8. Then Amaziah sent messengers to Israel’s King Joash son of Jehoahaz son of Israel’s King Jehu, saying, "Come on! Let’s go head-to-head."
9. But Israel’s King Joash responded to Judah’s King Amaziah, "Once upon a time, a thistle in Lebanon sent a message to a cedar, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ But then a wild beast in Lebanon came along and trampled the thistle.
10. You have definitely defeated Edom and have now become conceited. Enjoy the honor, but stay home. Why invite disaster when both you and Judah will fall?"
11. But Amaziah wouldn’t listen, so Israel’s King Joash moved against him, and he and Judah’s King Amaziah went head-to-head in battle at Beth-shemesh in Judah.
12. Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone ran home.
13. At Beth-shemesh, Israel’s King Joash captured Judah’s King Amaziah, Jehoash’s son and Ahaziah’s grandson. Joash then marched to Jerusalem and broke down six hundred feet of the Jerusalem wall from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate.
14. Joash took all the gold and silver, and all the objects he could find in the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the palace, along with some hostages and returned to Samaria.
15. The rest of Joash’s deeds and his powerful acts—how he fought against Judah’s King Amaziah—aren’t they written in the official records of Israel’s kings?
16. Joash lay down with his ancestors. He was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. His son Jeroboam succeeded him as king.
17. Judah’s King Amaziah, Jehoash’s son, lived fifteen years after the death of Israel’s King Joash, Jehoahaz’s son.
18. The rest of Amaziah’s deeds, aren’t they written in the official records of Judah’s kings?
19. Some people in Jerusalem plotted against him. When Amaziah fled to Lachish, they sent men after him to Lachish, and they murdered him there.
20. They carried him back on horses, and he was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in David’s City.
21. Then all the people of Judah took Azariah and made him king after his father Amaziah. He was 16 years old.