¹⁹ Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages.

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.

⁵⁴ Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea.^(A) Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

⁷ When the Israelites along the valley and those across the Jordan saw that the Israelite army had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their towns and fled. And the Philistines came and occupied them.

¹² Joshua took all these royal cities and their kings and put them to the sword. He totally destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded.^(A)

³⁹ They took the city, its king and its villages, and put them to the sword. Everyone in it they totally destroyed. They left no survivors. They did to Debir and its king as they had done to Libnah and its king and to Hebron.^(A)

¹⁹ But don’t stop; pursue your enemies! Attack them from the rear and don’t let them reach their cities, for the Lord your God has given them into your hand.”