King Jehoahaz of Israel

13 After Joash had been ruling Judah for almost 23 years, Jehu’s son Jehoahaz became the king of Israel. He ruled in Samaria city for 17 years. 2 He did many things that Yahweh considered to be evil and committed the same kind of sins that Jeroboam had committed, sins which led the people of Israel to sin. He did not stop committing those sins. 3 So Yahweh became very angry with the Israeli people, and he allowed the army of King Hazael of Syria and his son Ben-Hadad to defeat the Israelis many times.

4 Then Jehoahaz prayed to Yahweh for help, and Yahweh heeded him, because he saw that the army of the king of Syria was oppressing the Israelis. 5 Yahweh sent a leader to Israel, who enabled them to be freed from being controlled by Syria. After that, the Israeli people lived peacefully as they had done previously. 6 But they still continued to commit the same kind of sins that Jeroboam and his family had committed and which led the Israelis to also sin. And the statue of the goddess Asherah remained in Samaria.

7 Jehoahaz had only 50 men who rode on horses and ten chariots and 10,000 other soldiers, because the army of Syria had killed all the rest, trampling them like people walk on dirt.

8 If you want to read about [RHQ] everything else that Jehoahaz did, you can read about it in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Israel’. 9 Jehoahaz died [EUP] and was buried in Samaria. Then his son Jehoash became the king.