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

³³ east of the Jordan in all the land of Gilead (the region of Gad, Reuben and Manasseh), from Aroer^(A) by the Arnon^(B) Gorge through Gilead to Bashan.

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.