¹⁸ In this matter may the Lord pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of ^(A)Rimmon to worship there, ^(B)leaning on my arm, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.”

² Then ^(A)the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, ^(B)“If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

²⁰ In those days and in that time, declares the Lord, ^(A)iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found, for ^(B)I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant.

¹⁸ For a majority of the people, ^(A)many of them from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet they ate the Passover otherwise ^(B)than as prescribed. For Hezekiah had prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord pardon everyone ^19 (C)who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness.”^[a]

³⁵ The Lord made a covenant with them and commanded them, ^(A)“You shall not fear other gods ^(B)or bow yourselves to them or serve them or sacrifice to them,

¹⁷ Now the king had appointed ^(A)the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said ^(B)when the king came down to him.

^18 (A)Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not ^(B)kissed him.”

^5 (A)You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am ^(B)a jealous God, ^(C)visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,