Then Jehu said, “Take them alive!” So they captured Ahaziah’s relatives alive and killed them at the well near Beth Eked—forty-two of them. Jehu did not leave anyone alive.
When the leaders received the letter, they took the king’s sons and killed all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.
Then Menahem son of Gadi came up from Tirzah to Samaria and attacked Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria. He killed him and became king in Shallum’s place.
Pekah son of Remaliah was one of Pekahiah’s captains, and he made plans against Pekahiah. He took fifty men of Gilead with him and killed Pekahiah, as well as Argob and Arieh, in the palace at Samaria. Then Pekah became king in Pekahiah’s place.
Then Hoshea son of Elah made plans against Pekah son of Remaliah and attacked and killed him. Then Hoshea became king in Pekah’s place during the twentieth year Jotham son of Uzziah was king.
All of us are dirty with sin. All the right things we have done are like filthy pieces of cloth. All of us are like dead leaves, and our sins, like the wind, have carried us away.
“I looked for someone to build up the walls and to stand before me where the walls are broken to defend these people so I would not have to destroy them. But I could not find anyone.
All this disaster came to us just as it is written in the Teachings of Moses. But we have not pleaded with the Lord our God. We have not stopped sinning. We have not paid attention to your truth.
They do not call to me from their hearts. They just lie on their beds and cry. They come together to ask for grain and new wine, but they really turn away from me.
They chose their own kings without asking my permission. They chose their own leaders, people I did not know. They made their silver and gold into idols, and for all this they will be destroyed.
How terrible it will be for people who plan wickedness, who lie on their beds and make evil plans. When the morning light comes, they do what they planned, because they have the power to do so.