In the 23rd year of Joash, Jehoahaz became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned for 17 years. He was an evil king which angered God and meant Israel was for a long time under the power of King Hazael of Syria. But then Jehoahaz turned to the Lord who delivered Israel from the Syrians, but paganism still persisted in Israel. After the death of Jehoahaz his son Jehoash succeeded him as king.
Jehoash came to power and reigned for 16 years doing evil before God maintaining similar patterns of paganism as was with his father. Jehoash went to visit Elisha who was ill. Elisha told the king to fire some arrows out of the window which symbolized the arrow of victory over the Arameans. He then told King Jehoash to strike the ground and the 3 times he struck represented the number of victories he would have over Aram. Then Elisha died and was buried, and one day a dead body was thrown into the tomb, touched Elisha's bones and came back to life and stood up!
Then the Syrian king Hazael died and was succeeded by his son Ben-Hadad. Jehoash recaptured the towns that had been taken by the Syrians.
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