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Ahijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. His son Asa succeeded him as king, and in his days the land had peace for ten years.
2 Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. 3 He removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places. He broke down their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherah poles. 4 He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to obey the law and the commands. 5 He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was at peace under him. 6 Asa built fortified cities in Judah, and the land was at peace. He had no war in those years, because the Lord had given him rest.
7 He said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and surround them with walls and towers, and with gates and bars. The land is still ours, 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.
8 Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men from Judah, bearing large shields and spears, and two hundred and eighty thousand from Benjamin, bearing shields and drawing the bow. All these were brave warriors.
9 Zerah the Cushite came out against them with an army of thousands upon thousands of men and three hundred chariots, and they came as far as Mareshah. 10 Asa went against him, and they lined up in battle formation in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
11 Asa cried out to the Lord his God: “Lord, there is no one like You to help both the mighty and those who have no strength alike. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You.”
12 So the Lord struck down the Cushites before Asa and before Judah, and the Cushites fled. 13 Then Asa his army pursued them as far as Gerar. So many Cushites fell that they could not recover, for they were crushed before the Lord and before His army. The men of Judah carried away a large amount of plunder. 14 Then they attacked all the cities around Gerar, for the terror of the Lord had fallen upon them. They also plundered all these cities, since there was a large amount of plunder in them. 15 They also attacked the camps of the herdsmen and captured many sheep, goats, and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.