¹⁹ Then the high priest questioned Jesus about His disciples and about His teaching.

²⁰ Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue and in the temple [area], where the Jews [habitually] congregate (assemble); and I have spoken nothing secretly.

²¹ Why do you ask Me? Ask those who have heard [Me] what I said to them. See! They know what I said.

²² But when He said this, one of the attendants who stood by struck Jesus, saying, Is that how ^[a]You answer the high priest?

²³ Jesus replied, If I have said anything wrong [if I have spoken abusively, if there was evil in what I said] tell what was wrong with it. But if I spoke rightly and properly, why do you strike Me?

²⁴ Then Annas sent Him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

²⁵ But Simon Peter [still] was standing and was warming himself. They said to him, You are not also one of His disciples, are you? He denied it and said, I am not!

²⁶ One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter cut off, said, Did I not see you in the garden with Him?

²⁷ And again Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed.

15 The Spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded.

² And he went out to meet Asa and said to him, Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him, craving Him as your soul’s first necessity], He will be found by you; but if you [become indifferent and] forsake Him, He will forsake you.

³ Now for a long time Israel was without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law.

⁴ But when they in their trouble turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, and [in desperation earnestly] sought Him, He was found by them.

⁵ And in those times there was no peace to him who went out nor to him who came in, but great and vexing afflictions and disturbances were upon all the inhabitants of the countries.

⁶ Nation was broke in pieces against nation, and city against city, for God vexed and troubled them with all sorts of adversity.

⁷ Be strong, therefore, and let not your hands be weak and slack, for your work shall be rewarded.

⁸ And when Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage and put away the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim; and he repaired the altar [of burnt offering] of the Lord which was in front of the porch or vestibule [of the house] of the Lord.

⁹ And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to Asa out of Israel in large numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him.

¹⁰ So they gathered at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.

¹¹ And they sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil which they had brought—700 oxen and 7,000 sheep.

¹² And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, and to yearn for Him with all their heart’s desire and with all their soul;

¹³ And that whoever would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman.

¹⁴ They took an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with shouting, with trumpets, and with cornets.

¹⁵ And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him [yearning for Him] with their whole desire, and He was found by them. And the Lord gave them rest and peace round about.

¹⁶ Also Maacah, King Asa’s mother, he removed from being queen mother, because she had made an abominable image for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa cut down her idol, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁷ But the high places were not taken out of Israel. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was blameless all his days.

¹⁸ And he brought into the house of God the things that his father [Abijah] had dedicated and those he himself had dedicated—silver and gold and vessels.

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

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built (fortified) Ramah intending to intercept anyone going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.

² Then Asa brought silver and gold out of the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house and sent them to Ben-hadad king of Syria, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,

³ Let there be a league between me and you, as was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending you silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.

⁴ And Ben-hadad hearkened to King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel; and they smote Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim, and all the store cities of Naphtali.

⁵ And when Baasha heard it, he stopped building Ramah and let his work cease.

⁶ Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had been building, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

⁷ At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, Because you relied on the king of Syria and not on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped you.

⁸ Were not the Ethiopians and Libyans a huge host with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied then on the Lord, He gave them into your hand.

⁹ For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him. You have done foolishly in this; therefore, from now on you shall have wars.

¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison [in the stocks], for he was enraged with him because of this. Asa oppressed some of the people at the same time.

¹¹ The acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.

¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was diseased in his feet—until his disease became very severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the Lord, but relied on the physicians.

¹³ And Asa slept with his fathers, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.

¹⁴ And they buried him in his own tomb which he had hewn out for himself in the City of David, and they laid him on a bier which was filled with sweet odors and various kinds [of spices] prepared by the perfumers’ art; and they made a very great burning [of spices] in his honor.