1. Amaziah was 25 years old when he became king, and he ruled for 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 eyes but not with all his heart.
3. Once he had secured control over his kingdom, he executed the officials who had assassinated his father the king.
4. However, he didn’t kill their children because of what is written in the Instruction scroll from Moses, where the Lord commanded, Parents shouldn’t be executed because of what their children have done; neither should children be executed because of what their parents have done. Each person should be executed for their own guilty acts.
5. Amaziah gathered the people of Judah, organizing them into family units under captains of thousands and hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He summoned everyone 20 years old and older and found that there were three hundred thousand select troops, ready for service and able to handle spears and body-sized shields.
6. He also hired one hundred thousand warriors from Israel for one hundred kikkars of silver.
7. But a man of God confronted him. "King," he said, "the troops from Israel must not go with you, because the Lord isn’t on the side of Israel or any Ephraimite.
8. Should you go with them anyway, even if you fight fiercely, God will make you stumble before the enemy, because God has the ability to either help or make someone stumble."
9. Amaziah asked the man of God, "What about the hundred kikkars I paid for the Israelite troops?""God can give you much more than that," the man of God replied.
10. Amaziah released the Ephraimite troops who had joined him so they could go home, but this only infuriated them against Judah, and they left in a rage.
11. Amaziah courageously led his people to the Salt Valley, where they killed ten thousand people from Seir.
12. The Judean forces captured another ten thousand alive, brought them to the top of a cliff, and threw them off so that all were dashed to pieces.