14 And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Asa his son then reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

Asa, King of Judah^(A)

² Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. ³ He took down the foreign altars and high places, and he shattered the pillars and cut down the images of Asherah. ⁴ Then he urged Judah to seek the Lord the God of their fathers and to keep the law and commandments. ⁵ And he also removed all the high places and incense altars in the cities in Judah. And the kingdom was at rest under Asa. ⁶ He built fortified cities in Judah because the land was quiet; and there was no war in these years, for the Lord gave peace to him.

⁷ And he said to Judah, “Let us build up these cities and let us surround them with walls, towers, gates, and bars for the land before us is still ours because we have sought after the Lord our God. We have sought Him, and He has given us peace all around.” So they built and had success.

⁸ And it happened that Asa had an army from Judah carrying large shields and spears numbering three hundred thousand. And from Benjamin he had an army carrying shields and bows numbering two hundred eighty thousand. All of these were mighty men of valor.

⁹ But Zerah the Ethiopian Cushite came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots. And he came up to Mareshah. ¹⁰ Then Asa went out to engage him, and they arranged for battle in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

¹¹ And Asa cried out the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is nothing with You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power. Help us, O Lord our God; for we trust in You, and in Your name we come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God. Let no man prevail against You.”

¹² So the Lord struck down the Ethiopian Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites fled. ¹³ Then Asa and those with him pursued them until Gerar. And the Cushites fell till there was not one left alive because they were struck down before the Lord and His army. And those in Judah carried off a very great plunder. ¹⁴ And they struck down all the cities surrounding Gerar because the terror of the Lord was on them. And they plundered all the cities because there was a great amount of possessions in them. ¹⁵ And they also struck the tents holding livestock, and they carried off sheep and a great amount of camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

The Reforms of Asa^(B)

15 Then the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded, 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. If you all seek Him, He will be found with you. But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. ³ For a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law, ⁴ but when in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. ⁵ And at that time there was no peace to the one traveling in or out because there was a great panic on all those who dwelt in the land. ⁶ They were broken to pieces, nation against nation and city against city, because God confused them with every type of distress. ⁷ But you all must be strong and not lose heart, for there is a reward for your deeds.”

⁸ And when Asa heard these words of the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded the prophet, he was encouraged and removed the detestable idols from the entire land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities that he captured in the hills of Ephraim. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that was before the vestibule of the Lord.

⁹ And he gathered together all of Judah and Benjamin and those who had settled among them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for these had come down to him from Israel in a great number when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

¹⁰ These were gathered in Jerusalem in the third month in the fifteenth year in the reign of Asa. ¹¹ They sacrificed to the Lord that day from the plunder that they brought in, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep. ¹² And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul. ¹³ But whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel would be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. ¹⁴ They swore an oath to the Lord in a loud voice, with shouting, trumpets, and horns. ¹⁵ And all Judah rejoiced over this oath because they swore with their whole heart and they sought Him with all their desire; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.

¹⁶ King Asa even removed his mother Maakah from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ But they did not remove the high places from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was wholly committed all his days. ¹⁸ He brought into the house of God the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts—silver, gold, and utensils.

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

Asa’s Last Years^(C)

16 But in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah and did not allow anyone to come in or go out to Asa king of Judah.

² Then Asa removed silver and gold from the storehouses of the house of the Lord and palace of the king, and he sent it to Ben-Hadad king of Aram in Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, ³ “There is a covenant between me and you as between my father and your father. I am sending you silver and gold. Go and break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel so that he might leave me.”

⁴ And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. They struck down Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the depot cities of Naphtali. ⁵ And it happened when Baasha heard this, that he stopped building Ramah and he ceased his work. ⁶ Then King Asa took all of Judah, and they took the stones of Ramah and its timber that Baasha had used to build, and he built with them Geba and Mizpah.

⁷ And at that time Hanani the seer came to King Asa of Judah saying, “Because you depended on the king of Aram and did not depend on the Lord your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were not the Cushites and Libyans a very large army with chariots and horses, but when you depended on the Lord, He gave them to your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord move about on all the earth to strengthen the heart that is completely toward Him. You have acted foolishly in this, and from this point forward you will have wars.”

¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the seer and placed him in prison stocks, for he was enraged by these words. Asa even oppressed some of the people during this time.

The Death of Asa

¹¹ The events of Asa from beginning to end are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of the reign of Asa, he had a sickness in his feet until his sickness became grave. Even in his disease he did not seek after the Lord, but the physicians. ¹³ So Asa slept with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴ And they buried him in the tomb that he cut for himself in the City of David. And they placed him on a place filled with all types of spices mixed with ointments, and then they burned him up with a very great conflagration.