2 Chronicles 25

1 Amaziah was 25 years old when he became the king [of Judah], and he ruled from Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother was Jehoaddin; she was from Jerusalem.

Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he had begun to reign. And he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Jehoaddan, from Jerusalem.

2 Amaziah did many things that pleased Yahweh, but he did not do them enthusiastically.

And he accomplished good in the sight of the Lord. Yet truly, not with a perfect heart.

3 As soon as he was in complete control of his kingdom, he caused to be executed the officials who had murdered his father.

And when he saw himself to be strengthened in his rule, he cut the throats of the servants who had killed his father, the king.

4 But he did not command their sons to be executed; he obeyed what was in the laws that Moses had written. In those laws Yahweh had commanded, “People must not be executed because of [what] their children [have done], and children must not be executed for [what] their parents [have done]. People must be executed only for the sins that they themselves have committed.”

But he did not put to death their sons, just as it was written in the book of the law of Moses, where the Lord instructed, saying: “The fathers shall not be slain because of the sons, nor the sons because of their fathers. Instead, each one shall die for his own sin.”

5 Amaziah summoned the men of [the tribes of] Judah and Benjamin to come to Jerusalem, and there he put them in groups, each clan in a group by themselves. Then he appointed officers to command each group. Some officers commanded 100 men and some commanded 1,000 men. They counted the men who were at least 20 years old; altogether there were 300,000 men. They were all men who were prepared to be in the army, and able to [fight well, ] using spears and shields.

And then Amaziah gathered together Judah, and he organized them by families, and tribunes, and centurions, throughout all of Judah and Benjamin. And he numbered them from twenty years old and upward. And he found three hundred thousand young men, who could go forth to battle, and who could hold spear and shield.

6 Amaziah also hired 100,000 capable soldiers from Israel and paid almost four tons of silver for them.

Also, he hired for pay from Israel one hundred thousand experienced men, for one hundred talents of silver.

7 But a prophet came to him and said, “Your majesty, you must not allow those soldiers from Israel to march with your soldiers, because Yahweh does not help the people of the tribe of Ephraim or from [anywhere else in] Israel.

Then a man of God came to him, and he said: “O king, let not the army of Israel go forth with you. For the Lord is not with Israel, nor with all the sons of Ephraim.

8 Even if your soldiers go and fight courageously in battles, God will cause your enemies to defeat you; do not forget that God has the power to help armies or to cause them to be defeated.”

But if you think that a war stands by the strength of the army, God will cause you to be overwhelmed by the enemies. For indeed, it belongs to God to assist, and to put to flight.”

9 Amaziah asked that prophet, “If I do that, what about the huge amount of silver that I paid to hire those soldiers from Israel?” The prophet replied, “Yahweh is able to pay you back more money than you paid [to hire those soldiers].”

And Amaziah said to the man of God, “Then what will become of the one hundred talents, which I gave to the soldiers of Israel?” And the man of God responded to him, “The Lord has that from which he is able to give much more than this to you.”

10 So Amaziah told those soldiers from Israel to return home. They left to go home, but they were very angry with the king of Judah [for not allowing them to stay and fight].

And so, Amaziah separated the army, which had come to him from Ephraim, so that they would return to their place. But having become very angry against Judah, they returned to their own region.

11 Then Amaziah became brave, and he led his army to the Salt Valley. There they killed 10,000 men from the Edom people-group.

Then Amaziah confidently led forth his people. And he went away to the Valley of the Salt Pits, and he struck down ten thousand of the sons of Seir.

12 The army of Judah also captured 10,000 others, and took them to the top of a cliff and threw them all down over the cliff, with the result that their corpses were all smashed to pieces.

And the sons of Judah captured another ten thousand of the men. And they led them to the precipice of a certain rock. And they threw them from the summit, and they were all broken apart.

13 While that was happening, the soldiers from Israel whom Amaziah had sent home after not allowing them to fight along with his soldiers, raided cities and towns in Judea, from Samaria [city] to Beth-Horon [town]. They killed 3,000 people and took away a great amount of valuable things.

But the army that Amaziah had sent away, so that they would not go with him into battle, spread out among the cities of Judah, from Samaria as far as Beth-horon. And having killed three thousand, they took away much plunder.

14 When Amaziah returned [to Jerusalem] after his army had slaughtered the soldiers from Edom, he brought the idols that were worshiped by the people of Edom. He set them up to be his own gods. Then he bowed down to [worship] them and offered sacrifices to them.

