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Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded. 2 He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you, while you are with Him. 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 has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without the law; 4 but when they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, in their distress and sought him, He was found by them. 5 In those times it was not safe for anyone to come or go, because all the inhabitants of the lands were afflicted by many conflicts. 6 Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of adversity. 7 But as for you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work will be rewarded.”
8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he restored the altar of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.
9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who had settled among them, for a large number had defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.
10 They gathered together at 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 the plunder they had returned with. 12 They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul. 13 Any who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, were to be put death, whether small or great, man or woman. 14 They took an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with rams’ horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly. They sought after God with their whole desire, and He was found by them. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.
16 King Asa also removed Maacah, his grandmother, from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed it and burned it in the Kidron Valley. 17 Although the high places were not taken away from Israel, neven so, Asa’s heart remained loyal to God all his life. 18 He brought into God’s temple the consecrated gifts of his father and his own consecrated gifts of silver, gold, and utensils.
19 There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.