2 Tawarikh 25:5-13

25:5 Amaziah assembled the people of Judah ¹  and assigned them by families to the commanders of units of a thousand and the commanders of units of a hundred for all Judah and Benjamin. He counted those twenty years old and up and discovered there were 300,000 young men of fighting age ²  equipped with spears and shields. ³  25:6 He hired 100,000 Israelite warriors for a hundred talents ⁴  of silver.

25:7 But a prophet ⁵  visited him and said: “O king, the Israelite troops must not go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel or any of the Ephraimites. ⁶  25:8 Even if you go and fight bravely in battle, God will defeat you ⁷  before the enemy. God is capable of helping or defeating.” ⁸  25:9 Amaziah asked the prophet: ⁹  “But what should I do about the hundred talents of silver I paid the Israelite troops?” The prophet ¹⁰  replied, “The Lord is capable of giving you more than that.” 25:10 So Amaziah dismissed the troops that had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. ¹¹  They were very angry at Judah and returned home incensed. 25:11 Amaziah boldly led his army to the Valley of Salt, ¹²  where he defeated ¹³  10,000 Edomites. ¹⁴  25:12 The men ¹⁵  of Judah captured 10,000 men alive. They took them to the top of a cliff and threw them over. ¹⁶  All the captives ¹⁷  fell to their death. ¹⁸  25:13 Now the troops Amaziah had dismissed and had not allowed to fight in the battle ¹⁹  raided ²⁰  the cities of Judah from Samaria ²¹  to Beth Horon. They killed ²²  3,000 people and carried off a large amount of plunder.

[25:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Judah.” The words “the people of” are supplied in the translation for clarity. The Hebrew text uses the name “Judah” by metonymy here for the people of Judah.

[25:5]  ² tn Heb “young men going out to war.”

[25:5]  ³ tn Heb “holding a spear and a shield.”

[25:6]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew word כִּכַּר (kikar, “circle”) refers generally to something that is round. When used of metals it can refer to a disk-shaped weight made of the metal or, by extension, to a standard unit of weight. According to the older (Babylonian) standard the “talent” weighed 130 lbs. (58.9 kg), but later this was lowered to 108.3 lbs. (49.1 kg). More recent research suggests the “light” standard talent was 67.3 lbs. (30.6 kg). Using this as the standard for calculation, the weight of the silver was 6,730 lbs. (3,060 kg).

[25:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “man of God.”

[25:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “Israel, all the sons of Ephraim.”

[25:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “cause you to stumble.”

[25:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “to cause to stumble.”

[25:9]  ⁹ tn Heb “said to the man of God.”

[25:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “man of God.”

[25:10]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and Amaziah separated them, the troops who came to him from Ephraim, to go to their place.”

[25:11]  ¹² tn Heb “and Amaziah strengthened himself and led his people and went to the Valley of Salt.”

[25:11]  ¹³ tn Or “struck down.”

[25:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “sons of Seir.”

[25:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[25:12]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and threw them from the top of the cliff.”

[25:12]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “all of them.”

[25:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “smashed in pieces.”

[25:13]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “had sent back from going with him to the battle.”

[25:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “stripped.”

[25:13]  ²¹ map For location see Map2 B1; Map4 D3; Map5 E2; Map6 A4; Map7 C1.

[25:13]  ²² tn Heb “struck down.”