Beginning

Abijah’s Rule in Judah

13 Abijah became the king of Judah in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam. ² He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah began the battle with an army of powerful soldiers, 400,000 chosen men. Jeroboam came ready for battle against him with 800,000 chosen men who were powerful soldiers.

⁴ Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel! ⁵ Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave the rule over Israel forever to David and his sons by an agreement of salt? ⁶ But Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, went against his lord the king. ⁷ And men of no worth gathered around him. They were bad men who were too strong for Rehoboam the son of Solomon. Rehoboam was young and weak and could not stand against them. ⁸ So now you plan to stand against the power of the Lord through the sons of David. You think you can because you have many people and the gold calves Jeroboam made you for gods. ⁹ Have you not driven out the religious leaders of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites? And have you not made religious leaders for yourselves like the people of other lands? Whoever comes to make himself holy with a young bull and seven rams becomes a religious leader of false gods. ¹⁰ But as for us, the Lord is our God. We have not left Him. The sons of Aaron are working for the Lord as religious leaders. And the Levites are doing their work. ¹¹ Every morning they give burnt gifts and burn special perfume to the Lord. The holy bread is set on the clean table. And the gold lamp-stand with its lamps is ready to light every evening. For we do the work of the Lord our God. But you have left Him. ¹² Now see, God is with us at our head. His religious leaders are ready to blow the horns, to sound the call to battle against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers. For you cannot win.”

¹³ But Jeroboam had sent soldiers to come from behind. So Israel was in front of Judah, and soldiers were behind them also. ¹⁴ When Judah looked, they saw that the battle was both in front of them and behind them. So they cried to the Lord, and the religious leaders blew the horns. ¹⁵ Then the men of Judah sounded a war cry. And when they sounded the war cry, God began destroying Jeroboam and all Israel around Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ The men of Israel ran away from Judah. God gave them into their hand. ¹⁷ Abijah and his people killed many of them. There were 500,000 chosen men of Israel killed. ¹⁸ So the sons of Israel were set back at that time. The sons of Judah were strong because they trusted in the Lord, the God of their fathers. ¹⁹ Abijah went after Jeroboam. He took from him the cities of Bethel with its towns, Jeshanah with its towns, and Ephron with its towns. ²⁰ Jeroboam did not become strong again in the days of Abijah. And the Lord destroyed him, and he died.

²¹ But Abijah became very strong. He married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²² Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways and his words, are written in the story of Iddo the man of God.

King Asa Rules in Judah

14 Abijah died and they buried him in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place. In his days the land had peace ten years.

² Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. ³ For he put away the strange altars and high places. He tore down the pillars used in worship of false gods. And he cut down the false goddesses, the Asherim. ⁴ He told Judah to follow the Lord God of their fathers, and to obey the Laws. ⁵ He put the high places and the altars of special perfume away from all the cities of Judah. And the nation had rest under his rule. ⁶ He built strong cities in Judah, since the land had rest. No one fought a war with him during those years, because the Lord had given him rest. ⁷ So he said to the people of Judah, “Let us build these cities. And let us build walls and towers around them, with iron gates. The land is still ours, because we have followed the Lord our God. We have followed Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and did well. ⁸ Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, with large battle-coverings and spears. And he had 280,000 men from Benjamin, with battle-coverings and bows. All of them were powerful soldiers.

⁹ Zerah the Ethiopian came out to fight against them with an army of 1,000,000 men and 300 war-wagons. He came as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰ So Asa went out to meet him. They made themselves ready for battle in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. ¹¹ Then Asa called to the Lord his God and said, “Lord, there is no one but You to help in the battle between the powerful and the weak. So help us, O Lord God. For we trust in You. In Your name we have come against these many people. O Lord, You are our God. Do not let any man win the fight against You.” ¹² So the Lord began to destroy the Ethiopians in front of Asa and the people of Judah, and the Ethiopians ran away. ¹³ Asa and the people with him went after them as far as Gerar. The Ethiopians were killed until none were left alive. They were destroyed before the Lord and His army. And they carried away many things that had belonged to the Ethiopians. ¹⁴ Then they destroyed all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the Lord had come upon them. And they took everything of worth that was in the cities, for there was much left. ¹⁵ They destroyed the tents of the animals. And they took away many sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Asa Makes Changes

15 The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. ² Azariah went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you look for Him, He will let you find Him. But if you leave Him, He will leave you. ³ For a long time Israel was without the true God, without a teaching religious leader, and without law. ⁴ But in their trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel. They looked for Him, and He let them find Him. ⁵ In those times there was no peace for him who went out, or for him who came in. For much trouble came to all the people of the lands. ⁶ Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God sent every kind of trouble upon them. ⁷ But you be strong. Do not lose strength of heart. For you will be paid for your work.”

