²⁵ Then Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured from Ben-hadad son of Hazael the towns that had been taken from Jehoash’s father, Jehoahaz. Jehoash defeated Ben-hadad on three occasions, and he recovered the Israelite towns.

¹⁸ Then he said, “Now pick up the other arrows and strike them against the ground.” So the king picked them up and struck the ground three times. ¹⁹ But the man of God was angry with him. “You should have struck the ground five or six times!” he exclaimed. “Then you would have beaten Aram until it was entirely destroyed. Now you will be victorious only three times.”

The Death of Jehu

³² At about that time the Lord began to cut down the size of Israel’s territory. King Hazael conquered several sections of the country

²⁵ Jeroboam II recovered the territories of Israel between Lebo-hamath and the Dead Sea,^[a] just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had promised through Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-hepher.