The Divided Kingdom

And they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and serued groues and idoles: and wrath came vpon Iudah and Ierusalem, because of this their trespasse.

And God sent Prophets amog the, to bring them againe vnto the Lord: and they made protestation among them, but they would not heare.

And the Spirit of God came vpon Zechariah the sonne of Iehoiada the Priest, which stoode aboue the people, and sayde vnto them, Thus sayth God, Why transgresse ye the commandements of the Lord? surely ye shall not prosper: because ye haue forsaken the Lord, he also hath forsaken you.

Then they conspired against him and stoned him with stones at the commandement of the King, in the court of the house of the Lord.

Thus Ioash the King remembred not the kindnesse which Iehoiada his father had done to him, but slewe his sonne. And when he dyed, he sayd, The Lord looke vpon it, and require it.

And when the yeere was out, the host of Aram came vp against him, and they came against Iudah and Ierusalem, and destroyed all the princes of the people from among the people, and sent all the spoyle of them vnto the King of Damascus.

Though the armie of Aram came with a small company of men, yet the Lord deliuered a very great armie into their hand, because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers: and they gaue sentence against Ioash.

And when they were departed from him, (for they left him in great diseases) his owne seruants conspired against him for the blood of the children of Iehoiada the Priest, and slewe him on his bed, and he dyed, and they buryed him in the citie of Dauid: but they buryed him not in the sepulchres of the Kings.

And these are they that conspired against him, Zabad the sonne of Shimrath an Ammonitesse, and Iehozabad the sonne of Shimrith a Moabitesse.

But his sonnes, and the summe of the taxe gathered by him, and the foundation of the house of God, behold, they are written in the storie of the booke of the Kings. And Amaziah his sonne reigned in his steade.

Amaziah was fiue and twentie yere old when he began to reigne, and he reigned nine and twentie yeere in Ierusalem: and his mothers name was Iehoaddan, of Ierusalem.

And he did vprightly in the eyes of the Lord, but not with a perfite heart.

And when the kingdome was established vnto him, he slewe his seruants, that had slaine the King his father.

But he slewe not their children, but did as it is written in the Lawe, and in the booke of Moses, where the Lord commanded, saying, The fathers shall not dye for the children, neyther shall the children die for the fathers, but euery man shall dye for his owne sinne.

And Amaziah assembled Iudah, and made them captaines ouer thousandes, and captaines ouer hundreths, according to the houses of their fathers, thorowout all Iudah and Beniamin: and he nombred them from twentie yeere olde and aboue, and founde among them three hundreth thousand chosen men, to goe foorth to the warre, and to handle speare and shield.

He hyred also an hundreth thousand valiant men out of Israel for an hundreth talents of siluer.

But a man of God came to him, saying, O King, let not the armie of Israel goe with thee: for the Lord is not with Israel, neither with all the house of Ephraim.

If not, goe thou on, doe it, make thy selfe strong to the battel, but God shall make thee fall before the enemie: for God hath power to helpe, and to cast downe.

And Amaziah sayde to the man of God, What shall we doe then for the hundreth talents, which I haue giuen to the hoste of Israel? Then the man of God answered, The Lord is able to giue thee more then this.

So Amaziah separated them, to wit, the armie that was come to him out of Ephraim, to returne to their place: wherefore their wrath was kindled greatly against Iudah, and they returned to their places with great anger.

Then Amaziah was encouraged, and led forth his people, and went to the salt valley, and smote of the children of Seir, ten thousand.

And other ten thousand did the children of Iudah take aliue, and caryed them to the top of a rocke, and cast them downe from the top of the rocke, and they all burst to pieces.

But the men of the armie, which Amaziah sent away, that they should not goe with his people to battell, fell vpon the cities of Iudah from Samaria vnto Beth-horon, and smote three thousand of them, and tooke much spoyle.

Now after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them vp to be his gods, and worshipped them, and burned incense vnto them.

Wherefore the Lord was wroth with Amaziah, and sent vnto him a Prophet, which sayd vnto him, Why hast thou sought the gods of the people, which were not able to deliuer their owne people out of thine hand?