2 Chronicles 25:1-28
25 Amasiah was twenty-five years old at his accession to the throne, and reigned twenty-nine years at Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jehoʽaddan, from Jerusalem.
2 And he did what Jehovah approved, only not wholeheartedly.
3 * And when he had the kingship firmly in his hands, he killed his officers who had killed the king his father,
4 * but their children he did not put to death, but did in accordance with what is written in the code in the book of Moses, that Jehovah commanded “Fathers shall not be put to death for children, nor children for fathers, but each shall be put to death for his own sin.”
5 And Amasiah gathered Judah and ranged them by families under captains of thousands and of hundreds, all Judah and Benjamin, and mustered them from twenty years old up and found them to be three hundred thousand picked men to go out on service, wielding pike and shield.
6 And he hired out of Israel a hundred thousand stalwart champions for a hundred hundredweight of silver;
7 but a man of God came to him and said “Your majesty, let the Israelite levy not come in with you, because Jehovah is not with Israel, all the sons of Ephraim.
8 * For if by these you are making up strength for the war, God will give you a stumble before an enemy; for there is power in God to help and to give a stumble.”
9 And Amasiah said to the man of God “And what is to be done for the hundred hundredweight that I have given to the Israelite brigade?” and the man of God said “Jehovah has enough to give you much more than this.”
10 And Amasiah detached the brigade that had come to him out of Ephraim to go to their own place; and they were very angry at Judah, and went back in anger to their place.
11 But Amasiah courageously led his people on and went to Salt Valley and defeated the sons of Seʽir, killing ten thousand;
12 and the sons of Judah took ten thousand prisoners and brought them to the top of the crag and threw them down from the top of the crag, and all of them were battered to pieces.
13 But the men of the brigade that Amasiah turned back from going with him to the war raided the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-Horon and killed three thousand out of them and lifted much plunder.
14 And after Amasiah came in from defeating the Edomites he brought in the gods of the sons of Seʽir and set them up for gods for himself and did reverence before them and burned incense to them;
15 * and Jehovah was angry with Amasiah and sent a prophet to him, who said to him “Why have you resorted to that people’s gods, who did not deliver their people out of your hands?”
16 * But when he spoke to him he told him “Have we made you a royal counselor? leave off, why should you get a beating?” and the prophet left off and said “I know God has a purpose to bring you to grief, because you have done this and not listened to my advice.”
17 And King Amasiah of Judah chose a policy and sent word to Joash the son of Jehoahaz the son of Jehu, the king of Israel, “Come on, let us come face to face.”
18 * And King Joash of Israel sent word to King Amasiah of Judah “The brier in the Lebanon sent word to the cedar in the Lebanon ‘Give my son your daughter as wife’; and the wild beasts in the Lebanon came by and trampled the brier.
19 You think, here you have defeated Edom, and you feel confident of gaining glory; now stay at home; why should you challenge trouble, and fall, and Judah with you?”
20 * But Amasiah would not listen, because it came from God, to give him into hostile hands, because they had resorted to the Edomite gods;
21 and King Joash of Israel came up, and they came face to face, he and King Amasiah of Judah, at Beth-Shemesh, which belongs to Judah.
22 And the Judahites were beaten by the Israelites, and fled to their homes.
23 And King Joash of Israel captured King Amasiah of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-Shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem and breached the wall of Jerusalem for two hundred yards, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate.
24 And he took all the gold and silver, and all the articles that were found in Jehovah’s house with ʽObed-Edom, and the palace treasures, and the hostages, and went back to Samaria.
25 And Amasiah the son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel.
26 And as to the rest of the history of Amasiah, first and last, it is recorded in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
27 And from the time when Amasiah turned off from following Jehovah they went to organizing a revolution against him at Jerusalem; and he fled to Lakish, and they sent to Lakish after him and put him to death there.
28 And they took him away on ponies, and buried him in David’s City with his fathers.
Footnotes
^ 25:3 Lit. had the kingship firmly on, he
^ 25:4 Lit. but in accordance
^ 25:8 Codd. But go in yourself, be active, be strong for the war; God Var. For if by these you think to be strong, God
^ 25:15 Lit. the people’s
^ 25:16 Var.* Have they
^ 25:18 Or a brier . . . a cedar . . . a wild beast
^ 25:20 Codd. give him into hands
