The Reforms of Asa

15 Now ^(A)the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. ² And he went out ^[a]to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. ^(B)The Lord is with you while you are with Him. ^(C)If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but ^(D)if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. ^3 (E)For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a ^(F)teaching priest, and without ^(G)law; ⁴ but ^(H)when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. ⁵ And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. ^6 (I)So nation was ^[b]destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. ⁷ But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”

⁸ And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of ^[c]Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities ^(J)which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord. ⁹ Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and ^(K)those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

¹⁰ So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. ^11 (L)And they offered to the Lord ^[d]at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the ^[e]spoil they had brought. ¹² Then they ^(M)entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; ^13 (N)and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel ^(O)was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. ¹⁴ Then they took an oath before the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. ¹⁵ And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and ^(P)sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them ^(Q)rest all around.

¹⁶ Also he removed ^(R)Maachah, the ^[f]mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of ^[g]Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. ¹⁷ But ^(S)the ^[h]high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

¹⁸ He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils. ¹⁹ And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

Asa’s Treaty with Syria^(T)

16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, ^(U)Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, ^(V)that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ² Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, ³ “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

⁴ So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. ⁵ Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. ⁶ Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Message to Asa

⁷ And at that time ^(W)Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: ^(X)“Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were ^(Y)the Ethiopians and ^(Z)the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the Lord, He delivered them into your ^(AA)hand. ^9 (AB)For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this ^(AC)you have done foolishly; therefore from now on ^(AD)you shall have wars.” ¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the seer, and ^(AE)put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

Illness and Death of Asa^(AF)

^11 (AG)Note that the acts of Asa, first and last, are indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he ^(AH)did not seek the Lord, but the physicians.

^13 (AI)So Asa ^[i]rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴ They buried him in his own tomb, which he had ^[j]made for himself in the City of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled ^(AJ)with spices and various ingredients prepared in a mixture of ointments. They made ^(AK)a very great burning for him.

The Reigns of Elah, Zimri, Omri, and Ahab

16 Then the word of the Lord came to ^(A)Jehu the son of ^(B)Hanani, against ^(C)Baasha, saying: ^2 (D)“Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and ^(E)you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, ³ surely I will ^(F)take^[a] away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like ^(G)the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ⁴ The dogs shall eat ^(H)whoever belongs to Baasha and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the fields.”

⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did, and his might, ^(I)are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ⁶ So Baasha ^[b]rested with his fathers and was buried in ^(J)Tirzah. Then Elah his son reigned in his place.

⁷ And also the word of the Lord came by the prophet ^(K)Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because ^(L)he killed them.

Elah Reigns in Israel

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel, and reigned two years in Tirzah. ^9 (M)Now his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, ^(N)steward^[c] of his house in Tirzah. ¹⁰ And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹ Then it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he was seated on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he ^(O)did not leave him one male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends. ¹² Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, ^(P)according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, ¹³ for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, by which they had sinned and by which they had made Israel sin, in provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger ^(Q)with their ^[d]idols.

¹⁴ Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Zimri Reigns in Israel

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri had reigned in Tirzah seven days. And the people were encamped ^(R)against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. ¹⁶ Now the people who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired and also has killed the king.” So all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. ¹⁷ Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ And it happened, when Zimri saw that the city was ^[e]taken, that he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house ^[f]down upon himself with fire, and died, ¹⁹ because of the sins which he had committed in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(S)in walking in the ^(T)way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he had committed to make Israel sin.

²⁰ Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the treason he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Omri Reigns in Israel

²¹ Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. ²² But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri reigned. ²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and reigned twelve years. Six years he reigned in ^(U)Tirzah. ²⁴ And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; then he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, ^(V)Samaria,^[g] after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill. ^25 (W)Omri did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and did worse than all who were before him. ²⁶ For he ^(X)walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin, provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their ^(Y)idols.^[h]

²⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²⁸ So Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. Then Ahab his son reigned in his place.

Ahab Reigns in Israel

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. ³⁰ Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. ³¹ And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(Z)that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the ^(AA)Sidonians; ^(AB)and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³² Then he set up an altar for Baal in ^(AC)the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. ^33 (AD)And Ahab made a ^[i]wooden image. Ahab ^(AE)did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ³⁴ In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation ^[j]with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, ^(AF)according to the word of the Lord, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.

Greeting

¹ Paul, a ^(A)prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother,

To Philemon our beloved friend and fellow laborer, ² to ^[a]the beloved Apphia, ^(B)Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Philemon’s Love and Faith

^4 (C)I thank my God, making mention of you always in my prayers, ^5 (D)hearing of your love and faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, ⁶ that the sharing of your faith may become effective ^(E)by the acknowledgment of ^(F)every good thing which is in ^[b]you in Christ Jesus. ⁷ For we ^[c]have great ^[d]joy and ^[e]consolation in your love, because the ^[f]hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother.

The Plea for Onesimus

⁸ Therefore, though I might be very bold in Christ to command you what is fitting, ⁹ yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you—being such a one as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ— ¹⁰ I appeal to you for my son ^(G)Onesimus, whom I have begotten while in my chains, ¹¹ who once was unprofitable to you, but now is profitable to you and to me.

¹² I am sending him ^[g]back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own ^[h]heart, ¹³ whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel. ¹⁴ But without your consent I wanted to do nothing, ^(H)that your good deed might not be by compulsion, as it were, but voluntary.

¹⁵ For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, ¹⁶ no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the ^(I)flesh and in the Lord.

Philemon’s Obedience Encouraged

¹⁷ If then you count me as a partner, receive him as you would me. ¹⁸ But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account. ¹⁹ I, Paul, am writing with my own ^(J)hand. I will repay—not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self besides. ²⁰ Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Lord.

^21 (K)Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. ²² But, meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, for ^(L)I trust that ^(M)through your prayers I shall be granted to you.

Farewell

^23 (N)Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, ²⁴ as do ^(O)Mark, ^(P)Aristarchus, ^(Q)Demas, ^(R)Luke, my fellow laborers.

^25 (S)The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.