Jehoash went to visit the prophet Elisha, who was sick with the illness that would eventually lead to his death. He held the prophet Elisha in honor, and wept by his bedside while he was dying. Jehoash pleased Elisha, addressing him in the words Elisha himself had used when Elijah was carried up into heaven: "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof."[6] When Jehoash failed to completely obey Elisha’s instructions, Elisha predicted that Jehoash would only defeat the Arameans three times rather than five or six times, which may have been enough to end the Syrian threat.[2] In three signal and successive victories Jehoash overcame the Syrians, and retook from them the towns which Hazael had captured from Israel.[8]