2 Kings 14

¹In the second year of Joʹash the son of Joʹahaz, king of Israel, Amaziʹah the son of Joʹash, king of Judah, began to reign. ²He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jeho-adʹdin of Jerusalem. ³And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not like David his father; he did in all things as Joʹash his father had done. ⁴But the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. ⁵And as soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he killed his servants who had slain the king his father. ⁶But he did not put to death the children of the murderers; according to what is written in the book of the law 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.”

⁷He killed ten thousand Eʹdomites in the Valley of Salt and took Sela by storm, and called it Jokʹthe-el, which is its name to this day.

⁸Then Amaziʹah sent messengers to Jehoʹash the son of Jehoʹahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” ⁹And Jehoʹash 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. ¹⁰You have indeed smitten Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Be content with your glory, and stay at home; for why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”

¹¹But Amaziʹah would not listen. So Jehoʹash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziʹah king of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-sheʹmesh, which belongs to Judah. ¹²And Judah was defeated by Israel, and every man fled to his home. ¹³And Jehoʹash king of Israel captured Amaziʹah king of Judah, the son of Jehoʹash, son of Ahaziʹah, at Beth-sheʹmesh, and came to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem for four hundred cubits, from the Eʹphraim Gate to the Corner Gate. ¹⁴And he seized all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king’s house, also hostages, and he returned to Samarʹia.

¹⁵Now the rest of the acts of Jehoʹash which he did, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziʹah king of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ¹⁶And Jehoʹash slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samarʹia with the kings of Israel; and Jeroboʹam his son reigned in his stead.

¹⁷Amaziʹah the son of Joʹash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoʹash son of Jehoʹahaz, king of Israel. ¹⁸Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziʹah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁹And they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. ²⁰And they brought him upon horses; and he was buried in Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David. ²¹And all the people of Judah took Azariʹah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziʹah. ²²He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.

²³In the fifteenth year of Amaziʹah the son of Joʹash, king of Judah, Jeroboʹam the son of Joʹash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samarʹia, and he reigned forty-one years. ²⁴And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboʹam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. ²⁵He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah the son of Amitʹtai, the prophet, who was from Gath-heʹpher. ²⁶For the Lord saw that the affliction of Israel was very bitter, for there was none left, bond or free, and there was none to help Israel. ²⁷But the Lord had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboʹam the son of Joʹash.

²⁸Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboʹam, and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered for Israel Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²⁹And Jeroboʹam slept with his fathers, the kings of Israel, and Zechariʹah his son reigned in his stead.