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And Jashen of the B'nei Elohim, the herald of God Most High, came before Jehoahaz and said the pillar to Ahsherah in Samaria was exceedingly wicked in the eyes of Bat-El, who would certainly mete out chastisement even as he had done to the kings of Samaria before him. But King Jehoahaz waxed full of wrath. He ordered Jashen to depart from his presence and the king did not tear down the pillar.

After that the Aramean king Hazael assailed Samaria. In battles beyond count the army of Jehoahaz was steadily reduced to fifty horsemen, ten chariots and just ten thousand infantrymen. Yet the heart of the king was hardened, and the pillar of Asherah was not torn down.

Joash the son of Jehoahaz ascended to the throne in Samaria upon the death of his father and reigned for sixteen years. He tore down the piller to Asherah in the capital city and made an end to all idolatry in the kingdom.

Then Adad-Nirari III, king of the Assyrians, marched with his chariots and armies to the great sea in the west. He erected a statue of his lordship in the city of Sidon, which is in the midst of the sea.

He received two thousand talents of silver, one thousand talents of copper, two thousand talents of iron, and three thousand linen garments with multicolored trim. All of these were tribute of Mari of the land of Damascus. He also received the tribute of King Joash the Samarian.

When Amaziah the chieftain of the tribe of Judah set up the idols of the Edomites in Jerusalem Joash advanced on that city. God Most High himself caused a portion of the city wall to crumble. King Joash carried off the Temple treasury and took Amaziah the Judahite chieftain prisoner.

And the idols of the Edomites were also carried off to Samaria. King Joash ordered them to be stacked in the lowest level of the palace and he set a guard upon them, lest the Judahites retrieve them once more and fall into their grievous sin against God Most High.

Jeroboam II ascended to the throne in Samaria upon the death of his father and reigned for forty-one years. During his reign the tribe of Judah acclaimed Uzziah as their own king, as it did not suit them that their brother Joash, even one of the children of Israel, should assail the temple as though he were one of the foreign kings.