1Amaziah was of five and twenty years, when he began to reign, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem; the name of his mother was Jehoaddan, of Jerusalem.

2And he did good in the sight of the Lord, nevertheless not in perfect heart.

3And when he saw the empire strengthened to himself, he strangled the servants that killed the king, his father;

4but he killed not the sons of them; as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, [The] Fathers shall not be slain for the sons, neither the sons for their fathers; but each man shall die in, or for, his own sin.

5Therefore Amaziah gathered to-gether Judah, and ordained them by meines, and tribunes, and centurions, in all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years and above, and he found thirty thousand of able young men, that went out to battle, and held spear and shield.

6Also for meed, he hired of Israel an hundred thousand of strong men, for an hundred talents of silver, that they should fight against the sons of Edom.

7Forsooth a man of God came to him, and said, A! king, the host of Israel go not out with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel, and with all the sons of Ephraim;

8for if thou guessest that battles stand in the might of an host, the Lord shall make thee to be overcome of thine enemies, forsooth it is of God for to help, and to turn men into flight.

9And Amaziah said to the man of God, What then shall be done of the hundred talents, which I gave to the knights of Israel? And the man of God answered to him, The Lord hath, whereof he may yield to thee much more things than these.

10Therefore Amaziah separated the host that came to him from Ephraim, that it should turn again into his place; and they were wroth greatly against Judah, and they turned again into their country.

11And Amaziah led out trustily his people, and went into the valley of makings of salt, and he killed of the sons of Seir ten thousand.

12And the sons of Judah took other ten thousand of men, and brought to the high scarp of a stone; and they cast them down from the highest part into a pit; which all brake.

13And that host that Amaziah had sent again, that it should not go with him to battle, was spread abroad in the cities of Judah from Samaria unto Bethhoron; and after the host of Israel had slain three thousand of Judah, it took away a great prey.

14And Amaziah, after the slaying of Idumeans, and after that he had brought thence with him the gods of the sons of Seir, he ordained them to be into gods to himself, and he worshipped them, and burnt incense to them.

15Wherefore the Lord was wroth against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, that said to him, Why worshippest thou gods which have not delivered their people from thine hand?

16And when the prophet spake these things, Amaziah answered to him, Whether thou art a counsellor of the king? cease thou, lest peradventure I slay thee. And the prophet went away from him, and said, I know, that the Lord hath thought to slay thee; for thou hast done this evil, and furthermore thou assentedest not to my counsel.

17Therefore Amaziah, the king of Judah, when he had taken a full evil counsel, sent to the king of Israel, Jehoash ⁹, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, and said, Come thou, and see we us together.

18And Jehoash, the king of Israel, sent messengers back to him, and said mystically, A thistle, that is in the Lebanon, sent to a cedar tree of the Lebanon, and said, Give thy daughter as a wife to my son; and lo! [the] beasts that were in the wood of the Lebanon went and defouled the thistle.

19Thou saidest, I have smitten Edom, and therefore thine heart is raised into pride; sit thou still in thine house; why stirrest thou evil against thyself, that thou fall, and Judah with thee?

20Amaziah would not hear this, for it was the will of the Lord, that he should be betaken into the hands of his enemies, for the gods of Edom which he worshipped.

21Therefore Jehoash, king of Israel, went up against Judah, and they saw themselves together. Soothly Amaziah, the king of Judah, was in Bethshemesh of Judah;

22and Judah felled [or fell] down be-fore Israel, and fled into his tabernacles.

23And [Jehoash], the king of Israel, took in Bethshemesh Amaziah, the king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz ¹⁰, and brought him into Jerusalem; and he destroyed the walls thereof from the gate of Ephraim to the gate of the corner, by four hundred cubits in length.

24And he led again into Samaria all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that he found in the house of the Lord, and at Obededom, in the treas-uries also of the king’s house, also and the sons of hostages.

25And Amaziah, king of Judah, the son of Joash, lived fifteen years after that Jehoash, king of Israel, the son of Jehoahaz, was dead.

26Soothly the residue of the former and the last words of Amaziah, be written in the book of [the] kings of Judah and of Israel.

27And after that he had gone away from the Lord, they set to him treasons in Jerusalem; and when he had fled to Lachish, they sent thither, and killed him there;

28and they brought him again upon horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of David.