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Israel’s evil king Jehoahaz
13
📚In the twenty-third year of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for seventeen years. 2 📚And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin. He did not depart from them. 3 📚And the anger 📖 of the LORD burned against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of Hazael king of Syria, and into the hands of Ben-Hadad 📖 the son of Hazael 📖, all their days.
4 📚And Jehoahaz pleaded with the LORD, and the LORD listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel; because the king of Syria oppressed them.
13:4 Verse 24,25; Ex 3:7, 9; Jud 2:14-18; 2 Chron 33:10-13; Ps 78:38-39; 103:13-14; Isa 55:6-7.⚜
5 📚And the LORD gave Israel a saviour 📖, so that they escaped from under the hand of the Syrians; and the children of Israel lived in their tents as before. 6 📚Nevertheless they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who caused Israel to sin, but walked in them; and also the idolatrous grove 📖 in Samaria remained.
13:6 God’s goodness did not lead them to repentance. Compare Joel 2:18-19; Rom 2:4.⚜
7 📚For he left of the people of Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen and ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers; for the king of Syria had destroyed them and had made them like the dust of threshing.
13:7 Verse 22; 2 Kings 8:12; 10:32; Amos 1:3.⚜
8 📚Now the rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did and his might, are they not written in the book of The Annals 📖 of the Kings of Israel? 9 📚And Jehoahaz slept 📖 with his ancestors; and they buried him in Samaria. And his son Joash reigned in his place.
Israel’s evil king Jehoash
10 In the thirty-seventh year of Joash, king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for sixteen years. 11 📚And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who caused Israel to sin, but he walked in them.
12 📚And the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, and his might, with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of The Annals of the Kings of Israel? 13 📚And Joash slept with his ancestors; and Jeroboam sat on his throne. And Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
14 📚Now Elisha had fallen sick with his sickness 📖, of which he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face and said, “O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen”.
15 And Elisha said to him, “Take bow and arrows”. And he took bow and arrows. 16 📚And he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow”. And he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
17 📚And he said, “Open the east window 📖”. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, “Shoot”. And he shot. And he said, “The arrow of the LORD’s deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. For you shall strike down the Syrians in Aphek 📖 until you have destroyed them”.
18 📚And he said, “Take the arrows”. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”. And he struck three times and stopped. 19 📚And the man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria until you had destroyed it, but now you will strike Syria only three times”.
13:19 Verse 25.⚜
Death of Elisha
20 📚And Elisha died; and they buried him. And the raiding bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the beginning of the year. 21 📚And it so happened when they were burying a man, that suddenly they saw a band of men, and they threw the man into the tomb of Elisha; and when the man dropped down and touched the bones of Elisha, he came to life and stood up on his feet.
13:21 Elisha’s bones had no power in themselves to raise the dead or to do anything else. They were dead and death cannot give life. The power to raise the dead was, and is, in the God Elisha served. God was reminding the people of this. Compare 1 Sam 2:6; John 5:21.⚜
22 📚But Hazael king of Syria oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. 23 📚And the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion 📖 on them, and showed regard for them, because of his covenant 📖 with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them or cast them from his presence as yet.
24 📚So Hazael king of Syria died, and Ben-Hadad his son reigned in his place. 25  📖And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took back out of the hands of Ben-Hadad the son of Hazael the cities which he had taken by war out of the hands of Jehoahaz his father. Three times Joash defeated him and recovered the cities of Israel.