2 Chronicles 25–26

Amaziah King of Judah

25Amaziah 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. ²Amaziah did what the Lord said was right, but he did not really want to obey him. ³As soon as Amaziah took strong control of the kingdom, he executed the officers who had murdered his father the king. ⁴But 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.” ⁿ

⁵Amaziah 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. ⁶Amaziah also hired one hundred thousand soldiers from Israel for about seventy-five hundred pounds of silver. ⁷But 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. ⁸You can make yourself strong for war, but God will defeat you. He has the power to help you or to defeat you.”

⁹Amaziah 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.”

¹⁰So Amaziah sent the Israelite army back home to Ephraim. They were very angry with the people of Judah and went home angry.

¹¹Then 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. ¹²The 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.

¹³At 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.

¹⁴When 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. ¹⁵The Lord was very angry with Amaziah, so he sent a prophet to him who said, “Why have you asked their gods for help? They could not even save their own people from you!”

¹⁶As the prophet spoke, Amaziah said to him, “We never gave you the job of advising the king. Stop, or you will be killed.”

The prophet stopped speaking except to say, “I know that God has decided to destroy you because you have done this. You did not listen to my advice.”

¹⁷Amaziah king of Judah talked with those who advised him. Then he sent a message to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, who was the son of Jehu king of Israel. Amaziah said to Jehoash, “Come, let’s meet face to face.”

¹⁸Then Jehoash king of Israel answered Amaziah king of Judah, “A thornbush in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar tree in Lebanon. It said, ‘Let your daughter marry my son.’ But then a wild animal from Lebanon came by, walking on and crushing the thornbush. ¹⁹You say to yourself that you have defeated Edom, but you have become proud, and you brag. But you stay at home! Don’t ask for trouble, or you and Judah will be defeated.”

²⁰But Amaziah would not listen. God caused this to happen so that Jehoash would defeat Judah, because Judah asked for help from the gods of Edom. ²¹So Jehoash king of Israel went to attack. He and Amaziah king of Judah faced each other in battle at Beth Shemesh in Judah. ²²Israel defeated Judah, and every man of Judah ran away to his home. ²³At Beth Shemesh Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah. (Amaziah was the son of Joash, who was the son of Ahaziah.) Then Jehoash brought him to Jerusalem. Jehoash broke down the wall of Jerusalem, from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate, about six hundred feet. ²⁴He took all the gold and silver and all the utensils from the Temple of God that Obed-Edom had taken care of. He also took the treasures from the palace and some hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

²⁵Amaziah son of Joash, the king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, the king of Israel. ²⁶The other things Amaziah did as king, from the beginning to the end, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ²⁷When Amaziah stopped obeying the Lord, the people in Jerusalem made plans against him. So he ran away to the town of Lachish, but they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him. ²⁸They brought his body back on horses, and he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of David.

Uzziah King of Judah

26Then all the people of Judah made Uzziah ⁿ king in place of his father Amaziah. Uzziah was sixteen years old. ²He rebuilt the town of Elath and made it part of Judah again after Amaziah died.

³Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he ruled fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah, and she was from Jerusalem. ⁴He did what the Lord said was right, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁵Uzziah obeyed God while Zechariah was alive, because he taught Uzziah how to respect and obey God. And as long as Uzziah obeyed the Lord, God gave him success.

⁶Uzziah fought a war against the Philistines. He tore down the walls around their towns of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod and built new towns near Ashdod and in other places among the Philistines. ⁷God helped Uzziah fight the Philistines, the Arabs living in Gur Baal, and the Meunites. ⁸Also, the Ammonites made the payments Uzziah demanded. He was very powerful, so his name became famous all the way to the border of Egypt.

⁹Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and where the wall turned, and he made them strong. ¹⁰He also built towers in the desert and dug many wells, because he had many cattle on the western hills and in the plains. He had people who worked his fields and vineyards in the hills and in the fertile lands, because he loved the land.

¹¹Uzziah had an army of trained soldiers. They were counted and put in groups by Jeiel the royal secretary and Maaseiah the officer. Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders, was their leader. ¹²There were twenty-six hundred leaders over the soldiers. ¹³They were in charge of an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred men who fought with great power to help the king against the enemy. ¹⁴Uzziah gave his army shields, spears, helmets, armor, bows, and stones for their slings. ¹⁵In Jerusalem Uzziah made cleverly designed devices. These devices on the towers and corners of the city walls were used to shoot arrows and large rocks. So Uzziah became famous in faraway places, because he had much help until he became powerful.

¹⁶But when Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his ruin. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God; he went into the Temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar for incense. ¹⁷Azariah and eighty other brave priests who served the Lord followed Uzziah into the Temple. ¹⁸They told him he was wrong and said to him, “You don’t have the right to burn incense to the Lord. Only the priests, Aaron’s descendants, should burn the incense, because they have been made holy. Leave this holy place. You have been unfaithful, and the Lord God will not honor you for this.”

¹⁹Uzziah was standing beside the altar for incense in the Temple of the Lord, and in his hand was a pan for burning incense. He was very angry with the priests. As he was standing in front of the priests, a skin disease broke out on his forehead. ²⁰Azariah, the leading priest, and all the other priests looked at him and saw the skin disease on his forehead. So they hurried him out of the Temple. Uzziah also rushed out, because the Lord was punishing him. ²¹So King Uzziah had the skin disease until the day he died. He had to live in a separate house and could not enter the Temple of the Lord. His son Jotham was in charge of the palace, and he governed the people of the land.

²²The other things Uzziah did as king, from beginning to end, were written down by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. ²³Uzziah died and was buried near his ancestors in a graveyard that belonged to the kings. This was because people said, “He had a skin disease.” And his son Jotham became king in his place.