King Amaziah (Judah)

Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah at 25. He executed the servants who had murdered his father but spared their children, citing the Torah's rule that "the fathers shall not be put to death for the children" (Deuteronomy 24:16), one of the few places where Kings quotes the law word for word. He crushed Edom in the Valley of Salt, killing 10,000, and captured Sela, renaming it Joktheel. Chronicles adds that he dismissed 100,000 hired Israelite soldiers at a prophet's warning, who then plundered Judah's towns, and that he brought home Edom's gods and worshipped them (2 Chronicles 25).

Flushed with victory, he challenged Jehoash of Israel, who answered with a fable: a thistle in Lebanon asked a cedar for its daughter, and a wild beast trampled the thistle. They met at Beth-shemesh; Judah was routed, Amaziah captured, and Jehoash tore down 400 cubits of Jerusalem's wall, from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, and carried off the Temple and palace treasures and hostages. Amaziah outlived Jehoash by fifteen years but was finally hunted down by conspirators at Lachish and brought back on horses for burial in Jerusalem (2 Kings 14:1–22).