2 Chronicles 25:5-16

International Children’s Bible

⁵ Amaziah gathered the people of Judah together. He grouped all the people of Judah and Benjamin by families. And he put commanders over groups of 1,000 and over groups of 100. He counted the men who were 20 years old and older. In all there were 300,000 soldiers ready to fight. They were skilled with spears and shields. ⁶ Amaziah also hired 100,000 soldiers from Israel. He paid about 7,500 pounds of silver for them. ⁷ But a man of God came to Amaziah and said, “My king, don’t let the army of Israel go with you. The Lord is not with Israel. He is not with the people from the tribes of Israel. ⁸ You can make yourself strong for war. But God will defeat you. He has the power to help you or to defeat you.”

⁹ Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what about the 7,500 pounds of silver I paid to the Israelite army?”

The man of God answered, “The Lord can give you much more than that!”

¹⁰ So Amaziah sent the Israelite army back home to Israel. They were very angry with the people of Judah. And they went home angry.

¹¹ Then Amaziah became very brave and led his army to the Valley of Salt. It is in the country of Edom. There Amaziah’s army killed 10,000 men from Edom. ¹² The army of Judah also captured 10,000 men. They took those men to the top of a cliff and threw them off. And they were broken to pieces.

¹³ At the same time the Israelite army was robbing some towns in Judah. These were troops that Amaziah had not let fight in the war. They robbed towns from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed 3,000 people and took many valuable things.

¹⁴ Amaziah came home after he had defeated the Edomites. He brought back the idols they worshiped. And he started to worship them also. He bowed down to them and offered sacrifices to them. ¹⁵ The Lord was very angry with Amaziah. The Lord sent a prophet to him. The prophet said, “Why have you asked their gods for help? They could not even save their own people from you!”

¹⁶ As the prophet spoke, Amaziah said to him, “We never gave you the job of advising the king! Stop, or you will be killed.”

The prophet stopped speaking. Then he said, “I know that God has decided to destroy you because you have done this. You did not listen to my advice.”