3. After the kingdom was firmly in his control, he executed the officials who had murdered his father the king.
4. Yet he did not put their children to death, but acted in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded: “Parents shall not be put to death for their children, nor children be put to death for their parents; each will die for their own sin.”
5. Amaziah called the people of Judah together and assigned them according to their families to commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He then mustered those twenty years old or more and found that there were three hundred thousand men fit for military service, able to handle the spear and shield.
6. He also hired a hundred thousand fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents of silver.
7. But a man of God came to him and said, “Your Majesty, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the Lord is not with Israel—not with any of the people of Ephraim.
8. Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.”