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 

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.

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 

Now Elisha was sitting in his house with the community leaders. ¹  The king ²  sent a messenger on ahead, but before he arrived, ³  Elisha ⁴  said to the leaders, ⁵  “Do you realize this assassin intends to cut off my head?” ⁶  Look, when the messenger arrives, shut the door and lean against it. His master will certainly be right behind him.” ⁷ 

Joash passed away ¹  and Jeroboam succeeded him on the throne. ²  Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.

All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in his father Amaziah’s place.

In the two courtyards of the Lord’s temple he built altars for all the stars in the sky.

The Lord provided a deliverer ¹  for Israel and they were freed from Syria’s power. ²  The Israelites once more lived in security. ³ 

they observed the practices ¹  of the nations whom the Lord had driven out from before Israel, and followed the example of the kings of Israel. ² 

Were the nations whom my ancestors destroyed – the nations of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden in Telassar – rescued by their gods? ¹ 

But they did not obey, ¹  and Manasseh misled them so that they sinned more than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed from before the Israelites.

This happened because the Israelites sinned against the Lord their God, who brought them up from the land of Egypt and freed them from the power of ¹  Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped ²  other gods;

The Israelites said things about the Lord their God that were not right. ¹  They built high places in all their cities, from the watchtower to the fortress. ² 

The king of Assyria brought foreigners ¹  from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the cities of Samaria ²  in place of the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its cities.

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.

They said to him, “Look, there are fifty capable men with your servants. Let them go and look for your master, for the wind sent from the Lord ¹  may have carried him away and dropped him on one of the hills or in one of the valleys.” But Elisha ²  replied, “Don’t send them out.”

Hazael asked, “Why are you crying, my master?” He replied, “Because I know the trouble you will cause the Israelites. You will set fire to their fortresses, kill their young men with the sword, smash their children to bits, and rip open their pregnant women.”

He eliminated the high places, smashed the sacred pillars to bits, and cut down the Asherah pole. ¹  He also demolished the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for up to that time ²  the Israelites had been offering incense to it; it was called Nehushtan. ³ 

The king ruined the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Destruction, ¹  that King Solomon of Israel had built for the detestable Sidonian goddess Astarte, the detestable Moabite god Chemosh, and the horrible Ammonite god Milcom.