2 Chronicles 15

1The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded.

2He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Yahweh is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”

3For many days Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without the law.

4But in their distress they returned to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and sought him, and he was found by them.

5And in those times there was no peace for the one going out or for the one coming in, because many disturbances were upon all the inhabitants of the lands.

6Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress.

7But as for you, be strong, and do not let your hands grow weak, for there is a reward for your work.

8And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable things from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Yahweh that was before the vestibule of Yahweh.

9And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the sojourners with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, because many from Israel had fallen to him when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.

10So they gathered at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of Asa's reign.

11On that day they sacrificed to Yahweh from the spoil they had brought: seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep.

12And they entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul.

13And everyone who would not seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, from small to great, from man to woman.

14And they swore to Yahweh with a loud voice, with shouting, and with trumpets and horns.

15And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, because they had sworn with all their heart and sought him with all their will, and he let himself be found by them, and Yahweh gave them rest all around.

16Even Maacah, the mother of King Asa, he removed from being queen mother, because she had made a dreadful image for Asherah; and Asa cut down her dreadful image, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

17But the high places were not removed from Israel; nevertheless, Asa’s heart was whole all his days.

18He brought into the house of God his father's holy gifts and his own holy gifts: silver, gold, and vessels.

19And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.