In the morning they got up early and went out to the wilderness of Tekoa. As they were about to go out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in Yahweh your God, and you will be established; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”

Then he consulted with the people and appointed some to sing for the Lord and some to praise the splendor of His holiness. When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing:

Give thanks to the Lord,
for His faithful love endures forever.

The moment they began their shouts and praises, the Lord set an ambush against the Ammonites, Moabites, and the inhabitants of Mount Seir who came to fight against Judah, and they were defeated.

The Ammonites and Moabites turned against the inhabitants of Mount Seir and completely annihilated them. When they had finished with the inhabitants of Seir, they helped destroy each other.

When Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked for the large army, but there were only corpses lying on the ground; nobody had escaped.

Then Jehoshaphat and his people went to gather the plunder. They found among them an abundance of goods on the bodies and valuable items. So they stripped them until nobody could carry any more. They were gathering the plunder for three days because there was so much.

They assembled in the Valley of Beracah on the fourth day, for there they praised the Lord. Therefore, that place is still called the Valley of Beracah today.

The terror of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that Yahweh had fought against the enemies of Israel.

Then Jehoshaphat’s kingdom was quiet, for his God gave him rest on every side.

Jehoshaphat became king over Judah. He was 35 years old when he became king and reigned 25 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.

He walked in the way of Asa his father; he did not turn away from it but did what was right in the Lord’s sight.

However, the high places were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.

The rest of the events of Jehoshaphat’s reign from beginning to end are written in the Events of Jehu son of Hanani, which is recorded in the Book of Israel’s Kings.

After this, Judah’s King Jehoshaphat made an alliance with Israel’s King Ahaziah, who was guilty of wrongdoing.

Jehoshaphat formed an alliance with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion-geber.

Then Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you formed an alliance with Ahaziah, the Lord has broken up what you have made.” So the ships were wrecked and were not able to go to Tarshish.

Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His son Jehoram became king in his place.

Their father had given them many gifts of silver, gold, and valuable things, along with fortified cities in Judah, but he gave the kingdom to Jehoram because he was the firstborn.

When Jehoram had established himself over his father’s kingdom, he strengthened his position by killing with the sword all his brothers as well as some of the princes of Israel.

Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king and reigned eight years in Jerusalem.

He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for Ahab’s daughter was his wife. He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight,

During Jehoram’s reign, Edom rebelled against Judah’s domination and appointed their own king.

And now Edom is still in rebellion against Judah’s domination today. Libnah also rebelled at that time against his domination because he had abandoned Yahweh, the God of his ancestors.

Jehoram also built high places in the hills of Judah, and he caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, and he led Judah astray.

Then a letter came to Jehoram from Elijah the prophet, saying:

This is what Yahweh, the God of your ancestor David says: “Because you have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or in the ways of Asa king of Judah

but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, have caused Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves like the house of Ahab prostituted itself, and also have killed your brothers, your father’s family, who were better than you,

So they went to war against Judah and invaded it. They carried off all the possessions found in the king’s palace and also his sons and wives; not a son was left to him except Jehoahaz, his youngest son.

After all these things, the Lord afflicted him in his intestines with an incurable disease.

This continued day after day until two full years passed. Then his intestines came out because of his disease, and he died from severe illnesses. But his people did not hold a fire in his honor like the fire in honor of his fathers.

Jehoram was 32 years old when he became king; he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. He died to no one’s regret and was buried in the city of David but not in the tombs of the kings.

Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place, because the troops that had come with the Arabs to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah son of Jehoram became king of Judah.

Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king and reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Athaliah, granddaughter of Omri.

He walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother gave him evil advice.

So he did what was evil in the Lord’s sight like the house of Ahab, for they were his advisers after the death of his father, to his destruction.

He also followed their advice and went with Joram son of Israel’s King Ahab to fight against Hazael, king of Aram, in Ramoth-gilead. The Arameans wounded Joram,

so he returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds they inflicted on him in Ramoth-gilead when he fought against Aram’s King Hazael. Then Judah’s King Ahaziah son of Jehoram went down to Jezreel to visit Joram son of Ahab since Joram was ill.

