Jehoahaz King of Israel

13 In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned seventeen years. ² He did evil^(A) in the eyes of the Lord by following the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit, and he did not turn away from them. ³ So the Lord’s anger^(B) burned against Israel, and for a long time he kept them under the power^(C) of Hazael king of Aram and Ben-Hadad^(D) his son.

⁴ Then Jehoahaz sought^(E) the Lord’s favor, and the Lord listened to him, for he saw^(F) how severely the king of Aram was oppressing^(G) Israel. ⁵ The Lord provided a deliverer^(H) for Israel, and they escaped from the power of Aram. So the Israelites lived in their own homes as they had before. ⁶ But they did not turn away from the sins^(I) of the house of Jeroboam, which he had caused Israel to commit; they continued in them. Also, the Asherah pole^[a](J) remained standing in Samaria.

⁴ The king ordered Hilkiah the high priest, the priests next in rank and the doorkeepers^(A) to remove^(B) from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron Valley and took the ashes to Bethel.

¹⁵ Even the altar^(A) at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam^(B) son of Nebat, who had caused Israel to sin—even that altar and high place he demolished. He burned the high place and ground it to powder, and burned the Asherah pole also. ¹⁶ Then Josiah^(C) looked around, and when he saw the tombs that were there on the hillside, he had the bones removed from them and burned on the altar to defile it, in accordance^(D) with the word of the Lord proclaimed by the man of God who foretold these things.

¹⁷ The king asked, “What is that tombstone I see?”

The people of the city said, “It marks the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and pronounced against the altar of Bethel the very things you have done to it.”

¹⁸ “Leave it alone,” he said. “Don’t let anyone disturb his bones^(E).” So they spared his bones and those of the prophet^(F) who had come from Samaria.

¹⁹ Just as he had done at Bethel, Josiah removed all the shrines at the high places that the kings of Israel had built in the towns of Samaria and that had aroused the Lord’s anger. ²⁰ Josiah slaughtered^(G) all the priests of those high places on the altars and burned human bones^(H) on them. Then he went back to Jerusalem.