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.

Timothy Joins Paul and Silas

16 Then he came to ^(A)Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there, ^(B)named Timothy, ^(C)the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, but his father was Greek. ² He was well spoken of by the brethren who were at Lystra and Iconium. ³ Paul wanted to have him go on with him. And he ^(D)took him and circumcised him because of the Jews who were in that region, for they all knew that his father was Greek. ⁴ And as they went through the cities, they delivered to them the ^(E)decrees to keep, ^(F)which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem. ^5 (G)So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily.

The Macedonian Call

⁶ Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of ^(H)Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in ^[a]Asia. ⁷ After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the ^[b]Spirit did not permit them. ⁸ So passing by Mysia, they ^(I)came down to Troas. ⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A ^(J)man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go ^(K)to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.

Lydia Baptized at Philippi

¹¹ Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, ¹² and from there to ^(L)Philippi, which is the ^[c]foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. ¹³ And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. ¹⁴ Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of ^(M)Thyatira, who worshiped God. ^(N)The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. ¹⁵ And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So ^(O)she persuaded us.

Paul and Silas Imprisoned

¹⁶ Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl ^(P)possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters ^(Q)much profit by fortune-telling. ¹⁷ This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” ¹⁸ And this she did for many days.

But Paul, ^(R)greatly ^[d]annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” ^(S)And he came out that very hour. ¹⁹ But ^(T)when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and ^(U)dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities.

²⁰ And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, ^(V)exceedingly trouble our city; ²¹ and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.”