The Divided Kingdom

And it cometh to pass, in his speaking unto him, that he saith to him, `For a counsellor to the king have we appointed thee? cease for thee; why do they smite thee?' And the prophet ceaseth, and saith, `I have known that God hath counselled to destroy thee, because thou hast done this, and hast not hearkened to my counsel.'

And Amaziah king of Judah taketh counsel, and sendeth unto Joash son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying,

`Come, we look one another in the face.' And Joash king of Israel sendeth unto Amaziah king of Judah, saying, `The thorn that is in Lebanon hath sent unto the cedar that is in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son for a wife; and pass by doth a beast of the field that is in Lebanon, and treadeth down the thorn.

Thou hast said, Lo, I have smitten Edom; and thy heart hath lifted thee up to boast; now, abide in thy house, why dost thou stir thyself up in evil, that thou hast fallen, thou, and Judah with thee?'

And Amaziah hath not hearkened, for from God it is in order to give them into hand, because they have sought the gods of Edom;

and go up doth Joash king of Israel, and they look one another in the face, he and Amaziah king of Judah, in Beth-Shemesh, that is Judah's,

and Judah is smitten before Israel, and they flee--each to his tents.

And Amaziah king of Judah, son of Joash, son of Jehoahaz, hath Joash king of Israel caught in Beth-Shemesh, and bringeth him in to Jerusalem, and breaketh down in the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim unto the gate of the corner, four hundred cubits,

and taketh all the gold, and the silver, and all the vessels that are found in the house of God with Obed-Edom, and the treasures of the house of the king, and the sons of the pledges, and turneth back to Samaria.

And Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, liveth after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, fifteen years;

and the rest of the matters of Amaziah, the first and the last, lo, are they not written on the books of the kings of Judah and Israel?

And from the time that Amaziah hath turned aside from after Jehovah--they make a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fleeth to Lachish, and they send after him to Lachish, and put him to death there,

and lift him up on the horses, and bury him with his fathers in the city of Judah.

And all the people of Judah take Uzziah (and he is a son of sixteen years), and cause him to reign instead of his father Amaziah.

He hath built Eloth, and restoreth it to Judah after the king's lying with his fathers.

A son of sixteen years is Uzziah in his reigning, and fifty and two years he hath reigned in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother is Jecholiah of Jerusalem.

And he doth that which is right in the eyes of Jehovah, according to all that Amaziah his father did,

and he is as one seeking God in the days of Zechariah who hath understanding in visions of God: and in the days of his seeking Jehovah, God hath caused him to prosper.

And he goeth forth, and fighteth with the Philistines, and breaketh down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and buildeth cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines.

And God helpeth him against the Philistines, and against the Arabians who are dwelling in Gur-Baal and the Mehunim.

And the Ammonites give a present to Uzziah, and his name goeth unto the entering in of Egypt, for he strengthened himself greatly.

And Uzziah buildeth towers in Jerusalem, by the gate of the corner, and by the gate of the valley, and by the angle, and strengtheneth them;

and he buildeth towers in the wilderness, and diggeth many wells, for he had much cattle, both in the low country and in the plain, husbandmen and vine-dressers in the mountains, and in Carmel; for he was a lover of the ground.

And Uzziah hath a force, making war, going forth to the host, by troops, in the number of their reckoning by the hand of Jeiel the scribe and Masseiah the officer, by the hand of Hananiah one of the heads of the king.

The whole number of heads of the fathers of the mighty ones of valour is two thousand and six hundred;