Study Desk

He said, "May God punish me terribly if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat isn't cut off from his body today!"

So the woman got up and did as the man of God had said. She left with her family, and they stayed in the land of the Philistines for seven years.

The king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. The king had said, "Please tell me all the great things Elisha has done."

Then Elisha went to Damascus, where Ben-Hadad king of Aram was sick. Someone told him, "The man of God has arrived."

Jehu got up and went into the house. Then the young prophet poured the olive oil on Jehu's head and said to him, "This is what the Lord , the God of Israel says: ‘I have appointed you king over the Lord 's people Israel.

But Jehu was not careful to follow the teachings of the Lord , the God of Israel, with all his heart. He did not stop doing the same sins Jeroboam had done, by which he had led Israel to sin.

The man of God was angry with him. "You should have struck five or six times!" Elisha said. "Then you would have struck Aram until you had completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times."

Jeroboam won back Israel's border from Lebo Hamath to the Dead Sea. This happened as the Lord , the God of Israel, had said through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.

Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he ruled sixteen years in Jerusalem. Unlike his ancestor David, he did not do what the Lord his God said was right.

King Ahaz commanded Uriah the priest, "On the large altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt offering and grain offering, and the whole burnt offering, the grain offering, and the drink offering for all the people of the land. Sprinkle on the altar all the blood of the burnt offering and of the sacrifice. But I will use the bronze altar to ask questions of God."

All these things happened because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God. He had brought them out of Egypt and had rescued them from the power of the king of Egypt, but the Israelites had honored other gods.

secretly sinning against the Lord their God. They built places to worship gods in all their cities, from the watchtower to the strong, walled city.

But the people would not listen. They were stubborn, just as their ancestors had been who did not believe in the Lord their God.

The people rejected all the commands of the Lord their God. They molded statues of two calves, and they made an Asherah idol. They worshiped all the stars of the sky and served Baal.

But even Judah did not obey the commands of the Lord their God. They did what the Israelites had done,

The king of Assyria was told, "You sent foreigners into the cities of Samaria who do not know the law of the god of the land. This is why he has sent lions among them. The lions are killing them because they don't know what the god wants."

Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send back one of the priests you took away. Let him live there and teach the people what the god wants."

The people from Babylon made Succoth Benoth their god. The people from Cuthah worshiped Nergal. The people of Hamath worshiped Ashima.

Instead worship the Lord your God, who will save you from all your enemies."

Hezekiah trusted in the Lord , the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.