1    ^noteAbijah rested with his forefathers and was buried in the city of David; and he was succeeded on the throne by his son Asa. In his days the land was at peace for ten years.

2    ^noteAsa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 3   He suppressed the foreign altars and the hill-shrines, smashed the sacred pillars and hacked down the sacred poles, 4   and ordered Judah to seek guidance of the Lord the God of their fathers and to keep the law and the commandments. 5   He also suppressed the hill-shrines and the incense-altars in all the cities, and the kingdom was at peace under him. 6   He built fortified cities in Judah, for the land was at peace. He had no war to fight during those years, because the Lord had given him security. 7   He said to the men of Judah, ‘Let us build these cities and fortify them, with walls round them, and towers and barred gates. The land still lies open before us. Because we have sought guidance of the Lord our God, he has sought us and given us security on every side.’ So they built and prospered.

8   Asa had an army equipped with shields and spears; three hundred thousand men came from Judah, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, shield-bearers and archers; all were valiant warriors. 9   Zerah the Cushite came out against them with an army a million strong and three hundred chariots. 10   When he reached Mareshah, Asa came out to meet him and they took up position in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11   Asa called upon the Lord his God and said, ‘There is none like thee, O Lord, to help men, whether strong or weak; help us, O Lord our God, for on thee we rely and in thy name we have come out against this horde. O Lord, thou art our God, how can man vie with thee?’ 12   So the Lord gave Asa and Judah victory over the Cushites and they fled, and Asa and his men pursued them as far as Gerar. 13   The Cushites broke before the Lord and his army, and many of them fell mortally wounded; and Judah carried off great loads of spoil. 14   They

The kings from Rehoboam to Ahaz destroyed all the cities around Gerar, for the Lord had struck the people with panic; and they plundered the cities, finding rich spoil in them all. 15   They also killed the herdsmen and seized many sheep and camels, and then they returned to Jerusalem.

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