Beginning

Chapter 25

Campaign in Edom. ¹ Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem. ² He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, although he did not do so wholeheartedly.

³ As soon as the kingdom was firmly under his control, Amaziah put to death those servants who had murdered his father, the king. ⁴ However, he did not put their children to death, in obedience to what is written in the law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their parents. Each one shall he put to death for his own sin.”

⁵ Then Amaziah assembled the people of Judah and assigned them according to their ancestral houses under commanders of thousands and of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He registered those who were twenty years old and upward and found that there were three hundred thousand men fit for service and capable of wielding spear and shield. ⁶ He also hired one hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel for one hundred talents of silver.

⁷ However, a man of God came to him and said: “O king, do not permit the Israelite army to march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel or with any of the Ephraimites. ⁸ Rather, fight valiantly only with your own forces. Remember that God has the power to help you or to cause your defeat.”

⁹ Amaziah then said to the man of God: “What shall I do about the one hundred talents that I paid for the Israelite troops?” The man of God replied: “The Lord can give you much more than that.” ¹⁰ Amaziah then dismissed the troops that had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. That caused them to be infuriated with Judah, and they returned home seething with fierce resentment.

^11 [a]Then Amaziah marshaled his courage and led out his army. They advanced to the Valley of Salt, and there they killed ten thousand men of Seir. ¹² In addition, the men of Judah captured another ten thousand men alive. Bringing them to the top of a cliff, they threw them down so that they were all dashed to pieces. ¹³ Meanwhile, the mercenaries whom Amaziah had sent back home, without allowing them to take part with him in the battle, raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon. They slaughtered three thousand people in those cities and carried off great quantities of plunder.

¹⁴ Infidelity of Amaziah. On his return from his slaughter of the Edomites, Amaziah brought back with him the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down before them, and burned sacrifices to them. ¹⁵ As a result, the Lord’s anger was aroused by Amaziah, and he sent him a prophet who said to him: “Why have you resorted to gods who could not save their own people from your clutches?”

¹⁶ While he was still speaking, however, the king said to him: “Have we appointed you as a royal counselor? Stop right now, if you value your life!” Therefore the prophet stopped, but first he said: “I know that God has decided to destroy you for having done this and for not listening to my advice.”

¹⁷ Retribution. After King Amaziah of Judah consulted his advisors, he sent a message to Joash son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, the king of Israel, saying: “Come and let us meet face to face.”

¹⁸ King Joash of Israel sent back this reply to King Amaziah of Judah: “The thistle on Lebanon sent a message to the cedar on Lebanon, saying: ‘Give your daughter in marriage to my son.’ However, the wild animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle. ¹⁹ You say to yourself: ‘I have defeated Edom,’ and now you are growing ever more boastful. Remain at home. Why should you get involved with potential disaster so that you fall and bring down Judah with you?”

²⁰ However, Amaziah refused to listen, for God had resolved to hand them over because they had consulted the gods of Edom. ²¹ Therefore, King Joash of Israel marched forth, and he and King Amaziah of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-shemesh which belongs to Judah. ²² There Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone fled to his tent.

²³ King Joash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh and brought him to Jerusalem. Then he demolished the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of four hundred cubits. ²⁴ After that he took away all the gold and silver and all the vessels he found in the house of God that had been in the care of Obed-edom, together with the treasures of the palace, as well as hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

²⁵ King Amaziah, son of Joash of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of King Joash, son of Jehoahaz of Israel. ²⁶ The rest of the deeds of Amaziah’s reign, from first to last, are recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.

²⁷ From the time when Amaziah turned away from the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish, where he was pursued and murdered. ²⁸ His body was conveyed on horses to Jerusalem, and there he was buried with his ancestors in the City of David.

Chapter 26

The Works of Uzziah.^{[b] 1} Then all the people of Judah chose Uzziah, even though he was only sixteen years old, and they made him king as the successor to his father Amaziah. ² It was he who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after the king had fallen asleep with his ancestors.

³ Uzziah was sixteen years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned in Jerusalem for fifty-two years. His mother’s name was Jecoliah; she was from Jerusalem. ⁴ He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵ Furthermore, he consulted God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the guidance of the Lord, God allowed him to prosper.^[c]

⁶ Uzziah went forth and fought the Philistines. He demolished the walls of Gath, the walls of Jabneh, and the walls of Ashdod; and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod, and elsewhere among the Philistines. ⁷ God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites.

⁸ The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread as far as the borders of Egypt, for he became ever more powerful. ⁹ Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and he fortified them. ¹⁰ He also erected towers in the wilderness and dug many cisterns, for he had large herds of cattle both in the Shephelah and in the plain; and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil.

¹¹ Uzziah had a well-trained army ready to engage in battles and divided into divisions according to their numbers as specified by the scribe Jeiel and the staff officer Maaseiah, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. ¹² The total number of the heads of ancestral houses of mighty warriors was two thousand six hundred. ¹³ Under their command was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, a powerful force to help the king against his enemies.

¹⁴ Uzziah provided for the entire army the shields, spears, helmets, coats of armor, bows, and slingstones. ¹⁵ In Jerusalem he also had requisitioned machines, invented by skilled workers, to be placed on the towers and battlements for shooting arrows and large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was so miraculously gifted that he became very powerful.

¹⁶ Pride and Punishment. However, when Uzziah continued to grow ever stronger, he also was afflicted with pride, and that led to his destruction. For he proved unfaithful to the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to make an offering on the altar of incense. ¹⁷ Then the priest Azariah and eighty priests of the Lord who were courageous men followed him.

¹⁸ The priests confronted King Uzziah and said to him: “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who are consecrated to make offerings. Leave the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and you will no longer share in the glory that comes from the Lord God.” ¹⁹ Uzziah had a censer in his hand to burn the incense, but while he showed his intense anger to the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense.

²⁰ When the chief priest, Azariah, and all the other priests looked at Uzziah carefully and saw that his forehead was leprous, they quickly removed him from the temple; and he himself was equally anxious to leave because the Lord had afflicted him. ²¹ King Uzziah remained a leper until the day of his death, and because he was thus afflicted, he dwelt while confined in a separate house, since he was excluded from the house of the Lord. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace of the king, and he governed the people of the land.

²² The rest of the history of Uzziah, from first to last, was written by the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amoz. ²³ Uzziah rested with his ancestors and was buried with them, but in the field adjoining the royal tombs, for they said: “He is a leper.” His son Jotham succeeded him as king.

Chapter 27

Jotham. ¹ Jotham was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for sixteen years. His mother was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok. ² He did what was right in the sight of the Lord just as his father had done, although he did not enter the temple of the Lord. However, the people continued their corrupt practices.

³ Jotham built the upper gate of the house of the Lord, and he supervised the extensive construction on the wall of Ophel.^{[d] 4} He also built towns in the hill country of Judah as well as forts and towers in the wooded areas.

⁵ Later Jotham went to war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them. As a result, the Ammonites had to give him one hundred talents of silver, together with ten thousand kors of wheat and ten thousand kors of barley. The Ammonites also paid him the same amount in the second and third year afterward. ⁶ Jotham became very powerful because he followed an unswerving course in the presence of the Lord, his God.

⁷ The rest of the acts of Jotham, all his wars and other projects, are recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. ⁸ He was twenty-five years old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. ⁹ Jotham slept with his ancestors, and he was buried in the City of David. His son Ahaz succeeded him.