2 Kings 14

¹ In the second year of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, began to reign.

² He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother, whose name was Jehoaddin, was from Jerusalem.

³ He pleased the LORD, yet not like his forefather David, since he did just as his father Joash had done.

⁴ Thus the high places did not disappear, but the people continued to sacrifice and to burn incense on them.

⁵ When Amaziah had the kingdom firmly in hand, he slew the officials who had murdered the king, his father.

⁶ But the children of the murderers he did not put to death, obeying the LORD'S command written in the book of the law of Moses, "Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor shall children be put to death for their fathers; each one shall die for his own sin."

⁷ Amaziah slew ten thousand Edomites in the Salt Valley, and took Sela in battle. He renamed it Joktheel, the name it has to this day.

⁸ Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, with this challenge, "Come, let us meet face to face."

⁹ King Jehoash of Israel sent this reply to the king of Judah: "The thistle of Lebanon sent word to the cedar of Lebanon, 'Give your daughter to my son in marriage,' but an animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle underfoot.

¹⁰ You have indeed conquered Edom, and you have become ambitious. Enjoy your glory, but stay at home! Why involve yourself and Judah with you in misfortune and failure?"

¹¹ But Amaziah would not listen. King Jehoash of Israel then advanced, and he and King Amaziah of Judah met in battle at Beth-shemesh of Judah.

¹² Judah was defeated by Israel, and all the Judean soldiery fled homeward.

¹³ King Jehoash of Israel captured Amaziah, son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh. He went on to Jerusalem where he tore down four hundred cubits of the city wall, from the Gate of Ephraim to the Corner Gate.

¹⁴ He took all the gold and silver and all the utensils there were in the temple of the LORD and the treasuries of the palace, and hostages as well. Then he returned to Samaria.

¹⁵ The rest of the acts of Jehoash, his valor, and how he fought Amaziah, king of Judah, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

¹⁶ Jehoash rested with his ancestors; he was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam succeeded him as king.

¹⁷ Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, survived Jehoash, son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, by fifteen years.

¹⁸ The rest of the acts of Amaziah are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.

¹⁹ When a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, he fled to Lachish. But he was pursued to Lachish and killed there.

²⁰ He was brought back on horses and buried with his ancestors in the City of David in Jerusalem.

²¹ Thereupon all the people of Judah took the sixteen-year-old Azariah and proclaimed him king to succeed his father Amaziah.

²² It was Azariah who rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah, after King Amaziah rested with his ancestors.

²³ In the fifteenth year of Amaziah, son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel, began his forty-one-year reign in Samaria.

²⁴ He did evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not desist from any of the sins which Jeroboam, son of Nebat, had caused Israel to commit.

²⁵ He restored the boundaries of Israel from Labo-of-Hamath to the sea of the Arabah, just as the LORD, the God of Israel, had prophesied through his servant, the prophet Jonah, son of Amittai, from Gath-hepher.

²⁶ For the LORD saw the very bitter affliction of Israel, where there was neither slave nor freeman, no one at all to help Israel.

²⁷ Since the LORD had not determined to blot out the name of Israel from under the heavens, he saved them through Jeroboam, son of Joash.

²⁸ The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, his valor and all his accomplishments, how he fought with Damascus and turned back Hamath from Israel, are recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

²⁹ Jeroboam rested with his ancestors, the kings of Israel, and his son Zechariah succeeded him as king.