The Divided Kingdom

And they forsook the temple of the Lord the God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Juda and Jerusalem for this sin.

And he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord, and they would not give ear when they testified against them.

The spirit of God then came upon Zacharias the son of Joiada the priest, and he stood in the sight of the people, and said to them: Thus saith the Lord God: Why transgress you the commandment of the Lord which will not be for your good, and have forsaken the Lord, to make him forsake you?

And they gathered themselves together against him, and stoned him at the king's commandment in the court of the house of the Lord.

And king Joas did not remember the kindness that Joiada his father had done to him, but killed his son. And when he died, he said: The Lord see, and require it.

And when a year was come about, the army of Syria came up against him: and they came to Juda and Jerusalem, and killed all the princes of the people, and they sent all the spoils to the king of Damascus.

And whereas there came a very small number of the Syrians, the Lord delivered into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joas they executed shameful judgments.

And departing they left him in great diseases: and his servants rose up against him, for revenge of the blood of the son of Joiada the priest, and they slew him in his bed, and he died: and they buried him in the city of David, but not in the sepulchres of the kings.

Now the men that conspired against him were Zabad the son of Semmaath an Ammonitess, and Jozabad the son of Semarith a Moabitess.

And concerning his sons, and the sum of money which was gathered under him, and the repairing the house of God, they are written more diligently in the book of kings: and Amasias his son reigned in his stead.

Amasias was five and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem, the name of his mother was Joadan of Jerusalem.

And he did what was good in the sight of the Lord: but yet not with a perfect heart.

And when he saw himself strengthened in his kingdom, he put to death the servants that had slain the king his father.

But he slew not their children, as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying: The fathers shall not be slain for the children, nor the children for their fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin.

Amasias therefore gathered Juda together, and appointed them by families, and captains of thousands and of hundreds in all Juda, and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and upwards, and found three hundred thousand young men that could go out to battle, and could hold the spear and shield.

He hired also of Israel a hundred thousand valiant men, for a hundred talents of silver.

But a man of God came to him, and said: O king, let not the army of Israel go out with thee, for the Lord is not with Israel, and all the children of Ephraim:

And if thou think that battles consist in the strength of the army, God will make thee to be overcome by the enemies: for it belongeth to God both to help, and to put to flight.

And Amasias said to the man of God: What will then become of the hundred talents which I have given to the soldiers of Israel? and the man of God answered him: The Lord is rich enough to be able to give thee much more than this.

Then Amasias separated the army, that came to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: but they being much enraged against Juda, returned to their own country.

And Amasias taking courage led forth his people, and went to the vale of saltpits, and slew of the children of Seir ten thousand.

And other ten thousand men the sons of Juda took, and brought to the steep of a certain rock, and cast them down headlong from the top, and they all were broken to pieces.

But that army which Amasias had sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, spread themselves among the cities of Juda, from Samaria to Beth-horon, and having killed three thousand took away much spoil.

But Amasias after he had slain the Edomites, set up the gods of the children of Seir, which he had brought thence, to be his gods, and adored them, and burnt incense to them.

Wherefore the Lord being angry against Amasias, sent a prophet to him, to say to him: Why hast thou adored gods that have not delivered their own people out of thy hand?