He said to his father, “My head! My head!” His father ¹  told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

He did what the Lord approved, ¹  but not like David his father. He followed the example of his father Joash. ² 

He followed in the footsteps of his father ¹  and worshiped and bowed down to the disgusting idols ²  which his father had worshiped. ³ 

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

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

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord, just like his father Manasseh had done.

While Elisha was watching, he was crying out, “My father, my father! The chariot and horsemen of Israel!” ¹  Then he could no longer see him. He grabbed his clothes and tore them in two.

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord, but not to the same degree as his father and mother. He did remove the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made.

Now Elisha had a terminal illness. ¹  King Joash of Israel went down to visit him. ²  He wept before him and said, “My father, my father! The chariot ³  and horsemen of Israel!” ⁴ 

The boy grew and one day he went out to see his father who was with the harvest workers. ¹ 

When he had secured control of the kingdom, ¹  he executed the servants who had assassinated his father. ² 

pick the best and most capable ¹  of your master’s sons, place him on his father’s throne, and defend ²  your master’s dynasty.”

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

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

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.

Elisha said to the king of Israel, “Why are you here? ¹  Go to your father’s prophets or your mother’s prophets!” The king of Israel replied to him, “No, for the Lord is the one who summoned these three kings so that he can hand them over to Moab.”

Jehoahaz’s son Jehoash took back from 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.

His servants transported his dead body ¹  from Megiddo in a chariot and brought it to Jerusalem, where they buried him in his tomb. The people of the land took Josiah’s son Jehoahaz, poured olive oil on his head, ²  and made him king in his father’s place.

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.

‘Some of your very own descendants whom you father ¹  will be taken away and will be made eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”