2 Chronicles 25:1-13

GOD’S WORD Translation

King Amaziah of Judah^(A)

25 Amaziah was 25 years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother was Jehoaddan from Jerusalem. ² He did what the Lord considered right, but he did not do it wholeheartedly. ³ As soon as he had firm control over the kingdom, he executed the officials who killed his father, the former king. ⁴ But he didn’t execute their children. He obeyed the Lord’s command written in the Book of Moses’ Teachings: “Parents must never be put to death for the crimes of their children, and children must never be put to death for the crimes of their parents. Each person must be put to death for his own crime.”

⁵ Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them by families to regiment and battalion commanders for all of Judah and Benjamin. He organized those who were at least 20 years old and found that he had 300,000 of the best men for the army, those who could handle a spear and a shield. ⁶ He also hired 100,000 soldiers from Israel for 7,500 pounds of silver.

⁷ But a man of God came to him and said, “Your Majesty, Israel’s army must not go with you, because the Lord isn’t with Israel. He’s not with these men from Ephraim. ⁸ If you go into battle with them, no matter how courageous you are, God will use the enemy to defeat you, because God has the power to help you or to defeat you.”

⁹ Amaziah asked the man of God, “What should I do about the 7,500 pounds of silver I gave the troops from Israel?”

The man of God answered, “The Lord can give you much more than that.”

¹⁰ Then Amaziah dismissed the troops that had come to him from Ephraim. But they became furious with Judah and returned home.

¹¹ Amaziah courageously led his troops. When he came to the Dead Sea region, he killed 10,000 men from Seir.^{[a] 12} The Judeans captured another 10,000 alive, took them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off the top of the cliff so that they were dismembered.

¹³ The troops that Amaziah sent back so that they couldn’t go with him into battle raided the towns in Judah from Samaria to Beth Horon. They killed 3,000 people and took a lot of goods.