Truly, after the slaughter of the Edomites, and when the gods of the sons of Seir were brought, Amaziah chose them as gods for himself. And he was adoring them, and burning incense to them.

15 Because of that, Yahweh was very angry with Amaziah. He sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why do you worship these foreign gods that were not even able to save their own people when your army attacked them?”

For this reason, the Lord became angry against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who would say to him, “Why have you adored gods who did not free their own people from your hand?”

16 While he was still speaking, the king said to him, “We certainly did not appoint you to be one of my advisors. So stop [talking]! If you say anything more, [I will tell my soldiers to] kill you!” So the prophet said, “I know that God has determined to get rid of you, because you have [begun to] worship idols, and have not heeded my advice.” Then the prophet said nothing more.

And after he spoke these things, he responded to him: “Are you the counselor of the king? Be quiet! Otherwise I will put you to death.” And departing, the prophet said, “I know that God has decided to kill you, because you have done this evil, and also because you have not agreed to my counsel.”

17 Some time later Amaziah, the king of Judah, consulted his advisors. Then he sent a message to Jehoash, the king of Israel. He wrote, “Come here and let’s talk together.”

And so Amaziah, the king of Judah, undertaking a very wicked counsel, sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying: “Come, let us see one another.”

18 But Jehoash replied to King Amaziah, “One time a thistle growing [in the mountains] in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar tree saying, ‘Let your daughter marry my son.’ But a wild animal in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle under its feet.

But he sent back messengers, saying: “The thistle which is in Lebanon sent to the cedar of Lebanon, saying: ‘Give your daughter to my son as wife.’ And behold, the beasts that were in the forest of Lebanon passed through, and they trampled the thistle.

19 [The meaning of what I am saying is that] you are saying to yourself that your army has defeated the army of Edom, so you have become very proud. But you should stay at your home. It would not be good for you to cause trouble, which would result in you and your kingdom of Judah being destroyed.”

You said, ‘I struck down Edom.’ And for this reason, your heart is lifted up with pride. Settle in your own house. Why do you provoke evil against yourself, so that you may fall, and then Judah with you?”

20 But Amaziah refused to heed Jehoash’s message. That happened because God wanted Jehoash’s army to defeat them, because they were worshiping the gods of Edom.

Amaziah was not willing to listen to him, because it was the will of the Lord that he be delivered into the hands of the enemies, because of the gods of Edom.

21 So Jehoash’s army attacked. Their two armies faced each other at Beth-Shemesh [city] in Judah.

And so Joash, the king of Israel, ascended, and they presented themselves within the sight of one another. Now Amaziah, the king of Judah, was in Beth-shemesh of Judah.

22 The army of Judah was badly defeated by the army of Israel, and all the soldiers of Judah fled to their homes.

And Judah fell before Israel. And each one fled to his own tent.

23 King Jehoash’s army also captured King Amaziah there. Then he brought Amaziah to Jerusalem, and his soldiers tore down the wall [that was around the city], from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. That was a section that was about 600 feet long.

Then Joash, the king of Israel, captured Amaziah, the king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and he led him to Jerusalem. And he destroyed its walls, from the gate of Ephraim as far as the gate of the corner, four hundred cubits.

24 His soldiers also carried away the gold and silver and other valuable furnishings from the temple which the descendants of Obed-Edom had previously been guarding. They also took away the valuable things in the palace, and they took to Samaria some prisoners whom they had captured.

Also, he brought back to Samaria all the gold and silver, and all the vessels, which he had found in the house of God, and with Obededom in the treasuries of the king’s house, as well as sons for hostages.

25 King Jehoash of Israel died, and King Amaziah of Judah lived for 15 years after that.

Then Amaziah, the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel.

26 An account of all the other things that Amaziah did while he was the king [of Judah] is written in the scroll called ‘The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel’.

Now the rest of the words of Amaziah, the first and the last, have been written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

27 From the time that Amaziah started to disobey Yahweh, some men in Jerusalem planned to kill him. He was able to escape to Lachish [city], but those who wanted to kill him sent another group of people to Lachish and killed him there.

And after he withdrew from the Lord, they set up an ambush against him in Jerusalem. But since he had fled into Lachish, they sent and killed him in that place.

28 They put his corpse on a horse and brought it back to Jerusalem and buried it where his ancestors [had been buried] in the part of Jerusalem called ‘The City of David’.

And having carried him back upon horses, they buried him with his fathers in the City of David.