2 Chronicles 25:1-14

Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddin, and she was from Jerusalem. Amaziah did what the LORD said was right, but he did not really want to obey him. As soon as Amaziah took strong control of the kingdom, he executed the officers who had murdered his father the king. But Amaziah did not put to death their children. He obeyed what was written in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “Parents must not be put to death when their children do wrong, and children must not be put to death when their parents do wrong. Each must die for his own sins.” Amaziah gathered the people of Judah together. He grouped all the people of Judah and Benjamin by families, and he put commanders over groups of a thousand and over groups of a hundred. He counted the men who were twenty years old and older. In all there were three hundred thousand soldiers ready to fight and skilled with spears and shields. Amaziah also hired one hundred thousand soldiers from Israel for about seventy-five hundred pounds of silver. But a man of God came to Amaziah and said, “My king, don’t let the army of Israel go with you. The LORD is not with Israel or the people from the tribe of Ephraim. You can make yourself strong for war, but God will defeat you. He has the power to help you or to defeat you.” Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what about the seventy-five hundred pounds of silver I paid to the Israelite army?” The man of God answered, “The LORD can give you much more than that.” So Amaziah sent the Israelite army back home to Ephraim. They were very angry with the people of Judah and went home angry. Then Amaziah became very brave and led his army to the Valley of Salt in the country of Edom. There Amaziah’s army killed ten thousand Edomites. The army of Judah also captured ten thousand and took them to the top of a cliff and threw them off so that they split open. At the same time the Israelite troops that Amaziah had not let fight in the war were robbing towns in Judah. From Samaria to Beth Horon they killed three thousand people and took many valuable things. When Amaziah came home after defeating the Edomites, he brought back the idols they worshiped and started to worship them himself. He bowed down to them and offered sacrifices to them.

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