2 Chronicles 14:2–15

²Asa pleased the Lord, his God, by doing what was right and good. ³He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship, broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah. ⁴He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands. ⁵Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule. ⁶He built fortifications for the cities of Judah during this time, and for several years there was no war, because the Lord gave him peace. ⁷He said to the people of Judah, “Let us fortify the cities by building walls and towers, and gates that can be shut and barred. We have control of the land because we have done the will of the Lord our God. He has protected us and given us security on every side.” And so they built and prospered. ⁸King Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, armed with shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin, armed with shields and bows. All of them were brave, well-trained men.

⁹An Ethiopian^v named Zerah invaded Judah with an army of a million men and 300 chariots and advanced as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰Asa went out to fight him, and both sides took up their positions in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah. ¹¹Asa prayed to the Lord his God, “O Lord, you can help a weak army as easily as a powerful one. Help us now, O Lord our God, because we are relying on you, and in your name we have come out to fight against this huge army. Lord, you are our God; no one can hope to defeat you.”

¹²The Lord defeated the Ethiopian^w army when Asa and the Judean arm attacked them. They fled, ¹³and Asa and his troops pursued them as far as Gerar. So many of the Ethiopians^x were killed that the army was unable to rally and fight.^y They were overpowered by the Lord and his army, and the army took large amounts of loot. ¹⁴Then they were able to destroy the cities in the area around Gerar, because the people there were terrified of the Lord. The army plundered all those cities and captured large amounts of loot. ¹⁵They also attacked the camps of some shepherds, capturing large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.