Bible Verses About Kings

Elisha was now ill with the disease from which he would eventually die. Yo'ash the king of Isra'el came down to visit him and wept over him; he said, "My father! My father! The chariots and horsemen of Isra'el!"

Elisha said to him, "Bring a bow and arrows"; and he brought him a bow and arrows.

He said to the king of Isra'el, "Put your hand on the bow"; and he put his hand on it. Then Elisha laid his hands on the king's hands

and said, "Open the east window." He opened it. Elisha said, "Shoot"; and he shot. He said, "ADONAI's arrow of victory, the arrow of victory against Aram! You will defeat Aram completely at Afek!"

He said, "Take the arrows"; and he took them. He told the king of Isra'el, "Strike the ground." He struck three times, then stopped.

The man of God became angry with him; he said, "You should have struck five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram completely. As it is, you will defeat Aram only three times."

Elisha died, and they placed him in a burial cave. Now the raiding parties of Mo'av used to make yearly incursions into the land at the start of the year.

Once it happened that just as they were burying a man, they spotted a raiding party; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's burial cave; and the moment the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

Haza'el king of Aram oppressed Isra'el throughout the lifetime of Y'ho'achaz;

but ADONAI was gracious, took pity on them and looked on them with favor, because of his covenant with Avraham, Yitz'chak and Ya'akov. He was not willing to destroy them, and to this day he has not banished them from his presence.

Haza'el king of Aram died, and Ben-Hadad his son took his place as king.

Then Y'ho'ash the son of Y'ho'achaz captured from Ben-Hadad the son of Haza'el the cities which he had captured in war from Y'ho'achaz his father. Three times Yo'ash defeated him, thus recovering the cities of Isra'el.

It was in the second year of Yo'ash son of Y'ho'achaz king of Isra'el that Amatzyah the son of Yo'ash king of Y'hudah began his reign.

He was twenty-five years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was Y'ho'adan, from Yerushalayim.

He did what was right from ADONAI's perspective, although not like David his ancestor; he lived the same way as his father Yo'ash.

However, the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and offered on the high places.

As soon as he had the kingdom firmly under his control, he put to death the servants of his who had murdered the king his father.

But he did not put the children of the murderers to death, because of what is written in the scroll of the Torah of Moshe, as ADONAI ordered when he said, "Fathers are not to be executed for the children, nor are children to be executed for the fathers; every person will be executed for his own sin."

He slaughtered 10,000 men of Edom in the Salt Valley and captured Sela in the war, renaming it Yokte'el, as it is today.

Then Amatzyah sent messengers to Y'ho'ash the son of Y'ho'achaz, son of Yehu, king of Isra'el, with this challenge: "Come on, let's have it out face-to-face."

Y'ho'ash the king of Isra'el sent this reply to Amatzyah king of Y'hudah: "Once, in the L'vanon, the thistle sent a message to the cedar: 'Give your daughter to my son in marriage.' But a wild animal passed by the thistle and squashed it.

True, you have defeated Edom, and now you're ambitious. So enjoy the glory, but stay home! Why provoke calamity, to your own ruin, yours and Y'hudah's too?"

But Amatzyah wouldn't listen. So Y'ho'ash king of Isra'el went up; and he and Amatzyah king of Y'hudah had it out face-to-face at Beit-Shemesh, which belongs to Y'hudah.

Y'hudah was defeated by Isra'el, and every man fled to his tent.

Y'ho'ash king of Isra'el took Amatzyah king of Y'hudah, the son of Y'ho'ash the son of Achazyah, prisoner at Beit-Shemesh. Then he went to Yerushalayim and demolished the wall of Yerushalayim between the Gate of Efrayim and the Corner Gate, a section 600 feet long.