2 Chronicles Chapter 15

Asa’s Reforms

¹ The Spirit of God came on Azariah Ben-Oded, ² and he went out to meet Asa,

“Listen, Asa, Judah, and Benjamin, Yahveh is with you when you’re with him. If you look for him, he’ll let you find him. If you leave him, he’ll leave you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, without law. ⁴ But in their distress they turned to Yahveh and looked for him, and he let them find him. ⁵ In those times, there wasn’t any peace to the ones who traveled; disturbances troubled the people in many countries. ⁶ Nation crushed nation, city crushed city, because God distressed them with all kinds of problems. ⁷ But you, be strong. Don’t lose courage; there’s reward for your work.”

⁸ When Asa heard Azariah’s prophecy, he gathered the courage to remove the detestable idols from Judah and Benjamin and the towns he’d captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He restored Yahveh’s altar that was in front of the vestibule. ⁹ He gathered Judah, Benjamin, and people from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon that lived with them; because many had defected to him from Israel when they saw Yahveh was with him. ¹⁰ They came together at Jerusalem in the third month of Asa’s fifteenth year. ¹¹ That day they sacrificed 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoils they’d brought. ¹² They entered into a covenant to look to Yahveh God of their ancestors with all their heart and soul. ¹³ Whoever wouldn’t look to him^Y would be executed, man or woman, great or small. ¹⁴ In addition, they shouted an oath to Yahveh with trumpets and rams’ horns. ¹⁵ Judah celebrated the oath, because they’d sworn with all their heart and sought him earnestly, and he let them find him. Yahveh gave them rest in every direction.                                                                                                                           2 Ch 15:1-15

¹⁶ Asa even removed his mother Maacah from being queen mother, because she’d set up a detestable Asherah pole. Asa cut it down, pulverized it, and burned it at the Brook Kidron. ¹⁷ He did not remove the high places from Israel, but his heart was blameless his whole life. ¹⁸ He brought to God’s Temple his and his fathers’ dedicated things: silver, gold, and various articles. ¹⁹ There wasn’t any war till his thirty-fifth year.   2 Ch 15:16-19