2 Kings 15

¹ Azariah, son of Amaziah, king of Judah, became king in the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam, king of Israel.

² He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Jecholiah, was from Jerusalem.

³ He pleased the LORD just as his father Amaziah had done.

⁴ Yet the high places did not disappear; the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on them.

⁵ The LORD afflicted the king, and he was a leper to the day of his death. He lived in a house apart, while Jotham, the king's son, was vizier and regent for the people of the land.

⁶ The rest of the acts of Azariah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

⁷ Azariah rested with his ancestors, and was buried with them in the City of David. His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

⁸ In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was king of Israel in Samaria for six months.

⁹ He did evil in the sight of the LORD as his fathers had done, and did not desist from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

¹⁰ Shallum, son of Jabesh, conspired against Zechariah, attacked and killed him at Ibleam, and reigned in his place.

¹¹ The rest of the acts of Zechariah are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹² Thus the LORD'S promise to Jehu, "Your descendants to the fourth generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel," was fulfilled.

¹³ Shallum, son of Jabesh, became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah, king of Judah; he reigned one month in Samaria.

¹⁴ Menahem, son of Gadi, came up from Tirzah to Samaria, where he attacked and killed Shallum, son of Jabesh, and reigned in his place.

¹⁵ The rest of the acts of Shallum, and the fact of his conspiracy, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁶ At that time, Menahem punished Tappuah, all the inhabitants of the town and of its whole district, because on his way from Tirzah they did not let him in. He punished them even to ripping open all the pregnant women.

¹⁷ In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Menahem, son of Gadi, began his ten-year reign over Samaria.

¹⁸ He did evil in the sight of the LORD, not desisting from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit. During his reign,

¹⁹ Pul, king of Assyria, invaded the land, and Menahem gave him a thousand talents of silver to have his assistance in strengthening his hold on the kingdom.

²⁰ Menahem secured the money to give to the king of Assyria by exacting it from all the men of substance in the country, fifty silver shekels from each. The king of Assyria did not remain in the country but withdrew.

²¹ The rest of the acts of Menahem, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²² Menahem rested with his ancestors, and his son Pekahiah succeeded him as king.

²³ In the fiftieth year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekahiah, son of Menahem, began his two-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

²⁴ He did evil in the sight of the LORD, not desisting from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

²⁵ His adjutant Pekah, son of Remaliah, who had with him fifty men from Gilead, conspired against him, killed him within the palace stronghold in Samaria, and reigned in his place.

²⁶ The rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁷ In the fifty-second year of Azariah, king of Judah, Pekah, son of Remaliah, began his twenty-year reign over Israel in Samaria.

²⁸ He did evil in the sight of the LORD, not desisting from the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

²⁹ During the reign of Pekah, king of Israel, Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, came and took Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, all the territory of Naphtali, Gilead, and Galilee, deporting the inhabitants to Assyria.

³⁰ Hoshea, son of Elah, conspired against Pekah, son of Remaliah; he attacked and killed him, and reigned in his place (in the twentieth year of Jotham, son of Uzziah).

³¹ The rest of the acts of Pekah, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

³² In the second year of Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign.

³³ He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha, daughter of Zadok.

³⁴ He pleased the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done.

³⁵ Nevertheless the high places did not disappear and the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on them. It was he who built the Upper Gate of the temple of the LORD.

³⁶ The rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his accomplishments, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

³⁷ It was at that time that the LORD first loosed Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, against Judah.

³⁸ Jotham rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in his forefather's City of David. His son Ahaz succeeded him as king.