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| RF CH2 25:1 | (839 B.C.) The Reign of Amaziah.
His son Amaziah reigned after him, who executed his father's murderers. Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem. |
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| RF CH2 25:2 | He did right in the eyes of the EVER-LIVING, Yet not with a constant heart. |
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| RF CH2 25:3 | When he became secure in the Government, however, he slew those Ministers who had assaulted the King, his father, |
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| RF CH2 25:4 | but he did not kill their children, for it is written in the Book of the Laws of Moses, as the EVER-LIVING commanded, expressly:—"You shall not kill the fathers on account of their children; nor the children on account of their fathers; but each man shall be put to death for his own crime.' |
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| RF CH2 25:5 | Amaziah calls a Reformatory Parliament.
Amaziah then assembled Judea, and organized the Ancestral Houses, with Generals and Captains for all Judah and Benjamin, Regimenting them from the age of twenty years and upwards, and formed from them three hundred thousand troops to go out for war, trained to spear and shield. |
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| RF CH2 25:6 | He also hired from Israel a hundred thousand trained soldiers, for a hundred talents of silver, |
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| RF CH2 25:7 | but a Man of GOD came and said to the King:—"Israel must not go out with you in war; for the EVER-LIVING is not with Israel, or any of the sons of Ephraim. |
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| RF CH2 25:8 | Therefore if you go out with them made strong for battle, GOD will defeat you before the enemy; because there is power with GOD to help, or to defeat." |
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| RF CH2 25:9 | Amaziah, however, asked the Man of GOD;—"What am I to do for the hundred talents of silver which I have paid the Israelite troops?" When the Man of GOD replied, "GOD is the LORD! He can give you more than that." |
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| RF CH2 25:10 | Consequently Amaziah disbanded the troops who had come to him from Ephraim, and marched them home. They were, however, very furious against Judah, and returned to their homes in burning anger. |
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| RF CH2 25:11 | Amaziah then emboldened himself, and led his people out and marched to the Vale of Salt, and slew ten thousand of the Beni Sair. |
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| RF CH2 25:12 | The Children of Judah also captured ten thousand persons and brought them to the top of the crags, and threw them from the top of the cliffs, and they were all broken. |
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| RF CH2 25:13 | In the meantime, the men of the troops whom Amaziah had dismissed from marching with him to the war, flung themselves upon the villages of Judea, from Shomeron and Bethhoron, and slew thirty thousand, and plundered a great booty. |
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| RF CH2 25:14 | (839 B.C.) Amaziah Adopts idolatry.
When Amaziah came back from defeating the Edomites, he brought the GODs of the Beni Sair, and set them up as his own GODs, and bowed before them, and made offerings to them. |
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| RF CH2 25:15 | The EVER-LIVING was consequently angry with Amaziah, and sent a Preacher to him, who asked him:—"Why have you sought the GODs of a people, who could not deliver that people from your hand?" |
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| RF CH2 25:16 | But while he was addressing him, he replied to him, "Who made you Adviser to the King?—Drop it!—Why would you kill yourself?" So the Preacher ceased, after saying, "I warn you that GOD intends to destroy you, for having done that, and not listening to my advice!" |
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| RF CH2 25:17 | (826 B.C.) Amaziah Declares War with Israel.
Amaziah, King of Judah, however, advised himself, and sent to Joash-ben-Jhoahaz, the son of Jehu, King of Israel, to say; "Come on! Let us look face to face" |
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| RF CH2 25:18 | But Joash King of Israel, sent to Amaziah King of Judea, in reply; "The Bramble that was in Lebanon, sent to the Cedar that was in Lebanon to say, 'Give your daughter to my son as a wife!' When a beast of the field that was in Lebanon passed over, and trampled the Bramble down! |
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| RF CH2 25:19 | "You think, 'Look! I have defeated Edom!' So your heart is exalted, and you boast!—Stay in your home! Why should you incite yourself to suffer by it, and fall, and Judah with you?" |
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| RF CH2 25:20 | But Amaziah would not listen; for it was from GOD, because he had pledged himself that he would worship the GODs of Edom. |
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| RF CH2 25:21 | Consequently Joash, King of Israel advanced, and they met face to face, he and Amaziah, King of Judea, at Beth-Shemesh, in Judea, |
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| RF CH2 25:22 | where Judea was routed before Israel, and each fled to his home, |
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| RF CH2 25:23 | and Amaziah, King of Judah-ben-Joash,-ben-Jhoahaz, was captured by Joash, King of Israel, at Beth-Shemsh, who brought him to Jerusalem, where he broke down the walls of Jerusalem from the Gate of Ephraim, to the Corner Gate for four hundred cubits. |
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| RF CH2 25:24 | He also transferred all the Gold and silver, and all the vessels that he found in the House of GOD, with Abed-Edom; and the Treasuries of the Royal Palace, with the securities, and lodged them in Shomeron. |
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| RF CH2 25:25 | But Amaziah,-ben-Joash, King of Judea, lived after the death of Joash,-ben-Jhoahaz, King of Israel, for fifteen years. |
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| RF CH2 25:26 | The rest of the events of Amaziah, the first and the last, can be seen recorded, in the records of the Kings of Judea and Israel. |
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| RF CH2 25:27 | (810 B.C.) But after the time that Amaziah revolted from the EVER-LIVING, they contrived a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lakish. They, however, sent after him to Lakish, and killed him there, |
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| RF CH2 25:28 | and carried him on horses, and buried him with his fathers in a village of Judea. |
