and after several years ¹  went down to visit ²  Ahab in Samaria. ³  Ahab slaughtered many sheep and cattle to honor Jehoshaphat and those who came with him. ⁴  He persuaded him to join in an attack ⁵  against Ramoth Gilead.

Then the priests slaughtered them. They offered their blood as a sin offering on the altar to make atonement for all Israel, because the king had decreed ¹  that the burnt sacrifice and sin offering were for all Israel.

When they withdrew, they left Joash ¹  badly wounded. His servants plotted against him because of what he had done to ²  the son ³  of Jehoiada the priest. They murdered him on his bed. Thus ⁴  he died and was buried in the City of David, ⁵  but not in the tombs of the kings.

Because many in the assembly had not consecrated themselves, the Levites slaughtered ¹  the Passover lambs of all who were ceremonially unclean and could not consecrate their sacrifice to the Lord. ² 

They seized her and took her into the precincts of the royal palace through the horses’ entrance. ¹  There they executed her.

Josiah observed a Passover festival for the Lord in Jerusalem. ¹  They slaughtered the Passover lambs on the fourteenth day of the first month.

Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves, and make preparations for your countrymen to do what the Lord commanded through Moses.” ¹ 

They slaughtered the Passover lambs and the priests splashed the blood, ¹  while the Levites skinned the animals.

So Jehoshabeath, ¹  the daughter of King Jehoram, ²  took Ahaziah’s son Joash and sneaked him away ³  from the rest of the royal descendants who were to be executed. She hid him and his nurse in the room where the bed covers were stored. So Jehoshabeath the daughter of King Jehoram, wife of Jehoiada the priest and sister of Ahaziah, hid him from Athaliah so she could not execute him.

Jehoiada the priest sent out the officers of the units of hundreds, who were in charge of the army, and ordered them, “Bring her outside the temple to the guards. ¹  Put the sword to anyone who follows her.” The priest gave this order because he had decided she should not be executed in the Lord’s temple. ² 

The Ammonites and Moabites attacked the men from Mount Seir ¹  and annihilated them. ²  When they had finished off the men ³  of Seir, they attacked and destroyed one another. ⁴ 

They slaughtered the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and Levites were ashamed, so they consecrated themselves and brought burnt sacrifices to the Lord’s temple.

Look, our fathers died violently ¹  and our sons, daughters, and wives were carried off ²  because of this.

He looked for Ahaziah, who was captured while hiding in Samaria. ¹  They brought him to Jehu and then executed him. They did give him a burial, for they reasoned, ²  “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the Lord with his whole heart.” There was no one in Ahaziah’s family strong enough to rule in his place. ³ 

At the beginning ¹  of the year the Syrian army attacked ²  Joash ³  and invaded Judah and Jerusalem. They wiped out all the leaders of the people and sent all the plunder they gathered to the king of Damascus.

The Lord sent a messenger ¹  and he wiped out all the soldiers, princes, and officers in the army of the king of Assyria. So Sennacherib ²  returned home humiliated. ³  When he entered the temple of his god, some of his own sons ⁴  struck him down with the sword.

They plotted against him and by royal decree stoned him to death in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

Micaiah ¹  replied, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. Then the Lord said, ‘They have no master. They should go home in peace.’”

The Lord said, ‘Who will deceive King Ahab of Israel, so he will attack Ramoth Gilead and die there?’ One said this and another that.

However, he did not execute their sons. He obeyed the Lord’s commandment as recorded in the law scroll of Moses, ¹  “Fathers must not be executed for what their sons do, ²  and sons must not be executed for what their fathers do. ³  A man must be executed only for his own sin.” ⁴