Beginning
13 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah.
2 He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
3 And Abijah set the battle in formation with the army of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand chosen men. Jeroboam also set the battle in formation against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men who were strong and valiant.
4 And Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemaraim, which is on Mount Ephraim, and said, “O Jeroboam and all Israel! Hear me!
5 “Ought you not to know that the LORD God of Israel has given the kingdom over Israel to David forever, to him and to his sons, by a covenant of salt?
6 “And Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, has risen up and has rebelled against his lord!
7 “And vain men and wicked have gathered to him and made themselves strong against Rehoboam, the son of Solomon! For Rehoboam was a child and tender-hearted and could not resist them!
8 “Now, therefore, do you think that you are able to resist against the kingdom of the LORD, in the hands of the sons of David, because you are a great multitude? And the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods are with you?
9 “Have you not driven away the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made yourselves priests like the people of other countries? Whoever comes to consecrate with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of those who are not gods!
10 “But we belong to the LORD our God and have not forsaken Him! And the priests, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, minister to the LORD in office!
11 “And they burn Burnt Offerings and sweet incense to the LORD every morning and every evening. And the Bread is set in order upon the pure Table, and the Candlestick of gold with its Lamps, to burn every evening! For we keep the watch of the LORD our God! But you have forsaken Him!
12 “And behold! This God is with us as a Captain! And His Priests are with the sounding trumpets, to cry an alarm against you! O, you children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers! For you shall not prosper!”
13 But while they were before Judah, Jeroboam sent an ambush around, to come up behind them. And the ambush was now behind them.
14 Then Judah looked, and behold, the battle was in front and behind them. And they cried to the LORD. And the priests blew with the trumpets.
15 And the men of Judah gave a shout. And as the men of Judah shouted, God struck Jeroboam (and also Israel) before Abijah and Judah.
16 And the children of Israel fled before Judah. And God delivered them into their hand.
17 And Abijah and his people killed them in a great slaughter, so that five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell down wounded.
18 So, the children of Israel were subjugated at that time. And the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers.
19 And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel and its villages, and Jeshanah with her villages, and Ephron with her villages.
20 And Jeroboam regained no strength in the days of Abijah. But the LORD plagued him, and he died.
21 So, Abijah grew mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
22 The rest of the acts of Abijah, and his manners and his sayings, are written in the story of the Prophet Iddo.
14 So, Abijah slept with his fathers. And they buried him in the City of David. And Asa, his son, reigned in his place (in whose days the land was quiet for ten years).
2 And Asa did what was good and right in the Eyes of the LORD his God.
3 For he took away the altars of the strange, and the high places, and broke down the images, and cut down the groves,
4 and commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to do according to the Law and the Commandment.
5 And he took away the high places out of all the cities of Judah, and the images. Therefore, the kingdom was quiet before him.
6 Also, because the land was at rest, he had built strong cities in Judah. And he had no war in those years. For the LORD had given him rest.
7 Therefore, he said to Judah, “Because we have sought the LORD our God, we have sought Him and He has given us rest on every side, let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers and gates and bars, while the land is before us.” So, they built and prospered.
8 And of Judah, Asa had an army of three hundred thousand who bore shields and spears, and two hundred eighty thousand of Benjamin who bore shields and drew bows. All these were valiant men.
9 And Zerah of Ethiopia came out against him with an army of one million, and three hundred chariots, and came to Mareshah.
10 Then Asa went out before him. And they set the battle in formation in the Valley of Zephathah, beside Mareshah.
11 And Asa cried to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing with You to help with many or with the powerless! Help us, O LORD our God! For we rest on You! And in Your Name we have come against this multitude! O LORD, You are our God! Do not let man prevail against You!”
12 So, the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah. And the Ethiopians fled.
13 And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. And the Ethiopians’ army was overthrown. There was no life in them; for they were destroyed before the LORD and before His host. And they carried away a mighty, great spoil.
14 And they struck all the cities all around Gerar. For the fear of the LORD came upon them. And they plundered all the cities; for there was much plunder in them.
15 Yea, and they struck the tents of cattle and carried away plenty of sheep and camels and returned to Jerusalem.
15 Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, the son of Obed.
2 And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “O, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin, hear me! The LORD is with you while you are with him. And if you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
3 “Now for a long season, Israel has been without the true God, and without priest to teach, and without Law.
4 “But whoever returned in his affliction to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, he was found by Him.
5 “And in that time there was no peace to him who went out and went in; but great troubles were on all the inhabitants of the Earth.
6 “For nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city. For God troubled them with all adversity.
7 “Be strong, therefore! And do not let your hands be weak. For your work shall have a reward.”
