2 Chronicles 14–16

14So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then ^aAsa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

Asa Reigns in Judah

²Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, ³for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and ^bthe ¹high places, and ^cbroke down the sacred pillars ^dand cut down the wooden images. ⁴He commanded Judah to ^eseek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. ⁵He also removed the ²high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. ⁶And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him ^frest. ⁷Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the Lord our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. ⁸And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried ³shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew ^gbows; all these were mighty men of ^hvalor.

⁹ⁱThen Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to ^jMareshah. ¹⁰So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. ¹¹And Asa ^kcried out to the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is ^lnothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You, and ^min Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

¹²So the Lord ⁿstruck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. ¹³And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to ^oGerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the Lord and His army. And they carried away very much ⁴spoil. ¹⁴Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for ^pthe fear of the Lord came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much ⁵spoil in them. ¹⁵They also ⁶attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.

The Reforms of Asa

15Now ^athe Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. ²And he went out ¹to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. ^bThe Lord is with you while you are with Him. ^cIf you seek Him, He will be found by you; but ^dif you forsake Him, He will forsake you. ^3eFor a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a ^fteaching priest, and without ^glaw; ⁴but ^hwhen in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. ⁵And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. ⁶ⁱSo nation was ²destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. ⁷But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”

⁸And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of ³Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities ^jwhich he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord. ⁹Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and ^kthose who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

¹⁰So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. ^11lAnd they offered to the Lord ⁴at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the ⁵spoil they had brought. ¹²Then they ^mentered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; ¹³ⁿand whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel ^owas to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. ¹⁴Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. ¹⁵And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and ^psought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them ^qrest all around.

¹⁶Also he removed ^rMaachah, the ⁶mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of ⁷Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. ¹⁷But ^sthe ⁸high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

¹⁸He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils. ¹⁹And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

Asa’s Treaty with Syria

16In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, ^aBaasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, ^bthat he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ²Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, ³“Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

⁴So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. ⁵Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. ⁶Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Message to Asa

⁷And at that time ^cHanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: ^d“Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. ⁸Were ^ethe Ethiopians and ^fthe Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your ^ghand. ^9hFor the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this ⁱyou have done foolishly; therefore from now on ^jyou shall have wars.” ¹⁰Then Asa was angry with the seer, and ^kput him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

Illness and Death of Asa

^11lNote that the acts of Asa, first and last, are indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ¹²And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he ^mdid not seek the Lord, but the physicians.

¹³ⁿSo Asa ¹rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴They buried him in his own tomb, which he had ²made for himself in the City of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled ^owith spices and various ingredients prepared in a mixture of ointments. They made ^pa very great burning for him.