Jeroboam II becomes the king of Israel
23 Jehoash's son Jeroboam became the king of Israel when Joash's son Amaziah had been king of Judah for 15 years. Jeroboam ruled Israel for 41 years in Samaria. 24 He did things that the Lord said were evil. He did not turn away from the bad things that Nebat's son Jeroboam had done. He had caused many people in Israel to do those sins.
14:23This King Jeroboam was the second king of Israel who had that name. So we can call him Jeroboam II.
25 Jeroboam was the king who made Israel's border strong between Lebo-Hamath and the Salt Sea. The Lord, Israel's God, had already told his prophet Jonah that this would happen. Jonah was the son of Amittai and he came from Gath Hepher.
14:25Lebo-Hamath was in the north of Israel and the Salt Sea was in the south. We call the Salt Sea the Dead Sea today.
26 Everyone in Israel had a lot of trouble and pain, whoever they were. There was no leader who could rescue them. The Lord had seen this, so he helped Jeroboam. 27 The Lord had never said that he would completely remove Israel from the earth. So he gave Jehoash's son Jeroboam the power to rescue them.
28 The other things that happened while Jeroboam was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about all the great things that Jeroboam did. It tells how he fought battles to get back power for Israel over Damascus and Hamath. 29 Jeroboam died and they buried him beside the other kings of Israel in Samaria. His son Zechariah became king after him.
14:29Zechariah was the 4th king in Jehu's family after Jehu himself. See God's promise to Jehu in 2 Kings 10:30. 