2 Chronicles 14–16

14Abijah rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place.^k During his reign the land experienced peace for ten years.

JUDAH’S KING ASA

²Asa did what was good and right^l in the sight of the Lord his God. ³He removed the pagan altars and the high places. He shattered their sacred pillars and chopped down their Asherah poles.^{m 4}He told the people of Judah to seek the Lord God of their ancestors and to carry out the instruction and the commands. ⁵He also removed the high places and the shrines^A from all the cities of Judah,ⁿ and the kingdom experienced peace under him.

⁶Because the land experienced peace, Asa built fortified cities in Judah.^o No one made war with him in those days because the Lord gave him rest.^{p 7}So he said to the people of Judah, “Let’s build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, with doors and bars.^q The land is still ours because we sought the Lord our God. We sought him and he gave us rest on every side.” So they built and succeeded.

THE CUSHITE INVASION

⁸Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah bearing large shields and spears,^r and two hundred eighty thousand from Benjamin bearing regular shields and drawing the bow. All these were valiant warriors. ⁹Then Zerah the Cushite came against them with an army of one million men and three hundred^B chariots. They came as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰So Asa marched out against him and lined up in battle formation in Zephathah Valley at Mareshah.^s

¹¹Then Asa cried out to the Lord his God,^t “Lord, there is no one besides you to help the mighty and those without strength. Help us, Lord our God, for we depend on you,^u and in your name we have come against this large army. Lord, you are our God. Do not let a mere mortal hinder you.”

¹²So the Lord routed the Cushites before Asa and before Judah,^v and the Cushites fled. ¹³Then Asa and the people who were with him pursued them as far as Gerar.^w The Cushites fell until they had no survivors, for they were crushed before the Lord and his army. So the people of Judah carried off a great supply of loot. ¹⁴Then they attacked all the cities around Gerar because the terror of the Lord was on them.^x They also plundered all the cities, since there was a great deal of plunder in them. ¹⁵They also attacked the tents of the herdsmen and captured many sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

REVIVAL UNDER ASA

15The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded.^{y 2}So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you^z when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you,^a but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.^{b 3}For many years Israel has been without the true God,^c without a teaching priest, and without instruction,^{d 4}but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought him, he was found by them. ⁵In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. ⁶Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress. ⁷But as for you, be strong; don’t give up,^A for your work has a reward.”^e

⁸When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.^f He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.^{g 9}Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.^h

¹⁰They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. ¹¹At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought.^{i 12}Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their soul.^{j 13}Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old,^B man or woman.^{k 14}They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns. ¹⁵All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They had sought him with all sincerity, and he was found by them.^l So the Lord gave them rest on every side.^m

¹⁶King Asaⁿ also removed Maacah, his grandmother,^o from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley.^{p 17}The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholeheartedly devoted his entire life.^{D 18}He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.

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

ASA’S TREATY WITH ARAM

16In the thirty-sixth year of Asa,^q Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to keep anyone from leaving or coming to King Asa of Judah. ²So Asa brought out the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace and sent it to Aram’s King Ben-hadad, who lived in Damascus, saying, ³“There’s a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go break your treaty with Israel’s King Baasha so that he will withdraw from me.”

⁴Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies to the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. ⁵When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stopped his work. ⁶Then King Asa brought all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then he built Geba and Mizpah with them.

HANANI’S REBUKE OF ASA

⁷At that time, the seer Hanani^r came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and have not depended on the Lord your God,^s the army of the king of Aram has escaped from you. ⁸Were not the Cushites and Libyans a vast army with many chariots and horsemen?^t When you depended on the Lord, he handed them over to you.^{u 9}For the eyes of the Lord roam throughout the earth^v to show himself strong for those who are wholeheartedly devoted to him.^w You have been foolish in this matter. Therefore, you will have wars from now on.” ¹⁰Asa was enraged with the seer and put him in prison^A because of his anger over this. And Asa mistreated some of the people at that time.

ASA’S DEATH

¹¹Note that the events^x of Asa’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹²In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa developed a disease in his feet, and his disease became increasingly severe. Yet even in his disease he didn’t seek the Lord but only the physicians. ¹³Asa rested with his ancestors; he died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴He was buried in his own tomb that he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him out in a coffin that was full of spices and various mixtures of prepared ointments;^a then they made a great fire in his honor.^b