⁴ but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments and not according to the ways of Israel.^(A)

²⁸ So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. He said to the people,^[a] “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”^(A)

A Life Pleasing to God

4 Finally, brothers and sisters, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus that, as you learned from us how you ought to live and to please God (as, in fact, you are doing), you should do so more and more.^(A)

¹² urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.^(A)

⁶ Both of them were righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord.^(A)

¹⁹ Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced.

¹⁸ He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.^(A)

⁷ And I thought, “After she has done all this she will return to me,” but she did not return, and her false sister Judah saw it.^{(A) 8} She^[a] saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce, yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and prostituted herself.^(B)

Ahab Marries Jezebel and Worships Baal

³¹ And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as his wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians and went and served Baal and worshiped him.^{(A) 32} He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal that he built in Samaria.^{(B) 33} Ahab also made a sacred pole.^[a] Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than had all the kings of Israel who were before him.^(C)