⁸ When Asa heard these words and the words of Azariah the son of Oded, his heart became strong. He put away the sinful false gods from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities he had taken in the hill country of Ephraim. He built again the altar of the Lord which was in front of the porch of the Lord’s house. ⁹ Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, who lived with them. For many had left Israel to come to him when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. ¹⁰ So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s rule. ¹¹ They killed animals on the altar in worship to the Lord that day. They killed and gave 700 cattle and 7,000 sheep from the animals they had taken in battle. ¹² And they agreed to follow the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul. ¹³ Whoever would not follow the Lord God of Israel should be put to death, young or old, man or woman. ¹⁴ They made a promise to the Lord with a loud voice, calling out and blowing horns. ¹⁵ All Judah was filled with joy because of the promise. For they had promised with their whole heart. They had looked for the Lord with a pure heart. And He let them find Him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.

¹⁶ King Asa even stopped his mother from being queen mother. Because she had made a sinful object of the false goddess Asherah. Asa cut down her sinful object. He crushed it and burned it at the Kidron River. ¹⁷ But the high places were not taken away from Israel. Yet Asa’s heart was without blame all his days. ¹⁸ He brought into the house of God the holy things of his father and his own holy things. He brought in silver and gold and the things used for the worship. ¹⁹ And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s rule.

Asa’s Agreement with Syria

16 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s rule, King Baasha of Israel came to fight against Judah. He began building a wall around Ramah to stop anyone from going out or coming in to King Asa of Judah. ² Then Asa took silver and gold from the store-rooms of the house of the Lord and the king’s house. He sent them to King Ben-hadad of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, ³ “Let there be an agreement between you and me, as between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold. Go and break your agreement with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me.” ⁴ Ben-hadad listened to King Asa. He sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They destroyed Ijon, Dan, Abelmaim, and all the store-cities of Naphtali. ⁵ When Baasha heard about it, he stopped building the wall around Ramah. ⁶ Then King Asa brought all the people of Judah. And they carried away the stones and wood of the wall which Baasha had been building around Ramah. Asa used them to build Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Words to Asa

⁷ At that time Hanani the man of God came to King Asa of Judah and said to him, “You have put your trust in the king of Syria and not in the Lord your God. So the army of the king of Syria got away from you. ⁸ Were not the Ethiopians and the Libyans a very large army with war-wagons? But because you trusted in the Lord, He gave them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord move over all the earth so that He may give strength to those whose whole heart is given to Him. You have done a foolish thing. So from now on you will have wars.” ¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the man of God. He put him in prison because he was angry at him for this. And Asa made it hard for some of the people at the same time.

The End of Asa’s Rule

¹¹ Now the acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² A disease came into Asa’s feet in the thirty-ninth year of his rule. His disease was bad. But even in his disease, he did not trust in the Lord, but in the doctors. ¹³ So Asa slept with his fathers. He died in the forty-first year of his rule. ¹⁴ They buried him in his own grave which he had cut out for himself in the city of David. They laid him in the place of rest which he had filled with different kinds of spices mixed by those who work with perfumes. And they made a very big fire in his honor.

Jehoshaphat Becomes King in Judah

17 Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place, and made himself strong against Israel. ² He placed soldiers in all the strong cities of Judah, and in places built for them in the land of Judah. And he put soldiers in the cities of Ephraim which his father Asa had taken in battle. ³ The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the early ways of his father. He did not follow the false gods of Baal. ⁴ He looked to the God of his father, followed His Laws, and did not act as Israel did. ⁵ So the Lord made the nation strong under his rule. And all Judah paid taxes to Jehoshaphat. He had great riches and honor. ⁶ He was strong in his heart in the ways of the Lord. And he took the high places and the false goddess Asherah out of Judah again.

⁷ In the third year of his rule, Jehoshaphat sent his leaders to teach in the cities of Judah. He sent Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. ⁸ With them he sent the Levites, Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah. And with them he sent the religious leaders, Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ They taught in Judah, having the book of the Law of the Lord with them. They went through all the cities of Judah and taught among the people.

Jehoshaphat’s Strength

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord was on all the nations of the lands around Judah. So they did not make war against Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts, and silver for taxes. The Arabians brought him flocks, 7,700 rams and 7,700 male goats. ¹² So Jehoshaphat became greater and greater. And he built strong places and store-cities in Judah. ¹³ He had many things in the cities of Judah. And he had powerful soldiers in Jerusalem. ¹⁴ This was the number of them by their fathers’ houses: Adnah was the captain of thousands from Judah. He had 300,000 powerful soldiers with him. ¹⁵ Next to him was Johanan, the captain of 280,000. ¹⁶ Next to him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who gave himself to work for the Lord. He had 200,000 powerful soldiers with him. ¹⁷ Eliada was a powerful soldier of the family of Benjamin. He had with him 200,000 men with bows and battle-coverings. ¹⁸ Next to him was Jehozabad, the captain of 180,000 ready for war. ¹⁹ These are the men who served the king, as well as those whom the king put in the strong cities through all Judah.