Amaziah came to the throne of Judah aged 25 and he reigned for 29 years being half-hearted in the things of God, and he executed those who had murdered his father.
Then King Amaziah gathered an army from Judah of 300,000 men in order to go to war against the Edomites (the men of Seir). He added to them 100,000 men which he hired from Israel to the tune of 3.4 tons of silver! However a man of God told Amaziah to send the Israelites home because God was not with them, and this he did reluctantly in the light of the heavy loss involved, and the men from Ephraim were livid at being sent home.
Then Amaziah attacked the Edomites and killed 10,000 of them before he killed another 10,000 by pushing them off a cliff! Meanwhile the redundant Israelites caused a lot of trouble in Judah raiding towns, killing 3,000 people and seizing great quantities of plunder. However strangely after defeating the Edomites he started worshipping their gods which angered the Lord a lot, and he sent a prophet to tell him that he would be destroyed.
Tensions always existed between Israel and Judah, and stupidly Amaziah of Judah challenged Israel's king's son to a battle. King Jehoash of Israel replied comparing himself to a cedar tree whilst comparing Amaziah to a thistle bush, telling him that just because he had beaten the Edomites he was now arrogant and proud, and he laughed off the challenge. However Amaziah insisted on a battle which he lost completely and Jerusalem was plundered. Some years later Amaziah was killed.
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