CHAPTER 25
1 Amaziah was of five and twenty years, when he began to reign, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem; the name of his mother was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem.
2 And he did good in the sight of the Lord, nevertheless not in perfect heart.
3 And when he saw the empire strengthened to himself, he strangled the servants that killed the king, his father;
4 but he killed not the sons of them; as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, [The] Fathers shall not be slain for the sons, neither the sons for their fathers; but each man shall die in, or for, his own sin.
5 Therefore Amaziah gathered to-gether Judah, and ordained them by meines, and tribunes, and centurions, in all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years and above, and he found thirty thousand of able young men, that went out to battle, and held spear and shield.
6 Also for meed, he hired of Israel an hundred thousand of strong men, for an hundred talents of silver, that they should fight against the sons of Edom.
7 Forsooth a man of God came to him, and said, A! king, the host of Israel go not out with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel, and with all the sons of Ephraim;
8 for if thou guessest that battles stand in the might of an host, the Lord shall make thee to be overcome of thine enemies, forsooth it is of God for to help, and to turn men into flight.
9 And Amaziah said to the man of God, What then shall be done of the hundred talents, which I gave to the knights of Israel? And the man of God answered to him, The Lord hath, whereof he may yield to thee much more things than these.
10 Therefore Amaziah separated the host that came to him from Ephraim, that it should turn again into his place; and they were wroth greatly against Judah, and they turned again into their country.
11 And Amaziah led out trustily his people, and went into the valley of makings of salt, and he killed of the sons of Seir ten thousand.
12 And the sons of Judah took other ten thousand of men, and brought to the high scarp of a stone; and they cast them down from the highest part into a pit; which all brake.
13 And that host that Amaziah had sent again, that it should not go with him to battle, was spread abroad in the cities of Judah from Samaria unto Bethhoron; and after the host of Israel had slain three thousand of Judah, it took away a great prey.
14 And Amaziah, after the slaying of Idumeans, and after that he had brought thence with him the gods of the sons of Seir, he ordained them to be into gods to himself, and he worshipped them, and burnt incense to them.
15 Wherefore the Lord was wroth against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, that said to him, Why worshippest thou gods which have not delivered their people from thine hand?
16 And when the prophet spake these things, Amaziah answered to him, Whether thou art a counsellor of the king? cease thou, lest peradventure I slay thee. And the prophet went away from him, and said, I know, that the Lord hath thought to slay thee; for thou hast done this evil, and furthermore thou assentedest not to my counsel.
17 Therefore Amaziah, the king of Judah, when he had taken a full evil counsel, sent to the king of Israel, Jehoash*, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, and said, Come thou, and see we us together.
18 And Jehoash, the king of Israel, sent messengers back to him, and said mystically, A thistle, that is in the Lebanon, sent to a cedar tree of the Lebanon, and said, Give thy daughter as a wife to my son; and lo! [the] beasts that were in the wood of the Lebanon went and defouled the thistle.
19 Thou saidest, I have smitten Edom, and therefore thine heart is raised into pride; sit thou still in thine house; why stirrest thou evil against thyself, that thou fall, and Judah with thee?
20 Amaziah would not hear this, for it was the will of the Lord, that he should be betaken into the hands of his enemies, for the gods of Edom which he worshipped.
21 Therefore Jehoash, king of Israel, went up against Judah, and they saw themselves together. Soothly Amaziah, the king of Judah, was in Bethshemesh of Judah;
22 and Judah felled [or fell] down be-fore Israel, and fled into his tabernacles.
23 And [Jehoash], the king of Israel, took in Bethshemesh Amaziah, the king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz†, and brought him into Jerusalem; and he destroyed the walls thereof from the gate of Ephraim to the gate of the corner, by four hundred cubits in length.
24 And he led again into Samaria all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that he found in the house of the Lord, and at Obededom, in the treas-uries also of the king’s house, also and the sons of hostages.
25 And Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, lived fifteen years after that Jehoash, king of Israel, the son of Jehoahaz, was dead.
26 Soothly the residue of the former and the last words of Amaziah, be written in the book of [the] kings of Judah and of Israel.
27 And after that he had gone away from the Lord, they set to him treasons in Jerusalem; and when he had fled to Lachish, they sent thither, and killed him there;
28 and they brought him again upon horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of David.
* CHAPTER 25:17 Also known as Joash. † CHAPTER 25:23 A variant form of Ahaziah (the son of Jehoram, king of Judah).