Amaziah

Amazi'ah (Hebrew Amatsyah', אֲמִציָה, strengthened by Jehovah, 2Ki 12:21; 2Ki 13:12; 2Ki 14:8; 2Ki 15:1; 1Ch 4:34; 1Ch 6:45; Am 7:10,12,14; elsewhere in the prolonged form Amatsya'hu, אֲמִציָהוּ; Sept. Α᾿μασίας, but Μαεσσίας in 1Ch 6:45), the name of four men.

1. A Levite, son of Hilkiah and father of Hashabiah, of the ancestry of Ethan the Merarite (1Ch 6:45), B.C. considerably ante 1014.

2. The son and successor of Joash (by Jehoaddan, a female of Jerusalem), and the ninth king on the separate throne of Judah; he was twenty-five years old at his accession, and reigned twenty-nine years, B.C. 837-808 (2Ki 14:1-2; 2Ch 25:1). His reign was marked, in general, by piety as well as energy, but was not without its faults (2Ki 14:3-4; 2Ch 25:2). He commenced his sovereignty by punishing the murderers of his father; and it is mentioned that he respected the law of Moses by not including the children in the doom of their parents, which seems to show that a contrary practice had previously existed (2Ki 14:5-7; 2Ch 25:3-5). The principal event of Amaziah's reign was his attempt to reimpose upon the Edomites the yoke of Judah, which they had cast off in the time of Jehoram (2Ki 8:20; comp.