2 Chronicles 15:1–9

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