2 Chronicles 25:5-16

Common English Bible

⁵ Amaziah gathered the people of Judah, organizing them into family units under captains of thousands and hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He summoned everyone 20 years old and older and found that there were three hundred thousand select troops, ready for service and able to handle spears and body-sized shields. ⁶ He also hired one hundred thousand warriors from Israel for one hundred kikkars of silver.

⁷ But a man of God confronted him. “King,” he said, “the troops from Israel must not go with you, because the Lord isn’t on the side of Israel or any Ephraimite. ⁸ Should you go with them anyway, even if you fight fiercely, God will make you stumble before the enemy, because God has the ability to either help or make someone stumble.”

⁹ Amaziah asked the man of God, “What about the hundred kikkars I paid for the Israelite troops?”

“God can give you much more than that,” the man of God replied.

¹⁰ Amaziah released the Ephraimite troops who had joined him so they could go home, but this only infuriated them against Judah, and they left in a rage. ¹¹ Amaziah courageously led his people to the Salt Valley, where they killed ten thousand people from Seir. ¹² The Judean forces captured another ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off so that all were dashed to pieces. ¹³ Meanwhile, the troops Amaziah had released from fighting alongside him raided cities in Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, killing three thousand people and carrying off a large amount of loot. ¹⁴ When Amaziah returned after defeating the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down before them, and burned incense to them. ¹⁵ As a result, the Lord was angry with Amaziah and sent a prophet to him.

“Why do you seek the gods of this people?” the prophet asked. “They couldn’t even deliver their own people from you!”

¹⁶ “Since when do you give me advice?” Amaziah interrupted. “You better quit before you end up dead!”

So the prophet stopped, but not until he said, “I know God plans to destroy you because you’ve done this and because you’ve refused to listen to my advice.”