Amaziah Reigns in Judah

Amaziah's reign begins with the basic facts of his rule and a guarded moral judgment: he acts rightly before the LORD, but his heart is not fully given.

A¹maziah was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem twenty-nine years. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem. ²And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, but not wholeheartedly.

Once secure on the throne, Amaziah executes his father's murderers but spares their sons in keeping with the law that each person dies for his own sin.

³As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, Amaziah executed the servants who had murdered his father the king. ⁴Yet he did not put their sons to death, but acted according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the LORD commanded: “Fathers must not be put to death for their children, and children must not be put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.”