CHAPTER 25

¹Twenty-five years old was Amaziah when he became king, and twenty-nine years he was king in Jerusalem, and his mother’s name was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD but not with a whole heart. ³And it happened when his kingship was firmly in his grasp that he killed his servants who had struck down the king his father. ⁴But their sons he did not put to death, for as it is written in the Teaching, in the Book of Moses as the LORD charged, saying, “Fathers shall not die over sons, and sons shall not die over fathers, but each man shall die for his own offense.” ⁵And Amaziah gathered Judah and set them out by patriarchal houses with the commanders of the thousands and the commanders of the hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin, and he counted them from twenty years old upward and found them to be three hundred thousand picked men mustered to the army, wielding spear and shield. ⁶And he hired from Israel one hundred thousand valiant warriors with a hundred talents of silver. ⁷And a man of God came to him, saying, “O king, let not the army of Israel come with you, for the LORD is not with Israel, with all the Ephraimites. ⁸But you yourself, come, do it, be strong for battle, [else] God will make you stumble before the enemy, for there is power in God to aid or to make stumble.” ⁹And Amaziah said to the man of God, “And what is to be done about the hundred talents that I have given to the Israelite troop?” And the man of God said, “God can give you much more than this.” ¹⁰And Amaziah set apart the troop that had come to him from Ephraim in order for them to go back to their place, and their anger against Judah flared up fiercely, and they returned to their place in flaring anger. ¹¹And Amaziah gathered strength and led his troops, and he went to Salt Valley and struck down ten thousand Seirites. ¹²And the Judahites captured ten thousand alive and brought them to the Rock and flung them from the top of the Rock, and they were all dashed to pieces. ¹³And the members of the troop whom Amaziah turned back from going with him to battle raided the towns of Judah from Samaria to Beth-Horon and struck down from them three thousand and plundered abundant booty. ¹⁴And it happened after Amaziah had come from striking down the Edomites that he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up for himself as gods and bowed down before them, and to them he would burn incense. ¹⁵And the LORD’s anger flared against Amaziah, and He sent him a prophet. And he said to him, “Why did you seek out the gods of the people who did not save the people from your hand?” ¹⁶And it happened as he spoke to him that he said to him, “Have they made you a councillor to the king? Cease! Why should they strike you down?” And he said, “For God has counseled to destroy you, for you have done this and not heeded my counsel.” ¹⁷And Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Joash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu king of Israel, saying, “Come let us face each other down.” ¹⁸And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “The thistle which is in Lebanon sent to the cedar which is in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as wife,’ and the beast of the field which is in Lebanon came by and trampled the thistle. ¹⁹You thought, you have struck down Edom, but you are carried away by your own heart to gain glory. Now, stay in your house. Why should you provoke evil and fall, you and Judah with you?” ²⁰But Amaziah did not heed, for it was from God in order to give him into his hand, for he had sought out the gods of Edom. ²¹And Joash king of Israel came up, and they faced each other down, and Amaziah king of Judah was in Beth-Shemesh which is Judah’s. ²²And Judah was routed by Israel, and every man fled to his tent. ²³But Joash caught Amaziah son of Joash son of Jehoahaz in Beth-Shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem and breached the wall from the Gate of Ephraim as far as the Corner Gate, four hundred cubits. ²⁴And [he took] all the gold and the silver and the vessels that were found in the house of God in charge of Obed-Edom and the treasuries of the king’s house and the hostages, and he went back to Samaria. ²⁵And Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel. ²⁶And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, early and late, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷And from the time Amaziah swerved away from the LORD, they hatched a plot against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish, and they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there. ²⁸And they bore him off on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.