Amatzya ben Yoash (Amatzyahu) (II Kings 14, I Chronicles 3:12, II Chronicles 25)
Ninth king of Yehuda. Amatzya is righteous and walks in the ways of David his ancestor, although he does allow his subjects to continue sacrificing on the high places.
Amatzya avenges his father's death by killing Yoash's assassins. The king is given credit for not also killing the killers' sons, in fulfillment of the verse in Devarim (Deuteronomy 16:24) absolving children of their parents' sins.
Amatzya fights and defeats Edom, following which he brazenly challenges Israel's king Yehoahaz ben Yehoash to war. Yehoash warns Amatzya to back down, but the Judean king refuses and is soundly defeated. Amatzya is captured, Jerusalem's wall is smashed, and the Temple and palace gold and treasures are looted by Yehoash. Amatzya is captured in this war but is released and is allowed to return to Jerusalem. A conspiracy against him there forces him to flee to Lachish but Amatzya is followed there and killed.
Amatzya is buried in Jerusalem and the Judeans appoint his sixteen-year-old son Uzziah as his successor. According to the Midrash, Amatzya was the brother of Amotz, father of Yeshayahu (Babylonian Talmud, Megilla 10b).
Courtesy of Tanakh Profiles - www.tanakhprofiles.org