Amaziah's army
5 Then Amaziah brought all the people of Judah together. For each of their clans he chose officers to lead groups of 1,000 men and groups of 100 men. He did that for the clans of Judah's tribe and the clans of Benjamin's tribe. He counted all the men who were 20 years old or older who could fight with spears and shields. There were 300,000 of them. 6 He also paid 3,500 kilograms of silver for 100,000 soldiers from Israel to join his army.
25:5The kingdom of Judah had people from two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.
7 But a prophet went to meet Amaziah and he said, ‘Please sir, do not take these soldiers from Israel to go and fight beside your own soldiers. The Lord has turned away from the tribe of Ephraim and all of Israel. 8 The Lord will allow your enemies to win against you, even if you fight very well. God has the power to help you, but he can also cause your enemies to win against you.’
9 Amaziah said to God's prophet, ‘But I have paid 3,500 kilograms of silver for these soldiers from Israel. What should I do about that?’ The prophet replied, ‘The Lord is able to give you much more than all that money!’
10 So Amaziah sent away the soldiers who had come from Ephraim. He told them to go back to their homes. So they became very angry with Judah's people. As they went home, they had angry thoughts.
25:10The kingdom of Israel in the north had people from 10 tribes, but the most important tribe was Ephraim. The northern kingdom of Israel is sometimes called ‘Ephraim’.
