2 Chronicles 24–35

Chapter 24

¹Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. ²And Joash did what was right in the sight of Jehovah all the days of Jehoiada the priest. ³And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begot sons and daughters. ⁴And it came to pass after this, that Joash was minded to renew the house of Jehovah. ⁵And he gathered together the priests and the Levites, and said to them, Go out to the cities of Judah and collect of all Israel money for the repair of the house of your God from year to year, and ye shall hasten the matter. But the Levites hastened it not. ⁶And the king called for Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and out of Jerusalem the tribute of Moses the servant of Jehovah laid upon the congregation of Israel, for the tent of the testimony? ⁷For the wicked Athaliah and her sons had devastated the house of God; and also all the hallowed things of the house of Jehovah had they employed for the Baals. ⁸And the king commanded, and they made a chest, and set it at the gate of the house of Jehovah without, ⁹and they made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring to Jehovah the tribute of Moses the servant of God laid upon Israel in the wilderness. ¹⁰And all the princes and all the people rejoiced, and brought in and cast into the chest, until they had finished. ¹¹And it came to pass at the time the chest was brought for the king’s control by the hand of the Levites, and when they saw that there was much money, the king’s scribe and high priest’s officer came, and they emptied the chest, and took it, and carried it to its place again. Thus they did day by day, and gathered money in abundance. ¹²And the king and Jehoiada gave it to such as did the work of the service of the house of Jehovah, and they hired masons and carpenters to renew the house of Jehovah, and also such as wrought in iron and bronze, to repair the house of Jehovah. ¹³So the workmen wrought, and the work was perfected by them, and they set the house of God in its state, and strengthened it. ¹⁴And when they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada; and they made of it vessels for the house of Jehovah, utensils to minister, and with which to offer up, and cups, and utensils of gold and silver. And they offered up burnt-offerings in the house of Jehovah continually all the days of Jehoiada.

¹⁵And Jehoiada grew old and was full of days, and he died; he was a hundred and thirty years old when he died. ¹⁶And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house. ¹⁷And after the death of Jehoiada the princes of Judah came and made obeisance to the king; then the king hearkened to them. ¹⁸And they forsook the house of Jehovah the God of their fathers, and served the Asherahs and idols; and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. ¹⁹And he sent prophets among them to bring them again to Jehovah, and they testified against them; but they would not give ear. ²⁰And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest; and he stood up above the people and said unto them, Thus saith God: Wherefore do ye transgress the commandments of Jehovah? And ye cannot prosper; for ye have forsaken Jehovah, and he hath forsaken you. ²¹And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the command of the king in the court of the house of Jehovah. ²²And king Joash remembered not the kindness which Jehoiada his father had done to him, but slew his son. And when he died, he said, Jehovah see and require it! ²³And it came to pass at the end of the year that the army of Syria came up against him; and they entered into Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoil of them to the king at Damascus. ²⁴Truly with a small company of men came the army of the Syrians, but Jehovah delivered a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken Jehovah the God of their fathers; and they executed judgment upon Joash. ²⁵And when they had departed from him (for they left him in great diseases), his own servants conspired against him for the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest, and slew him on his bed, and he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the sepulchres of the kings. ²⁶And these are they that conspired against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonitess, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabitess. ²⁷And as to his sons, and the greatness of the burdens laid upon him, and the building of the house of God, behold, they are written in the treatise of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his stead.

Chapter 25

¹Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign; and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the sight of Jehovah, yet not with a perfect heart. ³And it came to pass when the kingdom was established unto him, that he killed his servants who had smitten the king his father. ⁴But their children he did not put to death, but did according to that which is written in the law in the book of Moses, wherein Jehovah commanded saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, nor shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin. ⁵And Amaziah gathered Judah together and arranged them according to the fathers’ houses, according to the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, throughout Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years old and upwards, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able for military service, that could handle spear and target. ⁶He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver. ⁷But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the host of Israel go with thee; for Jehovah is not with Israel, with all the children of Ephraim. ⁸But if thou wilt go, do it; be strong for the battle: God will make thee fall before the enemy, for there is with God power to help and to cast down. ⁹And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what is to be done for the hundred talents which I have given to the troop of Israel? And the man of God said, Jehovah is able to give thee much more than this. ¹⁰Then Amaziah separated them, —the troop that was come to him out of Ephraim, —to go home again. And their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in fierce anger. ¹¹But Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. ¹²And the children of Judah took ten thousand captive, alive, and brought them to the top of the cliff, and cast them down from the top of the cliff, so that they all were broken in pieces. ¹³But those of the troop that Amaziah had sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah from Samaria as far as Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil.

¹⁴And it came to pass after Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed himself down before them, and burned incense to them. ¹⁵And the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, Why dost thou seek after the gods of a people who have not delivered their own people out of thy hand? ¹⁶And it came to pass as he talked with him, that Amaziah said to him, Hast thou been made the king’s counsellor? Forbear; why shouldest thou be smitten? Then the prophet forbore, and said, I know that God has determined to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened to my counsel.

¹⁷And Amaziah king of Judah took counsel, and sent to Joash the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face. ¹⁸And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thorn-bush that is in Lebanon sent to the cedar that is in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son as wife; and there passed by the wild beast that is in Lebanon, and trode down the thorn-bush. ¹⁹Thou thinkest, Lo, thou hast smitten Edom; and thy heart has lifted thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou contend with misfortune, that thou shouldest fall, thou and Judah with thee? ²⁰But Amaziah would not hear; for it was of God, that he might deliver them into the enemy’s hand, because they had sought after the gods of Edom. ²¹And Joash king of Israel went up; and they looked one another in the face, he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh, which is in Judah. ²²And Judah was routed before Israel; and they fled every man to his tent. ²³And Joash king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and he broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits. ²⁴And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obed-Edom, and the treasures of the king’s house, and hostages, and returned to Samaria. ²⁵And Amaziah the son of Joash, king of Judah, lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, fifteen years. ²⁶And the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel? ²⁷And from the time that Amaziah turned aside from following Jehovah, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish; and they sent after him to Lachish, and slew him there. ²⁸And they brought him on horses, and buried him with his fathers in…