⁵ Amaziah called the people of Judah together. He arranged them by families under commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. He did it for all the people of Judah and Benjamin. Then he brought together the men who were 20 years old or more. He found out there were 300,000 men who were able to serve in the army. They could handle spears and shields. ⁶ He also hired 100,000 fighting men from Israel. He had to pay them almost four tons of silver.

⁷ But a man of God came to him. He said, “Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march out with you. The Lord is not with Israel. He isn’t with any of the people of Ephraim.