Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Hephzibah.

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. ¹  His mother ²  was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.

They replied, ¹  “He was a hairy man ²  and had a leather belt ³  tied around his waist.” The king ⁴  said, “He is Elijah the Tishbite.”

One day Elisha traveled to Shunem, where a prominent ¹  woman lived. She insisted that he stop for a meal. ²  So whenever he was passing through, he would stop in there for a meal. ³ 

He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter. ¹  He did evil in the sight of ²  the Lord.

One day Elisha ¹  came for a visit; he went ²  into the upper room and rested. ³ 

He did what the Lord approved ¹  and followed in his ancestor David’s footsteps; ²  he did not deviate to the right or the left.

So he went with them. When they arrived at the Jordan, they started cutting down trees.

Let’s make a small private upper room ¹  and furnish it with ²  a bed, table, chair, and lamp. When he visits us, he can stay there.”

He was given daily provisions by the king for the rest of his life until the day he died. ¹ 

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord; he did not repudiate ²  the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat who encouraged Israel to sin. ³  During his reign,

Pharaoh Necho made Josiah’s son Eliakim king in Josiah’s place, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz to Egypt, where he died. ¹ 

Isaiah ordered, “Get a fig cake.” So they did as he ordered ¹  and placed it on the ulcerated sore, and he recovered. ² 

So the Lord rejected all of Israel’s descendants; he humiliated ¹  them and handed them over to robbers, until he had thrown them from his presence.

He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Uzziah had done. ¹ 

The Lord sent against him Babylonian, Syrian, Moabite, and Ammonite raiding bands; he sent them to destroy Judah, as he had warned he would do through his servants the prophets. ¹ 

But the Lord was unwilling to destroy Judah. He preserved Judah for the sake of ¹  his servant David to whom he had promised a perpetual dynasty. ² 

He removed the Asherah pole from the Lord’s temple and took it outside Jerusalem to the Kidron Valley, where he burned it. ¹  He smashed it to dust and then threw the dust in the public graveyard. ² 

He defeated ¹  10,000 Edomites in the Salt Valley; he captured Sela in battle and renamed it Joktheel, a name it has retained to this very day.

Because he killed innocent people and stained Jerusalem with their blood, the Lord was unwilling to forgive them. ¹