and he said, “This is what the Lord says, ‘Make many cisterns in this valley,’ ¹ 

So he asked Gehazi, ¹  “What can I do for her?” Gehazi replied, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

Throughout his lifetime Jehoash did what the Lord approved, ¹  just as ²  Jehoiada the priest taught him.

It was handed over ¹  to the foremen who used it to repair the Lord’s temple.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord, but not to the same degree as the Israelite kings who preceded him.

They worshiped ¹  the disgusting idols ²  in blatant disregard of the Lord’s command. ³ 

The Israelites followed in the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and did not repudiate ¹  them.

Those who remain in Judah will take root in the ground and bear fruit. ¹ 

For a remnant will leave Jerusalem; survivors will come out of Mount Zion. The intense devotion of the sovereign Lord ¹  to his people ²  will accomplish this.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations ²  whom the Lord drove out from before the Israelites.

Do not audit the foremen who disburse the silver, for they are honest.” ¹ 

But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.

So the palace supervisor, ¹  the city commissioner, ²  the leaders, ³  and the guardians sent this message to Jehu, “We are your subjects! ⁴  Whatever you say, we will do. We will not make anyone king. Do what you consider proper.” ⁵ 

The Lord said to Jehu, “You have done well. You have accomplished my will and carried out my wishes with regard to Ahab’s dynasty. Therefore four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” ¹ 

They would then hand over ¹  the silver that had been weighed to the construction foremen ²  assigned to the Lord’s temple. They hired carpenters and builders to work on the Lord’s temple,

They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, ¹  and worshiped ²  Baal.

To this very day they observe their earlier practices. They do not worship ¹  the Lord; they do not obey the rules, regulations, law, and commandments that the Lord gave ²  the descendants of Jacob, whom he renamed Israel.

These nations are worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their idols; their sons and grandsons do just as their fathers have done, to this very day.

He rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he set up altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole just like King Ahab of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the stars in the sky ¹  and worshiped ²  them.

“King Manasseh of Judah has committed horrible sins. ¹  He has sinned more than the Amorites before him and has encouraged Judah to sin by worshiping his disgusting idols. ²