But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, such a Passover of the Lord was observed in Jerusalem.

The city remained under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

Now King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. ¹  He would send as tribute ²  to the king of Israel 100,000 male lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams.

So they tracked them ¹  as far as the Jordan. The road was filled with clothes and equipment that the Syrians had discarded in their haste. ²  The scouts ³  went back and told the king.

But they said, “You’re lying! Tell us what he said.” So he told them what he had said. He also related how he had said, ¹  “This is what the Lord says, ‘I have designated you as king over Israel.’”

The priest gave to the officers of the units of hundreds King David’s spears and the shields that were kept in the Lord’s temple.

By the twenty-third year of King Jehoash’s reign the priests had still not repaired the damage to the temple.

Then Elisha ¹  told the king of Israel, “Aim the bow.” ²  He did so, ³  and Elisha placed his hands on the king’s hands.

Then Elisha ¹  said, “Take the arrows,” and he did so. ²  He told the king of Israel, “Strike the ground!” He struck the ground three times and stopped.

Then Ahaz took the silver and gold that were ¹  in the Lord’s temple and in the treasuries of the royal palace and sent it as tribute ²  to the king of Assyria.

In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, King Sennacherib of Assyria marched up against all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.

At that time King Hezekiah of Judah stripped the metal overlays from the doors of the Lord’s temple and from the posts which he had plated ¹  and gave them to the king of Assyria.

In the eighteenth year of King Josiah’s reign, the king sent the scribe Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, to the Lord’s temple with these orders: ¹ 

Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Shaphan read it out loud before the king.

The king ¹  ruined Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that no one could pass his son or his daughter through the fire to Molech. ² 

One of his advisers said, “No, my master, O king. The prophet Elisha who lives in Israel keeps telling the king of Israel the things you say in your bedroom.”

An officer who was the king’s right-hand man ¹  responded to the prophet, ²  “Look, even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” ³  Elisha ⁴  said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” ⁵ 

Take the container of olive oil, pour it over his head, and say, ‘This is what the Lord says, “I have designated ¹  you as king over Israel.”’ Then open the door and run away quickly!” ² 

So Jehu ¹  got up and went inside. Then the prophet ²  poured the olive oil on his head and said to him, “This is what the Lord God of Israel says, ‘I have designated you as king over the Lord’s people Israel.

Menahem got this silver by taxing all the wealthy men in Israel; he took fifty shekels of silver from each one of them and paid it to the king of Assyria. ¹  Then the king of Assyria left; he did not stay there in the land.