Amaziah’s Campaign against Edom

⁵ Then Amaziah gathered Judah and assembled them according to ancestral families,^[a] according to commanders of thousands, and according to commanders of hundreds. He numbered those twenty years old or more^(A) 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.^{(B) 6} Then for 7,500 pounds^[b] of silver he hired one hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel.

⁷ However, a man of God^(C) 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,^(D) for God has the power to help^(E) 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,^{[c] 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.^{(F) 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?” ^(G)

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.”