1    2   The spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, ‘Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him; if you look for him, he will let himself be found; if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3   For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest to interpret the law and without law. ^note 4   But when, in their distress, they turned to the Lord the God of Israel and sought him, he let himself be found by them. 5   At those times there was no safety for people as they went about their business; the inhabitants of every land had their fill of trouble; 6   there was ruin on every side, nation at odds with nation, city with city, for God harassed them with every kind of distress. 7   But now you must be strong and not let your courage fail; for your work will be rewarded.’ 8   When Asa heard these words, ^note he resolutely suppressed the loathsome idols in all Judah and Benjamin and in the cities which he had captured in the hill-country of Ephraim; and he repaired the altar of the Lord which stood before the vestibule of the Lord's house. ^note 9   Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and all who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon to reside among them; for great numbers had come over to him from Israel, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10   So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign, 11   and that day they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep from the spoil which they had brought. 12   And they entered into a covenant to seek guidance of the Lord the God of their fathers with all their heart and soul; 13   all who would not seek the Lord the God of Israel were to be put to death, young and old, men and women alike. 14   Then they bound themselves by an oath to the Lord, with loud shouts of acclamation while trumpets and horns sounded; 15   and all Judah rejoiced at the oath, because they had bound themselves with all their heart and had sought him earnestly, and he had let himself be found by them. 16    ^noteSo the Lord gave them security on every side. King Asa also deprived Maacah his grandmother ^note of her rank as queen mother because she had an obscene object made for the worship of Asherah; Asa cut it down, ground it to powder and burnt it in the gorge of the Kidron. 17   Although the hill-shrines were allowed to remain in Israel, Asa himself remained faithful all his life. 18   He brought into the house of

The kings from Rehoboam to Ahaz God all his father's votive offerings and his own, gold and silver and sacred vessels. 19   And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign.

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