CHAPTER 25

(827 B.C.)

AMAZIAH REIGNS OVER JUDAH

¹Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mothers name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.

²And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart (one might say that he had a divided heart; it would lead to his total ruin!).

³Now it came to pass, when the kingdom was established to him, that he killed his servants who had killed the king his father.

⁴But he killed not their children, but did as it is written in the Law in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, saying, The fathers shall not die for the children, neither shall the children die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin (at the beginning of his reign, it seems that he tried to follow the Bible [Deut. 24:16]).

AMAZIAH DEFEATS EDOM

⁵Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, who could handle spear and shield.

⁶He hired also an hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver.

⁷But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with you; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim (the command is clear).

⁸But if you will go (go with Israel), do it, be strong for the battle (no matter how strong you are): God shall make you fall before the enemy: for God has power to help, and to cast down (the sum of Verses 7 and 8 may be translated: Under no circumstances take Israel, and if you do take them, no matter how much you prepare, yet know that God shall destroy you).

⁹And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give you much more than this (it seems that Amaziah was much more concerned about the money lost than obeying God; sadly, this is the concern of most people, even Christians; that which man deems so very important, the Lord brushes it aside as if nothing).

¹⁰Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger (this was in anticipation of plunder, which was now denied).

¹¹And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand.

¹²And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces (there is little doubt that this is Petra; it seems that he ruthlessly slaughtered 10,000 people).

¹³But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle (those from Israel), fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them (3,000 people), and took much spoil (they satisfied their lust for plunder by ravaging Judah).

AMAZIAH IS REBUKED BY GOD FOR WORSHIPPING THE GODS OF EDOM

¹⁴Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them (how stupid!).

¹⁵Wherefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against Amaziah, and He (the Lord) sent unto him a Prophet, which said unto him, Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of your hand? (How utterly ridiculous! Amaziah will now worship the gods of the people he has just defeated. If they were so great, why didnt these gods help the Edomites? A modern parallel concerns Believers who will forsake the Presence of God for other things.)

¹⁶And it came to pass, as he (the Prophet) talked with him, that the king said unto him, Are you made of the kings counsel? (Are you one of my advisors?) forbear (desist, away with your words); why should you be smitten? (In other words, if you keep this up, I will kill you.)Then the Prophet forbore (except for one more statement), and said, I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not hearkened unto my counsel.

AMAZIAH MAKES WAR ON ISRAEL

¹⁷Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice (took counsel from some of his advisors), and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us see one another in the face (a threat!).

¹⁸And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give your daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle (in this parable, Joash likens Israel to a cedar, and Judah to a thistle; as well, he likens Israel to a wild beast that will ride roughshod over the thistle, i.e., Judah).

¹⁹You say, Lo, you have smitten the Edomites; and your heart lifts you up to boast: abide now at home; why should you meddle to your hurt, that you should fall, even you, and Judah with you?

AMAZIAH IS DEFEATED

²⁰But Amaziah would not hear; for it came of God, that He might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom (because of idolatry, the Lord is now opposed to Judah).

²¹So Joash the king of Israel went up; and they saw one another in the face, both he and Amaziah king of Judah, at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah (they went to battle, despite the warning of Joash, the king of Israel).

²²And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent (with God against them, Judah couldnt win!).

²³And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Beth-shemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits (about 600 feet).

²⁴And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the House of God with Obed-edom, and the treasures of the kings house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria (Obed-edom was a descendant of the Obed-edom of Davids time [II Sam. 6:10; I Chron. 13:13], who was a custodian of the treasures in the House of God).

DEATH OF AMAZIAH

²⁵And Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel fifteen years.

²⁶Now the rest of the acts of Amaziah, first and last, behold, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?

²⁷Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him, and killed him there (the Holy Spirit will pinpoint the exact time that this happened; now he is at the mercy of Satan).

²⁸And they brought him upon horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah. (When the king turned away from the Lord, the Holy Spirit declined to call his burial place by the lofty titles of the city of David or Jerusalem, but instead, called it the city of Judah. It seems that idol-worship and pride were the cause of Amaziahs fall. To be sure, idol-worship and pride are the cause of the fall of many Believers.)