OET-RV 2KI Chapter 14

14 In the second year of the reign of Yehoahaz’s son Yehoash over Israel, Amatsyah replaced his father Yoash as king of Yehudah. 2 He was twenty-five when he became king, and he reigned from Yerushalem for twenty-nine years. (His mother’s name was Yehoaddan from Yerushalem.) 3 He did what Yahweh had said was correct behaviour, although not as thoroughly as his ancestor David—his behaviour was more like that of his father Yoash. 4 However, the hilltop shrines weren’t removed—people were still sacrificing and burning incense at them.

5 Once he was firmly established as king, Amatsyah had the servants executed who had assassinated his father Yoash,[ref] 6 but he didn’t have their sons executed, because in the scroll where Mosheh had written the laws, Yahweh had commanded, “Fathers shouldn’t be executed for what their sons do, nor should sons be executed for the crimes of their ancestors—rather an individual should only be executed for their own crime.”

7 He led the victory over ten thousand Edomites in the Salt Valley, seizing Sela in the battle and renaming it as Yokthe’el which it’s still called today.

8 Then Amatsyah sent messengers to Israel’s King Yehoash (the son of Yehoahaz, the son of Yehu) challenging, “Come on, let’s have it out with each other.” 9 But King Yehoash replied to Yehudah’s King Amatsyah, “The thistle that was in the Lebanon forest sent to the cedar that was in the Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ But a wild animal that was in the Lebanon passed by and it trampled the thistle. 10 It’s true that you won a battle with Edom and you’re feeling encouraged. Accept that honour, but stay home now. Why would you stir up trouble only to fall again—you and all Yehudah with you.”

11 But Amatsyah wouldn’t listen so the armies of Israel’s King Yehoash and Yehudah’s King Amatsyah faced each other in Yehudah at Beyt-Shemesh. 12 However, Yehudah was overcome by Israel, and its warriors had to flee home from the battlefield. 13 So Israel’s King Yehoash captured Yehudah’s King Amatsyah (the son of Yehoash, the son of Ahazyah) in Bet-Shemesh. Then he went to Yerushalem, and he broke down the city wall from the Efraim Gate up to the Corner Gate—almost two hundred metres of it. 14 He took all the gold and silver, and all the equipment that was found Yahweh’s temple and in the palace treasuries. Then taking some hostages as well, he returned to Shomron (Samaria).

15 Everything else that Yehoash said and did, including his battle with Yehudah’s King Amatsyah, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Israel. 16 Then Yehoash died and was buried in Shomron with the former kings of Israel, and his son Yarave’am replaced him as king.

17 Yehudah’s King Amatsyah (Yoash’s son) lived another fifteen years after the death of Israel’s King Yehoash (Yehoahaz’s son). 18 Everything else that Amatsyah said is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah.

19 Some people in Yerushalem had plotted to assassinate him, but he fled to Lakish. However, they followed him there and killed him in the city. 20 His body was carried back on horses, and he was buried in his ancestral tomb in Yerushalem in the city of David. 21 Then all the people of Yehudah took sixteen year old Azaryah and made him king to replace his late father Amatsyah. 22 Azaryah built up Eylat and he reestablished it as part of Yehudah before he died.

23 In the fifteenth year of Yoash’s son King Amatsyah’s reign over Yehudah, Yehoash’s son Yarave’am became king of Israel and reigned from Shomron (Samaria) for forty-one years. 24 He did what was Yahweh had said was evil—he imitated the customs of Nebat’s son Yarave’am who had caused Israel to sin. 25 Yarave’am restored Israel’s border from Lebo-Hamat through to the Sea of the Desert, as Israel’s God Yahweh had foretold via his servant Yonah (Jonah)—the son of the prophet Amittai from Gat-Hefer. 26 That was because Yahweh had seen how Israel had suffered badly and had been unable to control their own destinies, and that no other country would help them. 27 But Yahweh had said that he wouldn’t allow Israel to be destroyed, so he’d used Yehoash’s son Yarave’am to save them.

28 Everything else that Yarave’am said and did, including how he fought and restored Damascus and Hamat to Israel, is written in the book of the events of the kings of Israel. 29 Then Yarave’am died and was buried with the former kings of Israel, and his son Zekaryah replaced him as king.