Let's now look at the kings of Israel. For all of them, except Shallum, it says they did evil in the eyes of the Lord. And the only reason it doesn't say this about Shallum is because he only reigned for a month and was then assassinated in a power grab by Menahem.
Doing "evil in the eyes of the Lord" is the most significant thing all of them did. The most important thing in living our lives is whether we live life pleasing or displeasing to the Lord. We think it is about the results, but it isn't. The results are given by God, and follow on from whether or not we follow the Lord.
In being assassinated Shallum was only receiving due retribution for his own act of assassination of Zechariah (Zechariah was a very common name, and is clearly not the minor prophet). Zechariah was the last of the four generations guaranteed by God to Jehu.
Menahem was a particularly violent man (v16). It was during Menahem's reign that Assyria attacked Israel and Menahem bought him off with silver. This silver was taken from the people. When we have bad rulers it is the people who pay the price. Our response to this maybe to blame the rulers, but maybe God has given us bad rulers as a judgement upon us. You can be absolutely sure that if the people had repented and turned to God He would have done something about the situation.
Pekahiah succeeded Menahem and he too was assassinated.
Pekah is the last king in this sorry list, and it is during his reign that Tiglath-Pileser invades Israel properly, capturing much of the land. Many people were sent into exile. Israel was receiving the price for all her sins.
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