2 Chronicles 25:1-12 ▼

1 Amaziah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.

2 He did what was right in the LORD’s sight but not wholeheartedly.

3 As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, he executed his servants who had killed his father the king.

4 However, he did not put their children to death, because—as it is written in the Law, in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded—“Fathers are not to die because of children, and children are not to die because of fathers, but each one will die for his own sin.”

5 Then Amaziah gathered Judah and assembled them according to ancestral families, according to commanders of thousands, and according to commanders of hundreds. He numbered those twenty years old or more for all Judah and Benjamin. He found there to be three hundred thousand fit young men who could serve in the army, bearing spear and shield.

6 Then for 7,500 pounds of silver he hired one hundred thousand valiant warriors from Israel.

7 However, a man of God came to him and said, “King, do not let Israel’s army go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel—all the Ephraimites.

8 But if you go with them, do it! Be strong for battle! But God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to make one stumble.”

9 Then Amaziah said to the man of God, “What should I do about the 7,500 pounds of silver I gave to Israel’s division? ” The man of God replied, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.”

10 So Amaziah released the division that came to him from Ephraim to go home. But they got very angry with Judah and returned home in a fierce rage.

11 Amaziah strengthened his position and led his people to the Salt Valley. He struck down ten thousand Seirites,

12 and the Judahites captured ten thousand alive. They took them to the top of a cliff where they threw them off, and all of them were dashed to pieces.