Ahaziah’s downfall came from God when he went to Joram. When Ahaziah arrived, he went out with Joram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi, whom the Lord had anointed to destroy the house of Ahab.

So when Jehu executed judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the rulers of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah’s brothers who were serving Ahaziah, and he killed them.

Then Jehu looked for Ahaziah, and Jehu’s soldiers captured him (he was hiding in Samaria). So they brought Ahaziah to Jehu, and they killed him. The soldiers buried him, for they said, “He is the grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought the Lord with all his heart.” So no one from the house of Ahaziah had the strength to rule the kingdom.

When Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she proceeded to annihilate all the royal heirs of the house of Judah.

Jehoshabeath, the king’s daughter, rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from the king’s sons who were being killed and put him and the one who nursed him in a bedroom. Now Jehoshabeath was the daughter of King Jehoram and the wife of Jehoiada the priest. Since she was Ahaziah’s sister, she hid Joash from Athaliah so that she did not kill him.

While Athaliah ruled over the land, he was hiding with them in God’s temple six years.

Then, in the seventh year, Jehoiada summoned his courage and took the commanders of hundreds into a covenant with him: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri.

Then the whole assembly made a covenant with the king in God’s temple. Jehoiada said to them, “Here is the king’s son! He must reign, just as the Lord promised concerning David’s sons.

This is what you are to do: a third of you, priests and Levites who are coming on duty on the Sabbath, are to be gatekeepers.

A third are to be at the king’s palace, and a third are to be at the Foundation Gate, and all the troops will be in the courtyards of the Lord’s temple.

No one is to enter the Lord’s temple but the priests and those Levites who serve; they may enter because they are holy, but all the people are to obey the requirement of the Lord.

You must completely surround the king with weapons in hand. Anyone who enters the temple is to be put to death. You must be with the king in all his daily tasks.”

So the commanders of hundreds did everything Jehoiada the priest commanded. They each brought their men—those coming on duty on the Sabbath and those going off duty on the Sabbath—for Jehoiada the priest did not release the divisions.

Jehoiada the priest gave to the commanders of hundreds King David’s spears, shields, and quivers that were in God’s temple.

Then he stationed all the troops with their weapons in hand surrounding the king—from the right side of the temple to the left side, by the altar and by the temple.

They brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, gave him the testimony, and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and cried, “Long live the king!”

When Athaliah heard the noise from the troops, the guards, and those praising the king, she went to the troops in the Lord’s temple.

Then Jehoiada the priest sent out the commanders of hundreds, those in charge of the army, saying, “Take her out between the ranks, and put anyone who follows her to death by the sword,” for the priest had said, “Don’t put her to death in the Lord’s temple.”

Then Jehoiada put the oversight of the Lord’s temple into the hands of the Levitical priests, whom David had appointed over the Lord’s temple, to offer burnt offerings to the Lord as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and song ordained by David.

Then he took with him the commanders of hundreds, the nobles, the governors of the people, and all the people of the land and brought the king down from the Lord’s temple. They entered the king’s palace through the Upper Gate and seated the king on the throne of the kingdom.

Joash was seven years old when he became king and reigned 40 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah; she was from Beer-sheba.

Throughout the time of Jehoiada the priest, Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight.

Then a proclamation was issued in Judah and Jerusalem that the tax God’s servant Moses imposed on Israel in the wilderness be brought to the Lord.

All the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought the tax, and put it in the chest until it was full.

Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites to the king’s overseers, and when they saw that there was a large amount of money, the king’s secretary and the high priest’s deputy came and emptied the chest, picked it up, and returned it to its place. They did this daily and gathered the money in abundance.

Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord’s temple.

When they finished, they presented the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, who made articles for the Lord’s temple with it—articles for ministry and for making burnt offerings, and ladles and articles of gold and silver. They regularly offered burnt offerings in the Lord’s temple throughout Jehoiada’s life.

