Judah’s King Amaziah

25 Amaziah^(A) became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. ² He did what was right in the Lord’s sight but not wholeheartedly.^(B)

³ As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp,^[a] he executed his servants who had killed his father the king. ⁴ However, he did not put their children to death, because—as it is written in the Law, in the book of Moses,^(C) where the Lord commanded—“Fathers are not to die because of children, and children are not to die because of fathers, but each one will die for his own sin.”^(D)

Amaziah’s Campaign against Edom

⁵ Then Amaziah gathered Judah and assembled them according to ancestral families,^[b] according to commanders of thousands, and according to commanders of hundreds. He numbered those twenty years old or more^(E) for all Judah and Benjamin. He found there to be three hundred thousand fit young men who could serve in the army, bearing spear and shield.^{(F) 6} Then for 7,500 pounds^[c] of silver he hired one hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel.

⁷ However, a man of God^(G) came to him and said, “King, do not let Israel’s army go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—all the Ephraimites. ⁸ But if you go with them, do it! Be strong for battle! But God will make you stumble before the enemy,^(H) for God has the power to help^(I) or to make one stumble.”

⁹ Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “What should I do about the 7,500 pounds of silver I gave to Israel’s division?”

The man of God replied, “The Lord is able to give you much more than this.”

¹⁰ So Amaziah released the division that came to him from Ephraim to go home. But they got very angry with Judah and returned home in a fierce rage.

¹¹ Amaziah strengthened his position and led his people to the Salt Valley. He struck down ten thousand Seirites,^{[d] 12} and the Judahites captured ten thousand alive. They took them to the top of a cliff where they threw them off, and all of them were dashed to pieces.

¹³ As for the men of the division that Amaziah sent back so they would not go with him into battle, they raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, struck down three thousand of their people, and took a great deal of plunder.

¹⁴ After Amaziah came from the attack on the Edomites, he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up as his gods. He worshiped before them and burned incense to them.^{(J) 15} So the Lord’s anger was against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why have you sought a people’s gods that could not rescue their own people from you?” ^(K)

¹⁶ While he was still speaking to him, the king asked, “Have we made you the king’s counselor? Stop, why should you lose your life?”

So the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God intends to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice.”

Amaziah’s War with Israel’s King Jehoash

¹⁷ King Amaziah of Judah took counsel^(L) and sent word to Jehoash^[e] son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, and challenged him: “Come, let’s meet face to face.”

¹⁸ King Jehoash of Israel sent word to King Amaziah of Judah, saying, “The thistle in Lebanon sent a message to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle.^{(M) 19} You have said, ‘Look, I^[f] have defeated Edom,’ and you have become overconfident^[g](N) that you will get glory. Now stay at home. Why stir up such trouble so that you fall and Judah with you?”

²⁰ But Amaziah would not listen, for this turn of events was from God in order to hand them over to their enemies because they went after the gods of Edom. ²¹ So King Jehoash of Israel advanced. He and King Amaziah of Judah met face to face at Beth-shemesh that belonged to Judah. ²² Judah was routed before Israel, and each man fled to his own tent. ²³ King Jehoash of Israel captured Judah’s King Amaziah son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz,^[h](O) at Beth-shemesh. Then Jehoash took him to Jerusalem and broke down two hundred yards^[i] of Jerusalem’s wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate.^{[j](P) 24} He took all the gold, silver, all the utensils that were found with Obed-edom^(Q) in God’s temple, the treasures of the king’s palace, and the hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

Amaziah’s Death

²⁵ Judah’s King Amaziah^(R) son of Joash lived fifteen years after the death of Israel’s King Jehoash son of Jehoahaz. ²⁶ The rest of the events of Amaziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷ From the time Amaziah turned from following the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. However, men were sent after him to Lachish, and they put him to death there. ²⁸ They carried him back on horses and buried him with his ancestors in the city of Judah.^[k](S)

Judah’s King Uzziah

26 All the people^(T) of Judah took Uzziah,^[l] who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ² After Amaziah the king rested with his ancestors, Uzziah rebuilt Eloth^[m](U) and restored it to Judah.

³ Uzziah was sixteen years old^(V) when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ⁴ He did what was right in the Lord’s sight just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ He sought God^(W) throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, the teacher of the fear^[n](X) of God. During the time that he sought the Lord, God gave him success.^(Y)

Uzziah’s Exploits

⁶ Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines,^(Z) and he tore down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod. Then he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs that live in Gur-baal, and the Meunites. ⁸ The Ammonites^[o] paid tribute to Uzziah,^(AA) and his fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for God made him very powerful. ⁹ Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate,^(AB) the Valley Gate,^(AC) and the corner buttress, and he fortified them. ¹⁰ Since he had many cattle both in the Judean foothills^[p] and the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many wells.^(AD) And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands.^[q]

¹¹ Uzziah had an army equipped for combat that went out to war by division according to their assignments, as recorded by Jeiel the court secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. ¹² The total number of family heads was 2,600 valiant warriors. ¹³ Under their authority was an army of 307,500 equipped for combat, a powerful force to help the king against the enemy.^{(AE) 14} Uzziah provided the entire army with shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and slingstones. ¹⁵ He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was wondrously helped until he became strong.

Uzziah’s Disease

¹⁶ But when he became strong, he grew arrogant,^(AF) and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.^{(AG) 17} The priest Azariah,^(AH) along with eighty brave priests of the Lord, went in after him. ¹⁸ They took their stand^(AI) against King Uzziah and said, “Uzziah, you have no right to offer incense to the Lord^(AJ)—only the consecrated priests, the descendants of Aaron, have the right to offer incense.^(AK) Leave the sanctuary, for you have acted unfaithfully! You will not receive honor from the Lord God.”

¹⁹ Uzziah, with a firepan in his hand to offer incense, was enraged. But when he became enraged with the priests, in the presence of the priests in the Lord’s temple beside the altar of incense, a skin disease^(AL) broke out on his forehead. ²⁰ Then Azariah the chief priest and all the priests turned to him and saw that he was diseased on his forehead. They rushed him out of there. He himself also hurried to get out because the Lord had afflicted him. ²¹ So King Uzziah was diseased to the time of his death.^(AM) He lived in quarantine^[r](AN) with a serious skin disease and was excluded from access to the Lord’s temple, while his son Jotham was over the king’s household governing the people of the land.

²² Now the prophet Isaiah^(AO) son of Amoz wrote about the rest of the events of Uzziah’s reign, from beginning to end. ²³ Uzziah rested with his ancestors, and he was buried with his ancestors in the burial ground of the kings’ cemetery,^(AP) for they said, “He has a skin disease.” His son Jotham became king in his place.

⁴¹ They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.^{(A) 42} God turned away^(B) and gave them up to worship^(C) the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:

God’s Real Tabernacle

⁴⁴ “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.^{(E) 45} Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them,^(F) until the days of David. ⁴⁶ He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God^[b] of Jacob.^{(G) 47} It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,^{(H) 48} but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:^(I)

Resisting the Holy Spirit

⁵¹ “You stiff-necked^(K) people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!^(L) You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?^(M) They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers^(N) you have now become. ⁵³ You received the law under the direction of angels^(O) and yet have not kept it.”

The First Christian Martyr

⁵⁴ When they heard these things, they were enraged^[d] and gnashed their teeth at him. ⁵⁵ Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.^{(P) 56} He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” ^(Q)

⁵⁷ They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. ⁵⁸ They dragged him out of the city and began to stone^(R) him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.^{(S) 59} While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ^{(T) 60} He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,^(U) “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep.^(V)