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

His assassination brought to fulfillment the Lord’s word to Jehu, ¹  “Four generations of your descendants will rule over Israel.” ²  That is exactly what happened. ³ 

When they first moved in, ¹  they did not worship ²  the Lord. So the Lord sent lions among them and the lions were killing them.

So one of the priests whom they had deported from Samaria went back and settled in Bethel. ¹  He taught them how to worship ²  the Lord.

In the third year of the reign of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became king over Judah.

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 

During Jehoiakim’s reign, ¹  King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. ²  Jehoiakim was his subject for three years, but then he rebelled against him. ³ 

The next day, when the Philistines came to strip loot from the corpses, they discovered Saul and his sons lying dead on Mount Gilboa.

¹  David said, “Whoever attacks ²  the Jebusites first will become commanding general!” ³  So Joab son of Zeruiah attacked ⁴  first and became commander. ⁵ 

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, then attack. ¹  For at that moment the Lord is going before you to strike down the army ²  of the Philistines.”

So David, the leaders of Israel, and the commanders of units of a thousand went to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the house of Obed-Edom with celebration.

When God helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the Lord’s covenant, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.

Later David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. He took Gath and its surrounding towns ¹  away from the Philistines. ² 

David placed garrisons in the territory of the Arameans of Damascus; ¹  the Arameans became David’s subjects and brought tribute. The Lord protected ²  David wherever he campaigned. ³ 

Later there was a battle ¹  with the Philistines in Gezer. ²  At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Sippai, ³  one of the descendants of the Rephaim, and the Philistines ⁴  were subdued.

In a battle in Gath ¹  there was a large man who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot – twenty-four in all! He too was a descendant of Rapha.

The Levites who were thirty years old and up were counted; there were 38,000 men. ¹ 

Jahath was the oldest and Zizah the second oldest. Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, so they were considered one family with one responsibility.

David and the army officers selected some of the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun to prophesy as they played stringed instruments and cymbals. ¹  The following men were assigned this responsibility: ² 

The poles were so long their ends extending out from the ark were visible from in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from beyond that point. ¹  They have remained there to this very day.