Amaziah Succeeds Joash in Judah

25 (A)Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, (B)only not wholeheartedly. Now (C)it came about, as soon as the kingdom was [a]firmly in his grasp, that he killed his servants who had killed his father the king. However, he did not put their children to death, but did as it is written in the Law in the Book of Moses, which the Lord commanded, saying, “(D)Fathers shall not be put to death for sons, nor sons be put to death for fathers; but each shall be put to death for his own sin.”

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Footnotes

  1. 2 Chronicles 25:3 Lit firm upon him

Amaziah Rules in Judah

25 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother was Jehoaddin[a] from Jerusalem. Amaziah did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, but not wholeheartedly.

When Amaziah was well established as king, he executed the officials who had assassinated his father. However, he did not kill the children of the assassins, for he obeyed the command of the Lord as written by Moses in the Book of the Law: “Parents must not be put to death for the sins of their children, nor children for the sins of their parents. Those deserving to die must be put to death for their own crimes.”[b]

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Footnotes

  1. 25:1 As in parallel text at 2 Kgs 14:2; Hebrew reads Jehoaddan, a variant spelling of Jehoaddin.
  2. 25:4 Deut 24:16.