The Bible

2 Chronicles Chapter 15

¹The Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded: ²and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! ForeverOne 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.

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

⁴But when in their distress they turned to ForeverOne, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.

⁵In those times there was no peace to him who went out, nor to him who came in; but great troubles were on all the inhabitants of the lands.

⁶They were broken in pieces, nation against nation, and city against city; for God troubled them with all adversity.

⁷But you be strong, and don't let your hands be slack; for your work shall be rewarded." ⁸When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominations out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from the hill country of Ephraim; and he renewed the altar of ForeverOne, that was before the porch of ForeverOne.

⁹He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who lived with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they fell to him out of Israel in abundance, when they saw that ForeverOne his God was with him.

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

¹¹They sacrificed to ForeverOne in that day, of the spoil which they had brought, seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep.

¹²They entered into the covenant to seek ForeverOne, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; ¹³and that whoever would not seek ForeverOne, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

¹⁴They swore to ForeverOne with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.

¹⁵All Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and ForeverOne gave them rest all around.

¹⁶Also Maacah, the mother of Asa the king, he removed from being queen, because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah; and Asa cut down her image, and made dust of it, and burned it at the brook Kidron.

¹⁷But the high places were not taken away out of Israel: nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.

¹⁸He brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated, and that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.

¹⁹There was no more war to the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.