The Reforms of Jehoshaphat

⁴ Jehoshaphat resided at Jerusalem; then he went out again among the people, from Beer-sheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.^(A)

⁸ When Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah son of Oded,^[a] he took courage and put away the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the towns that he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He repaired the altar of the Lord that was in front of the vestibule of the house of the Lord.^{[b](A) 9} He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing as aliens with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.^{(B) 10} They were gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. ¹¹ They sacrificed to the Lord on that day, from the spoil that they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.^{(C) 12} They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and with all their soul,^{(D) 13} and whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.^(E)

¹⁷ With the spirit and power of Elijah he will go before him, to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”^(A)

⁶ He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse.^[a]

¹⁰ Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us.^{(A) 11} My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence to minister to him and to be his ministers and offer incense.”^(B)

¹⁵ Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.^{(A) 16} He went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. ¹⁷ Then he would come back to Ramah, for his home was there; he administered justice there to Israel and built there an altar to the Lord.^(B)

Samuel as Judge

³ Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Astartes from among you. Direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”^{(A) 4} So Israel put away the Baals and the Astartes, and they served the Lord only.

The Other Tribes Attack Benjamin

20 Then all the Israelites came out, from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled in one body before the Lord at Mizpah.^(A)

The Levite’s Concubine

19 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite residing in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.^(A)

¹⁵ And Joshua said to them, “If you are a numerous people, go up to the forest and clear ground there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, since the hill country of Ephraim is too narrow for you.”