1 In the second year {shtayim: ordinal convention} of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, took up rule {malakh: assumed kingship}.
2 He was twenty-five years{shanah: unit of measured years} old when he ascended the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddin{Yehoaddin: Yahweh-delights}, of Jerusalem.
3 And he did what was right {hayashar: moral uprightness} in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Evaluator}, yet not like David his ancestor; he acted in line with all that his father Joash had done.
4 Only the high places {bamot: local shrines} were not removed {saru: cleared away}; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
5 And it happened, when the kingdom {hamamlakhah: ruling domain} had become secure in his grasp, that he struck {vayyakh: executed by violent means} the servants who had struck the king his father.
6 But the sons of the killers he did not put to death, as written in the Book of the Law {torah: covenant instruction} of Moses, which the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Lawgiver} commanded, saying, “Fathers shall not be put to death for sons, and sons shall not be put to death for fathers; but a man, for his own sin, shall die; he shall be put to death.”
7 He struck {hikah: inflicted defeat} Edom in the Valley of Salt—ten thousand—and captured the Sela {ha-sela: rocky fortress} in battle. He named it Joktheel, to this day.
8 Then Amaziah sent messengers {malʾākhim: official emissaries} to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, “Come, let us meet face to face {pānîm: direct personal encounter}.”
9 And Jehoash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, “A thistle {choach: fragile shrub} in Lebanon sent to a cedar {erez: majestic tree} there, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild beast of the field in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle.”
10 You have surely struck Edom, and your heart {lev: seat of thought} has lifted you up. Take honor for it, but stay in your house. Why provoke trouble, so that you fall—you and Judah {Yehudah: southern kingdom} with you?
11 Yet Amaziah did not listen {shama: heed carefully}, so Jehoash, king of Israel, ascended, and he and Amaziah, king of Judah, confronted each other {yitra’u: met face to face} at Beth-Shemesh, which belongs to Judah.
12 And Judah was defeated before {lifnei: in the presence of} Israel, and each man fled to his tents {ohalav: military dwellings}.
13 And Joash king of Israel seized Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Ahaziah, at Beth Shemesh {beit shemesh: sun’s house}. Then he proceeded to Jerusalem and broke open the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, covering four hundred cubits {ammah: standard measure}.
14 And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD {YHWH, Holy Householder} and in the treasuries of the king’s house, and the hostages {taaruvot: political pledges}; and he returned to Samaria.
15 Now the remaining account of Jehoash—what he did, his mighty deeds {gevurato: remarkable acts}, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah—is it not written in the book {sefer: official record} of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
16 And Jehoash lay down with his fathers and was buried {vayikkaver: interment} in Samaria among the kings of Israel. Then Jeroboam his son assumed the kingship in his place {takhtav: succession}.
17 And Amaziah {amats-Yahu: Yahweh is Mighty}, son of Joash, king of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death {mot: decisive event} of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.
18 And the rest of the deeds {divrei: royal records} of Amaziah—are they not inscribed in the book of annals of the kings of Judah {yehudah: southern kingdom}?
19 They conspired {kesher: secret alliance} against him in Jerusalem, and he fled {vayanas: urgent escape} to Lachish. Then they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there.
20 And they carried him on the horses and he was buried in Jerusalem {Yerushalayim: royal capital} with his fathers in the city of David {David: dynastic founder}.
21 Then all the people of Judah took {vayyikchu: assumed leadership} Azariah, and he was sixteen {shesh esreh: six-ten} years old; and they made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
22 He built Elath and restored it to Judah after the king{melek: royal ruler} lay down with his fathers{avotav: family ancestors}.
23 In the fifteenth year{khamesh-esreh: Hebrew ordinal formation} of Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, began to reign in Samaria; he reigned forty-one years{arbaim ve-achat: precise numerical formula}.
24 And he did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD {YHWH, Sovereign Judge}; he did not turn aside {sar: abandon allegiance} from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he caused Israel to sin.
25 He reestablished Israel’s border {gevul: territorial border} from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in fulfillment of the word of the LORD {YHWH, Promise Fulfiller}, the God of Israel {Elohei Yisrael: National Guardian}, delivered through His servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet of Gath Hepher.
26 Because the LORD {YHWH, Compassionate Healer} saw the affliction of Israel and that it was very bitter {marah: bitter suffering}, and there was no one left—neither confined nor free—and there was no helper for Israel.
27 And the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Preserver} had not spoken to blot out the name {shem: enduring identity} of Israel from under the heavens, so He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Joash.
28 And the remainder of the acts {divrei: royal records} of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his valor {gevurah: military prowess}, how he fought, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath for Israel—territories once belonging to Judah—are they not recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
29 And Jeroboam lay down {vayishkav: royal death idiom} with his fathers, among the kings of Israel; and his son Zechariah reigned {vayimloch: dynastic succession} in his place.