2 Chronicles 13:1–16:14
13 In athe eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over bJudah. 2 He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was 1Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.
And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah set the battle in order with an army of valiant warriors, four hundred thousand choice men. Jeroboam also drew up in battle formation against him with eight hundred thousand choice men, mighty men of valor.
4 Then Abijah stood on Mount cZemaraim, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, and said, “Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel: 5 Should you not know that the Lord God of Israel dgave the dominion over Israel to David forever, to him and his sons, eby a covenant of salt? 6 Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and frebelled against his lord. 7 Then gworthless rogues gathered to him, and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was hyoung and inexperienced and could not withstand them. 8 And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hand of the sons of David; and you are a great multitude, and with you are the gold calves which Jeroboam imade for you as gods. 9 jHave you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests, like the peoples of other lands, kso that whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may be a priest of lthings that are not gods? 10 But as for us, the Lord is our mGod, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests who minister to the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties. 11 nAnd they burn to the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense; they also set the oshowbread in order on the pure gold table, and the lampstand of gold with its lamps pto burn every evening; for we keep the command of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken Him. 12 Now look, God Himself is with us as our qhead, rand His priests with sounding trumpets to sound the alarm against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper!”
13 But Jeroboam caused an ambush to go around behind them; so they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them. 14 And when Judah looked around, to their surprise the battle line was at both front and rear; and they scried out to the Lord, and the priests sounded the trumpets. 15 Then the men of Judah gave a shout; and as the men of Judah shouted, it happened that God tstruck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 And the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. 17 Then Abijah and his people struck them with a great slaughter; so five hundred thousand choice men of Israel fell slain. 18 Thus the children of Israel were subdued at that time; and the children of Judah prevailed, ubecause they relied on the Lord God of their fathers.
19 And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, and vEphrain 2with its villages. 20 So Jeroboam did not recover strength again in the days of Abijah; and the Lord wstruck him, and xhe died.
21 But Abijah grew mighty, married fourteen wives, and begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways, and his sayings are written in ythe 3annals of the prophet Iddo.
14 So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then aAsa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.
2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, 3 for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and bthe 1high places, and cbroke down the sacred pillars dand cut down the wooden images. 4 He commanded Judah to eseek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. 5 He also removed the 2high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. 6 And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him frest. 7 Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. 8 And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried 3shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew gbows; all these were mighty men of hvalor.
9 iThen Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to jMareshah. 10 So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. 11 And Asa kcried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is lnothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and min Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”
12 So the Lord nstruck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. 13 And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to oGerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and His army. And they carried away very much 4spoil. 14 Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for pthe fear of the Lord came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much 5spoil in them. 15 They also 6attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.
15 Now athe Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. 2 And he went out 1to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. bThe Lord is with you while you are with Him. cIf you seek Him, He will be found by you; but dif you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3 eFor a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a fteaching priest, and without glaw; 4 but hwhen in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. 5 And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 iSo nation was 2destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. 7 But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”
8 And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of 3Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities jwhich he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord. 9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and kthose who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
10 So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 lAnd they offered to the Lord 4at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the 5spoil they had brought. 12 Then they mentered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; 13 nand whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel owas to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14 Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. 15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and psought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them qrest all around.
16 Also he removed rMaachah, the 6mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of 7Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. 17 But sthe 8high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.
18 He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils. 19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, aBaasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, bthat he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 2 Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, 3 “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”
4 So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. 5 Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. 6 Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.
7 And at that time cHanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: d“Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. 8 Were ethe Ethiopians and fthe Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your ghand. 9 hFor