1. Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he ruled twenty-nine years from Jerusalem, the home town of his mother Jehoaddin.
2. Even though Amaziah obeyed the Lord by doing right, he refused to be completely faithful.
3. For example, as soon as he had control of Judah, he arrested and killed the officers who had murdered his father.
4. But the children of those officers were not killed; the Lord had commanded in the Law of Moses that only the people who sinned were to be punished.
5. Amaziah sent a message to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and called together all the men who were twenty years old and older. Three hundred thousand men went to Jerusalem, all of them ready for battle and able to fight with spears and shields. Amaziah grouped these soldiers according to their clans and put them under the command of his army officers.
6. Amaziah also paid about three thousand four hundred kilogrammes of silver to hire one hundred thousand soldiers from Israel.
7. One of God's prophets said, “Your Majesty, don't let these Israelite soldiers march into battle with you. The Lord has refused to help anyone from the northern kingdom of Israel,
8. and so he will let your enemies defeat you, even if you fight hard. He is the one who brings both victory and defeat.”
9. Amaziah replied, “What am I supposed to do about all the silver I paid those troops?”“The Lord will give you back even more than you paid,” the prophet answered.
10. Amaziah ordered the troops from Israel to go home, but when they left, they were furious with the people of Judah.
11. After Amaziah got his courage back, he led his troops to Salt Valley, where he killed ten thousand Edomite soldiers in battle.
12. He captured ten thousand more soldiers and dragged them to the top of a high cliff. Then he pushed them over the side, and they were all killed on the rocks below.
13. Meanwhile, the Israelite troops that Amaziah had sent home raided the towns in Judah between Samaria and Beth-Horon. They killed three thousand people and carried off their possessions.