You shall not do this thing!"

Nevertheless, the LORD had warned both Israel and Judah by means of every prophet and seer: "Turn away from your evil practices and keep my commandments and statutes according to the entire Law that I gave your ancestors and that I sent to you through my servants, the prophets."

But they did not pay attention and were as stubborn as their ancestors, who had not trusted the Lord their God.

They rejected his statutes, his covenant which he {made} with their ancestors, and his warnings which he gave to them; and they went after the idols, became vain, and [went] after all the nations which [were] all around them, which Yahweh had commanded them not to do as they [did].

And turning their backs on all the orders which the Lord had given them, they made for themselves images of metal, and the image of Asherah, worshipping all the stars of heaven and becoming servants to Baal.

Also Judah kept not the commandments of Jehovah their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they had made.

And Jehovah rejected all the seed of Israel; and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, until he had cast them out of his sight.

For he had torn Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king, but Jeroboam detached Israel from following Yahweh, and he made them sin a great sin.

The Israelis practiced all the sins that Jeroboam had practiced, and never wavered from them

until Yahweh removed Israel from his presence as he had foretold by the hand of all his servants, the prophets. And so he deported Israel from upon his land to Assyria until this day.

So one of the priests went, whom they had deported from Samaria, and he settled in Bethel and was teaching them how they should fear Yahweh.

Yet every nation was making their gods, and they put them in the shrine of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they [were] living.

They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, whence they had been carried away.

Until this day they [are] doing according to their former customs; none of them [are] fearing Yahweh, and none of them [are] doing according to their statutes, to their decisions, to the law, or to the commands that Yahweh commanded the descendants of Jacob [to] which he had given the name Israel.

Yahweh had {made} a covenant with them and commanded them, "You shall not fear other gods, nor shall you bow down to them, nor shall you serve them, nor shall you sacrifice to them.

But they wouldn't listen. Instead, they did what they had been doing before.

These nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their descendants did the same thing, as did their grandchildren. Just as their ancestors had done, they also do the same thing to this day.

He did right in the eyes of Yahweh according to all that David his ancestor had done.

He removed the high places, and he smashed the stone pillars; he cut down the poles of Asherah worship and demolished the bronze serpent which Moses had made, for up to those days the {Israelites} were offering incense to it and called it Nehushtan.

He had faith in the Lord, the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah who were before him.

He held on to Yahweh; he did not depart from following him, and he kept his commands that Yahweh had commanded Moses.

because they did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God, and they transgressed his covenant; all that he had commanded Moses, the servant of Yahweh, they did not listen [to] nor did they obey.

At that time, Hezekiah cut off the doors of the temple of Yahweh and the doorposts which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and he gave them to the king of Assyria.

And the king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rab-saris and Rab-shakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army against Jerusalem: and they went up, and came to Jerusalem: and when they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller's field.

When they had called to the king, there came out to them Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.

But if you say to me, 'On Yahweh our God we trust,' [is] it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah removed, and he had said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'In the presence of this altar you shall bow down [only] in Jerusalem?'

The people were silent and did not respond, for the king had ordered, "Don't respond to him."

Eliakim son of Hilkiah, the palace supervisor, accompanied by Shebna the scribe and Joah son of Asaph, the secretary, went to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

When [the] chief commander returned, he found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that he had departed from Lachish.