¹Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he started to reign, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. And the name of his mother was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, except that it was not wholeheartedly. ³And it came to pass, as the kingdom became stronger under him, that he killed those servants of his who had struck down the king who was his father. ⁴But he did not kill their sons, for as it stands written in the law, in the book of Moses whom the Lord commanded and said, “Fathers shall not die because of their sons, and sons shall not die because of their fathers, for each person shall die because of his own sin.” ⁵And Amaziah gathered Judah together and appointed them by their paternal house as commanders of a thousand and commanders of a hundred throughout all Judah and Benjamin. And he counted them from twenty years of age and above, and he found them to be three hundred thousand elite men who went out to war, holding spear and shield. ⁶And he hired one hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel for one hundred talents of silver. ⁷Then a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel – not with any of the sons of Ephraim. ⁸But if you are determined to go, act and show strength for battle. But God can make you stumble before the enemy, for God has power to help and to make stumble.” ⁹Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “Then what am I to do about the one hundred talents which I gave to the troop of Israel?” And the man of God said, “The Lord has the ability to give you more than this.” ¹⁰Then Amaziah set them aside – the troop which had come to him from Ephraim – to go back to their place. And their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned to their place in furious anger. ¹¹Then Amaziah took courage and led his people, and he went to the Valley of Salt, and he struck down the sons of Seir – ten thousand of them – ¹²and the sons of Judah took ten thousand alive captive, and they brought them to the peak of the outcrop, and they threw them from the peak of the outcrop, and they were all dashed to pieces. ¹³But the members of the troop which Amaziah sent back instead of going to war with him raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-Horon, and they struck down three thousand men from them, and they took much spoil. ¹⁴And it came to pass, after Amaziah had come back from attacking the Edomites, that he brought back the gods of the sons of Seir, and he set them up for himself as gods, and he bowed down before them and burned incense to them. ¹⁵And the Lord's anger was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent a prophet to him, and he said to him, “Why do you cultivate the gods of the people – gods who did not deliver their people from your hand?” ¹⁶And it came to pass, when he had spoken to him, that the king said to him, “Have you been appointed as an adviser to the king? Stop. Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped, but he said, “I know that God has decided to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice.” ¹⁷Then Amaziah king of Judah took counsel, and he sent messengers to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, to say, “Come, let us see each other face to face.” ¹⁸Then Joash king of Israel sent a reply to Amaziah king of Judah and said, “The thistle which was in Lebanon has sent word to the cedar which was in Lebanon and said, ‘Give your daughter to be my son's wife’, and a wild animal which was in Lebanon passed by and trampled on the thistle. ¹⁹You have told me to see how you have defeated Edom, and your heart has given you a high-minded complacency. Stay at home now. Why should you embroil yourself in trouble and fall in war, you and Judah with you?” ²⁰But Amaziah did not heed it, for the course of events was from God, so as to deliver them into the hand of the king of Israel, because they had cultivated the gods of Edom. ²¹And Joash king of Israel went up, and they looked at each other face to face – he and Amaziah king of Judah – in Beth-Shemesh which belongs to Judah. ²²And Judah was defeated in confrontation with Israel, and each man fled to his tent. ²³And Joash king of Israel seized Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, in Beth-Shemesh, and he brought him to Jerusalem. And he demolished the wall of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim to the Turning Gate – four hundred cubits of wall. ²⁴And he raided all the gold and the silver and all the equipment which were present in the house of God, with Obed-Edom gatekeeping, and in the treasuries of the king's house. And he took hostages and returned to Samaria. ²⁵And Amaziah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel. ²⁶And the rest of the affairs of Amaziah – the first and the last – are they not to be seen written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷And from the time when Amaziah departed from following the Lord, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent forces after him to Lachish, and they killed him there. ²⁸And they bore him on horses and buried him with his fathers in the City of Judah.