Then Menahem son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, entered Samaria, and struck Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him. Then Menahem reigned in his place.
But Pekah son of Remaliah, his officer, conspired against him and struck him in Samaria, in the palace of the king’s house, with Argob, Arieh, and fifty men of the Gileadites with him. He killed him and reigned in his place.
Then Hoshea son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah son of Remaliah and struck and killed him. Then he reigned in his place in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah.
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.
But we all are as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness is as filthy rags; and we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
There is no one who calls on Your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You; for You have hidden Your face from us and have consumed us because of our iniquities.
I sought for a man among them who would build up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me for the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.
As it is written in the Law of Moses, great calamity has come on us. Yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God so that we might turn from our iniquities and give attention to Your truth.
They set up kings, but not through Me; they made princes, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold, they made idols, so that they will be cut off.
Woe to those who conceive wickedness, to those who devise evil on their beds! At morning’s light they execute it, because it is in the power of their hand.