1And upon Azariah son of Oded the Spirit of God came.
2And he went out before Asa and said to him: “Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you when you are with him; and if you seek him, he will let himself be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.
3Now for many days Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without instruction.
4But in its distress it turned to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and they sought him, and he let himself be found by them.
5And in those times there was no peace for the one going out or the one coming in, for great turmoils were upon all the inhabitants of the lands.
6And they were crushed, nation against nation and city against city, for God threw them into turmoil with every kind of distress.
7But you, be strong, and do not let your hands grow slack, for there is a reward for your work.”
8And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the detestable things from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of Yahweh that was before the porch of Yahweh.
9And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim and Manasseh and Simeon who were sojourning among them — for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.
10And they gathered at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
11And on that day they sacrificed to Yahweh from the plunder they had brought: seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats.
12And they entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their self.
13And anyone who would not seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, from small to great, from man to woman.
14And they swore to Yahweh with a great voice and with a shout, and with trumpets and with rams’ horns.
15And all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for with all their heart they had sworn, and with all their goodwill they had sought him, and he let himself be found by them; and Yahweh gave them rest all around.
16And also Maacah, the mother of King Asa — he removed her from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image for Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and pulverized it and burned it in the Wadi Kidron.
17But the high places were not removed from Israel; yet the heart of Asa was whole all his days.
18And he brought into the house of God the holy things of his father and his own holy things: silver and gold and vessels.
19And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
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