²⁵ Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-Hadad son of Hazael the towns he had taken in battle from his father Jehoahaz. Three times^(A) Jehoash defeated him, and so he recovered^(B) the Israelite towns.

¹⁸ Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” He struck it three times and stopped. ¹⁹ The man of God was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”^(A)

³² In those days the Lord began to reduce^(A) the size of Israel. Hazael^(B) overpowered the Israelites throughout their territory

²⁵ He was the one who restored the boundaries of Israel from Lebo Hamath^(A) to the Dead Sea,^[a](B) in accordance with the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, spoken through his servant Jonah^(C) son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath Hepher.