2 Chronicles 15

Revival under Asa

1 The Spirit of God came on Azariah son of Oded.  * 15:1 2Ch 20:14; 24:202 So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me. The Lord is with you  * 15:2 2Ch 20:17 when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you,  * 15:2 Dt 4:29; 2Ch 15:15; Jr 29:13–14 but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.  * 15:2 1Ch 28:93 For many years Israel has been without the true God,  * 15:3 1Kg 12:28–33 without a teaching priest, and without instruction,  * 15:3 Lv 10:8–11; 2Ch 17:94 but when they turned to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and sought him, he was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace for those who went about their daily activities because the residents of the lands had many conflicts. 6 Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every possible distress. 7 But as for you, be strong; don’t give up,  * 15:7 Lit don’t let your hands drop for your work has a reward."  * 15:7 Jos 1:7,9

8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the abhorrent idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim.  * 15:8 2Ch 13:19 He renovated the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.  * 15:8 2Ch 4:1; 8:129 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, as well as those from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing among them, for they had defected to him from Israel in great numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.  * 15:9 2Ch 11:16

10 They were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 11 At that time they sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred cattle and seven thousand sheep and goats from all the plunder they had brought.  * 15:11 2Ch 14:13–1512 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their ancestors with all their heart and all their soul.  * 15:12 2Ch 23:1613 Whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, young or old,  * 15:13 Or insignificant or great man or woman.  * 15:13 Ex 22:20; Dt 13:6–9; 17:2–714 They took an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They had sought him with all sincerity, and he was found by them.  * 15:15 2Ch 15:2 So the Lord gave them rest on every side.  * 15:15 2Ch 14:6–7

16 King Asa  * 15:16–18 1Kg 15:13–15 also removed Maacah, his grandmother,  * 15:16 Litmother; 1Kg 15:2; 2Ch 11:22,* 15:16 1Kg 15:2; 2Ch 11:22 from 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.  * 15:16 2Ch 14:2–517 The high places were not taken away from Israel; nevertheless, Asa was wholeheartedly devoted his entire life.  * 15:17 Lit wholehearted all his days18 He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into God’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.

19 There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.