 1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded. 2 He went to meet Asa, and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. And if you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel had been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law. 4 When they turned in their trouble to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in, but great tumult was on all the people of the lands. 6 Nation was beaten by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every distress. 7 But you be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. 8 When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities that he had taken from mount Ephraim. And he renewed the altar of the Lord before the porch of the Lord. 9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon. For they fell to him out of Israel in great numbers, when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10 They gathered to Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. 11 They offered to the Lord in that day part of the plunder that they had brought, 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. 12 They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul, 13 and that whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. 14 They swore to the Lord with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with ram's horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought Him with their whole desire. And He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around. 16 Also as to Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen mother, because she had made an idol in a grove. And Asa cut down her idol and stamped it and burned it at the river Kidron. 17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel. But the heart of Asa was perfect all his days. 18 He brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver and gold and vessels. 19 There was no war to the thirty fifth year of the reign of Asa.
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