1. In the twenty-third year of Joash, son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, became king over Israel in Samaria for seventeen years.
2. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight: he did not depart from following the sins that Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.
3. The Lord was angry with Israel and for a long time gave them into the power of Hazael, king of Aram, and of Ben-hadad, son of Hazael.
4. Then Jehoahaz entreated the Lord, who heard him, since he saw the oppression to which the king of Aram had subjected Israel.
5. So the Lord gave Israel a savior, and the Israelites, freed from the power of Aram, dwelt in their own tents as formerly.
6. Nevertheless, they did not desist from the sins the house of Jeroboam had caused Israel to commit, but persisted in them. The Asherah remained even in Samaria.
7. No army was left to Jehoahaz, except fifty horses with ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers, since the king of Aram had destroyed them and trampled them like dust.