¹God’s Spirit came to Azariah, son of Oded. ²Azariah went to Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all you men from Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you will dedicate your lives to serving him, he will accept you. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. ³For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a priest who taught ⸤correctly⸥, and without Moses’ Teachings. ⁴But when they were in trouble, they turned to the Lord God of Israel. When they searched for him, he let them find him. ⁵At those times no one could come and go in peace, because everyone living in the land had a lot of turmoil. ⁶One nation crushed another nation; one city crushed another. God had tormented them with every kind of trouble. ⁷But you must remain strong and not become discouraged. Your actions will be rewarded.”

⁸When Asa heard the prophet Oded’s words of prophecy, he was encouraged and put away the detestable idols from all of Judah, Benjamin, and the cities he had captured in the mountains of Ephraim. He also repaired the Lord’s altar in front of the Lord’s entrance hall.

⁹Then Asa gathered all the people from Judah and Benjamin and the foreigners who had come from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. (Many of them had come to him from Israel when they saw that Asa’s God, the Lord, was with him.)

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