Amathus (A/iaSoiV, -ovvroc, also r« 'A/ia3«), a strongly-fortified town beyond the Jordan, which Eu- sebius and Jerome (Onomasf. s. v. iEtham) place twen- ty-one Roman miles south of Pella. It was taken by Alexander Jannasus (Josephus, War, i, 4, 3; Ant. xiii, 13, 3), and its importance is shown by the fact that Gabinius made it the seat of one of the five jurisdic- tions (pvvidpui) into which he divided the country {Ant. xiv, 5,4; War, i, 8, 5). Josephus elsewhere {Ant. xvii, 10, 6) mentions that a palace was burnt at Amatha (q. v.) on the Jordan, which was probably the same place. It is mentioned as the seat of a Christian bishopric at the Council of Chalcedon (Concil. iv, 118). Reland (Palcest. p. 559 sq.) thinks it is mentioned in the Talmud by the name of A mat 'hit (1IH12S), and that it may be the same with Ramoth-Gilead. Burckhardt passed the ruins of an ancient city standing on the de- clivity of the mountain, called Amata, near the Jor- dan, and a little to the north of the Zerka or jabbok; and was told that several columns remain standing, and also some large buildings (Travels, p. 346). This is doubtless the site (Van de Velde, Memoir, p. 284), although not quite so far south as the Onomasticon would make it (Raumer, Paliist. p. 213).
Amaury. See Amaleic.
Amazi'ah (Heb. Amatsyah', iTPSttSt, strengthened by Jehovah, 2 Kings xii, 21 ; xiii, 12 ; xiv, 8 ; xv, 1 ; 1 Chron. iv, 34; vi, 45; Amos vii4 10, 12, 14; else- where in the prolonged form Amatsya'hu, 'fPU^X; Sept. 'AjUflffittc, but Maioaiag in 1 Chron. vi, 45), the name of four men.
1. A Levite, son of Hilkiah and father of Hashabi- ah, of the ancestry of Ethan the Merarite (1 Chron. vi, 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 sep- arate throne of Judah; he was twenty-five years old at his accession, and reigned twenty-nine years, B.C. 837-808 (2 Kings xiv, 1,2; 2 Chron. xxv, 1). His reign was marked, in general, by piety as well as en- ergy, but was not without its faults (2 Kings xiv, 3, 4 ; 2 Chron. xxv, 2). He commenced his sovereign- ty by punishing the murderers of his father ; and it is
AMAZIAH
190
AMBASSADOR
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 pre- viously existed (2 Kings xiv, 5-7 ; 2 Chron. xxv, 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 (2 Kings viii, 20 ; comp. 1 Kings xxii, 48). The strength of Edom is evinced by the fact that Amaziah consider- ed the unaided power of his own kingdom, although stated to have consisted of 300,000 troops, unequal to this undertaking, and therefore hired an auxiliary force of 100,000 men from the king of Israel for 100 talents of silver (2 Chron. xxv, 5, G). This is the first example of a mercenary army that occurs in the his- tory of the Jews. It did not, however, render any other service than that of giving Amaziah an oppor- tunity of manifesting that he knew his true place in the Hebrew Constitution, as the viceroy and vassal of the King Jehovah. A prophet commanded him, in the name of the Lord, to send hack the auxiliaries, on the ground that the state of alienation from God in which the kingdom of Israel lay rendered such as- sistance not only useless, but dangerous. The king obeyed this seemingly hard command, and sent the men home, although by doing so he not only lost their services, but the 100 talents, which had been al- ready paid, and incurred the resentment of the Israel- ites, who were naturally exasperated at the indignity shown to them (2 Chron. xxv, 7-10, 13). This exas- peration they indicated by plundering the towns and destroying the people on their homeward* march (Kit- to's Daily Bible IUustr. in loc.). The obedience of Amaziah was rewarded by a great victor}- over the Edomites (2 Chron. xxv, 14-16), ten thousand of whom were slain in battle, and ten thousand more savagely destroyed by being hurled down from the high cliffs of their native mountains (2 Chron. xxv, 11, 12). He even took the city of Petra (q. v.) by assanlt, and changed its name from Selah to Joktheel (2 Kings xiv, 7). But the Edomites afterward were avenged; for among the goods which fell to the con- queror were some of their idols, which, although im- potent to deliver their own worshippers, Amaziah be- took himself to worship(\Vithof, De A masia deos Edom. secum abducente, Ling. 1768). This proved his ruin (2 Chron. xxv, 14-16). Puffed up by his late victo- ries, he thought also of reducing the ten tribes under his dominion, and sent a challenge to the rival king- dom to meet him in a pitched battle. After a scorn- ful reply, he was defeated by King Joash of Israel, who carried him a prisoner to Jerusalem, which, ac- cording to Josephus (Ant. ix, 9, 3), opened its gates to the conqueror under a threat that otherwise he would put Amaziah to death — a statement evidently made conjeeturally to explain the fact that the cuy was taken apparently without resistance (2 Kings xiv, 13). Joash broke down a great part of the city wall on the side toward the Israelitish frontier, plundered the city, and even laid his hands upon the sacred things of the temple. lie, however, left Amaziah on the throne, but not without taking hostages for his good behavior (2 Kings xiv, 8-14; 2 Chron. xxv, 17-24), B.C. cir. 824. The disasters which Amaziah's infatu- ation had brought upon Judah probably occasioned the conspiracy in whirl, he lost his life, although a space of fifteen years intervened (2 Kings xiv, 17). On re- ceding intelligence of this conspiracy he hastened to throw himself into the fortress ofLachish ; but he was pursued ami slain by the conspirators, who brought back his body "upon horses" to Jerusalem for inter- ment in the royal sepulchre (2 Kings xiv, 19, 20; 2 Chron. xxv, 27, 28). His name, for some reason, is omitted in our Saviour's genealogy ( .Matt, i, s ; comp. 1 Chron. iii, 12).— Kitto. See Judah, Kingdom of.