2 Chronicles
Chapter 25
1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he started to rule, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem.
2 He did what was right in God’s eyes, but not with a complete heart.
3 When his rule was secure, he killed the servants who had murdered his father, the king.
4 He did not kill their children but followed what is written in Moses’ law book, where God ordered: Parents should not die for their children, nor children for their parents; each person will die for their own sin.
5 Amaziah brought Judah’s people together, appointed leaders for groups of a thousand and groups of a hundred, family by family, for all of Judah and Benjamin. He counted those who were twenty years old and older, and found three hundred thousand select men able to go to battle, skilled with spear and shield.
6 He also paid for a hundred thousand brave soldiers from Israel with a hundred pieces of silver.
7 A man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, because God is not with Israel, that is, with all the descendants of Ephraim.”
8 If you choose to go, then go; be brave in the fight: God will let you be defeated by the enemy: because God can both assist and defeat.
9 Amaziah said to the man of God, “What about the hundred talents I gave to Israel’s soldiers?” The man of God replied, “God can give you much more than that.”
10 Amaziah sent the Ephraim soldiers home, making them very angry at Judah, so they went back home with a lot of anger.
11 Amaziah became strong, led his people out, and went to the Salt Valley, where he defeated ten thousand from the people of Seir.
12 The people of Judah took ten thousand others alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off, so they all were smashed.
13 But the soldiers Amaziah sent away, who weren’t to fight with him, attacked Judah’s cities, from Samaria to Bethhoron, killed 3,000 people, and took lots of valuable things.
14 After Amaziah returned from defeating the Edomites, he took the gods of the people of Seir, made them his own gods, worshiped them, and offered incense to them.
15 So God became angry with Amaziah and sent him a prophet who asked, “Why are you following the gods of other nations that couldn’t save their people from you?”
16 As he spoke with him, the king asked, “Are you part of the king’s advisors? Stop; why should you get hurt?” So the prophet stopped and said, “I know that God plans to destroy you because you did this and didn’t listen to my advice.”
17 Amaziah, the king of Judah, asked for advice and sent a message to Joash, Jehoahaz’s son and Jehu’s grandson, who was the king of Israel, saying, “Come, let’s meet face to face.”
18 Joash, king of Israel, messaged Amaziah, king of Judah, “A thistle in Lebanon told the cedar in Lebanon, ‘Give your daughter to my son as his wife.’ But a wild animal came by in Lebanon and stepped on the thistle.”
19 You say, “Look, you have defeated the Edomites,” and your pride leads you to brag. Stay at home now; why get involved in trouble and risk falling, you and Judah with you?
20 Amaziah would not listen, because it was God’s plan to let their enemies defeat them, since they followed Edom’s gods.
21 King Joash of Israel went up, and he met face to face with King Amaziah of Judah at Bethshemesh, a city in Judah.
22 Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone ran away to their own tent.
23 King Joash of Israel captured Amaziah, king of Judah, at Bethshemesh, and took him to Jerusalem. There, he destroyed a section of Jerusalem’s wall, from Ephraim Gate to Corner Gate, measuring 400 cubits.
24 He took all the gold, silver, and everything found in God’s house with Obededom, the king’s treasures, the hostages too, and went back to Samaria.
25 Amaziah, son of Joash the king of Judah, lived 15 years after Joash, son of Jehoahaz the king of Israel, died.
26 The other things Amaziah did, from start to end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel, aren’t they?
27 After Amaziah stopped following God, people in Jerusalem plotted against him; so he escaped to Lachish. But they followed him there and killed him.
28 They brought him on horses and buried him with his ancestors in the city of Judah.