The Israelites followed in the sinful ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and did not repudiate<n id="1" /> them.

&#8216;Some of your very own descendants whom you father<n id="1" /> will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.&#8217;&#8221;

He did evil in the sight of<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> and committed the same horrible sins practiced by the nations<n id="2" /> whom the <sc>Lordsc> drove out from before the Israelites.

He was buried<n id="1" /> in his tomb in the garden of Uzzah, and his son Josiah replaced him as king.p>

<p class="bodytext">He died just as the <sc>Lordsc> had prophesied through Elijah.<n id="1" /> In the second year of the reign of King Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat over Judah, Ahaziah&#8217;s brother Jehoram replaced him as king of Israel, because he had no son.<n id="2" />

Then the king asked her, &#8220;What&#8217;s your problem?&#8221; She answered, &#8220;This woman said to me, &#8216;Hand over your son; we&#8217;ll eat him today and then eat my son tomorrow.&#8217;

Then Jehu son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi conspired against Joram.p><t /><p class="bodytext">Now Joram had been in Ramoth Gilead with the whole Israelite army,<n id="1" /> guarding against an invasion by King Hazael of Syria.

Jehu encountered<n id="1" /> the relatives<n id="2" /> of King Ahaziah of Judah. He asked, &#8220;Who are you?&#8221; They replied, &#8220;We are Ahaziah&#8217;s relatives. We have come down to see how<n id="3" /> the king&#8217;s sons and the queen mother&#8217;s sons are doing.&#8221;

So Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Ahaziah&#8217;s son Joash and sneaked<n id="1" /> him away 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.<n id="2" /> So he was hidden from Athaliah and escaped execution.<n id="3" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the twenty-third year of the reign of Judah&#8217;s King Joash son of Ahaziah, Jehu&#8217;s son Jehoahaz became king over Israel. He reigned in Samaria<n id="1" /> for seventeen years.

Jehoahaz&#8217;s son Jehoash took back from<n id="1" /> Ben Hadad son of Hazael the cities that he had taken from his father Jehoahaz in war. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite cities.p>

King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah, in Beth Shemesh. He<n id="1" /> attacked<n id="2" /> Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate &#8211; a distance of about six hundred feet.<n id="3" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the fifteenth year of the reign of Judah&#8217;s King Amaziah, son of Joash, Jeroboam son of Joash became king over Israel. He reigned for forty-one years in Samaria.<n id="1" />

His officer Pekah son of Remaliah conspired against him. He and fifty Gileadites assassinated Pekahiah, as well as Argob and Arieh, in Samaria in the fortress of the royal palace.<n id="1" /> Pekah then took his place as king.p>

<p class="bodytext">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<n id="1" /> and reported to him what the chief adviser had said.

The king ordered Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah the king&#8217;s servant,

<p class="bodytext">So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shullam son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, the supervisor of the wardrobe.<n id="1" /> (She lived in Jerusalem in the Mishneh<n id="2" /> district.) They stated their business,<n id="3" />

But in the seventh month<n id="1" /> Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family,<n id="2" /> came with ten of his men and murdered Gedaliah,<n id="3" /> as well as the Judeans and Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.

<p class="bodytext">When the members of the prophetic guild in Jericho,<n id="1" /> who were standing at a distance,<n id="2" /> saw him do this, they said, &#8220;The spirit that energized Elijah<n id="3" /> rests upon Elisha.&#8221; They went to meet him and bowed down to the ground before him.

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the eighteenth year of King Jehoshaphat&#8217;s reign over Judah, Ahab&#8217;s son Jehoram became king over Israel in Samaria;<n id="1" /> he ruled for twelve years.