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KINGS OF THE JEWS 116 AMAZIAH 796–767 BCE Amaziah could not help feeling anxious when he ascended the throne of Judah. He was the son of a king who had been murdered in a plot hatched by pillars of the society he was to rule. The coup against his father, Joash, had involved important people whose support—or at least sufferance—was essential if he were to cling to his crown. Wisely, he began his reign in a cautious, low-keyed manner. He did not at first feel secure enough even to order the death of the men who assassinated his father. When that period of his uncertainty had passed and he finally had them executed , he refrained from invoking the common practice of the period of punishing their offspring as well. His restraint was probably prompted by recognition that eminent figures in Jerusalem had endorsed the actions of his father’s assassins . Only gradually did Amaziah gain the confidence that ultimately turned him recklessly ambitious and almost destroyed Judah’s independence. Having been bequeathed an army that had proved impotent against territorial encroachers and marauders during his father’s reign, Amaziah proceeded to rebuild it and reform its command structure. A census was taken of all Judaean males over twenty years of age to serve as a basis for conscripting a military force capable of restoring Judah’s earlier strength and influence. Once his army was restructured, trained, and properly equipped, Amaziah sent it into combat against the Edomites who had broken free of Judaean rule decades earlier. When their resistance was crushed, Judah regained control of lucrative southern trade routes and the wealth-producing mining regions east of the Dead Sea. His most notable victory, signifying Judah’s renewed mastery in the area, was the conquest of the fortified Edomite town of Sela, later known as Petra. But to the fury of Temple priests, he had stone idols of Edomite gods carried back to Jerusalem where he took to worshipping them. Meantime, a dispute had broken out with Israel to the north. Mercenaries had earlier been recruited from among the Israelites to join the Judaeans in the war with Edom. But they were dismissed before they could join the battle and share KINGS OF JUDAH 117 the spoils. Embittered, they looted and plundered Judaean towns on their way home. Amaziah had earlier established friendly relations with Israel’s King Jehoash but had come to believe his army was mighty enough to conquer the larger northern kingdom. Made rash by its success in Edom, he used the affair of the spurned mercenaries to embark on a war with Israel. Jehoash urged him not to turn the incident into a casus belli between Jews. “Stay at home,” he told him, “lest, provoking disaster, you fall, dragging Judah down with you.”[41] But having grown determined to unite the divided land of the Jewish people under his rule, Amaziah ignored the warning. He had, however, badly miscalculated the balance of strength between his army and Israel’s. His forces were quickly and decisively trounced and he himself was taken prisoner. The Israelites capped their victory in the field by marching on Jerusalem, plundering the treasures of the Temple, and taking senior Jerusalem figures hostage to guarantee they would suffer no further trouble from Judah. They also demolished part of Jerusalem’s city wall, making Judah’s capital vulnerable to reconquest by them if they deemed it necessary. The Israelites could have retained possession of the southern kingdom at the time, achieving Amaziah’s objective of reestablishing a single Jewish nation, but under their rule rather than his. The difficulties that might have been entailed and the prospect of resulting friction with neighboring states may have deterred them from such an undertaking. Having won, they were content to withdraw from Judah, though it was obliged to remain submissive to Israel, probably paying tribute. The captured Amaziah was freed and left to preside in ravaged Jerusalem over the results of his recklessness. He was faced with the same dilemma that had plagued the closing years of his father’s reign: he was surrounded by bitter and frustrated priests and officials and estranged from the leading families of the land. Conspiracy against him was inevitable, and he fled Jerusalem for his safety. But assassins pursued him to the city of Lachish, near the border with the Philistines, and killed him there. ...

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