Muster an army like the one you lost, with the same number of horses and chariots. ¹  Then we will fight them in the plains; we will certainly overpower them.” He approved their plan and did as they advised. ² 

Zedekiah son of Kenaanah approached, hit Micaiah on the jaw, and said, “Which way did the Lord’s spirit go when he went from me to speak to you?”

He did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord and followed in the footsteps ²  of his father and mother; like Jeroboam son of Nebat, he encouraged Israel to sin. ³ 

Elisha said, “As certainly as the Lord who rules over all ¹  lives (whom I serve), ²  if I did not respect King Jehoshaphat of Judah, ³  I would not pay attention to you or acknowledge you. ⁴ 

Now Gehazi went on ahead of them. He placed the staff on the child’s face, but there was no sound or response. When he came back to Elisha ¹  he told him, “The child did not wake up.”

When Elisha the prophet ¹  heard that the king had torn his clothes, he sent this message to the king, “Why did you tear your clothes? Send him ²  to me so he may know there is a prophet in Israel.”

Gehazi, the prophet Elisha’s servant, thought, ¹  “Look, my master did not accept what this Syrian Naaman offered him. ²  As certainly as the Lord lives, I will run after him and accept something from him.”

The prophet ¹  asked, “Where did it drop in?” When he showed him the spot, Elisha ²  cut off a branch, threw it in at that spot, and made the ax head float.

He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter. ¹  He did evil in the sight of ²  the Lord.

He followed in the footsteps of Ahab’s dynasty and did evil in the sight of ¹  the Lord, like Ahab’s dynasty, for he was related to Ahab’s family. ² 

But they did not repudiate ¹  the sinful ways of the family ²  of Jeroboam, who encouraged Israel to sin; they continued in those sins. ³  There was even an Asherah pole ⁴  standing in Samaria.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ¹  He did not do what pleased the Lord his God, in contrast to his ancestor David. ² 

But each of these nations made ¹  its own gods and put them in the shrines on the high places that the people of Samaria ²  had made. Each nation did this in the cities where they lived.

Isaiah the prophet visited King Hezekiah and asked him, “What did these men say? Where do they come from?” Hezekiah replied, “They come from the distant land of Babylon.”

I will destroy Jerusalem the same way I did Samaria ¹  and the dynasty of Ahab. ²  I will wipe Jerusalem clean, just as one wipes a plate on both sides. ³ 

Josiah also removed all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria. The kings of Israel had made them and angered the Lord. ¹  He did to them what he had done to the high place in Bethel. ² 

The king of Egypt did not march out from his land again, for the king of Babylon conquered all the territory that the king of Egypt had formerly controlled between the Brook of Egypt and the Euphrates River.

Wherever I moved throughout Israel, I did not say ¹  to any of the leaders whom I appointed to care for my people Israel, ²  ‘Why have you not built me a house made from cedar?’”’

I will establish a place for my people Israel and settle ¹  them there; they will live there and not be disturbed ²  anymore. Violent men will not oppress them again, as they did in the beginning ³ 

And you did not stop there, O God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ¹  You have revealed to me what men long to know, ²  O Lord God.