8 And when Asa heard these Words, and the Prophecy of Obed the Prophet, he was encouraged and took away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken on Mount Ephraim. And he renewed the Altar of the LORD that was in front of the Porch of the LORD.
9 And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon. For many fell to him out of Israel, when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
10 So, they assembled to Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
11 And at that time, they offered to the LORD from the spoil they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
12 And they made a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.
13 And whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel shall be killed, whether small or great, man or woman.
14 And they swore to the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.
15 And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn to the LORD with all their heart and sought Him with a whole desire. And He was found by them. And the LORD gave them rest all around.
16 And King Asa deposed Maachah, his mother, from her regency, because she had made an idol in a grove. And Asa broke down her idol and stamped it and burnt it at the brook Kidron.
17 But the high places were not taken away out of Israel. Still, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.
18 Also, he brought the things that his father had dedicated, and that he had dedicated, into the House of God: silver and gold and vessels.
19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.
16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha, king of Israel, came up against Judah and built Ramah, to keep anyone from passing through to or out from Asa, king of Judah.
2 Then, Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasures of the House of the LORD, and from the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, who dwelt at Damascus, saying,
3 “There is a covenant between me and you, and between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold. Come. Break your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so that he may depart from me.”
4 And Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of the army which he had against the cities of Israel. And they struck Ijon and Dan and Abel Maim and all the storage cities of Naphtali.
5 And when Baasha heard it, he stopped the building of Ramah, and let his work cease.
6 Then, Asa the king took all Judah and carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber (with which Baasha built) and he built Geba and Mizpah with it.
7 And at that same time, Hanani the Seer came to Asa, king of Judah, and said to him, “Because you have rested upon the king of Aram and not rested in the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Aram has escaped out of your hand.
8 “The Ethiopians and the Lubim, were they not a great army with a large number of chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you rested upon the LORD, He delivered them into your hand.
9 “For the Eyes of the LORD behold all the Earth, to show Himself strong with those who are of a perfect heart toward Him. You, then, have done foolishly in this. Therefore, henceforth you shall have wars.”
10 Then Asa was angry with the Seer and put him into a prison, for he was displeased with him because of this thing. And Asa oppressed the people at that time.
11 And behold, the acts of Asa, first and last, lo, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
12 And Asa, in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, became diseased in his feet. His disease was extreme, yet he did not seek the LORD in his disease, but the physicians.
13 So, Asa slept with his fathers and died in the forty-first year of his reign.
14 And they buried him in one of his sepulchers which he had made for himself in the City of David and laid him in the bed which they had filled with sweet odors and diverse kinds of spices made by the art of the apothecary. And they burnt odors for him with an exceedingly great fire.
17 And Jehoshaphat, his son, reigned in his place and prevailed against Israel.
2 And he put garrisons in all the strong cities of Judah and set bands in the land of Judah, and in the cities of Ephraim, which Asa his father had taken.
3 And the LORD was with Jehoshaphat because he walked in the first ways of his father David and did not seek Baalim,
4 but sought the LORD God of his father and walked in His Commandment, and not after the deeds of Israel.
5 Therefore, the LORD established the kingdom in his hand. And all Judah brought presents to Jehoshaphat, so that he had riches and honor in abundance.
6 And he lifted up his heart to the ways of the LORD. And moreover, he took away the high places and the groves from Judah.
7 And in the third year of his reign, he sent his princes, Ben-Hail and Obadiah and Zechariah and Nethanel and Michaiah, so that they would teach in the cities of Judah,
8 And he sent Levites with them: Shemaiah and Nethaniah and Zebadiah and Asahel and Shemiramoth and Jehonathan and Adonijah and Tobijah and Tobadonijah. And he sent Priests with them: Elishama and Jehoram.
9 And they taught in Judah and had the Book of the Law of the LORD with them. And they went around throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people.
10 And the fear of the LORD fell upon all the kingdoms of the lands that were all around Judah. And they did not fight against Jehoshaphat.
11 Also, some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts and tribute silver. And the Arabians brought him flocks, seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats.
12 So, Jehoshaphat prospered and grew greater. And he built palaces and storage cities in Judah.
13 And he had great works in the cities of Judah, and men of war and valiant men in Jerusalem.
14 And these are the numbers of them, after the House of their fathers. In Judah were captains of thousands: Adnah, the captain, and three hundred thousand valiant men with him.
15 And at his hand was Jehohanan, a captain, and two hundred eighty thousand with him.
16 And at his hand was Amasiah, the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself to the LORD. And with him were two hundred thousand valiant men.
17 And of Benjamin was Eliada, a valiant man. And with him were two hundred thousand armed men with bow and shield.
18 And at his hand was Jehozabad. And with him were one hundred eighty thousand, armed for war.
19 These waited on the king, besides those whom the king put in the strong cities throughout all Judah.
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