2 Kings 14:8–29

King Amaziah’s Defeat and Death—2 Chronicles 25:14–26:2

⁸Then Amaziah sent messengers to King Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz and grandson of Jehu of Israel, to declare war on Israel. 

⁹King Jehoash of Israel sent this message to King Amaziah of Judah: “A thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar in Lebanon. It said, ‘Let your daughter marry my son,’ but a wild animal from Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle. ¹⁰You certainly defeated Edom, and now you have become arrogant. Enjoy your fame, but stay home. Why must you invite disaster and your own defeat and take Judah with you?” 

¹¹But Amaziah wouldn’t listen. So King Jehoash of Israel attacked, and King Amaziah of Judah met him in battle at Beth Shemesh in Judah. ¹²Israel defeated the army of Judah, and the Judeans fled to their homes. ¹³King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah, son of Joash and grandson of Ahaziah of Judah, at Beth Shemesh and went to Jerusalem. He tore down a 600-foot section of the wall around Jerusalem from Ephraim Gate to Corner Gate. ¹⁴He took all the gold, silver, and all the utensils he found in the Lord’s temple and in the royal palace treasury. He also took hostages. Then he returned to Samaria. 

¹⁵Isn’t everything else about Jehoash—what he did, his heroic acts when he fought against King Amaziah of Judah—written in the official records of the kings of Israel? ¹⁶Jehoash lay down in death with his ancestors and was buried with the kings of Israel in Samaria. His son Jeroboam succeeded him as king. 

¹⁷Joash’s son King Amaziah of Judah lived 15 years after the death of Jehoahaz’s son King Jehoash of Israel. ¹⁸Isn’t everything else about Amaziah written in the official records of the kings of Judah? ¹⁹Conspirators in Jerusalem plotted against him, so he fled to Lachish. But they sent men to Lachish after him and killed him there. ²⁰They brought him back by horse, and he was buried in Jerusalem, in the City of David, with his ancestors. 

²¹All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah. ²²Azariah rebuilt Elath and returned it to Judah after King Amaziah lay down in death with his ancestors. 

King Jeroboam II of Israel

²³Joash’s son Amaziah was in his fifteenth year as king of Judah when Jehoash’s son King Jeroboam of Israel began to rule in Samaria. Jeroboam ruled for 41 years. ²⁴He did what the Lord considered evil. He didn’t turn away from any of the sins that Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) led Israel to commit. 

²⁵He restored Israel’s boundaries from the border of Hamath to the Dead Sea as the Lord God of Israel predicted through his servant Jonah, the prophet from Gath Hepher and the son of Amittai. ²⁶The Lord did this because he saw how bitterly everyone in Israel was suffering. No slave or free person could help Israel. ²⁷Since the Lord had said he was not going to wipe out Israel’s name completely, he saved them through Jeroboam, son of Jehoash. 

²⁸Isn’t everything else about Jeroboam—everything he did, his heroic acts when he fought, how he recovered Damascus and Hamath for Israel^a—written in the official records of the kings of Israel? ²⁹Jeroboam lay down in death with his ancestors, the kings of Israel. His son Zechariah succeeded him as king.