II Chronicles 15 Asa Abolishes Idolatry and Renews the Lord's Covenant

 II Chronicles 15

Asa Abolishes Idolatry and Renews the Lord's Covenant

1 Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Obed.

2 And 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; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will be forsaken you."

3 And Israel was many days without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

4 But when in their distress they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found.

5 And in those days there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, but great disturbances for all the inhabitants of the land.

6 For nation was broken against nation, and city against city, for God had troubled them with all their distress. 

7 But 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 the prophet the son of Obed, he took courage and removed the abominations from all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He also repaired the altar of the Lord that was before the porch of the Lord.

9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin together, and with them the strangers from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for there were very many people coming to him from Israel, because they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

10 They assembled at Jerusalem in the third month, in the tenth year of the reign of Asa.

11 On that same day they offered a sacrifice to the Lord of the spoil that they had brought: six hundred oxen and six thousand sheep.

12 And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; 

13 And that whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, from the least to the greatest, from man to woman. 

14 And they swore to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, and with trumpets and cornets. 

15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and with all their will they sought him, and they found him: and the Lord gave them rest round about. 

16 And he also deposed Maacah the mother of King Asa, so that she was no longer queen; because she had made an abominable idol for the Asherah; and Asa destroyed her abominable idol, and broke it in pieces, and burned it at the Kidron Valley. 

17 But the high places were not removed from Israel; yet Asa's heart was perfect all his days.

18 And he brought the things that his father had dedicated, and the things that he himself had dedicated to the house of God, silver, and gold, and vessels.

19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.