Jehoiada died when he was old and full of days; he was 130 years old at his death.

He was buried in the city of David with the kings because he had done what was good in Israel with respect to God and His temple.

But they conspired against him and stoned him at the king’s command in the courtyard of the Lord’s temple.

King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and demand an account.”

At the turn of the year, an Aramean army went to war against Joash. They entered Judah and Jerusalem and destroyed all the leaders of the people among them and sent all the plunder to the king of Damascus.

Although the Aramean army came with only a few men, the Lord handed over a vast army to them because the people of Judah had abandoned Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. So they executed judgment on Joash.

When the Arameans saw that Joash had many wounds, they left him. His servants conspired against him, and killed him on his bed, because he had shed the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. So he died, and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.

Concerning his sons, the many oracles about him, and the restoration of the Lord’s temple, they are recorded in the Writing of the Book of the Kings. His son Amaziah became king in his place.

Amaziah became king when he was 25 years old and reigned 29 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan; she was from Jerusalem.

He did what was right in the Lord’s sight but not wholeheartedly.

As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his grasp, he executed his servants who had murdered his father the king.

However, he did not put their children to death, because—as it is written in the Law, in the book of Moses, where the Lord commanded—“Fathers must not die because of children, and children must not die because of fathers, but each one will die for his own sin.”

Then Amaziah gathered Judah and assembled them according to ancestral house, according to commanders of thousands, and according to commanders of hundreds. He numbered those 20 years old or more for all Judah and Benjamin. He found there to be 300,000 choice men who could serve in the army, bearing spear and shield.

But if you go with them, do it! Be strong for battle! But God will make you stumble before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to make one stumble.”

So Amaziah released the division that came to him from Ephraim to go home. But they got very angry with Judah and returned home in a fierce rage.

After Amaziah came from the attack on the Edomites, he brought the gods of the Seirites and set them up as his gods. He worshiped before them and burned incense to them.

So the Lord’s anger was against Amaziah, and He sent a prophet to him, who said, “Why have you sought a people’s gods that could not deliver their own people from your hand?”

King Jehoash of Israel sent word to King Amaziah of Judah, saying, “The thistle that was in Lebanon sent a message to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son as a wife.’ Then a wild animal that was in Lebanon passed by and trampled the thistle.

But Amaziah would not listen, for this turn of events was from God in order to hand them over to their enemies because they went after the gods of Edom.

So King Jehoash of Israel advanced. He and King Amaziah of Judah faced off at Beth-shemesh in Judah.

Judah was routed before Israel, and each fled to his own tent.

He took all the gold, silver, all the utensils that were found with Obed-edom in God’s temple, the treasures of the king’s palace, and the hostages. Then he returned to Samaria.

The rest of the events of Amaziah’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

From the time Amaziah turned from following the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. However, men were sent after him to Lachish, and they put him to death there.

They carried him back on horses and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.

All the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.

Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king and reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah from Jerusalem.

He did what was right in the Lord’s sight as his father Amaziah had done.

Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod. Then he built cities in the vicinity of Ashdod and among the Philistines.

God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs that live in Gur-baal, and the Meunites.

Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, the Valley Gate, and the corner buttress, and he fortified them.

Since he had many cattle both in the Judean foothills and the plain, he built towers in the desert and dug many wells. And since he was a lover of the soil, he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands.

Uzziah had an army equipped for combat that went out to war by division according to their assignments, as recorded by Jeiel the court secretary and Maaseiah the officer under the authority of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders.

Under their authority was an army of 307,500 equipped for combat, a powerful force to help the king against the enemy.

He made skillfully designed devices in Jerusalem to shoot arrows and catapult large stones for use on the towers and on the corners. So his fame spread even to distant places, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.

But when he became strong, he grew arrogant and it led to his own destruction. He acted unfaithfully against the Lord his God by going into the Lord’s sanctuary to burn incense on the incense altar.

Azariah the priest, along with 80 brave priests of the Lord, went in after him.