2 Chronicles 25

¹Amaziʹah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jeho-adʹdan of Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a blameless heart. ³And as soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he killed his servants who had slain the king his father. ⁴But he did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the law, in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded, “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, or the children be put to death for the fathers; but every man shall die for his own sin.”

⁵Then Amaziʹah assembled the men of Judah, and set them by fathers’ houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found that they were three hundred thousand picked men, fit for war, able to handle spear and shield. ⁶He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valor from Israel for a hundred talents of silver. ⁷But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, with all these Eʹphraimites. ⁸But if you suppose that in this way you will be strong for war, God will cast you down before the enemy; for God has power to help or to cast down.” ⁹And Amaziʹah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.” ¹⁰Then Amaziʹah discharged the army that had come to him from Eʹphraim, to go home again. And they became very angry with Judah, and returned home in fierce anger. ¹¹But Amaziʹah took courage, and led out his people, and went to the Valley of Salt and smote ten thousand men of Seʹir. ¹²The men of Judah captured another ten thousand alive, and took them to the top of a rock and threw them down from the top of the rock; and they were all dashed to pieces. ¹³But the men of the army whom Amaziʹah sent back, not letting them go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samarʹia to Beth-horʹon, and killed three thousand people in them, and took much spoil.

¹⁴After Amaziʹah came from the slaughter of the Eʹdomites, he brought the gods of the men of Seʹir, and set them up as his gods, and worshiped them, making offerings to them. ¹⁵Therefore the Lord was angry with Amaziʹah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you resorted to the gods of a people, which did not deliver their own people from your hand?” ¹⁶But as he was speaking the king said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be put to death?” So the prophet stopped, but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.”

¹⁷Then Amaziʹah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Joʹash the son of Jehoʹahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” ¹⁸And Joʹash the king of Israel sent word to Amaziʹah king of Judah, “A thistle on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife’; and a wild beast of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁹You say, ‘See, I have smitten Edom,’ and your heart has lifted you up in boastfulness. But now stay at home; why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”

²⁰But Amaziʹah would not listen; for it was of God, in order that he might give them into the hand of their enemies, because they had sought the gods of Edom. ²¹So Joʹash king of Israel went up; and he and Amaziʹah king of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-sheʹmesh, which belongs to Judah. ²²And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his home. ²³And Joʹash king of Israel captured Amaziʹah king of Judah, the son of Joʹash, son of Ahaziʹah, at Beth-sheʹmesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem for four hundred cubits, from the Eʹphraim Gate to the Corner Gate. ²⁴And he seized all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God, and Oʹbed-eʹdom with them; he seized also the treasuries of the king’s house, and hostages, and he returned to Samarʹia.

²⁵Amaziʹah the son of Joʹash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Joʹash the son of Jehoʹahaz, king of Israel. ²⁶Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziʹah, from first to last, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷From the time when he turned away from the Lord they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. ²⁸And they brought him upon horses; and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David.