Jehu then left there and set out for Samaria. While he was traveling through Beth Eked of the Shepherds,

They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses’ entrance. There she was executed.

He will go back the way he came. He will not enter this city,” says the Lord.

He abandoned the Lord God of his ancestors and did not follow the Lord’s instructions.

The rest of the events of Abijah’s reign, including his deeds and sayings, are recorded in the writings of the prophet Iddo.

He was committed to following the Lord; he even removed the high places and Asherah poles from Judah.

He followed in his father Asa’s footsteps and was careful to do what the Lord approved.

He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty, for his mother gave him evil advice.

He did what the Lord approved and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; he did not deviate to the right or the left.

He deprives the leaders of the earth of their understanding; he makes them wander in a trackless desert waste.

Even if he slays me, I will hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face!

His troops advance together; they throw up a siege ramp against me, and they camp around my tent.

No one denounces his conduct to his face; no one repays him for what he has done.

Is it of any special benefit to the Almighty that you should be righteous, or is it any gain to him that you make your ways blameless?

There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways and they do not stay on its paths.

“You say, ‘He is foam on the face of the waters; their portion of the land is cursed so that no one goes to their vineyard.

I chose the way for them and sat as their chief; I lived like a king among his troops; I was like one who comforts mourners.

If my footsteps have strayed from the way, if my heart has gone after my eyes, or if anything has defiled my hands,

because they have turned away from following him, and have not understood any of his ways,

“In what direction does light reside, and darkness, where is its place,