Beginning

13 ^1-2 Abijah became the new king of Judah in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel. He lasted three years. His mother’s name was Micaiah (daughter of Uriel of Gibeah).

Early in his reign war broke out between Judah and Israel. ³ Judah, led by King Abijah, fielded 400,000 seasoned warriors against twice as many Israeli troops—strong, courageous men led by King Jeroboam. ⁴ When the army of Judah arrived at Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, King Abijah shouted to King Jeroboam and the Israeli army:

⁵ “Listen! Don’t you realize that the Lord God of Israel swore that David’s descendants would always be the kings of Israel? ⁶ Your King Jeroboam is a mere servant of David’s son and was a traitor to his master. ⁷ Then a whole gang of worthless rebels joined him, defying Solomon’s son Rehoboam, for he was young and frightened and couldn’t stand up to them. ⁸ Do you really think you can defeat the kingdom of the Lord that is led by a descendant of David? Your army is twice as large as mine, but you are cursed with those gold calves you have with you that Jeroboam made for you—he calls them your gods! ⁹ And you have driven away the priests of the Lord and the Levites and have appointed heathen priests instead. Just like the people of other lands, you accept as priests anybody who comes along with a young bullock and seven rams for consecration. Anyone at all can be a priest of these no-gods of yours!

¹⁰ “But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him. Only the descendants of Aaron are our priests, and the Levites alone may help them in their work. ¹¹ They burn sacrifices to the Lord every morning and evening—burnt offerings and sweet incense; and they place the Bread of the Presence upon the holy table. The gold lampstand is lighted every night, for we are careful to follow the instructions of the Lord our God; but you have forsaken him. ¹² So you see, God is with us; he is our leader. His priests, trumpeting as they go, will lead us into battle against you. O people of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you will not succeed!”

^13-14 Meanwhile, Jeroboam had secretly sent part of his army around behind the men of Judah to ambush them; so Judah was surrounded, with the enemy before and behind them. Then they cried out to the Lord for mercy, and the priests blew the trumpets. ^15-16 The men of Judah began to shout. And as they shouted, God used King Abijah and the men of Judah to turn the tide of battle against King Jeroboam and the army of Israel, ¹⁷ and they slaughtered 500,000 elite troops of Israel that day.

^18-19 So Judah, depending upon the Lord God of their fathers, defeated Israel, and chased King Jeroboam’s troops, and captured some of his cities—Bethel, Jeshanah, Ephron, and their suburbs. ²⁰ King Jeroboam of Israel never regained his power during Abijah’s lifetime, and eventually the Lord struck him and he died.

²¹ Meanwhile, King Abijah of Judah became very strong. He married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²² His complete biography and speeches are recorded in the prophet Iddo’s History of Judah.

14 King Abijah was buried in Jerusalem. Then his son Asa became the new king of Judah, and there was peace in the land for the first ten years of his reign, ² for Asa was careful to obey the Lord his God. ³ He demolished the heathen altars on the hills, and broke down the obelisks, and chopped down the shameful Asherim idols, ⁴ and demanded that the entire nation obey the commandments of the Lord God of their ancestors. ⁵ Also, he removed the sun images from the hills and the incense altars from every one of Judah’s cities. That is why God gave his kingdom peace. ⁶ This made it possible for him to build walled cities throughout Judah.

⁷ “Now is the time to do it, while the Lord is blessing us with peace because of our obedience to him,” he told his people. “Let us build and fortify cities now, with walls, towers, gates, and bars.” So they went ahead with these projects very successfully.

⁸ King Asa’s Judean army was 300,000 strong, equipped with light shields and spears. His army of Benjaminites numbered 280,000, armed with large shields and bows. Both armies were composed of well-trained, brave men.

^9-10 But now he was attacked by an army of 1,000,000 troops from Ethiopia with 300 chariots, under the leadership of General Zerah. They advanced to the city of Mareshah, in the valley of Zephathah, and King Asa sent his troops to battle with them there.

¹¹ “O Lord,” he cried out to God, “no one else can help us! Here we are, powerless against this mighty army. Oh, help us, Lord our God! For we trust in you alone to rescue us, and in your name we attack this vast horde. Don’t let mere men defeat you!”

¹² Then the Lord defeated the Ethiopians, and Asa and the army of Judah triumphed as the Ethiopians fled. ¹³ They chased them as far as Gerar, and the entire Ethiopian army was wiped out so that not one man remained; for the Lord and his army destroyed them all. Then the army of Judah carried off vast quantities of plunder. ¹⁴ While they were at Gerar they attacked all the cities in that area, and terror from the Lord came upon the residents. As a result, additional vast quantities of plunder were collected from these cities too. ¹⁵ They not only plundered the cities but destroyed the cattle tents and captured great herds of sheep and camels before finally returning to Jerusalem.

15 Then the Spirit of God came upon Azariah (son of Oded), ² and he went out to meet King Asa as he was returning from the battle.

“Listen to me, Asa! Listen, armies of Judah and Benjamin!” he shouted. “The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you look for him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will forsake you. ³ For a long time now, over in Israel, the people haven’t worshiped the true God and have not had a true priest to teach them. They have lived without God’s laws. ⁴ But whenever they have turned again to the Lord God of Israel in their distress and searched for him he has helped them. ⁵ In their times of rebellion against God there was no peace. Problems troubled the nation on every hand. Crime was on the increase everywhere. ⁶ There were external wars and internal fighting of city against city, for God was plaguing them with all sorts of trouble. ⁷ But you men of Judah, keep up the good work and don’t get discouraged, for you will be rewarded.”

