Chapter 15
Further Reforms. 1 The spirit of God came upon Azariah, son of Oded. 2 He went forth to meet Asa and said to him: “Hear me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you when you are with him, and if you seek him he will be found; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.(A) 3 For a long time Israel was without a true God, without a priest-teacher, without instruction, 4 but when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.(B) 5 At that time there was no peace for anyone to go or come; rather, there were many terrors upon the inhabitants of the lands. 6 Nation crushed nation and city crushed city,(C) for God overwhelmed them with every kind of distress. 7 But as for you, be strong and do not slack off, for there shall be a reward for what you do.”(D)
8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy (Oded the prophet), he was encouraged to remove the detestable idols from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had taken in the highlands of Ephraim, and to restore the altar of the Lord which was before the vestibule of the Lord. 9 Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, together with those of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were resident with them; for many had defected to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord, his God, was with him. 10 They gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign, 11 and sacrificed to the Lord on that day seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep from the spoils they had brought. 12 (E)They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul; 13 and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, from least to greatest, man or woman. 14 They swore an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and with trumpets and horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it with their whole heart and sought him with complete desire. The Lord was found by them,(F) and gave them rest on every side.
16 (G)He also deposed Maacah, the mother of King Asa, from her position as queen mother because she had made an obscene object for Asherah; Asa cut down this object, smashed it, and burnt it in the Wadi Kidron. 17 The high places did not disappear from Israel, yet Asa’s heart was undivided as long as he lived. 18 He brought into the house of God his father’s and his own votive offerings: silver, gold, and vessels. 19 There was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
Footnotes
- 15:10–12
- 15:16
Cross references
- 15:2 : Jer 29:13–14; Hos 3:4–5.
- 15:4 : Dt 4:29–30.
- 15:6 : Is 19:2.
- 15:7 : Is 7:4; Jer 31:16.
- 15:12–13 : Neh 10:29–30.
- 15:15 : Dt 4:29.
- 15:16–18 : 1 Kgs 15:13–15.
