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2 Chronicles 25

25
Amaziah rules
1Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. 2He did what was right in the LORD’s eyes but not with all his heart. 3Once he had secured control over his kingdom, he executed the officials who had assassinated his father the king. 4However, he didn’t kill their children because of what is written in the Instruction scroll from Moses, where the LORD commanded, Parents shouldn’t be executed because of what their children have done; neither should children be executed because of what their parents have done. Each person should be executed for their own guilty acts.#25.4 Deut 24:16
5Amaziah gathered the people of Judah, organizing them into family units under captains of thousands and hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He summoned everyone 20 years old and older and found that there were three hundred thousand select troops, ready for service and able to handle spears and body-sized shields. 6He also hired one hundred thousand warriors from Israel for one hundred kikkars of silver.
7But a man of God confronted him. “King,” he said, “the troops from Israel must not go with you, because the LORD isn’t on the side of Israel or any Ephraimite. 8Should you go with them anyway, even if you fight fiercely, God will make you stumble before the enemy, because God has the ability to either help or make someone stumble.”
9Amaziah asked the man of God, “What about the hundred kikkars I paid for the Israelite troops?”
“God can give you much more than that,” the man of God replied.
10Amaziah released the Ephraimite troops who had joined him so they could go home, but this only infuriated them against Judah, and they left in a rage. 11Amaziah courageously led his people to the Salt Valley, where they killed ten thousand people from Seir. 12The Judean forces captured another ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off so that all were dashed to pieces. 13Meanwhile, the troops Amaziah had released from fighting alongside him raided cities in Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon, killing three thousand people and carrying off a large amount of loot. 14When Amaziah returned after defeating the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir. He set them up as his own gods, bowed down before them, and burned incense to them. 15As a result, the LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent a prophet to him.
“Why do you seek the gods of this people?” the prophet asked. “They couldn’t even deliver their own people from you!”
16“Since when do you give me advice?” Amaziah interrupted. “You better quit before you end up dead!”
So the prophet stopped, but not until he said, “I know God plans to destroy you because you’ve done this and because you’ve refused to listen to my advice.”
17After Judah’s King Amaziah consulted with his advisors, he sent a challenge to Israel’s King Joash, Jehoahaz’s son and Jehu’s grandson. “Come on,” he said, “let’s go head-to-head!”
18Israel’s King Joash sent the following reply to Judah’s King Amaziah: “Once upon a time, a thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar: ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ But then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle. 19Do you think that because you’ve defeated Edom, you can arrogantly seek even more? Stay home! Why invite disaster when both you and Judah will fall?” 20But Amaziah wouldn’t listen, because God intended to use this to destroy them since they had sought Edom’s gods. 21So Israel’s King Joash moved against Judah’s King Amaziah and went head-to-head in battle at Beth-shemesh in Judah. 22Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone ran home. 23At Beth-shemesh, Israel’s King Joash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, Jehoash’s#25.23 Or Joash (see also 25:25); the king's name is variously spelled in either long Jehoash or short Joash form in 2 Kgs. son and Ahaziah’s#25.23 See 2 Kgs 14:13; MT Jehoahaz. grandson. Joash brought him to Jerusalem and broke down six hundred feet of the Jerusalem wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate. 24Joash took#25.24 See 2 Kgs 14:14; Heb omits took. all the gold and silver, and all the objects he could find in God’s temple in the care of Obed-edom, and in the treasuries of the palace, along with some hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.
25Judah’s King Amaziah, Jehoash’s son, lived fifteen years after the death of Israel’s King Joash, Jehoahaz’s son. 26The rest of Amaziah’s deeds, from beginning to end, aren’t they written in the official records of Israel’s and Judah’s kings? 27From the time Amaziah turned away from the LORD, some people conspired against him in Jerusalem. When Amaziah fled to Lachish, they sent men after him, and they murdered him in Lachish. 28They carried him back on horses and he was buried with his ancestors in David’s City.#25.28 LXX; MT Judah

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2 Chronicles 25: CEB

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