16:26 played the whore. Israel’s failure to obey God was not a matter of overt idolatry alone. Foreign alliances were also regarded as evidence of a failure to trust God in the face of political difficulty. Such alliances were a breach of Israel’s exclusive allegiance to the Lord (cf. 23:7; 29:16; Is. 7; 8; 30; 31; Jer. 2:36, 37; 22:20–22; Hos. 7:11–13). The writer of Chronicles emphasizes this point particularly (2 Chr. 14:9–15; 16:1–9; 19:1, 2; 20; 25:6–8; 28).