15Now Azariah the son of Oded—the Spirit of God came upon him. ²And he went out before Asa and said to him, “Hear me, O Asa and all of Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you while you are with him. And if you will seek him he will be found by you. But if you forsake him he will forsake you. ³Now Israel has been without the true God many days, and without a teaching priest, and without law, ⁴but at its trouble he returned to Yahweh, the God of Israel. They sought him, and he was found by them. ⁵And in those times there was no peace for the one going out and the one coming in, for great tumults were upon all the inhabitants of the lands. ⁶Nation was crushed by nation, and city was against city, for God threw them into confusion by all sorts of trouble. ⁷But as for you, be strong and let not your hands be weak, for there is reward for your labor.”

⁸And when Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the vile idols from all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim, and he repaired the altar of Yahweh that was in front of the portico of Yahweh.

⁹And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those sojourning with them, from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for many had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.

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