9 All Israel^(A) was listed in the genealogies recorded in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. They were taken captive to Babylon^(B) because of their unfaithfulness.^(C)

The People in Jerusalem^(D)

² Now the first to resettle on their own property in their own towns^(E) were some Israelites, priests, Levites and temple servants.^(F)

³ Those from Judah, from Benjamin, and from Ephraim and Manasseh who lived in Jerusalem were:

¹⁴ The Levites^(A) even abandoned their pasturelands and property^(B) and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord ¹⁵ when he appointed^(C) his own priests^(D) for the high places and for the goat^(E) and calf^(F) idols he had made. ¹⁶ Those from every tribe of Israel^(G) who set their hearts on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

⁸ When Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Azariah son of^[a] Oded the prophet, he took courage. He removed the detestable idols^(A) from the whole land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns he had captured^(B) in the hills of Ephraim. He repaired the altar^(C) of the Lord that was in front of the portico of the Lord’s temple.

⁹ Then he assembled all Judah and Benjamin and the people from Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon who had settled among them, for large numbers^(D) had come over to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

²⁵ The entire assembly of Judah rejoiced, along with the priests and Levites and all who had assembled from Israel^(A), including the foreigners who had come from Israel and also those who resided in Judah.

⁶ The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the towns of Judah also brought a tithe^(A) of their herds and flocks and a tithe of the holy things dedicated to the Lord their God, and they piled them in heaps.^(B)