⁸ When King Asa heard this message from God, he took courage and destroyed all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim, and he rebuilt the altar of the Lord in front of the Temple.

⁹ Then he summoned all the people of Judah and Benjamin and the immigrants from Israel (for many had come from the territories of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon in Israel when they saw that the Lord God was with King Asa). ¹⁰ They all came to Jerusalem in June of the fifteenth year of King Asa’s reign ¹¹ and sacrificed to the Lord seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep—it was part of the plunder they had captured in the battle. ¹² Then they entered into a contract to worship only the Lord God of their fathers ¹³ and agreed that anyone who refused to do this must die—whether old or young, man or woman. ¹⁴ They shouted out their oath of loyalty to God with trumpets blaring and horns sounding. ¹⁵ All were happy for this covenant with God, for they had entered into it with all their hearts and wills and wanted him above everything else, and they found him! And he gave them peace throughout the nation.

¹⁶ King Asa even removed his mother Maacah from being the queen mother because she made an Asherah idol; he cut down the idol and crushed and burned it at Kidron Brook. ¹⁷ Over in Israel the idol-temples were not removed. But here in Judah and Benjamin the heart of King Asa was perfect before God throughout his lifetime. ¹⁸ He brought back into the Temple the silver and gold bowls that he and his father had dedicated to the Lord. ¹⁹ So there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of King Asa’s reign.

16 In the thirty-sixth year of King Asa’s reign, King Baasha of Israel declared war on him and built the fortress^[a] of Ramah in order to control the road to Judah. ² Asa’s response was to take the silver and gold from the Temple and from the palace, and to send it to King Ben-hadad of Syria at Damascus with this message:

³ “Let us renew the mutual security pact that there was between your father and my father. See, here is silver and gold to induce you to break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel, so that he will leave me alone.”

⁴ Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa’s request and mobilized his armies to attack Israel. They destroyed the cities of Ijon, Dan, Abel-maim and all of the supply centers in Naphtali. ⁵ As soon as King Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he discontinued building Ramah and gave up his plan to attack Judah. ⁶ Then King Asa and the people of Judah went out to Ramah and carried away the building stones and timbers and used them to build Geba and Mizpah instead.

⁷ About that time the prophet Hanani came to King Asa and told him, “Because you have put your trust in the king of Syria instead of in the Lord your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped from you. ⁸ Don’t you remember what happened to the Ethiopians and Libyans and their vast army, with all of their chariots and cavalrymen? But you relied then on the Lord, and he delivered them all into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth, looking for people whose hearts are perfect toward him, so that he can show his great power in helping them. What a fool you have been! From now on you shall have wars.”

¹⁰ Asa was so angry with the prophet for saying this that he threw him into jail. And Asa oppressed all the people at that time.

¹¹ The rest of the biography of Asa is written in The Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became seriously diseased in his feet, but he didn’t go to the Lord with the problem but to the doctors. ^13-14 So he died in the forty-first year of his reign and was buried in his own vault that he had hewn out for himself in Jerusalem. He was laid on a bed perfumed with sweet spices and ointments, and his people made a very great burning of incense for him at his funeral.

17 Then his son Jehoshaphat became the king and mobilized for war against Israel. ² He placed garrisons in all of the fortified cities of Judah, in various other places throughout the country, and in the cities of Ephraim that his father had conquered.

³ The Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed in the good footsteps of his father’s early years and did not worship idols. ⁴ He obeyed the commandments of his father’s God—quite unlike the people across the border in the land of Israel. ⁵ So the Lord strengthened his position as king of Judah. All the people of Judah cooperated by paying their taxes, so he became very wealthy as well as being very popular. ⁶ He boldly followed the paths of God—even knocking down the heathen altars on the hills and destroying the Asherim idols.

^7-9 In the third year of his reign he began a nationwide religious education program. He sent out top government officials as teachers in all the cities of Judah. These men included Ben-hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. He also used the Levites for this purpose, including Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; also the priests, Elishama and Jehoram. They took copies of The Book of the Law of the Lord to all the cities of Judah to teach the Scriptures to the people.

¹⁰ Then the fear of the Lord fell upon all the surrounding kingdoms so that none of them declared war on King Jehoshaphat.

¹¹ Even some of the Philistines brought him presents and annual tribute, and the Arabs donated 7,700 rams and 7,700 male goats. ¹² So Jehoshaphat became very strong and built fortresses and supply cities throughout Judah.

¹³ His public works program was also extensive, and he had a huge army stationed at Jerusalem, his capital. ^14-15 Three hundred thousand Judean troops were there under General Adnah. Next in command was Jehohanan with an army of 280,000 men. ¹⁶ Next was Amasiah (son of Zichri), a man of unusual piety, with 200,000 troops. ¹⁷ Benjamin supplied 200,000 men equipped with bows and shields under the command of Eliada, a great general. ¹⁸ His second in command was Jehozabad, with 180,000 trained men. ¹⁹ These were the troops in Jerusalem in addition to those placed by the king in the fortified cities throughout the nation.