2 Chronicles 15

Revival Under Asa

15The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded. ^h2So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you ⁱwhen you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, ^jbut if you abandon Him, He will abandon you. ^k3For many years Israel has been without the true God, ^lwithout a teaching priest, and without instruction, ^m4but 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 be discouraged, ⁿfor your work has a reward.” ^o

⁸When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. ^pHe renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple. ^q9Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him. ^r

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 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep from all the plunder they had brought. ^s12Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their mind and all their heart. ^t13Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old, ^uman or woman. ^v14They 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 with all their mind. They had sought Him with all their heart, and He was found by them. ^wSo the Lord gave them rest on every side. ^x

¹⁶King Asa ^yalso removed Maacah, his grandmother, ^zafrom 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. ^b17The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted his entire life. ^c18He 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.