Amaziah becomes king of Judah

25 Amaziah was 25 years old when he began to rule as king. He ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years. His mother's name was Jehoaddin. She was from Jerusalem. ² He did things that the Lord said were good. But he was not completely faithful.

³ Amaziah made himself strong to rule his kingdom with authority. Then he killed the officers who had murdered his father, King Joash. ⁴ But he did not punish their sons with death. He obeyed the Lord's command that was written in the Book of the Law of Moses. The command says, ‘Do not punish fathers with death when their sons do bad things. Do not punish children with death when their fathers do bad things. Each person must die only because of his own sins.’^[a]

Amaziah's army

⁵ Then Amaziah brought all the people of Judah together. For each of their clans he chose officers to lead groups of 1,000 men and groups of 100 men. He did that for the clans of Judah's tribe and the clans of Benjamin's tribe.^[b] He counted all the men who were 20 years old or older who could fight with spears and shields. There were 300,000 of them. ⁶ He also paid 3,500 kilograms of silver for 100,000 soldiers from Israel to join his army.

⁷ But a prophet went to meet Amaziah and he said, ‘Please sir, do not take these soldiers from Israel to go and fight beside your own soldiers. The Lord has turned away from the tribe of Ephraim and all of Israel. ⁸ The Lord will allow your enemies to win against you, even if you fight very well. God has the power to help you, but he can also cause your enemies to win against you.’

⁹ Amaziah said to God's prophet, ‘But I have paid 3,500 kilograms of silver for these soldiers from Israel. What should I do about that?’ The prophet replied, ‘The Lord is able to give you much more than all that money!’

¹⁰ So Amaziah sent away the soldiers who had come from Ephraim.^[c] He told them to go back to their homes. So they became very angry with Judah's people. As they went home, they had angry thoughts.

Amaziah fights against Edom

¹¹ But Amaziah was brave. He led his army to Salt Valley. There they killed 10,000 soldiers from Edom.^{[d] 12} They also caught 10,000 soldiers as their prisoners. They took them to the top of a high rock. They threw their prisoners from the top. They all fell down onto the rocks below and they died.

¹³ But the soldiers from Israel that Amaziah had sent home attacked some towns in Judah. They were angry because Amaziah had not allowed them to join his army in the battle. They killed 3,000 men in Judah's towns between Samaria and Beth Horon. They took away many valuable things from those towns.

Amaziah worships idols

¹⁴ After Amaziah's army had killed the soldiers from Edom, he returned to Judah. He brought back some idols of the gods that the people of Edom worshipped. He started to worship them as his own gods. He offered sacrifices to them. ¹⁵ So the Lord became angry with Amaziah. He sent a prophet to him with a message. The prophet said to Amaziah, ‘You should not worship these foreign gods! They could not even save their own people from your power!’

¹⁶ While the prophet was still speaking, the king said to him, ‘We did not choose you to be the king's advisor! If you do not stop speaking, my men will kill you.’ So the prophet stopped. But then he said, ‘I know what God has decided to do. He will destroy you because you have done these bad things and you have not listened to my advice.’

Amaziah attacks Israel

¹⁷ Then King Amaziah of Judah met with his advisors. Then he sent a message to King Jehoash of Israel. He was the son of Jehoahaz and the grandson of Jehu. King Amaziah's message said, ‘Come here and meet me!’

¹⁸ But King Jehoash of Israel sent this message back to King Amaziah of Judah: ‘In Lebanon, a thorn bush sent this message to a cedar tree: “Please give your daughter to my son, to be his wife.” Then a wild animal of Lebanon came and knocked down the thorn bush. It walked all over it! ¹⁹ You are proud that you have won the fight against Edom. But do not boast about your power! You may be very happy, but stay at home! Do not try to fight against us. If you do that, you will cause trouble that destroys both you and your kingdom, Judah.’

²⁰ But Amaziah did not accept Jehoash's message. God had decided to put him under the power of his enemies because he worshipped the gods of Edom. ²¹ So King Jehoash of Israel prepared to attack Amaziah's army. Jehoash and Amaziah met together in battle at Beth Shemesh, a town in Judah. ²² Israel's army won the battle against Judah's army. All the soldiers from Judah ran back home. ²³ At Beth Shemesh, King Jehoash of Israel caught the king of Judah, Amaziah, the son of Joash and the grandson of Ahaziah. King Jehoash took him to Jerusalem. He destroyed the wall of Jerusalem, between the Ephraim Gate and the Corner Gate. That part of the wall was 180 metres long.^{[e] 24} He took away all the gold and the silver from the temple, including the valuable things that Obed-Edom was taking care of. Jehoash also took the valuable things from the king's palace. He also took some of the people away with him as prisoners. Then he returned to Samaria.

Amaziah dies

²⁵ Joash's son Amaziah, the king of Judah, lived for 15 years after Jehoahaz's son Jehoash, the king of Israel, died.^{[f] 26} All the other things that happened while Amaziah was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of the kings of Judah and Israel’. ²⁷ After Amaziah had turned away from the Lord, some people in Jerusalem made a plan to kill him. So he ran away to Lachish. But the people in Jerusalem sent men to catch him in Lachish. They killed Amaziah there.^{[g] 28} They carried his dead body back to Jerusalem on a horse. They buried him there beside his ancestors in the city of Judah.