1Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan, from Jerusalem.
2He did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, yet not with a whole heart.
3And it happened, when the kingdom was firm under his control, that he put to death his servants who had struck down the king his father.
4But their children he did not put to death, as it is written in the law, in the book of Moses, where Yahweh commanded, saying, ‘Fathers shall not be put to death for children, nor shall children be put to death for fathers; but each shall die for his own sin.’
5Amaziah gathered Judah and stationed them by ancestral houses, by the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered them from twenty years old and upward, and found them to be three hundred thousand choice men, going out to the army, holding spear and shield.
6He also hired from Israel one hundred thousand mighty warriors for a hundred talents of silver.
7But a man of God came to him, saying, ‘O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for Yahweh is not with Israel — with any of the sons of Ephraim.
8But if you go — act, be strong for the battle — God will make you stumble before the enemy, for there is power in God to help and to make one stumble.’
9Amaziah said to the man of God, ‘But what is to be done about the hundred talents that I gave to the troop of Israel?’ And the man of God said, ‘Yahweh is able to give you much more than this.’
10So Amaziah separated out the troop that had come to him from Ephraim, to go to their own place. But their anger burned fiercely against Judah, and they returned to their own place in a fierce anger.
11Amaziah strengthened himself and led out his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck down ten thousand of the sons of Seir.
12And the sons of Judah captured ten thousand alive, and brought them to the top of the crag, and threw them down from the top of the crag, so that all of them were dashed to pieces.
13But the members of the troop whom Amaziah had sent back from going with him to the battle raided the cities of Judah, from Samaria as far as Beth-horon, and struck down three thousand of them, and plundered much plunder.
14And it happened, after Amaziah came from striking down the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the sons of Seir and set them up for himself as gods, and he would bow down before them and burn incense to them.
15So the anger of Yahweh burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, ‘Why have you sought the gods of the people, who did not deliver their own people from your hand?’
16And as he was speaking to him, the king said to him, ‘Have we made you a counselor to the king? Stop! Why should you be struck down?’ So the prophet stopped, but he said, ‘I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my counsel.’
17Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel and sent to Joash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, ‘Come, let us look one another in the face.’
18Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, ‘The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, “Give your daughter to my son as a wife.” But a wild beast of the field that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle.
19You have said, “Look, I have struck down Edom,” and your heart has lifted you up to boast. Now stay in your house. Why should you provoke disaster, so that you fall — you and Judah with you?’
20But Amaziah did not listen, for it was from God, in order that he might give them into the hand of the enemy, because they had sought the gods of Edom.
21So Joash king of Israel went up, and they looked one another in the face — he and Amaziah king of Judah — at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah.
22And Judah was defeated before Israel, and each fled to his tents.
23And Amaziah king of Judah, son of Joash son of Jehoahaz, Joash king of Israel captured at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate — four hundred cubits.
24And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels found in the house of God with Obed-edom, and the treasuries of the king’s house, and the hostages, and returned to Samaria.
25Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.
26Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, the first and the last, behold, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?
27And from the time that Amaziah turned away from following Yahweh, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish; but they sent after him to Lachish and put him to death there.
28And they carried him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.
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