The Daily Audio Bible

King Asa Defeats the Ethiopians

14 King Abijah died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City. His son Asa succeeded him as king, and under Asa the land enjoyed peace for ten years. ² Asa pleased the Lord, his God, by doing what was right and good. ³ He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship, broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands. ⁵ Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule. ⁶ He built fortifications for the cities of Judah during this time, and for several years there was no war, because the Lord gave him peace. ⁷ He told the people of Judah, “Let us fortify the cities by building walls and towers, and gates that can be shut and barred. We have control of the land because we have done the will of the Lord our God. He has protected us and given us security on every side.” And so they built and prospered. ⁸ King Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, armed with shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin, armed with shields and bows. All of them were brave, well-trained men.

⁹ An Ethiopian^[a] named Zerah invaded Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots and advanced as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰ Asa went out to fight him, and both sides took up their positions at Zephathah Valley near Mareshah. ¹¹ Asa prayed to the Lord his God, “O Lord, you can help a weak army as easily as a powerful one. Help us now, O Lord our God, because we are relying on you, and in your name we have come out to fight against this huge army. Lord, you are our God; no one can hope to defeat you.”

¹² The Lord defeated the Ethiopian^[b] army when Asa and the Judean army attacked them. They fled, ¹³ and Asa and his troops pursued them as far as Gerar. So many of the Ethiopians^[c] were killed that the army was unable to rally and fight.^[d] They were overpowered by the Lord and his army, and the army took large amounts of loot. ¹⁴ Then they were able to destroy the cities in the area around Gerar, because the people there were terrified of the Lord. The army plundered all those cities and captured large amounts of loot. ¹⁵ They also attacked the camps of some shepherds, capturing large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Asa's Reforms

15 The spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, ² and he went to meet King Asa. He called out, “Listen to me, King Asa, and all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you look for him, he will let you find him, but if you turn away, he will abandon you. ³ For a long time Israel lived without the true God, without priests to teach them, and without a law. ⁴ But when trouble came, they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel. They searched for him and found him. ⁵ In those days no one could come and go in safety, because there was trouble and disorder in every land. ⁶ One nation oppressed another nation, and one city oppressed another city, because God was bringing trouble and distress on them. ⁷ But you must be strong and not be discouraged. The work that you do will be rewarded.”

⁸ When Asa heard the prophecy that Azariah son of^[e] Oded had spoken, he was encouraged. He did away with all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and all the idols in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He also repaired the altar of the Lord that stood in the Temple courtyard.

⁹ Many people had come over to Asa's side from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and were living in his kingdom, because they had seen that the Lord was with him. Asa summoned all of them and the people of Judah and Benjamin. ¹⁰ They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year that Asa was king. ¹¹ On that day they offered sacrifices to the Lord from the loot they had brought back: seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep. ¹² They made a covenant in which they agreed to worship the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. ¹³ Anyone, young or old, male or female, who did not worship him was to be put to death. ¹⁴ In a loud voice they took an oath in the Lord's name that they would keep the covenant, and then they shouted and blew trumpets. ¹⁵ All the people of Judah were happy because they had made this covenant with all their heart. They took delight in worshiping the Lord, and he accepted them and gave them peace on every side.

¹⁶ King Asa removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol, chopped it up, and burned the pieces in Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship in the land, he remained faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁸ He placed in the Temple all the objects his father Abijah had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated. ¹⁹ There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

Troubles with Israel^(A)

16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and started to fortify Ramah in order to cut off all traffic in and out of Judah. ² So Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple and the palace and sent it to Damascus, to King Benhadad of Syria, with this message: ³ “Let us be allies, as our fathers were. This silver and gold is a present for you. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel so that he will have to pull his troops out of my territory.”

⁴ Benhadad agreed to Asa's proposal and sent his commanding officers and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the cities of Naphtali where supplies were stored. ⁵ When King Baasha heard what was happening, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned the work. ⁶ Then King Asa gathered men from throughout Judah and had them carry off the stones and timbers that Baasha had been using at Ramah, and they used them to fortify the cities of Geba and Mizpah.

The Prophet Hanani

⁷ At that time the prophet Hanani went to King Asa and said, “Because you relied on the king of Syria instead of relying on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Israel^[f] has escaped from you. ⁸ Didn't the Ethiopians^[g] and the Libyans have large armies with many chariots and cavalry troops? But because you relied on the Lord, he gave you victory over them. ⁹ The Lord keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him. You have acted foolishly, and so from now on you will always be at war.” ¹⁰ This made Asa so angry with the prophet that he had him put in chains. It was at this same time that Asa began treating some of the people cruelly.

The End of Asa's Reign^(B)

¹¹ All the events of Asa's reign from beginning to end are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year that Asa was king, he was crippled by a severe foot disease; but even then he did not turn to the Lord for help, but to doctors. ¹³ Two years later he died ¹⁴ and was buried in the rock tomb which he had carved out for himself in David's City. They used spices and perfumed oils to prepare his body for burial, and they built a huge bonfire to mourn his death.

God and His People

9 I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying ² when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart ³ for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ. ^4 (A)They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants^[a] with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises; ⁵ they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever!^[b] Amen.

⁶ I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God. ^7 (B)Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, “It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you.” ⁸ This means that the children born in the usual way^[c] are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants. ^9 (C)For God's promise was made in these words: “At the right time^[d] I will come back, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰ And this is not all. For Rebecca's two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac. ^11-12 (D)But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done. ^13 (E)As the scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”

¹⁴ Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all. ^15 (F)For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.” ¹⁶ So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy. ^17 (G)For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, “I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world.” ¹⁸ So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.

God's Anger and Mercy

¹⁹ But one of you will say to me, “If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?” ^20 (H)But who are you, my friend, to talk back to God? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, “Why did you make me like this?” ^21 (I)After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.

^22 (J)And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction. ²³ And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory. ²⁴ For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles.

God's Glory in Creation^[a]

The Law of the Lord

20 Drinking too much makes you loud and foolish. It's stupid to get drunk.